AHS Magazine 2012-13

2012–2013

AHS MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF THE UIC COLLEGE OF APPLIED HEALTH SCIENCES

High-flying health AHS team directs tasty changes at Midway Airport

PLUS: ALUMNI AWARD WINNERS

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REMEMBERING GERRI SMOTHERS

Message From the Dean

Community at its finest Welcome back to AHS Magazine. You’ll notice we have a slightly new look and a lot of wonderful new stories to tell.

Perhaps my favorite stories from the past academic year were the two that closed it out for us: our first-ever Alumni Weekend and Commencement 2013.

To any of you who returned to campus for Alumni Weekend, May 3-5, 2013, I want to tell you how utterly pleased we—the faculty and staff of AHS—were to play host for such a special event. I would have liked to shake the hand of every individual who participated, but we were so happily overwhelmed by attendance! Nearly 300 guests took part in one or more of our multiple offerings over the three days. See a few details and photos on p. 24.

It was both humbling and gratifying to witness the incredible sense of pride among those who came back.

Now I’ll let you in on a secret: Leading up to the event, we were a little nervous. This was an ambitious undertaking, including continuing education, two evening events and a Sunday brunch in the heart of the city. “It’s a learning year,” we reminded ourselves when self-doubt set in.

And we did learn, mostly about how extraordinary the AHS community is.

Throughout the three days we presented awards to seven alumni, 10 students and six faculty/staff members. Each one, chosen via a competitive selection process, was enormously deserving. Read about recipients on p. 11.

Another notable story of the year was commencement of the Class of 2013.

What a day! The ceremony for our largest graduating class ever (427 students) featured addresses from guest speaker Sen. Mark Kirk and student speaker Eric Meredith. Eric had quite a career here at AHS, which you can read more about in our cover story on p.15. And see the back cover for a snapshot of the full Class of ’13.

Please enjoy the reports of these events and much more in this issue of AHS Magazine.

AHS MAGAZINE 2012-2013 WRITING AND EDITING Elizabeth Harmon Miller Director of Marketing and Communications Perry Lowder Editorial Assistant DESIGN Kimberly Hegarty UIC Office of Publications Services CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Joshua Clark Roberta Dupuis-Devlin Doug McGoldrick Steve Woltman ©2013 University of Illinois at Chicago. All rights reserved. Published by the Office of the Dean (MC 518), UIC College of Applied Health Sciences, 808 South Wood Street, 169 CMET, Chicago, Illinois 60612-7305.

Telephone Fax E-mail Website

(312) 996-6695 (312) 413-0086 ahsalum@uic.edu www.ahs.uic.edu

Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editor, the college or university.

You will notice abbreviations throughout this issue. They correlate to academic units in the College of Applied Health Sciences.

BHIS Department of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences BVIS Program in Biomedical Visualization DHD Department of Disability and Human Development HI

Program in Health Informatics

HIM Program in Health Information Management KINES

Major in kinesiology

KN Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition

Bo Fernhall Dean UIC College of Applied Health Sciences

NUT

Major in nutrition

OT Department of Occupational Therapy PT

Department of Physical Therapy

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AHS MAGAZINE TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURES

11

11 Award–winning difference-makers

This year’s alumni award winners reflect on their careers

and their years at AHS.

15 High-flying health

A project by students and faculty leads to healthier menus

at Midway Airport.

15

DEPARTMENTS NOTEBOOK

7

5

PT professor aids in Sen. Mark Kirk’s recovery

7

Student–athlete among the NCAA elite

10

AHS students examine communication in patient care

PEOPLE 19

Remembering Gerri Smothers

20

Spotlight on Giving: Jim and Barbara Rees

HONOR ROLL OF DONORS 22

24

The college warmly thanks its generous contributors of last year

CONCLUSION 24

Moments from Alumni Weekend 2013

Notebook AHS NEWS AND NOTES DHD

Festival highlights artists with disabilities Bodies of Work, a UIC-organized 11-day, citywide arts and culture festival, took place in May and highlighted the work of artists with disabilities through theater, dance, film and much more.

“The festival comes out of our philosophy to think differently about people with disabilities, to see how their differences contribute to and enrich our culture, rather than just reducing people to a medical diagnosis,” says Carrie Sandahl, festival director and associate professor of disability and human development.

The festival included national and international artists with disabilities who created cutting-edge theater, dance, literature, poetry, spoken word, film and visual/performance art in venues all over the city, presenting disabled artists whose work challenges preconceived notions of disability.

Artist Lisa Bufano danced on self-made stilts at a Bodies of Work event on May 17.

Venues included the Museum of Contemporary Art, Raven and Victory Gardens theaters, UIC’s Jane Addams HullHouse Museum, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and more.

The festival, three years in the making, was developed by the Program on Disability Art, Culture and Humanities in our Department of Disability and Human Development.

Organizers hope to remount the festival in a few years.

For more information about Bodies of Work, visit www.bodiesofworkchicago.org.

Lookingglass Theatre’s festival contribution was “Still Alice,” a play about a woman’s descent into Alzheimer’s disease.

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PT

Beware the binge, says PT study Repeated binge drinking in healthy young adults causes changes in blood flow in the arm, suggesting an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, according to a study led by Shane Phillips, associate professor of physical therapy.

The researchers compared 19 men and women ages 18-25 who have a history of binge drinking with 17 young adults who had abstained from drinking for the past year. They found the drinkers had a reduction in the ability of the main artery of the upper arm to respond to stress-induced increased blood flow by widening, as compared to their non-drinking peers.

AHS

Shane Phillips has news about alcohol consumption during the college years.

“Even though these individuals are young and healthy and don’t have any other overt cardiovascular signs of disease, these data would suggest that maybe they are on the road to developing problems,” says Phillips.

Binge drinking was defined as consuming, within two hours, five or more standard alcoholic drinks for men, and four or more for women.

Phillips’ findings were reported in the April 23 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Leaderboard AHS faculty are stepping up to do even more for their professions. Look at just a few of the leadership roles they’ve taken on in the past year: Jamie Shifley At AHS: Director of accredited nutrition programs In the field: President, Chicago Dietetic Assn. (ended May 2013)

Representing AOTPAC, Gail Fisher attended President Obama’s second inauguration in January 2013.

Phillips and his colleagues are interested in further research to compare binge drinkers to individuals with more moderate patterns of drinking.

Jeremy Fransen At AHS: Clinical asst. professor of kinesiology In the field: President, Illinois Assn. of Exercise Physiologists

Mary Keehn At AHS: Assoc. dean for clinical affairs, former interim head of physical therapy In the field: President, Illinois Physical Therapy Assn.

Gail Fisher At AHS: Clinical assoc. professor of occupational therapy In the field: Chair, American Occupational Therapy Political Action Committee

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Notebook

OT

Hammel appointed to AHS’ only endowed chair Joy Hammel, PhD, a professor of both occupational therapy and disability and human development, has been named the Wade/Meyer Endowed Chair in Occupational Therapy.

The chair has been vacant since the death of Gary Kielhofner, its first and only holder before Hammel.

Says OT department head Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, “Joy’s national and international recognition as a leader and scholar in the areas of community living and participation disparities in adults with disabilities place her in a unique position to perform the duties of the chair.”

During her 17 years on faculty in AHS, Hammel has received millions of dollars in research funding. She is also a beloved teacher and mentor to her students.

Read more about Hammel at www.ahs.uic.edu/ot/news.

KN

“

Wrestling, the very first sport in the ancient Olympics, requires no ball, shoes, net or other fancy equipment. It simply pits one participant directly against another of equal size to see who is the toughest.

”

—Craig Horswill, associate professor of kinesiology, in his letter published in the Feb. 22 Wall Street Journal expressing disappointment in the International Olympic Committee’s decision to potentially drop wrestling from the 2020 Olympic Games. Horswill, who placed fourth in the trials for the 1976 U.S. Olympic wrestling team, sits on the editorial board of the International Journal of Wrestling Science.

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BVIS

BVIS students win top honors In March, two outstanding students finishing the program in biomedical visualization received notable awards from the Vesalius Trust, an organization that supports research and education in visual communications of medical and life sciences.

Amani Al-Tarouti was named a Vesalian Scholar, the organization’s highest recognition

Caroline O’Driscoll (left) and Amani Al-Tarouti

for students, for her research, “Transformation of complex data from the multi-electrode electroretinogram into a comprehensible visual display.”

Both young women, who graduated in May, will be honored at the Association of Medical Illustrators conference in Salt Lake City in July.

Caroline O’Driscoll earned a Vesalius Trust Research Grant for her work, “Development and use of a 3D digital model illustrating ocular changes during human spaceflight.”

For her work, O’Driscoll visited NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Check out her post about the experience at uicbvisstudents.wordpress.com.

PT prof aids Mark Kirk’s recovery

George Hornby speaks at a press conference regarding the recovery of Sen. Kirk.

PT

Sen. Mark Kirk’s (R-Ill.) return to work in the U.S. Senate in January 2013, one year after suffering a massive stroke, was a headline story on every major news outlet in the country.

under his care throughout my rehabilitation,” Sen. Kirk said of Hornby.

“AHS students are lucky to have the opportunity to study under such a brilliant, dedicated and innovative scientist.”

Behind the scenes of that story was T. George Hornby, PhD, AHS associate professor of physical therapy and a leading therapist on Kirk’s care team at Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, where Hornby has a clinical appointment.

Happily, Sen. Kirk later accepted the college’s invitation to deliver the 2013 commencement address (which he prerecorded due to a scheduling conflict). In it, he congratulated the graduates on their choice to serve others and told them with confidence, “You’re going to be difference-makers.”

“I am immeasurably grateful to have been

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Notebook

HIM

Online program helps UIC stand out AHS’ online bachelor’s degree program in health information management has helped UIC rank 18th in the nation among schools offering an online bachelor’s degree, according to new rankings by U.S. News & World Report.

The magazine compiled the 2013 rankings according to graduation rates, faculty credentials, indebtedness of new graduates, and academic and career support services offered to students. It ranked 160 institutions and listed 65 others without rank.

PT

Device rebalances stroke recoverers

“This is a hot, important field, and students are changing,” says Karen Patena, director of AHS’ health information management program. “They’re working, and many can’t be on campus every day. The online program includes the same courses, taught by the same faculty, as the campus program.”

UIC’s only other online bachelor’s degree is a BS in nursing.

For more information about UIC’s online HIM program, visit www.ahs.uic.edu/bhis/academics.

A stroke can weaken one side of the body, raising the dangerous possibility of unstable walking and debilitating falls.

Physical therapy professor Alexander Aruin has developed a way to train the brain to rebalance body weight: a simple shoe insole.

The inexpensive insole, less than half an inch thick, slightly lifts and tilts the body toward the stroke-affected side, restoring balance without the patient even thinking about it.

In an NIH-funded study, Aruin and colleagues at UIC and Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in Wheaton, Ill., examined two groups—one

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of patients who recently had strokes and one of patients who had strokes over a year ago—and compared them to control groups. The researchers found that while physical therapy helped both the insole-users and control groups, those who used the insole had an added boost.

“They showed more symmetrical body weight distribution and bore more weight on their affected side, and their gait velocity improved,” Aruin says.

The results of this study were published in ISRN Rehabilitation; go to www.hindawi.com and search for “Aruin.”

KN

Let’s go, Coryn!

OT

New class, right mix The incoming class for the master’s in occupational therapy program will be the most diverse class ever admitted to our OT program. The 38 students include:

16

6

(42%) from diverse backgrounds, including 11 from underrepresented minority groups

(16%) male students – a new record!

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2 (5%) with self-declared disabilities

(16%) UIC graduates, also a record, thanks in part to the new pre-OT club at UIC

Minor detail AHS is launching a minor in disability and human development!

This will be the first undergraduate offering from our Department of Disability and Human Development, esteemed the world over for its master’s and PhD programs.

Coryn Schmit is a finalist for NCAA Woman of the Year.

DHD

UIC softball first baseman Coryn Schmit, who graduated in May with a BS in kinesiology, is one of two finalists from the Horizon League in the running for the 2013 NCAA Woman of the Year award.

“Coryn has distinguished herself both on and off the field through maintaining a 4.0 [GPA] … and being such a key player for us,” said head softball coach Michelle Venturella.

Already, Schmit was one of only four infielders from 279 Division I softball programs nationwide to be named a Capital One Academic All-American, first team. She was just the second first-team selection in UIC history.

A three-time UIC Female Student-Athlete of the Year from Hawthorn Hills, Ill., Schmit will begin the doctor of physical therapy program in our college this fall.

“Disability in American Film” is a course offered to DHD minors.

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Notebook

HI

Clarifying the “convoluted” Doctors, hospitals and all other healthcare providers have until October 2014 to switch to the updated International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding system—the system used to classify every disease or condition and in every aspect of healthcare, from supply orders to insurance reimbursements.

“Most physicians only use about 10 codes in their practices and don’t have to bother looking them up,” says Andy Boyd, MD, assistant professor of health informatics. “When they think of a specific disease, they literally think of the individual code.”

The switch won’t be easy, though, because the number of codes has grown from 14,000 in ICD-9 to 68,000 in ICD-10.

And according to Boyd, “It’s not one-to-one. It’s one-to-many and many-to-one. It’s convoluted.”

The American Medical Association estimates the administrative costs of the switch will be $87,000 to $2.7 million per physician practice, plus potential losses in reimbursement due to incorrect coding. Part of the cost will be in hiring expert consultants to walk providers through the challenging transition.

Fortunately, Boyd has helped lead a team in developing a website to help clinicians make the switch without hiring consultants. The site allows providers to input familiar ICD-9 codes and find the appropriate new ones in ICD-10.

Hello, fellow

Heffron will spend her fellowship year educating students, faculty and staff at Chicago high schools and City Colleges about the

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“We’ve tried to simplify these coding changes to the point where they can be understood and used,” says Boyd.

You really have to see it to believe it. Visit www.lussierlab.org/ transition-to-ICD10CM.

DHD

Jenna Heffron, a PhD student in disability studies, was one of just seven UIC students awarded a Chicago-area Schweitzer Fellowship in 2013. The service-learning fellowship program supports health professional students committed to helping Chicago’s underserved.

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Andy Boyd is helping to ease the healthcare code transition.

social barriers encountered by people with disabilities. Working with The Empowered Fe Fes, a young women’s disability advocacy group, Heffron will develop and implement workshops that help to increase a positive view of disability among the public.

For details about the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, visit www.schweitzerfellowship.org.

DHD

PhD carries passion past graduation Disabilities don’t limit a person’s ability to be physically fit, but the scarcity of accessible fitness equipment and knowledgeable trainers sometimes does. That’s where committed people like Carolyn Lullo come in.

As a candidate for the PhD in disability studies, Lullo worked on a team that conducted accessibility assessments of UIC recreation facilities and ultimately assisted Campus Recreation in taking steps to create an inclusive environment for students with disabilities. For example, she trained staff and advised the purchase of a pool lift to help people with disabilities get in and out of the water.

Before graduating in May 2013, she successfully defended her dissertation on the use of an Internet-based program to increase physical activity in people with physical disabilities.

What’s her motivation? Lullo says: “I get to hear the voices of individuals who haven’t always [been] heard. I get to be a part of efforts toward healthier communities that incorporate the needs of everyone.”

Welcome to our Arena AHS is delighted to announce that Ross Arena joined the college as head of the Department of Physical Therapy on July 1.

Arena comes to UIC from the University of New Mexico, where he served as professor and chief of the Division of Physical Therapy. He also currently holds international joint appointments as visiting

professor at the University of Milan (Italy) and as associate professor at the University of Brasilia (Brazil).

Prior to his time at UNM, Arena spent almost 10 years at Virginia Commonwealth University/ Medical College of Virginia.

Now Lullo is a public health analyst with Carter Consulting Inc., currently working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

“My work focuses on promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities in public health practice and policy at the state and federal levels,” she says. “I have a passion to see those with disabilities included in society in a meaningful way.”

PT

and training in patients diagnosed with cardiopulmonary disease or dysfunction.

“We’ve long looked forward to Dr. Arena’s arrival,” says AHS Dean Bo Fernhall, “We can anticipate great strides from our outstanding PT department under his leadership.”

As a researcher, Arena examines the clinical value of exercise testing 2012–2013

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Notebook

AHS

Making patient care less puzzling For each patient, there are many pieces to the puzzle of care.

After being admitted to a hospital, for instance, patients interact with nurses, doctors, therapists and others. Meanwhile, their records are in the hands of health information administrators.

With so many people involved, communication is crucial. But it’s also challenging—even countercultural in some institutions.

To address the challenge early in their careers, more than 800 UIC health sciences students— including at least 150 from AHS—gathered on April 5 for

Our very own Marone

Students in all UIC health programs get training in teamwork to successfully address patients’ issues.

Interprofessional Immersion Day, sponsored by UIC’s Collaborative for Excellence in Interprofessional Education.

“Research shows that when healthcare professionals work together more successfully, it improves patient outcomes and reduces costs,” says Mary Keehn, AHS associate dean for clinical affairs and a leader of the collaborative.

During the day, students from 11 UIC health sciences programs were assigned to tables where they collaborated with peers and a faculty facilitator to “treat” three fictional patients, whose

Jane Marone, MD, clinical associate professor of kinesiology, is the AHS recipient of the esteemed Silver Circle Award for excellence in teaching in 2013.

Marone began her career as a physician in New Orleans, where she learned to communicate complex information about medication and health issues. RealizAHS MAGAZINE

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“There’s usually not a lot of interprofessional communication,” says participant Christopher Bell, a project coordinator in the healthcare field and a student in our health informatics master’s program. “[Our table] worked … to find the best way to make this kind of collaboration happen in a real setting.”

Katie Garwood, who is working on her MS in occupational therapy, adds, “We want to make healthcare better, and we have to do it as a team.”

KN

What makes her a better teacher, she says, is “the ability to get into [students’] heads and try to see the world from their viewpoint.”

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scenarios were enacted onstage by professional actors.

ing that she preferred teaching to seeing patients, she came to UIC as a visiting lecturer in 1995.

She has taught human physiological anatomy for the past 18 years and human cadaver dissection for 14 years.

Since 1966, the Silver Circle Award has been presented to some of UIC’s best teachers.

Winners, who are honored at their college commencement ceremonies, are selected by their own graduating seniors.

Award-Winning

Difference-Makers This year, the UIC College of Applied Health Sciences was thrilled to honor alumni who have contributed to the AHS community or to their profession at large. And with an expanded and more competitive nomination process, we were able to recognize an unprecedented seven individuals in 2013, including three Distinguished Alumni profiled below. The college congratulates all our esteemed award winners!

Building bridges:

Michael Doyle “In the sciences, the amount of information we get exposed to these days is like trying to drink from a fire hose. You need tools to discern patterns and mechanisms in the data that you wouldn’t otherwise see.”

“

As a science fair project [in grade school] I designed an artificial gill you could wear and breathe underwater,” says Mike Doyle, PhD. “So I went to college [at U of I at Urbana-Champaign] thinking I was going into marine biology. During that time—I had already won awards for drawing in high school—I discovered that there’s this great major at Illinois in Chicago where you could combine the two.”

That’s a pretty good summary of Mike Doyle: inventor, scientist, artist, discoverer.

Doyle, who earned a bachelor’s degree in medical art (now called biomedical visualization) in 1983, now holds more than a dozen patents for technologies in data analysis, visualization, collaboration and networking.

He’s been recognized internationally for his pioneering work in next-generation web applications and 3D technologies. He’s now parlaying that success into a personally meaningful project: opening the National Museum of Health + Medicine Chicago.

It was the early 1990s when Doyle, who has a doctorate in cell and structural biology from U of I at Urbana-Champaign, fostered a partnership with the National Museum of Health + Medicine in Washington. The connection was project-based at the outset, but ultimately he and his NMHM partners conceived the idea of a museum that’s more virtual than physical.

“The basic idea was to create the enabling technology to [make] a museum without walls—to provide access to the collections at

the museum in D.C.,” he says. “We continued working on those kinds of systems through the ’90s.”

The “we” he mentions began with a team he led at the University of California at San Francisco in 1993. They invented a web browser that, unlike its predecessors (which displayed only static pages), “contained interactive programs that could download and communicate across the network,” he says.

In 1994 Doyle founded Eolas Technologies to commercialize the technologies invented at UCSF. If his success was ever in question, that ended when Microsoft built Windows on the system he invented.

Still chairman of Eolas, Doyle is also now CEO of the company’s R&D subsidiary,

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Iomas Research. He is also the founder and president of the charitable Buonacorsi Foundation, which supports many arts organizations and the NMHM Chicago.

access to information; it’s about reaching into communities, providing bridges and connections between different groups of people.”

The on-demand museum in Chicago’s Loop will redefine personal interactivity. For example, grade-school students and medical school students will be able to walk through the museum simultaneously and see entirely different exhibits, Doyle says.

The NMHM Chicago will open its doors to the public in mid-2015, but already it has generated worldwide buzz by releasing an iPad app, on which you can view neuroanatomical slides of Albert Einstein’s brain.

Doyle credits his education as the foundation for his success: “I’m convinced that the multidisciplinary background I had

But, he adds, its physical presence is also crucial: “The museum is about more than

was what led me into doing those kinds of projects.”

The Chicago-native is also committed to a partnership with AHS’ graduate program in biomedical visualization, not least of all in providing student internships.

“I think BVIS is riding a wave that hasn’t even crested yet, so I think the relevance of that program is only going to increase,” he says. “There’s going to be a long and hopefully fruitful relationship here.”

Promoting health:

Jean Ragalie “We know more now—that nutrition, for kids, is about more than bodily health. We’ve proven that good nutrition and physical activity are directly linked to academic performance and discipline.”

J

ean (Harmon) Ragalie, RD, remembers one particularly influential course she took as an undergraduate at UIC: a class on ethnic food. In the course, students were expected to prepare and share dishes, something that Ragalie cites as a foundation for what would be her future career in nutrition.

“The class made the teaching real life, not just theoretical,” she said.

After completing her bachelor’s degree in medical dietetics (now called nutrition) in 1983, the native of River Forest, Ill., earned her dietitian credential and went to work as a clinician. A few years later, she joined esteemed public relations firm Burson-Marsteller as director for nutrition and health communications. The post set her up for a nutrition career with a twist.

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“Coming from a dietetics background to work in public relations introduced me to the intersection where nutrition, business and communication all come together,” she says.

Ragalie would travel that path all the way to Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), the primary partner to America’s dairy farmers, working to ensure their success through public relations, advertising, education and research.

DMI manages the American Dairy Association®, the U.S. Dairy Export Council® and the National Dairy Council®.

Ragalie arrived at DMI in 1996 and earned her first of many promotions four years later.

In 2010, she was named president of the National Dairy Council.

As such, Ragalie plays a major part in reaching Americans, especially children, to impart the value of proper nutrition and exercise.

Among her work is a partnership with the NFL, producing the Fuel Up to Play 60 campaign. The high-profile Fuel Up advertising features kids’ football heroes motivating them to eat healthy and move more.

“But what’s really important about this program,” says Ragalie, “is what happens in schools. It’s a peer-led program in schools.

We give student teams the tools, and then they inspire each other [to make healthy choices].”

Now Ragalie is leading the NDC’s newest initiative, the Future of Food Partnership, in recognition of the fact that, while overweight/obesity is at one end of the spectrum of nutritional challenges, hunger, malnour-

ishment and food inaccessibility is at the other.

“Too often, schools are literally a lifeline for a lot of kids,” Ragalie notes.

So the NDC is partnering with Feeding America and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to drive a deeper examination of this issue nationwide. They aim to work not only with schools, but with food banks— where the traditional emphasis is on food quantity—to draw attention to the nutritional quality of food available.

“First we have to raise awareness of food insecurity,” she says, “especially among thought-leaders.”

In addition to her primary work with the NDC, Ragalie was a principal architect of Action for Healthy Kids®, a grassroots organization founded in 2002 by then-U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher to fight childhood obesity, undernourishment and physical inactivity. She has also been involved in federal initiatives like Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” program.

When she learned she had been named a distinguished alumna, Ragalie said she had felt “honored and privileged” to be recognized.

“If it weren’t for my education, I wouldn’t be where I am in my career,” she says. “It reminded me of how important my time at UIC was.”

Ragalie described two components of her years at UIC that contributed to her success.

“First, it provided me a rock-solid, top-tier education,” she says. “Second, it gave me exposure to a variety of ways in which I could use that education in the workforce.”

While reflecting on her career thus far, Ragalie has some advice for dietitians new to the field: “Be open to diverse experiences. UIC is a great credential, and it can open doors for you. When I graduated, I had no idea I’d be able to do all this in 30 years. There is so much more to come for you.”

Improving practice:

David Scalzitti “Evidence for practice has gone from being in libraries to being in organized, online resources, but it still requires busy clinicians to go find it. I’d like to see electronic health records evolve so clinicians can input a patient’s condition and the system will present recommendations in real time.”

D

avid Scalzitti is the college’s own three-peat. He earned a bachelor’s in physical therapy in 1987, a master’s in kinesiology in 1994, and a doctorate in disability studies in 2008—all from AHS. When he received his distinguished alumnus award in spring 2013, Scalzitti was working as a lead specialist in the Evidence-Based Resources Department of the American Physical Therapy Association.

With the APTA since 2002, he had been a leader in moving the profession toward evidence-based practice as associate editor of two APTA resources: “Hooked on Evidence,” a database of extractions of articles related to physical therapy

interventions; and “PTNow,” a web portal that helps clinicians translate the newest research for application. Those roles made Scalzitti a critical player in delivering the substance of extensive research articles to practicing therapists who can apply the knowledge to patient care—all with APTA’s express goal of helping therapists “improve patient outcomes, reduce unwarranted variation in practice and demonstrate value to the healthcare system.”

“It’s very meaningful to me that the information we’re providing helps physical therapists all over the country have greater access to [new research findings],” says Scalzitti. “Countless clinicians found something in our sites to improve the care of their patients.”

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Scalzitti’s road from UIC to today included more than the APTA. He has had posts as a practicing therapist in hospital and outpatient settings, and for 10 years after finishing his MS degree, he was also a part-time instructor in AHS’ Department of Physical Therapy.

The job would turn out to be good training, he says, for his newest endeavor: assistant professor of physical therapy and health care sciences at George Washington University in Washington.

He’ll start full time in fall 2013 following four years on the faculty in an adjunct capacity.

“I’m about to embark on this new journey as a fulltime faculty member,” says Scalzitti, who currently resides in Arlington, Va. “UIC prepared me both for my past successes and for what lies ahead.”

A Chicago native, Scalzitti cites his experience at UIC as having not only prepared him for his career, but for having influenced it. In particular, he says, “Harry Knecht (former head of PT) had such a passion for research literature, and he gave me an awareness of my interest in that area. He was also a great influence on the PT faculty, who are all in their own right leaders in the profession.”

A board-certified orthopedic clinical specialist, Scalzitti is a frequent guest lecturer on evidencebased practice for a number of PT educational programs. He has published in Manual Therapy and extensively in Physical Therapy, for which he also has served on an editorial advisory committee.

And he is a contributing author to The Rehabilitation Specialist’s Handbook.

Scalzitti was happy to be named a distinguished alumnus: “People who have received the award over the years are quite well-recognized, so it was an honor to be added to a group of such distinguished previous winners.”

When asked what advice he would give to young alumni from AHS who might just be starting their careers, Scalzitti says, “Take advantage of opportunities with professional organizations. Network—locally, nationally and even internationally.

Utilize the Alumni Association, and stay in touch with faculty. You don’t know what you might like [to do] until you have the experience to try it out. I didn’t know that my career would go this way, but UIC gave me the skills and opportunities to take advantage of open doors.”

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Four more alums win honors AHS Young Alum Award Melissa Bowman Li, ’99, BS in Nutrition Co-founder and Principal, PhysioLife Studios Melissa Bowman Li, RD, has been a cutting-edge dietitian since her AHS graduation. Her career began in sports nutrition, as well as working with children with special needs. In 2008, she opened her own personal training and nutrition consulting business called PhysioLife Studios in Chicago. She has developed specialized diets for weight loss, sport training and detoxing.

Bowman Li’s expertise has attracted many celebrity clients, including Al Roker, Meredith Vieira and Ann Curry. She has appeared on “The Today Show,” “The View,” ABC7 and NBC5 news programs, and more.

Robert M. Malnik, ’09, BS in Kinesiology Founder and President, Illinois Supporting All Veterans Equally (ISAVE) Rob Malnik joined the U.S. Army in 2000 and, after 9/11, was deployed to Kosovo, Macedonia and Iraq. His commitment to the values he learned in the military inspired him to found Illinois Supporting All Veterans Equally.

ISAVE’s mission is to connect military veterans with support programs related to education, employment, housing, disability and more.

ISAVE has forged prolific partnerships with the U.S. and Illinois departments of Veterans Affairs, state and city governments, the Chicago Park District, professional sports teams in Chicago, and others— all to improve the experience of U.S. veterans back home. Malnik sits on veterans affairs councils for both the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois.

AHS Loyalty Award

Coralie (Hirsch) Glantz and Nancy Richman, ’61, BS in Occupational Therapy Co-founders and Principals, GlantzRichman Rehabilitation Associates Corky Glantz and Nancy Richman bonded as classmates in our OT program and never looked back. In 1982, they founded Glantz-Richman Rehabilitation Associates, now one of the nation’s largest therapist-owned and -operated practices, providing therapy throughout Illinois. Between them, they have delivered hundreds of scholarly presentations and trainings, and have published more than 75 articles, book chapters and manuals.

Glantz and Richman have been guest lecturers in our OT program for more than 30 years, and together they served as mentors for the entire OT class of 1998. Both women are fellows of the American Occupational Therapy Association and have been named Illinois OT of the Year.

Commenting on Glantz and Richman, one OT professor says, “Their contributions over the years have made our program better and made our students and faculty wiser.”

High-flying

health ou may not know the name Premier Restaurant Group, but if you’ve ever traveled to or from Chicago via the airport on the city’s southwest side, you know more about the company than you think.

Premier operates the vast majority of concessions outlets throughout Midway Airport. Of its 16 outlets, many are extensions of well-known Chicago restaurants like Manny’s Deli, Miller’s Pub, Harry Carey’s, Tuscany and the bakery Let Them Eat Cake. The company also stocks dozens of grab-and-go shelves and cold cases throughout all three concourses.

Many Chicagoans would consider any one of these spots a favorite special-occasion eatery, but what happens when these restaurants are the only options?

For years, Midway diners in search of healthy food were best served by options like yogurt, pretzels, dried fruit and similar snacks. A healthy meal was harder to find.

In spring 2012, Premier’s top management decided it was time to change.

“We wanted to offer options,” says Larry Acton, vice president for development at Premier. “All kinds of places—McDonald’s, everyone—has healthy options now. We wanted to stay competitive on that, and do the right thing for the consumer.”

Thanks to AHS nutrition faculty and students, Midway Airport travelers don’t have to take a vacation from healthy eating. our city’s public university, that made even more sense. So I just called.”

He reached Jamie Shifley, instructor and coordinator of accredited nutrition programs in the College of Applied Health Sciences.

Shifley, also a practicing registered dietitian nutritionist, is a recognized leader; she’s immediate past president of the Chicago Dietetic Association and was named the 2013 Illinois Emerging Dietetic Leader by the Illinois Dietetic Association.

“After my first conversation with Jamie,” Acton says, “I didn’t think about looking anywhere else for help.”

So last March, Acton started looking for help. First, he considered hiring consultants, but then he thought about where expertise is born, where nutrition science happens.

Lofty ideas

“A university made sense,” Acton says, “and when I saw a nutrition program in

Shifley and Acton briefly talked about the company’s objectives. First, Acton wanted a review of all Premier recipes to identify

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which menu items were healthiest, or could easily be made healthy without major disruption to flavor or inconvenience to chefs. Also, he wanted recommendations for menu additions.

With a team in place, Acton began e-mailing recipes for the team for review. They trickled in, but all told, they would receive some 150 recipes comprising uncounted ingredients. There was much to do.

“Within a week or so of our first call, Larry took me through the airport and kitchens,” says Shifley. “Ideas were popping immediately, easy things to tweak: adding a veggie burger at a place that had a big sandwich menu, promoting their use of trans-fat-free oils.”

Premier had no nutritional information compiled for any recipes.

Also, many of them weren’t precise. A sandwich might call for bread, but not specify the type.

Shifley saw Acton’s project as an opportunity to serve Chicago. As a dietitian and a mother of three (soon to be four), she can’t look at any restaurant menu without assessing its H.Q., or health quotient.

Moreover, she knew it was a unique experience that could benefit students ambitious enough to volunteer for it.

“The bread makes a difference,” says Meredith. “If you use a croissant, you’re done. Doesn’t matter how healthy the food in it is.”

“We had to find out what they were using, so we spent time looking at their shelves. We walked in their coolers. We carried huge hunks of lunchmeat to the photocopier to copy labels,” says Shifley. “In some cases, bulk items didn’t have labels, so the students had to contact food producers to ask for nutritional information.”

“When I realized what disorder [the information] was in,” says Adcock, “I worried about what I’d gotten into, but I was also excited.”

A full plate Other questions loomed. First, how could the student team calculate the nutritional value of 150 recipes efficiently and effectively?

Happily, they identified an online nutrition analysis tool, founded on USDA data, that they could access from home, from campus, from anywhere they had a computer and an internet connection.

Larry Acton, VP at Premier Restaurant Group, set the wheels in motion for the partnership when he cold-called coordinator of AHS nutrition programs, Jamie Shifley.

Digging in Two students leapt at the chance: Tessa Adcock and Eric Meredith.

By sheer coincidence, they’re both culinary-school graduates who came back to earn the coordinated MS in nutrition. Both were also in their last semester of classroom work before fieldwork began.

The tool was simple, but with each ingredient needing to be entered individually, it was also tedious and time-consuming—15 to 60 minutes per recipe, Shifley says. Adcock and Meredith needed to do research and summon their own expert judgment when ingredients didn’t have perfect matches in the system.

An older student with extensive experience in the field, Meredith found himself concerned about whether the hard work would pay off. He knows well-intentioned restaurants often have to abandon improvement ideas when costs come into account.

The Midway experience appealed to Adcock as a way to hone in on her goals: “I knew when I came back to school that I wanted to do food service in schools,” she says. “It’s not a school, but Midway is a huge food service operation.”

Meredith, meanwhile, was trying to broaden his experience: “I volunteer for anything that gives me new experience, new connections,” he says. “And I’m a Midway customer, so I care about what I can eat there.”

Undergraduate Roxana Marincas also pitched in. In the few weeks she was able to take part, she created the nutrition facts spreadsheet the team would use throughout the project to compile all their data.

Yummy reviews for the AHS team’s recommended kids’ meal: half a turkey sandwich, grapes and organic milk.

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“I didn’t know how committed Premier was to this,” he says. “Did they care about health or selling food? They have to run a business, so were they willing to suffer on profitability a little in the short term? I just had to hope so.”

The right F.I.T. The next question was, which nutrition criteria should the team focus on improving?

“Larry had a lot of ideas about what to target: fat, sugar, sodium, gluten,” says Shifley, “but you just can’t do it all at once, on every menu.”

Meredith had an idea. Among his many volunteer posts, he’d spent some time working with the City of Chicago’s Building a Healthier Chicago (BHC) project. It’s a public health initiative to improve the well-being of citizens through community engagement, education, policy, and collaborations with businesses, restaurants and public health organizations.

The F.I.T. City steering committee included experts from the USDA, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, food service powerhouses like Disney, and individual nutrition and marketing consultancies. That team laid out five criteria by which any restaurant can be named a “F.I.T. City establishment” (see sidebar).

Meredith suggested using F.I.T. City’s criteria as the standard for the Midway project. Things took off after that.

Acton was especially pleased with the choice. “We’re a public venue in Chicago with close to 10 million people coming through each year,” he notes.

“It just seemed appropriate to be part of this citywide health initiative.”

Shift change So Adcock and Meredith worked with Shifley intensely for two months, calculating recipe upon recipe and laying the groundwork for shaping F.I.T. City-certified menus. But the project was so large that it could not be completed before the two students entered the last leg of their MS program: demanding field internships throughout the summer and fall terms.

“Tessa and Eric got us most of the way to breaking down all of Premier’s recipes,” says Shifley, “but we still had to decide which ones to target, which were contenders for helping us meet F.I.T. City’s guidelines.”

The project hit a lull in June. Then, enter Carla Schmitz.

Now food items that meet F.I.T. City criteria are labeled as such on packaging or on restaurant menus, with more rolling out all the time.

BHC is implemented through four sub-initiatives. One, called F.I.T. City, is a collaboration with metro-area restaurants that aims to increase the number of “fresh, innovative, tasty” items on their menus—to defy the notion that “healthy” is a euphemistic label for flavorless, unappealing food.

Also an MS student, one year behind Adcock and Meredith, Schmitz picked up where her pioneering peers had to leave off.

With recipes still trickling in from Premier, she continued nutritional calculations, but also began to focus on implementation. For example, she and Shifley conceived a packaged kids’ meal at grab-and-go stations—a huge contribution to Midway, where very few eateries have children’s menu items.

You have to have standards The AHS nutrition team deliberated which health guidelines to use in tweaking and adding healthy items to Premier Restaurant Group’s menus. A breakthrough came when they settled on guidelines set by Chicago’s citywide public health initiative “F.I.T. City.” Now airport visitors dining at many Premier outposts can expect: 1. A minimum of two menu items, other than salad, whose main ingredients are fresh, non-deep-fried fruits and vegetables 2. A minimum of two menu items whose grain component contains whole grain as the first ingredient 3. N o menu items with artificial trans fat 4. O nly plant-based cooking oils used for frying foods 5. A non-deep-fried fruit or vegetable option for all meals that include french fries or chips

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Team meeting The permanent partnership between AHS and Midway’s Premier Restaurant Group will always be indebted to the original team of experts and their success.

Tessa Adcock Recommends: Oatmeal or muesli with fresh-cut apples (multiple locations) Adcock graduated in December 2012 and earned her RD credential in January. She is now food service director for Arbor Management at West Aurora School District.

Eric Meredith Recommends: Turkey and apple panini (multiple locations) Like Adcock, Meredith graduated with his master’s degree in December 2012. He earned his RD credential in May and is now Community Engagement Coordinator for the Chicago Partnership for Health Promotion.

Carla Schmitz Recommends: Whole wheat vegetable wrap (multiple locations) Schmitz will complete a clinical internship at the University of Illinois Hospital in late summer and go on to two additional fieldwork experiences. She will graduate in December 2013.

Jamie Shifley Recommends: Whole wheat linguine (Harry Carey’s) Shifley was named a Food and Nutrition magazine “Hero” for her work on this project. She is now an official member of the F.I.T. City steering committee for nutrition.

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And because they’re dietitians, focused as much on people as food, they started brainstorming about how Premier might eventually educate consumers about healthier menu options.

Just desserts The changes the team recommended are now evident everywhere you look at Midway Airport.

Travelers will find the Building a Healthier Chicago and F.I.T. City labels marking healthy options on table menus, wall menus and even on individually wrapped products.

“This is so satisfying to taste the things we worked on,” says Meredith, seated outside Premier’s graband-go outpost Landings, where he’d just enjoyed a roasted vegetable sandwich on tomato focaccia.

“I could hardly find a sandwich because they’re sold out! Now I know Premier was really serious.”

Adcock was equally proud. “We saw this at the very beginning,” she says with an eyebrow raise, recalling the data disorder. “I guess I never imagined it would get this far. It’s a huge improvement, just for consumers to know their choices.”

There’s more to be done. As of early June, the team’s recommendations were still rolling out throughout the airport, with a big launch scheduled for July. But already Acton is “very pleased” with the outcome.

“Now we’re able to offer our historically popular items alongside these [healthier] supplements,” he says, “so people can find something they’ll like wherever they are in the airport.”

Most importantly, the project is now a partnership, as Shifley has agreed with Acton to continually engage students for ongoing contributions to Premier menus as they grow and change. She and a rotating team of students will be on board for new developments, including new signage, a website and possibly a mobile app for Midway diners, all of which are either in development or in discussion.

“This is a great start,” notes Schmitz. “As dietitians, we want the trend toward healthier eating to grow, and with the foot traffic at Midway, I know the changes we’ve worked on are reaching a huge number of people. That’s positive for Midway, positive for Chicago, positive for every person who comes through here.”

Remembering Gerri Smothers

People

The College of Applied Health Sciences was saddened to learn of the Feb. 17, 2013, death of Geraldine (Gerri) Smothers, a terrific supporter of the college for more than 30 years.

Smothers spent her life helping to advance a national priority: transforming healthcare by getting our vulnerable medical records off the shelf and into secure electronic formats. A 1982 graduate of our program in health information management (then called medical record administration, or MRA), she was a practitioner and a leader who helped to build an expert workforce for her profession.

Gerri Smothers was AHS’ 2007 Distinguished Alumna.

In 1995, Smothers established Professional Dynamic Network, a Chicago firm that provides staffing and consulting services to healthcare agencies modernizing their technology. Five years later she founded the Jordan Evans Institute to train professionals for work in the HIM field. In 2008, a year after she won this college’s Distinguished Alumnus Award, she was recognized as a model mentor by the American Health Information Management Association.

Smothers’ passion and charm endeared her to everyone she met. That’s why, on May 15, friend and colleague Eileen Durkin, MRA ’76, hosted a luncheon at the Union League Club of Chicago for a small group of fellow alumni from their program.

Over lunch, they shared memories of their friend and pledged to found the Gerri Smothers Scholarship Fund for HIM students—to ensure Smothers’ work as an educator and mentor is remembered long into the future.

In just the first month, a dozen donors contributed $8,000 toward the $25,000 goal for the fund. (At that level the fund is fully endowed and can generate scholarship dollars in perpetuity.)

Friends of Smothers through AHS met to create a scholarship in her name: (l-r) Leslie Fox, Charlotte Razor, Karen Patena, Eileen Durkin, Rachelle Stewart, David Cherney, Gail Larsen, Joan Sourapas, Darice Grzybowski.

“Gerri gave the HIM program enormous credit for her success, and she wanted others to have the same opportunities,” says Durkin. “It’s only fitting that we express our appreciation for her by supporting something she cared about so deeply.”

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People

Spotlight on giving:

Q&A with Jim and Barbara Rees

J

im Rees graduated from AHS in 1970 with a degree in physical education (now kinesiology) and earned his master’s degree from the university’s Urbana-Champaign campus in 1974. While a student at UIC, Jim met his future wife, Barbara, who graduated from the UIC College of Education in 1970. Jim went on to serve at Maine South High School in Park Ridge, Ill., for 35 years as an athletic director and health educator. Now retired, the couple lives in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Reeses have pledged generous donations to each of their colleges in the form of a bequest. AHS Magazine recently chatted with the couple to learn about their lives, their careers and their choice to give to UIC.

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AHS Magazine: What inspired you to give back to UIC? Jim Rees: I wouldn’t be where I am without UIC, particularly AHS. I started as a history major, but through athletics, I moved to physical education.

The great relationships I had with coaches and staff—and the advice they gave me—led to a rewarding career, and now we’re able to give back.

Barbara Rees: It’s a great way to ensure that the future will be a positive one for so many children.

We want to enable teachers and to finance education so that more students can pursue their passions.

AHS: What made you decide to give in the form of a bequest?

JR: Both of us had been involved with the [UIC] Alumni Council, and I was twice on the board of

What is a bequest? directors of the University of Illinois Alumni Association. So we had been involved in giving back to the university with our time, and this seemed like the next natural step.

AHS: You both have a passion for education. How did that influence your wish to give to colleges?

JR: From my experience as a high school teacher, I know that students often face challenges in financing a college education—and that [AHS] needs to grow, to meet current needs.

BR: Financing college now is very difficult. Whatever we could do to help reach those students who might not be able to afford it otherwise, we wanted to support them.

AHS: What did you learn at UIC—in or beyond the classroom—that has helped you since you left?

JR: UIC gave me the opportunity to take risks and make changes in my career. I started out as a PE teacher, but later became a health educator, writer and athletics administrator. Through AHS I felt encouraged to try new things and to be openminded—lessons that I carried beyond graduation.

BR: I interrupted my teaching career by choosing to stay at home to take care of our children. But my time at UIC gave me the coping skills to adjust to a variety of situations and changes, and that was very helpful later on in my life.

AHS: What person or course was most influential for your career path after graduation?

JR: The PE staff was the most influential; I admired their passion to teach. I enjoyed and learned a great deal competing in football.* [Former coach] Hal Nemoto first suggested I consider PE as a major. I also admired that the coaches would teach in the classroom as well as coach. You don’t see that today. My first paid teaching position was at UIC as an instructor in the PE program after I graduated.

That was a tremendous confidence-builder and a truly great experience, teaching college students, some older than me, at the height of the anti-war atmosphere on college campuses.

BR: Dr. Rheta DeVries, an education professor under whom I did an independent study and conducted research in Piagetian theory, was a particularly influential person while I was at UIC and after I graduated. The personal contact I had with instructors like her was very beneficial to me.

A bequest is a gift of cash or property named in a donor’s will. Planned gifts like bequests are popular with donors who wish to make a difference, but who don’t feel in a position to do so in the present. It’s an excellent tool to let you leave a meaningful legacy. If you’d like to learn more about giving to AHS, please visit www.ahs.uic.edu/ giving, or contact Elise Krikau at ekrikau@uic.edu or 312-996-1339.

AHS: Do you have a favorite memory from your time at UIC? JR: One of my favorite memories of UIC was meeting Barbara in the cafeteria junior year.

BR: Besides meeting Jim, my most distinct memories are of hunkering down in the library to study.

When we went through UIC, there were no dorms, so we commuted to school. There weren’t as many places for students to be social on campus, so we spent our time in the library and the student union.

But we’ve come back to visit campus, and we appreciate the vast changes that have taken place in student life—more social venues and the addition of dorms—that bring the school experience alive.

AHS: Do you have any advice for people who might be hesitating to give back to their alma mater?

JR: It’s ultimately a personal decision, depending on each person’s circumstances. We don’t regret it at all. We’re currently in a situation where we could help someone else achieve, and it’s rewarding to know you can give back. Look at what you want to leave behind, the legacy for which you want to be remembered.

BR: Yes, think about how you want to be remembered. *Fun fact: Jim Rees was a free safety on the UIC football team, in existence from 1950 to 1973.

Learn more about the UIC “Chikas” at go.uic.edu/UICfootball.

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AHS

HONOR

The UIC College of Applied Health Sciences is made better every day by the generosity of alumni, friends, corporations and foundations who support our programs through private donations, in-kind donations and corporate matching gifts. We are honored to acknowledge the donors who contributed to the college during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012. Their concern for the future—and present—of AHS helps us improve the student experience by upgrading classroom technology, sending students to professional conferences, and providing enhanced learning and living spaces. It also creates seed funding for additional scholarships. To each donor, our deepest thanks.

ROLL OF DONORS

CORPORATE AND FOUNDATION DONORS $500,000 and above Hope Institute for Children and Families - Hope School

$100,000 - $499,999 American Cancer Society Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research Special Olympics International $50,000 - $99,999 Alzheimer’s Association American Heart Association National Multiple Sclerosis Society $25,000 - $49,999 Chicago Community Trust Farkas Family Foundation Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Shimizu Foundation $15,000 - $24,999 Ethel Louise Armstrong Foundation Inc. Foundation of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers $5,000 - $14,999 American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities The Arc Beverly J. Fiorella Family Trust Illinois Arts Council International Life Sciences Institute Robert Wood Johnson Foundation $2,500 - $4,999 Ida Miriam Stern Memorial Fund Inc.

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$1,000 - $2,499 Morgan Keegan & Company Inc. National Council on the Aging Third District Illinois Federation of Women’s Club GFWC $500 - $999 HDI Technologies Inc. Ira & Janina Marks Charitable Trust II Retirement Research Foundation $100 - $499 Browning Family Trust Champion Physical Therapy Inc. Illinois Health Information Management Association Todd Buck Illustration Inc. Up to $100 Aetna Foundation Inc. Health Care Service Corporation Kellogg’s Orange Shoe Personal Fitness Tyco Electronics INDIVIDUAL DONORS $2,500 and above D. O. Bergeron $1,000 - $2,499 Joan O. Hinken Marcia A. Kielhofner and Edward L. Hudson Barbara Loomis Lawrence M. Pawola Kathryn E. Roach $500 - $999 Evelyn J. Alston John F. and Nancy Hamill Wayne M. and Sandye Lerner

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Helen P. Massey Dale R. and Holly Mitchell Velma L. Russ Reichenbach Thomas L. Spees Ruth Ann and Thomas B. Watkins Vida I. Zvynys-Marks and Daniel H. Marks $250 - $499 Fabricio E. Balcazar and Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar James N. and Carole W. Christman James B. DeLapp and Suzann K. Campbell Lewis D. Goldstein Kathleen I. Jung Mary T. Keehn Alice Boeshart Meister Renee A. Pleshar Robert and Andrea Sachse David A. Scalzitti Deborah R. Schwartz Sandra Strome Raymond W. Sze Lucia I. Valdes $100 - $249 Claudia C. Adams Navaraj Anandan Deborah S. Barber Daniel J. and Mary Lou Bareither Roberta S. Bennett Karl and Diane Glick Berolzheimer Mae R. Brandon Katherine S. and Carl Breving Lois Browning Todd A. Buck Michael E. and Donna M. Calwas Ethel B. Carryer Carlos N. Ceja David and Mary Susan Chen Steven J. Cotton

Justin N. Craig Debra J. Eisenmann Denise R. Epps-Robinson Judith A. Falconer Gail S. Fisher Carol L. Freeman Sharon L. Gaskin Jeanne E. Gates Catherine Gesior Christina M. Ginter Michael D. Goodling Thomas M. and Lisa C. Griffin Eric S. Hammond Karrie L. Hamstra-Wright Steven L. and Sandy G. Hartford Ashiya F. Hasan Tamar Heller Nancy A. and Russell S. Hollander Debra K. Hultine-Zenor Michael J. Kerr Jacqueline D. King Keith A. Kirby Michael and Marelet Kirda Jeanne W. LaBree Ellen S. Leemputte Barbara E. Levy Carol Petrie Liberty Kenneth C. and Susan M. Lindahl Brett Love Kim Love Carol A. Marasovich Dorothy J. Markowitz Diane L. Nelson Connie Newton Jane G. Paniello Jennifer E. Pate Stacia A. Paxton Susan J. Quinn Joy A. Ransdell John P. Reuskens Frances Rizzo Lou Ann Schraffenberger

Marilyn P. Scitar Romil K. Sood Barbara J. Sopp Joy-Ann Spring Noreen M. Steinmetz Sharon B. Sugerman Renee R. Taylor Felando P. Thigpen Patricia W. Walker Bess D. Walter Richard D. and Mary G. Wartick Basia Podbielski Yakaitis M. Jeanne Yoder Up to $100 Elizabeth Z. Allan Mildred Alvarez Patricia S. Anderson Wade T. Anderson Marycarol G. Baker Kris A. Barnekow Eileen A. and Anthony J. Benvegnu Giovanni Berardi Mark E. and Elizabeth K. Bergunder Susan M. Bettenhausen Christine H. Beuthin Henry R. and Princess E. Bey Katherine Hardey Bey Carol Z. Blindauer Joanne J. Bradna Estherbeth Buchbinder Jennifer C. Burns Marjorie A. Buser Susan M. and Brian M. Cahill Patricia Enriquez Canar Robin L. Carlson Mary E. Carnell Cynthia Carr Georgia L. Cibul Randi J. Cogswell Laura E. Cohen Delilah R. Cohn Sara M. Condon Noel F. Conroy Daniel M. Corcos Megan L. Corlett Joanne M. Corpus Mary P. Coughlin Laura J. Coury Patricia G. Cramer Bogumila W. and Krzysztof G. Czaplinski Mariana L. D’Amico Francis D. De La Vega

Gigi A. Desierto Cynthia L. DeStefano Yulia Dominguez-Baraj Eileen M. Doran Trudy R. Drew Patrick S. Dziedzic Shirley E. Esenther Laurie Grazian Feest Karen Fleischer Sarah Jajesnica Foye Karen J. Frost Anne M. Frydrych Nancy H. Gabianelli Edward J. Galarza Jeanne R. Giampa Thaddeus G. and Kathleen A. Golos Stephen Gonzalez Monica D. Griffin Vanessa A. Griggley-Owens Janet M. Groll Darice M. Grzybowski Wayne E. Haley Kathleen A. Hallett Linda S. Hamm Roberta L. Hansen Lauren E. Harper Denise R. Hartigan Robert Z. Hazard and Jill M. Joyce- Hazard Rona L. Henne Karen A. Henrickson Ellen J. Hentze Therese A. Hilger Doris J. Hill Barbara Rennaker Hoch Susan P. Holmes Mary Catherine Horne Betty J. Hoskins Janet T. Hutton Susan M. Janke Kenneth J. Jay Demetra John Jeremy W. Karger-Gatzow Curt Keim Patricia A. Kelly Alice E. Kennedy Christopher B. and Elizabeth J. Keys Harold and Luella Kielhofner Syreeta A. Kinnard Helen J. Klockner Cynthia W. Koenig Susan L. Kotval Deborah A. Kramer Stuart T. Leerssen

Lauren M. Leno Gail A. Liberg David T. and Kristin I. Livingston Maria Londos Donna S. Long Kathryn F. Loomis Evelyn T. and Max Maizels Bradley L. Manning Jr. and Susan C. Manning Jasmina Markovic Hala A. Mashni Mary Therese Maslanka Karen B. Mateling Naomi E. McCabe Jeanne O’Neil McCoy Marilyn J. McDonald Linda McGlone-Cate Sarah Divine Meinhardt Barbara J. and Craig R. Mengarelli Rita Brosious Miller Alan S. Mina Victoria P. Mogil Cheryl J. Monroe Keelin K. Murphy Carrie Ann Murray Susan L. Murray James A. Nast Samantha C. Ng Larney W. Nichols Lynn J. Nord Denise A. Novak Javier M. Ortega Sandra J. and Anthony J. Ortega Maria Padron-Dielle Lillian Hoyle Parent Lillyanne C. Park Nancy P. Pelish Roxanne M. Pincombe Suzanne Porer James D. Postier Eileen M. Potter Tammy S. Potts Laura Powell Cheryl J. Pranskevich Jean E. Prebis Maryann M. Radowski Barbara J. Raff Gideon Ramirez Chatura Ravishankar Charlotte Razor Ariel E. Reboyras Cathleen C. Riemenschneider Michael H. Rivera Susan C. Ross

Renee C. Gangas Rowley Linda S. Rusenovich Marcelle A. Salamy Nancy L. Samuelson Jean D. Scherer Deborah L. Schleder Lynne Elizabeth Schliem James H. Schmidt Kay C. Schulte Elizabeth Susan Scudder Lavinia C. Sereseanu Lilo Sewell Marie I. Shaw Toby J. Sheasby Sandra E. Simon Anita C. Stehmeier Steven C. and Rosemary B. Stein Cynthia K. Sternisha Randall J. Stolk Mary E. Stoykov Beth E. Sullivan Susan M. Sullivan Nancy K. Szmyd Syda S. Taylor Vicky D. Tenenbaum Dianne M. Tennant-Rucker Virginia C. and Ray C. Tholen Constance Unzicker Mary Ann Vissat Dena B. Wald Daniel F. and Karen A. Walsh Leah W. Walters Althea V. Walton Margaret J. Watson Lyndsey E. Westermeyer Cheryle J. Wilcox Carol W. Wilkins Joan M. Willems Andrea L. Williams Susan R. Witz Rebecca K. Wojcik Sheila F. Wolfe William C. Wombles Rosa M. Yepez Jennifer L. York-Barr Jordana and Tom Zavos

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Conclusion

AHS Alumni Weekend 2013 The college’s inaugural Alumni Weekend, May 3-5, 2013, was a resounding success! Three days of events drew 269 attendees representing all programs and dozens of class years. More than 120 people attended the departmental open houses and the awards dinner on Saturday, and more than 50 people were on hand for both the Young Alumni Networking Social on Friday evening and the Sunday brunch at the National Museum of Health + Medicine Chicago.

Stay tuned for details about the next Alumni Weekend, scheduled for May 2-4, 2014!

The Friday night Young Alumni Networking Social kicked off the weekend, chaired by AHS director of alumni relations Helen Massey (left).

The reception for young alumni included awards for high achievers in the Class of 2013, who would be graduating a week later.

On Saturday afternoon, all departments hosted open houses, and most delivered CE events like this one by OT clinical associate professor Gail Fisher.

Attendees enjoyed a pre-dinner mingle, complete with a spectacular view of the city skyline.

Alumni award winners Robert Malnik ’09 (left) and Corky Glantz ’61 chat with friends and admirers at the cocktail hour. Read more about them on p. 14.

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Dean Bo Fernhall introduced Saturday evening’s emcee, Chicago broadcasting legend Merri Dee.

The three recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award spoke from the dais: (l-r) Michael Doyle ’83; Jean Ragalie ’83; and David Scalzitti ’87, ’94, ’08. Read more about them on p. 11.

Like us on Facebook to see the complete photo album from Alumni Weekend 2013! We’re at facebook.com/ UIC.AHS. Atika Afreen, HIM ’13, spoke to the audience about how alumni and donor support enabled her to finish her education at AHS.

A capacity crowd gathered on Sunday morning for brunch and a peek inside the National Museum of Health + Medicine Chicago, opening in 2015.

Sunday’s host and tour guide was Michael Doyle ’83, president of the museum, who was also named a distinguished alumnus in 2013.

More than 50 AHS alumni, faculty, staff and guests enjoyed the seated brunch.

2012–2013

AHS MAGAZINE

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AHS MAGAZINE

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Congratulations to the AHS Class of 2013!

Here’s how the 427 graduates in our largestever class line up

= PhD: 8

= Clinical Doctorate (DPT/OTD): 51

= Master’s: 185

= Bachelor’s: 154

= Certificate: 29

To connect with fellow alumni, get AHS news and see photos of Commencement 2013, like us on Facebook!

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