Professional Notes: November 2021

11/23/2021

A round-up of awards, presentations, papers and the other professional achievements of SLU faculty, staff members and students.

Faculty and Staff

Sameer Siddiqui, M.D. was awarded the Excellence in Professionalism Award from the Office of Professional Oversight. Siddiqui is professor and the C. Rollins Hanlon Endowed Chair of the Department of Surgery. His clinical practice focuses on the surgical management of prostate cancer. His research interests include urologic oncology. He joined SLU in 2013 and is the former division director of urology. As chair, his strategic initiatives include clinical practice expansion, growth of GME programs, increased research output and creation of a Surgery Simulation Center.

The National Deans & Directors of Social Work Admissions (NDDSWA) named Kristi Richter, Master of Social Work Program Director, as the recipient of the Leadership in Advancing the Profession 2021 award. The Leadership in Advancing the Profession award recognizes Richter for her leadership roles in promoting the profession of social work admissions. Richter was actively advancing the work of enrollment management through her involvement and leadership in various professional organizations and presentation activities at CSWE, SSWR and other national and international conferences.

Marcus Painter, Ph.D. (Finance) won the best paper in corporate finance award at the Financial Management Association International meeting. 

Denise Hooks-Anderson, M.D. (Family and Community Medicine) was appointed to the board of directors of the American Heart Association’s Midwest Region for a two-year term. In this role, Hooks-Anderson will help oversee local revenue generation and health impact activities.

The Office of Public Health Practices with the SLU College for Public Health and Social Justice co-sponsored the Region VII Academic Health Department Conference. More than 160 people from Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, California, DC, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Washington registered for the conference. The conference sessions focused on local public health after the pandemic, the role of AHDs in social justice and racial equity, best practices in AHDs and the resilience of public health workforce. Sessions from the conference can be viewed online. 

Carol Beckel, Ph.D. (Physical Therapy and Athletic Training) was a co-presenter at the 2021 Education Leadership Conference on Oct. 24, on a presentation titled "Accepting Students Where They Are: Increasing the Capacity for Students Before the End." Beckel presented with colleagues from Mount St. Joseph University, Ohio University, Ohio University Therapy Associates, and OSF Healthcare. The presentation highlighted models for improved collaboration between academic and clinical physical therapy partners to ensure quality clinical placements for physical therapist students. 

The APHA Annual Meeting & Expo in Denver "Strengthening Social Connectedness" featured many presentations from SLU CPHSJ faculty, students and alums. Abstracts from the presentations can be viewed online. 

Tobias Winright, Ph.D. (Theological Studies and Health Care Ethics) gave an invited Justice Lecture on “Just Policing and Christian Ethics” on October 25.at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Mount Vernon, Ohio. Earlier on the same day, he also delivered an invited sermon, “Gotta Have Faith … But Also Hope and Love," at the R. R. Hodges Chapel at Mount Vernon.

Rubén Rosario Rodríguez, Ph.D. (Theology)took part on a book panel on Nichole Flores The Aesthetics of Solidarity: Our Lady of Guadalupe and American Democracy (Georgetown University Press, 2021) at the University of Virginia  on Oct. 13. 

Rodríguez also received a $500 Project Grant from the Institute for Human Studies at George Mason University for his new research project, "Making Sense of Minority Christian Voting Trends: Complicating the Liberal/Conservative Binary."

On Saturday, October 30th, Washington University School of Medicine’s Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, the Hope Center, the Siteman Cancer Center, and the Alzheimer's Association Greater Missouri Chapter jointly hosted a free virtual (Zoom) screening and panel discussion of the documentary film "In Our Right Mind: Alzheimer’s and Dementia’s Impact on Communities of Color", by African American filmmaker, journalist and attorney Renée Chenault-Fattah. 

With support from the Nasrallah Center for Neuroscience, Whitney Postman, Ph.D. and four graduate students from SLU’s Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) Department arranged a collective viewing of “In Our Right Mind” on SLU's campus (McGannon Hall). Our participants were four African American elders from Postman's brain health group in North St. Louis, and Northside’s Senior Center Director Shana Watson.

Robert M. Lewis, (Urban Planning and Development) conducted an interview with Ben Wilson, author of the book, 'Metropolis: A History of the City-Mankind's Greatest Invention' for a presentation by the St. Louis County Library & HEC Media.

Craig A. Boyd, Ph.D., (Philosophy and Humanities in the School for Professional Studies) was interviewed in the journal “Christian History” on the nature of an ideal core curriculum in the contemporary catholic university setting.

Virginia Herbers (Mission and Identity) published a book, "Gifts from Friends We've Yet to Meet, A Memoir of Biblical Encounters." The book was published by Liturgical Press in October.

Mark Pousson, Ph.D. (Leadership and Higher Education) and Heather Stout, (School of Law) co-authored a chapter in the recently published ACPA monograph "Creating Inclusivity While Providing Accommodations: A Practical Guide to Champion Individuals with (Dis)abilities on Campus". The monograph is an effort to promote inclusivity and disability justice, following the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 2020. 

The article "Telephone Communication and Delivering Difficult News," was authored by Lina Toledo-Franco, M.D. (Internal Medicine) and Oscar Cepeda, M.D. (Internal Medicine), published Oct. 11, 2021, in The Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging.

Hospitalists at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital this year raised $400 for Campus Kitchen's TurkeyPalooza Food Drive. 

Students

Genevieve Hilliard was awarded a U.S. student Fulbright to continue her doctoral research at Swansea University in Wales. Genevieve is a Ph.D. candidate under Laurie Shornick, Ph.D. (Biology). Her research focuses on diabetic wound healing. In collaboration with Scott Sell, Ph.D. in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hilliard developed an innovative wound dressing containing Manuka honey that has both anti-microbial and bioregenerative properties.

As a Fulbright scholar, Hilliard is currently spending six months in Wales at Swansea University. Her multi-disciplinary and cross-continental research project will investigate the anti-microbial properties of her wound dressing to further address the global, yet silent pandemic, of chronic foot wounds.

Troy Ettenson, Grace Kane, and Jamison McCarty (Parks College of Engineering, Aviation & Technology) were among 11 students awarded scholarships at the 2021 National Business Aviation Association's Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition held Oct. 12-14, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The awards support students seeking careers in business aviation.

Two students, Hayden Turley and Ashley Olms, worked with Nori Katagiri, Ph.D. (Political Science), to publish an op-ed that appeared on the Norwich University website. 

Cicely Hunter (Ph.D. candidate, American Studies) was profiled in the Kenosha News for her new appointment as Public Historian for the African American Initiative at the Missouri Historical Society.

Amelia Flood, a doctoral candidate in the Department of American Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, co-organized a panel, "The Imperial in Unexpected Places: Creative Resistance and Ambiguous Power across the U.S. Empire," at the 2021 American Studies Association Annual Meeting "Creativity within Revolt," on Oct. 13. As part of the panel, she presented a research paper, "The Imperialists Have No Clothes: Contested Nudist Misadventures in the U.S. Empire's Virgin Islands." The paper focused on an ill-fated attempt by members of the Vana Vana Society to create a nudist colony in the U.S. Virgin Islands and the ways the expedition illustrates the unexpected excesses and tensions of American imperialism in the mid-1930s.