Professional Notes: October 2024

10/14/2024

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

Faculty and Staff

 Hadi Alhorr, Ph.D. (International Business) was honored with the Global Ambassador Award at the 25th annual Growing Global event, hosted by the World Trade Center St. Louis, on Sept. 25, 2024. Alhorr was cited for his leadership as Director of the Boeing Institute of International Business at Saint Louis University and his research on strategic planning within economically integrated regions and multinational corporations. 

Sarah Conroy (Marketing and Communications) won the gold medal for the second straight year for photography in the University & College Designers Association annual contest. 

Donna Bess Myers (Student Development) was featured as a breast cancer survivor in a story with KTVI-TV Ch. 2 regarding breast cancer awareness month. She was interviewed with a local physician to discuss the importance of early detection and diligent follow-up care. 

Rubén Rosario Rodríguez, Ph.D. (Theological Studies) was interviewed by Common Good about his new book, "Calvin for the World: The Enduring Relevance of His Political, Social, and Economic Theology."

Ricardo J. Wray, Ph.D. (Behavioral Science and Health Equity) helped author the research article titled "Exploring the Role of Communication Asset Mapping (CAM) as a Strategy to Promote Hereditary Cancer Risk Assessment Information within African American Communities."

Keon L. Gilbert, DrPH (Behavioral Science and Health Equity) helped co-author the commentary from the Brookings Institute titled "Olympic transformation of metropolitan cities--for better or for worse" published in Policy Commons.  

Gilbert also helped co-author the commentary from the Brookings Institute titled "Banning critical race theory could hinder the pursuit of environmental justice" published in Policy Commons. 

Benjamin Looker, Ph.D. (American Studies) published a liner-notes essay, “From the Mississippi to the Seine: BAG’s Paris Sounds,” as part of the release of a jazz LP album titled “For Peace and Liberty,” recorded in Paris in 1972 by the legendary Black Artists Group (BAG) of St. Louis. This concert recording was lost in the French state radio and television archive for a half century, and is now released for the first time by London’s Wewantsounds label. 

Jennifer Elwyn (Neuroscience Program Coordinator) had her first book, "Historic Haunts of St. Louis" released in September. The book details St. Louis's spooky history with stories of  fur traders hardened by wilderness “law,” former slaves fighting for their future, criminals immortalized in song, the rise and fall of the elite and the fight for the soul of a child. The book also covers the people behind Eads Bridge, the Old Courthouse, City Hospital, Lemp Brewery and more. 

Rubén Rosario Rodríguez, Ph.D. (Theological Studies) had a peer-reviewed article, "Christ Transforming Culture: A Case Study," published in Insights: The Faculty Journal of Austin Seminary (Spring 2004), 29-32.

Joanne C Langan, Ph.D. (Nursing Emerita) co-authored "Culture of safety and preparedness: Benefits of applying a daily mitigation mindset in the hospital setting" in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Langan and co-author Karen S. Moore, Ph.D. (Nursing) had the article  "Teaching Disaster Nursing Competencies: Strategies to succeed" published the Journal of Nursing Education.

Langan and co-author Diana Llamas (Nursing) had the article "Mental health alternative interventions of Hispanic women with breast cancer: A state of the science review" published in Hispanic Health Care International. 

Eddie Clark, Ph.D. (Psychology) co-authored the following article "Identifying variation in physical health behaviors and depressive symptoms among religiosity clusters of African American adults in the United States" in the Journal of Religion and Health. His co-authors were Steve E. Rigdon, Ph.D. (Epidemiology and Biostatistics)
and Lijing Ma.

Jason T. Eberl, Ph.D. (Health Care Ethics), recently published an article co-authored with Gnaegi Center alumnus Dr. Abram Brummett: “The Reasonable Content of Conscience in Public Bioethics” in Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics (2024). 

Cynthia Nebel, Ph.D. (Learning Services for the School of Medicine) co-authored a new book entitled "Uniting Learning Science and Talent Management: Org Scholars."

Anthony Breitbach. Ph.D. (Interprofessional Education) had the article "Learner experiences of identity and global interdependence following engagement with an interprofessional education course" published in the Journal of Interprofessional Care examining the Saint Louis University Core Curriculum attributes. 

J. Cameron Anglum, Ph.D. (Educational Studies) co-authored a paper for the PRiME Center about teacher pay in Missouri. 

María José Romo-Palafox, Ph.D. (Nutrition and Dietetics) co-authored a groundbreaking study exploring the impact of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders on breastfeeding practices in the U.S. The study, recently published in the Maternal and Child Health Journal, provides key insights into how pandemic-induced changes affected breastfeeding habits, maternal stress, and access to lactation support. 

Anutosh Chakraborty, Ph.D. (Pharmacology and Physiology), has been awarded a four-year MPI-R01 grant (2024 – 2028, total $2,543,391). Chakraborty’s group has discovered that the inositol pyrophosphate biosynthetic enzyme IP6K1 is a potential target in obesity and NAFLD/NASH. The grant titled, "Developing IP6K1 inhibitors to treat NAFLD/NASH," will allow the team to develop potent and selective IP6K1 inhibitors and to test their efficacies in these diseases.

Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D.  (Pharmacology and Physiology, has been awarded a five-year MPI-R01 grant 1R01NS138127-01 (2024–2029, total $1,058,046) titled, " Molecular basis for functional S1PR1 antagonists in the treatment of comorbid migraine and temporomandibular disorders." Overlapping pain conditions greatly exacerbate patients’ pain experience. This includes comorbid migraine and temporomandibular disorders, which is associated with a reciprocal increase in their prevalence/severity, increased risk of chronification, negatively impacting therapeutic outcomes. This underscores this comorbidity as a significant public health concern. However, little is known of its underlying pathobiology. The proposed studies address this gap in knowledge and are anticipated to provide foundational insights into S1PR1 and inflammasome signaling in the development of this chronic co-morbidity, validating S1PR1 as a target, with functional S1PR1 antagonists as a unique monotherapy approach for intervention, with the advantage that they are already FDA-approved for other indications.

Vincenza Cifarelli, Ph.D. (Pharmacology and Physiology) was awarded $600,000 from the National Science Foundation to study the role of lipids in lymphatic vessel function. The goal of the project is to develop an integrated computational and experimental engineering-based approach to determine strategies to modulate lymphatic permeability to address pathological changes in several diseases, e.g., obesity and cancer. The project also provides STEM opportunities and a path to contribute to scientific research for students in the St. Louis area, through a partnership with the TRIO program at Saint Louis University.

Michael Landry, Ph.D. (Mathematics and Statistics) received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to support his mathematical research. It will also support the SLU math department’s magazine “For All,” which is published once per semester, is run by faculty and students, and features content from undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty. 

Anthony Breitbach. Ph.D. (Interprofessional Education) facilitated a faculty development workshop on IPE for the College of Health at Moravian University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on Aug. 23, 2024.

Jessica Trout (Center for Social Action) presented at the first ever ID Access Summit with former State Representative Jeanette Mott Oxford. After national leader, activist and author, Kat Calvin of Spread The Vote + Project ID, Trout and Mott Oxford shared Advocacy 101 in Missouri, focusing on Civic Literacy in Missouri. 

Jason T. Eberl, Ph.D. (Health Care Ethics) presented papers at the 38th International Congress on Law and Mental Health; the 30th Annual Conference on Bioethics sponsored by the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity at Trinity International University; the 12th International Conference on Ethics Education; the 17th World Congress of the International Association of Bioethics; and an International Conference on “Existential Threats to Humanity: What are They and How to Address Them” sponsored by the Center for the Study of Bioethics, The Hastings Center, and The Oxford Centre for Practical Ethics.

Farzana Hoque, M.D. (Hospitalist) was invited as a speaker for the Grand Rounds at Cleveland Clinic. Her presentation was titled "Malpractice Risk: Strategies for Mitigation."

Nori Katagiri, Ph.D. (Political Science) delivered a lecture on cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence at the 2024 meeting of the Indo-Dutch Cyber Security School. In the lecture, he discussed how humans may use AI to carry out cyber attacks and defense and how hackers could disrupt AI use to their advantage. His talk drew nearly 450 online participants. 

Maria Romo-Palafox, Ph.D. (Nutrition and Dietetics) and Niraj Chavan, M.D. (Obstetrics & Gynecology) recently played roles in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's workshop series on maternal health disparities. The series, which took place from May to June 2024, convened experts from across the nation to explore the social and structural determinants of maternal health outcomes, particularly among historically marginalized communities. 

George Grossberg, M.D. (Psychiatry) completed a series of five invited lectures in Taiwan. One of those lectures was the keynote for the Taiwanese Dementia Society on the treatment of Agitation for Alzheimer's Disease. Agitation is a growing interest in dementia Alzheimer's care and Grossberg is one of the top experts in the world on its management. 

Max Zubatsky, Ph.D. (Medical Family Therapy Program) and Alec Pollard, Ph.D. (Family and Community Medicine emeritus) at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, discussed the main causes of hoarding, how it overlaps with OCD, anxiety, depression, trauma, and other mental health diagnoses, and how caregivers can support treatment for persons with OCD at an OCD Awareness conference held on Saturday, Oct. 19, at the St. Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute. The event was free and open to the public. 

Students

Brian Adler (Arts and Sciences) released a new 2024 Presidential Election Forecast model. The forecast utilizes Markov chains to determine state-by-state and national probabilities to demonstrate what the state of the contentious race looks like. 

Kendyl Schmidt (American Studies) was recently the featured speaker at the Southern Historical Association Junior Scholars workshop. Schmidt presented a paper titled "Rage Against the Machine: The Motivations and Mechanics of the Attack on the St. Louis Medical College in 1844."