August 2008 Archives

The Southern Mississippi Area Health Education Center (SMAHEC) at The University of Southern Mississippi will host this year's Public Health Symposium featuring experts in health policy, clinical care and the impact that socio-economic status has on people's health.

Rather than just focusing on Mississippi's problems, speakers at the event will address what comes next in prevention and solving those problems.

"This year, our symposium is featuring speakers who are filling a health void, rather than just outlining the health problems of Mississippi," said Gina Fiorentini-Wright, SMAHEC assistant director. "We have a lot of data and continue to gather more, regarding our state's poor health status. We feel that we must now bring some answers; some solutions to the health problems that are facing Mississippi."

The Public Health Symposium will be held Aug. 29th at the Thad Cochran Center. Dr. Charkarra Anderson-Lewis, associate professor in the Southern Miss Department of Community Health Sciences, will present "Health Equity: Right, or Privilege?"
 
"This will be an interactive experience where we will discuss health disparities in the United States with an emphasis on Mississippi," said Anderson-Lewis, who is the founder of My Mother's Heart foundation, an organization created to increase awareness of heart disease among women. "Participants will have a better understanding of the health disparities that exist concerning age, sex, geographical location, race and ethnicity."

Speakers scheduled for the symposium are:

• 10 a.m. -- Health Policy Development in Mississippi - Therese Hanna, executive director of the Mississippi Center for Health Policy

• 11:15 a.m. -- Mobile Medical Health Services: *An Emerging Clinical System Optimal for at-risk children and their families - Dr. Persharon Dixon, a pediatrician sponsored by Coastal Family Health

• 1:15 p.m. -- Osteopathic Medicine in Mississippi: New Partnerships - Dr. Michael Murphy and Dr. Darrell Lovins,  William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine

• 2:30 p.m. -- Health Equity: Right, or Privilege? - Dr. Charkarra Anderson-Lewis, associate professor in the Southern Miss Department of Community Health Sciences in the College of Health and founder of My Mother's Heart foundation

Registration for the SMAHEC Public Health Symposium begins at 9:30 a.m. For more information, contact Gina Fiorentini-Wright at 601.266.4839 or gina.fiorentini.wright@usm.edu This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or visit http://www.usm.edu/chs/smahec.

About Southern Mississippi Area Health Education Center
The Southern Mississippi Area Health Education Center at The University of Southern Mississippi is a part of the Department of Community Health Sciences in the College of Health. The center addresses health issues in the southern 15-county region of the state, including the elimination of health care inequality, increasing availability of health care and services to all medically underserved populations and recruiting high school students into the health care fields. It is funded by a three-year federal grant.

University of Southern Mississippi chemistry professor Dr. Yong Zhang has already made his mark in just his first year as a member of the Southern Miss faculty.

Zhang's research, which involves a computational approach to studying disease proteins, recently earned an Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), providing a total of $217,500 in funding over two years.

His research project, titled "Structure, Spectra and Roles of Metal and Active Site in HNO Heme Protein Complex," includes the use of high accuracy computational tools and experimental spectroscopic data that will provide the missing details of structural and functional aspects of HNO interactions with metal centers in proteins.

"The high accuracy and innovative results from this project will benefit future studies in this area, assisting investigations of problems in health, diseases and therapeutic treatments involving HNO," Zhang said. "It also offers promise for the treatment of heart disease and stroke."

HNO has been recently recognized as an important signaling molecule in a broad range of physiological processes related to health such as vascular relaxation, enzyme activity regulation and neurological function regulation. It also has extensive pharmacological effects, including enhanced cell oxidative stress, blood-brain barrier disruption and neutrophil infiltration during renal ischemia/reperfusion.

Zhang's research will provide a high accuracy structure of MbHNO, which will be the first atomic level structure for HNO protein complexes, and will also offer valuable insights into the HNO interaction with the protein active site as well as from relevant systems.

"We're pleased Dr. Zhang has obtained his first grant as a faculty member from the NIH," said Dr. Robert Bateman, chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. "This is particularly noteworthy because he was funded on the first attempt, and because NIH funds few computational chemists."
The three goals of the NIH's AREA program are to support meritorious research, to strengthen the research environment of the institution and to expose students to research. Assisting Zhang in his laboratory is Southern Miss senior Chris Mills of Hattiesburg. 
Zhang becomes the fourth member of the department's faculty with current NIH funding. "This illustrates the growing strength in biomedical research within our department," Bateman said.

To learn more about the Southern Miss Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, online visit http://www.usm.edu/chem/

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Dr. W. Wesley Johnson was recently elected as the president of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. He currently serves as professor and doctoral program director in the Department of Administration of Justice at The University of Southern Mississippi.

Johnson has published over 30 articles and made over 60 conference presentations. His first book, "The Criminalization of Mental Illness: Crisis and Opportunity for the Justice System," was released summer 2008.

The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences is an international association established in 1963 to foster professional and scholarly activities in the field of criminal justice. The academy promotes criminal justice education, research and policy analysis within the discipline of criminal justice for both educators and practitioners and provides a forum for disseminating ideas related to issues in research, policy, education and practice. The success of this dynamic professional association is the result of a diverse composition of more 2,300 members.

Johnson taught at South Carolina State University before completing his doctoral education at Florida State University. He also taught at Sam Houston State University for 15 years, where he served as associate dean of the College of Criminal Justice. He is a native of Beaufort, S.C., and is married to Candice Keels Johnson.

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Ron Hunter (left), past president of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS), presents incoming president Wes Johnson with a plaque recognizing his service to the organization.

Getting a free ride at The University of Southern Mississippi this fall might take on a whole new meaning with a new program planned to encourage bike riding on campus. 

The President's Office, together with the Student Government Association, is heading up the initiative that is tentatively named Eagle Bikes. The aim of the effort is to provide bicycles for faculty, staff and students to use, then leave them behind for the next rider. The bicycles will be painted the same, bright color for easy identification.  

"Our goal with the program is to encourage the campus community to use a more environmentally friendly form of transportation and get exercise at the same time," said President Martha Saunders. "It is one more thing we can do to create a climate of healthy bodies and healthy minds at Southern Miss."

This initiative is not new to Saunders as a similar program was implemented at her previous institution, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. While other universities like Stanford and the University of California-Davis have established bicycle programs,  Southern Miss aims to be the first university or college in Mississippi to do it.

Student Government Association President Melissa Cirino has discussed the idea with Dr. Saunders and believes students will rally around the program. "I'm excited about this because it's a simple, inexpensive way to encourage healthy choices," said Cirino. 

While details are still being finalized, the program will also get help from the University Police Department and the School of Social Work's Family Network Partnership.

University Police Chief Bob Hopkins says the program has great potential.  "As our parking moves more toward the periphery of campus, giving students, faculty and staff other options to get around on campus is a win-win opportunity," said Hopkins. "Getting more people on bicycles also goes hand-in-hand with our goal of having a healthier campus."

Saunders envisions that the program bikes can be refurbished with the help of the Family Network Partnership's bicycle repair shop in Hattiesburg. 

"We're excited about the idea and the prospect of more bicycles on campus and being a part of an alternative to gasoline," said Dr. Tim Rehner, interim director for the School of Social Work. "This opportunity is a part of encouraging wellness among students, staff and faculty. It also is a great opportunity for the children of our FNP program, to be a part of a big project like this."

The Family Network Partnership is a community service agency sponsored by the School of Social Work and was founded by Rehner and Dr. Mike Forster, College of Health interim dean. The after-school program provides educational, recreational and cultural activities for at-risk youth in east Hattiesburg and includes a bike repair shop, pottery class and computer workshop. 

The University of Southern Mississippi is positioning itself at the cutting edge of instruction delivery in higher education after several teams of its faculty and staff recently received Course Redesign Initiative grants from the State Institutions of Higher Learning.

The goal of the initiative is to restructure the delivery method of courses, particularly multi-section courses, by blending existing technology and traditional instruction along with other active learning approaches to improve student retention and learning outcomes. Resource challenges, such as classroom space and instructional costs, are also addressed through the initiative. 

Southern Miss received half of the 12 grants awarded and more than any other institution in the state. The university teams that submitted the winning proposals will complete preparations for the course redesigns this summer and fall and implement the redesign pilot courses in the spring 2009 semester.

"This initiative can allow academic departments to do more for our students by using resources more efficiently," said Dr. William Powell, interim associate provost. "Our overall goal is to provide our students with a high-quality learning environment, and I believe this approach can help us continue to meet that goal." 

The IHL initiative is based on the model begun a decade ago by the National Center for Academic Transformation in its course redesign programs implemented at 30 institutions of higher education across the country. An analysis of those programs showed much promise, with outcomes that included more active learning opportunities, an increased level of engagement by students and more flexibility in course delivery.

Other results showed students gaining access to support personnel beyond individual faculty members and graduate students to include student mentors and course assistants, either in-person or online, providing an on-demand, varied environment of resources. 

Courses at Southern Miss that will be offered in the redesign format include introductory Spanish, general psychology, intermediate algebra, introduction to computing and technical writing.

The leaders of Southern Miss faculty and staff teams whose proposals resulted in grant awards include Nancy Howell, Department of Computer Science; Dr. Denise Brown, Department of Nutrition and Food Systems; Dr. David Echevarria, Department of Psychology; Dr. Barry Piazza, Department of Mathematics; Dr. Michael Mays, Department of English; and Dr. Leah Fonder-Solano, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.

Powell praised the faculty who received the grants, two of which amounted to $100,000 each and the remaining four at $50,000 each. "They put a lot of work into their proposals," he said.

The Department of English will use its grant to redesign the department's technical writing course, English 333, into a hybrid model titled "Writing in Professional, Academic and Digital Contexts." Dr. Sheldon Walcher, a key member of the department's design team, expressed hope that the new model will more effectively address writing skills in a range of disciplines and areas.

Course sections will be grouped in discipline-based areas, in which students will complete projects specifically geared to those areas. "With the new design, we want to make it easier to engage students in the course by including projects directly related to the specific demands of writing in their respective majors and professions," Walcher said.

The course will be staffed by a tenure-track faculty member specializing in professional writing and digital literacy who will lecture once a week (available live and online); coupled with six face-to-face computer-lab sections (staffed by three graduate teaching assistants).

Faculty and instructors will all be on-site, and in addition to direct instruction, will meet weekly to discuss and track individual student progress over the semester. Course assignments will be updated to reflect the realities of communicating in the 21st century, requiring students to produce a range of traditional as well as multimedia projects.

"Because of this focus on new media and design, a sizable portion of our grant will be used to construct what we call a 'multimedia writing studio,' where students and instructors will be able to meet and work collaboratively on a range of projects," he said.

The redesign will have implications for the department's curriculum beyond the technical writing course, Walcher said. "This affords us an opportunity to rethink our upper-division writing sequence, and to link learning outcomes across our entire curriculum," he said. "Indeed, once this redesign is complete, the department will be well on its way to having a comprehensive set of linked course objectives for every level of writing."

The redesign grant initiative and Southern Miss' successful acquisition of grant funding from the IHL is evidence the university is a role model for its commitment to meeting student needs and being a good steward of taxpayer and donor resources.

"To me, this just reinforces what I've experienced in so many other ways as a faculty member this past year," said Walcher, who came to Southern Miss in 2007.

'We're at the forefront of curricular and pedagogic innovation in Mississippi, and I strongly believe that our success in securing the majority of the grants shows just how passionate and committed the faculty and this university are to finding innovative solutions to complex problems."

The University of Southern Mississippi Department of Marine Science recognized the 2008 master's degree in hydrographic science graduates on July 30 at a ceremony at John C. Stennis Space Center.

The Department of Marine Science works in cooperation with the U.S. Navy to provide the hydrographic science master's degree program to students. Through the partnership, the program meets the category A certification requirements by the Féderation Internationale des Géométres/International Hydrographic Organization International Advisory Board. Southern Miss is the only educational institution in the United States to offer a master's degree in hydrographic science that is certified at the category A level by the FIG/IHO.

"This was an exceptional class," said Dr. Steve Lohrenz, chair of the Department of Marine Science. "I learned a lot from them and I hope they also learned from me. It is a strong class."

The 2008 graduates are Dean Battilana of Carnes, Australia; Jessica Burt of Slidell, La.; Travis Clem of Mandeville, La.; Michael Gonsalves of Bay St. Louis; Bryan Mensi of Picayune; Megan Palmer of Baltimore Md.; Kimberly Collins Pevey of Biloxi; Mike Redmayne of Slidell, La.; Max Salazar of Slidell, La.; and Carlos Zapata of Tuayaquil, Ecuador.

During the ceremony, Battilana was presented the prestigious Hydrographer of the Navy award by Rear Admiral David Titley, Commander of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command. Pevey was recognized as the recipient of the Tenix LADS Inc. Scholarship. Tenix LADS Inc., Australia's largest defense and applied technology company, leads the world in the supply of airborne laser bathymetry survey services.

For more information about the Southern Miss Department of Marine Science, visit http://www.usm.edu/marine or call 228.688.3177.

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The University of Southern Mississippi Department of Marine Science recognized the 2008 master's degree in hydrographic science graduates on July 30 at a ceremony at John C. Stennis Space Center. The graduates are from left, Carlos Zapata of Tuayaquil, Ecuador; Dean Battilana of Carnes, Australia; Mike Redmayne of Slidell, La.; Megan Palmer of Baltimore Md.; Jessica Burt of Slidell, La.; Travis Clem of Mandeville, La.; and Max Salazar of Slidell, La. Graduates not pictured are Michael Gonsalves of Bay St. Louis, Bryan Mensi of Picayune and Kimberly Collins Pevey of Biloxi. (Southern Miss Public Relations photo by Charmaine Williams)