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Professional Notes: February 2023

02/28/2023

Professional Notes is a round-up of awards, presentations, papers, and other professional achievements of SLU faculty, staff members, and students.

Students

FORUM APPEaRANCE

From left are Taylor Stalling, Max Fernandez, Thomas Martin, and Darren Manion.

From left are Taylor Stalling, Max Fernandez, Thomas Martin, and Darren Manion. Photo Submitted.

Students Max Fernandez, Darren Manion, Thomas Martin, and Taylor Stalling were nominated to represent Saint Louis University during the 38th Annual Missouri Governor’s Student Leadership Forum on Faith and Values held Feb. 17-19, 2023, in Jefferson City.

The Forum challenges students’ character development by encouraging them to reflect on their own decision-making skills, values, and belief systems. Students learn about how to reconcile relationships, stand for truth, and love others as they love themselves. The Forum’s guiding principle is teaching students to embrace altruism rather than egotism.

The Forum kicked off with a message from Rebecca Welsh, Founder of Halo, a mission that provides housing, healing, and education to at-risk and homeless children. Students ended the day at the Capitol, touring the House Lounge and hearing from Bob Priddy, retired news director of MissouriNet; visiting the Governor’s office for a meet and greet and message from Gov. Mike Parson, and finally visiting the House Floor, led by Missouri State Sen. Travis Fitzwater, and hearing from Rod Jetton, former Speaker of the House.

Awards and Accolades

Benjamin Parviz  (Arts and Sciences) won first place in the student essay competition at the Conference on Medicine and Religion. Parviz's paper was titled “Provoking the Desire for Death: Hope, Despair, and the Effect of Legalized Assisted Suicide.”

The Chaifetz Center for Entrepreneurship recently hosted it's first Mission Meets the Marketing Week Hackathon. The center posted a problem statement on Monday and students then had until Friday morning to come up with a solution to pitch to a team of judges.

The problem they worked on all week was: Create a solution using Artificial Intelligence to increase the educational experience of college students in the U.S. The Hackathon was a great success with 10 teams and nearly 30 students participating.

The winning team, Engineers in Business, was comprised of students Lexxy Ahn (Computer Engineering / Computer Science, Engineering Mathematics), Robert McManus  (Computer Engineering / Computer Science), and Brandon Terselic (Computer Engineering / Computer Science). Their solution uses AI to help students from under-resourced areas navigate the college application process, acting as a college counselor, mentor, translator, tutor and more.

Fellowship

Sophomore Aerospace Engineering student Zach Conti recently was awarded the prestigious Patti Grace Smith Fellowship after a nationwide application process. He is one of 31 members of the Patti Grace Smith Class of 2023 in what has been called their “most competitive class to date.” Through this fellowship, Conti will be matched with top members of the aerospace industry and also take part in a summer internship at rocket company Ursa Major.

Scholarship

From left are Daniel Gaynor, Nicholas Finefrock, Sana Tan, Jessica Lopez, Erik Pociecha, Alliana Blackwell, assistant director of stewardship; Naresh Bansal, Ph.D., academic chair for the Department of Finance; and Olgun Sahin, Ph.D., associate professor of finance. Photo Submitted. 

From left are Daniel Gaynor, Nicholas Finefrock, Sana Tan, Jessica Lopez, Erik Pociecha, Alliana Blackwell, assistant director of stewardship; Naresh Bansal, Ph.D., academic chair for the Department of Finance; and Olgun Sahin, Ph.D., associate professor of finance. Photo Submitted. 

Five students from Saint Louis University's Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business were recently named Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) 2022-2023 Scholars. Now in its eighth year at SLU, the program awards scholarships to business students who are interested in commercial real estate.

SIOR is the top professional office and industrial real estate association, representing real estate brokerage professionals around the world. The scholarship is a result of a partnership between SLU, the St. Louis SIOR chapter and the SIOR Foundation, the national charitable arm of SIOR. The five scholarship recipients, Nicholas Finefrock, Sana Tan, Daniel Gaynor, Jessica Lopez, and Erik Pociecha, were honored at a luncheon and St. Louis SIOR club meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 18 at Racquet Club Ladue.

Presentations

Nina Cheranda, a third-year medical student, presented "Survival in Black and non-Black patients with metastatic prostate cancer," at the ASCO Genitourinary meeting in San Francisco in February. 

Faculty and Staff

Presentations

Amy Schlessman, D.P.T.,Tufts University; and Jessica Barreca, D.P.T., SLU Center for Interprofessional Education & Research at the APTA Combined Sections Meeting.

Amy Schlessman, DPT,Tufts University; and Jessica Barreca, DPT, SLU Center for Interprofessional Education & Research at the APTA Combined Sections Meeting. Photo submitted.

Jessica Barreca, DPT (Program Manager for Community Collaborations in the SLU Center for Interprofessional Education & Research) and her colleagues from physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech presented their work on creating a Joint Policy Statement on Interprofessional Collaborative Goals in School-Based Practice. The presentation was given at the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) Combined Sections Meetings in San Diego. This meeting brings together more 10,000 participants engaged in around 20 different sections of the APTA, from pediatric to geriatric care, from acute care to policy and global health.

The six-member team, two each from PT, OT, and Speech, worked in collaboration to create a new joint statement that was accepted and endorsed by all three professional organizations to support front-line practitioners in school-based settings. Previous policies encouraged collaboration but called for each professional to create separate goals and individual plans for young students and their families. The new Joint Statement is already being disseminated across the U.S, and in schools to focus on student and family-centered goals with effective, engaged collaboration across the professions. Their Joint Statement poster presentation won recognition from the APAH Global Health Special Interest Group on Health Policy, acknowledging their work in the area of social responsibility and contribution to practice across the professions of PT, OT, and Speech.

Martin Schoen, M.D. (Hematology/Oncology), presented "Survival trends in de novo metastatic prostate cancer: SEER and Veterans Affairs comparison," and "Treatment and survival of de novo metastatic prostate cancer in US veterans" at the ASCO Genitourinary meeting in San Francisco in February. 

Research

Whitney Postman, Ph.D. (Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences)is collaborating with Washington University researcher Joyce Balls-Berry, Ph.D., on her project, “The COEQUAL Registry: Creating Opportunities to Increase Health Equity and Equality for Persons at Risk for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias.” Postman assisted with the COEQUAL-sponsored Brain Aging Cafés, during which their team provided education on dementia, dementia care and prevention, and dementia research, while soliciting input from community stakeholders.

Postman also arranged a focus group session with selected participants of her brain health group for Black older adults for the FOREVER Dementia Study. The focus group was conducted on Friday, October 14, 2022, at the Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine.

Media Appearances

Anthony Breitbach Ph.D. (Vice Dean, Doisy College of Health Sciences) wrote an editorial "Celebrating the Culture of Interprofessional Collaboration in Athletic Training" as guest editor for the Athletic Training Education Journal’s Special Series "Interprofessional Education for Collaborative Practice."

Breitbach also was interviewed by Joel Luedke on the Athletic Training Chat podcast, where he discussed the value that AT's bring to interprofessional health care teams.  

Publications

Eddie M. Clark, Ph.D. (Psychology) was the co-author on two recent publications. The first, " Social support as a mediator of the personality-physical functioning relationship in a national sample of African Americans: A two-wave longitudinal study" was published in the Journal of Black Psychology. " Disability and health in African Americans: Population research and implications for occupational therapy community-based practice" was published in the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy.

Farzana Hoque, M.D. (Internal Medicine) published an article titled "The Power of Emotional Intelligence for Hospitalists" in the Society of Hospital Medicine, The Hospitalists newsmagazine. The newsmagazine reaches more than 35,000 hospitalists, medical residents and health care administrators each month.

Awards and Accolades

Elissa Held Bradford, Ph.D. (Physical Therapy and Athletic Training) and her co-authors were awarded the Golden Synapse award for the most outstanding article published in 2022 in the Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy for the manuscript entitled "Health Promotion and Wellness in Neurologic Physical Therapy: Strategies to Advance Practice."

Julie Howe (Clinical Health Services) received the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) AAFS Distinguished Fellow award on Feb. 15. The AAFS is a multidisciplinary professional organization that provides leadership to advance science and its application to the legal system. The award is given to someone who has given meritorious service to the AAFS, the forensic sciences, and to other professional peer group organizations. As noted by the AAFS, Howe's contribution to the forensic science field and role she has served in promoting education are insurmountable.