ahs magazine - winter 2015

AHS MAGAZINEFOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF THE UIC COLLEGE OF APPLIED HEALTH SCIENCES

PLUS: VIBRATION FOR WOUND HEALING | THREE YEARS OF DEAN FERNHALL

WINTER 2015

Distinguished alumnus Paul Wright helps kids develop character through sport, here and abroad

A leader’s leader

AHS MAGAZINEWinter 2015

WRITING AND EDITINGElizabeth Harmon MillerDirector of Marketing and Communications

Erika ChavezAssistant Director of Development

DESIGNKimberly HegartyUIC Office of Publications Services

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSGreg Holden, UIC Office of Publication ServicesGary Wisby, UIC NewsJeanne Galatzer-Levy, UIC News Bureau

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERSUIC Photo Services

©2015 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 (312) 996-6695Fax (312) 413-0086E-mail [email protected] www.ahs.uic.edu

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

Thank you for extending our reachI often use this column to give my perspective on selected content that appears on the pages that follow. In this issue, one of the articles relates an interview I gave, and I realize that further commentary on that might seem redundant.

But there is one point I want to revisit here. When asked what I still wish to accomplish as dean, I talked about my desire to have a greater impact on the community. I want us to contribute to quality of life and health, not only for our neighbors around UIC, but throughout the city, the state and beyond.

For that reason, it fills me with gratitude and pride to reflect on alumni like Paul Wright, named our AHS Distinguished Alumnus for 2014, as well as the four additional remarkable alumni who were recognized with well-deserved awards from the college last May (p. 18-20).

These alumni are committing their extraordinary knowledge and skill, as well as time, to endeavors that improve the health and lives of people close to home and far afield. The influence of Dr. Wright alone impacts young people in Chicago neighborhoods, the city’s northwest suburbs, and around the globe in Central America and Europe.

So while AHS is getting to work expanding our firsthand impact in the community*, I’m invigorated by this truth:

The most powerful arm of our impact takes the form of alumni who are already working in and with their communities, using their AHS education and experience to improve lives.

For this, I can say only “thank you” to all of you. You extend our reach. You give us the benefit of reputation-by-association, which helps advance our opportunities to make that firsthand impact so high on our list of goals.

I’ll say it again: I thank you.

Bo FernhallDeanUIC College of Applied Health Sciences

* To give you an example of our college’s work directly in the community, we have a new physical therapy clinic, in partnership with the University of Illinois Hospital, where PT faculty and residents provide services directly to patients. More to come on the clinic as it develops throughout 2015!

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

NUT Major in nutrition

OT Department of Occupational Therapy

PT Department of Physical Therapy

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

Message From the Dean

AHS MAGAZINEWINTER 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

NOTEBOOK

3 $4.3 million grant will help identify and meet the needs of those caring for people with disabilities

5 Jackie Joyner-Kersee speaks to graduates

9 Remembering PT professor and department head Harry Knecht

24 A photo album from Alumni Weekend 2014

CONCLUSION

11 Shaking off wounds Researcher Tim Koh has made what might be a life-changing discovery

for people with diabetes

15 Going to the dean’s office Three years in, AHS Dean Bo Fernhall shares his view from the top

18 A leader’s leader Meet Paul Wright and the four additional recipients of 2014 AHS Alumni Awards

5

15

18

2121 Come together: Highlights of alumni gatherings in 2014

PEOPLE

When U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis visited our physical therapy department on Aug. 29, 2014, he addressed a crowded room of students, faculty and guests before touring two labs that highlighted the stroke rehabilitation research of assistant professor Sangeetha Madhavan and the cardiovascular rehabilitation research of associate professor Shane Phillips.

Clinical assistant professor Jeanne McCoy and partners from the American Physical Therapy Association actively pursued Rep. Davis for a visit, wishing to impress upon him the need for his support of several key legislative issues. The most urgent of those was H.R. 713, which would repeal limits on outpatient physical therapy services for Medicare patients.

During his comments to the assembled group, Davis said, “I can see and feel the benefits of my own physical therapy experience,” and added, “I’m in favor of repealing restrictions that keep people left out.”

Advocacy is nothing new for our PT department. In April 2014, McCoy, four PT students and PT alumna Julie Schwertfeger went to Washington to take part in the American Physical Therapy Association’s Federal Affairs Forum. During their visit, they met with staffers of both Illinois senators and two Chicago-area representatives to advocate for pending legislation.

2 AHS MAGAZINE WINTER 2015

#UICPT Congressman visits UIC PT

NotebookAHS NEWS AND NOTES

It worked! Two weeks after his visit to our PT department, Rep. Danny Davis signed on as a co-sponsor of H.R. 713, helping the bill reach an important bipartisan majority in the House.

AHS Magazine chatted with PT student Kathleen Chizewski, who was among a UIC delegation that went to Washington in April 2014 to advocate for bills addressing access to rehabilitation services.

Q: Why do these bills matter so much to patients?

A: They matter because they are all about patient access. They would put choices back in the patients’ hands, where it rightfully should be. Our health is of the utmost importance, and I believe patients should be empowered to seek the care that is best for them without having to worry about laws that restrict their options.

Q: How did you get interested in advocating for your profession?

A: So often, people have misconceptions of what physical therapy is. Our scope of practice is very broad and is continually growing. I think it is important for everyone to understand the types of services we offer in order to best utilize them.

Q: What did you learn about speaking up for your issues?

A: Every little bit helps! Legislators report that their biggest influence is their constituents, which is you and me. If we’re all content with being passive about our issues, progress will be limited. The process of changing legislation can seem daunting, but our role in it is simple. Our role is to voice our concerns, share our stories, and empower others to do the same.

In the U.S., some 65 million family caregivers help 12 million seniors and people with disabilities to live at home, saving the federal government billions of dollars each year in long-term care services.

“These caregivers aren’t getting much support in return,” says Sandy Magaña, professor of disability and human development (DHD), adding that they often suffer stress and other health problems from the

demands of providing care.

Magaña is principal investigator for a new five-year, $4.3 million grant to establish a multi-institutional center at UIC to study the needs of families caring for people with disabilities.

By looking at the needs of these caregivers, says Magana, “We can help set policy and research agendas that will lead to improvements in the health and well-being of individuals

with disabilities of all ages, racial and ethnic backgrounds.”

The new Research and Training Center on Family Support, as it will be known, will conduct several major research projects over the next five years and develop a strategic plan to prioritize research for federal funding. Interviews with family caregivers will guide the agenda the researchers set for policymakers, Magaña says.

The center is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) and the Administration for Community Living. Co-principal investigators on the grant are Tamar Heller, professor and head of DHD, and Joe Caldwell from the National Council on Aging.

In a separate grant, Magaña will receive roughly $600,000 over three years, also from NIDRR, for “Parents Taking Action,” a program which employs community health workers to educate Spanish-speaking parents of children with autism in the Chicago area.

3WINTER 2015 AHS MAGAZINE

#UICDHD

Caring about caregivers

#UICHIMWhat is “the silver medal”?After qualifying (from some 170 programs) in order to compete, a team of students from our health information management program took second place at the College Bowl Jeopardy Competition during the 2014 convention of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), Sept. 29 in San Diego. The competing students were (in order as pictured) Joseph Grimaldi, Annie Li, Amanda Turek and Kathryn Choi.

Li was already known at AHIMA before taking the stage at the contest. Last spring she was selected to serve on the association’s 2014-15 Student Advisory Council, which helps to shape AHIMA’s future student programs. Council members are chosen via a competitive application process, and being selected is considered very prestigious. This is the second time in three years that a UIC HIM student has been appointed to the council.


Notebook

We’ll take two#UICKN #UICDHD

#UICOT

Easing healthcare access

Each year, the University of Illinois selects two graduate students to receive the Paul D. Doolen Graduate Scholarship for the Study of Aging. The students can be based at any of the university’s three campuses: Chicago, Urbana-Champaign or Springfield.

For the 2014-15 academic year, not one, but both Doolen Scholars are students in the College of Applied Health Sciences: Rebecca Kappus and Lieke Van Heumen.

Kappus is pursuing a doctorate in kinesiology,

nutrition and rehabilitation. In her research, the Cleveland, Ohio, native would like to discover a nonpharmacological treatment to help mitigate cardiovascular risk factors observed in aging African-American individuals.

Van Heumen, who hails from Oss, the Netherlands, expects to complete her doctorate in disability studies in fall 2015. Her research addresses the social relationships of older adults with intellectual disabilities from a life-course perspective.

With the help of a five-year, $730,000 grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), Susan Magasi will be helping people with physical disabilities receiving Medicaid. Magasi, assistant professor of occupational therapy, seeks to develop a network of peers that can help one another navigate healthcare options and resources.

“Health, and access to care, is at the foundation of people’s ability to live and participate in the world as they want to,” says Magasi.

In a pilot study on the issue of healthcare access, she saw firsthand how difficult it can be for people with disabilities to navigate the system.

“It doesn’t have to be this hard,” she says.

The project is an important component of a $4 million NIDRR grant to develop a Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Health and Function of Individuals with Physical Disabilities. That grant is housed at Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, but one of its two primary investigators is T. George Hornby, professor of physical therapy in AHS.


#UICAHS

Olympian inspires grads

#UICKN

Long-running favorite

Named “the Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century” by Sports Illustrated, Jackie Joyner-Kersee was the

invited commencement speaker who addressed the AHS Class of 2014 on May 8.

In her remarks, Joyner-Kersee encouraged graduates to, “Be bold in your decision making. Be brave. Never let the struggle get the best of you. You have the

potential to change the world, but you have to want to make changes.”

By the end of her career in the heptathlon and long jump events, Joyner-Kersee had amassed six Olympic medals and four World Champion titles over four consecutive Olympic Games. (She still holds several records.) While her athletic accomplishments are recognized worldwide, she’s less well known for her generosity as a philanthropist and her tireless advocacy for education, health issues, social reform and women’s rights.

Clinical associate professor of kinesiology Karrie Hamstra-Wright was elected by graduating seniors to receive a 2014 Silver Circle Award for Teaching Excellence. Having also won the award in 2008 and 2011, Hamstra-Wright has been the awardee in every year she’s been eligible since joining the college in 2007.

“[My] students come to class pretty energized and excited about the content,” she says. “It makes it really exciting to teach them because they get passionate about it. And I try to bring an energy to the classroom, because I love it.”

Hamstra-Wright is not only a beloved educator;

she’s also a researcher investigating prevention and treatment of injuries to runners. Working with the UIC cross-country team, she performs running-gait analysis with a 3-D camera system.

“We’ll do this for several years, ending up with a database of injured and non-injured athletes, and see if there’s anything in their form that predisposes them to injuries,” she says, herself a marathoner who runs 50 to 80 miles a week.

“I love being a part of research that can not only help our running community at large but our own student-athletes,” she says.


Notebook

Prof inducted into NAK

A difference of two degrees #UICAHS

#UICKN

Michael Brown, professor of kinesiology, was among 15 new fellows to be inducted into the National Academy of Kinesiology at the organization’s 84th annual meeting in September 2014. NAK fellowship is extremely prestigious; it honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the research and practice of kinesiology and physical education.

That Brown was selected for this honor is not surprising. He is already a fellow of the American Heart Association (AHA) Council for High Blood Pressure Research and the American College of

Sports Medicine. He serves on various national committees and is a regular grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and the AHA. He is also an associate editor for Exercise and Sport Science Reviews and the World Journal of Hypertension.

Here at AHS, Brown directs both the Vascular Health Laboratory and the Integrative Physiology Laboratory. His research program focuses on hypertension, vascular health and exercise in African Americans, using complementary human and cell models to answer research questions.

AHS is pleased to announce two new degrees in rehabilitation sciences: a four-year bachelor’s degree and a doctoral degree. Both will welcome their first students in fall 2015.

The BS will provide a program of study for undergraduates wishing to enter pre-professional and mid-management positions in rehabilitation and healthcare, or wishing to apply to professional programs such as occupational therapy or healthcare management. The program brings together expertise from all five of our departments and integrates these fields into an interdisciplinary, social science degree.

The new PhD will help address the critical shortage of faculty, especially in the areas of occupational and physical therapy. The program offers a unique, intensive, interdisciplinary educational and research experience in the theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical aspects of rehabilitation.

Grant supports youth-health project


#UICOT

#UICOT #UICKN

An interdisciplinary team has received a $150,000 grant from the Chicago Community Trust to develop a community coalition that will implement an obesity-prevention intervention for Latino youth with disabilities and their families. The project is expected to include nutrition education, accessible/inclusive physical activity, goal-setting and family mentoring.

Primary investigators on this community-based research initiative are Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, professor and head of occupational therapy, and Angela Odoms-Young, assistant professor of nutrition. Two important

partners will be the Chicago Park District and the social service agency El Valor, based in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. Families will have access to a wellness program at El Valor, along with culturally appropriate, family-focused coaching and community programming.

“This project will let us work with the local community to create sustainable options for that community’s own youth,” says Suarez-Balcazar, “We’ll involve local agencies, grocery stores, recreation centers and others that all can promote healthy lifestyles among Latino youth with disabilities and their families.”

After 18 months of concentrated study of its master’s degree curriculum, the Department of Occupational Therapy was more than ready for a visit from the on-site review team of the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) in November 2014. So it is simultaneously unsurprising and thrilling that the review team found the program to be meeting all 189 standards (which are so complex that it takes a 45-page guide to articulate them) The ACOTE team made no recommendations for improvement and reaccredited the MS in OT for another 10 years.

“I am very proud to say that during those months of hard work, our faculty and staff embodied the values of teamwork, commitment and dedication to excellence,” says department head Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, adding her thanks to project lead Elizabeth Peterson (pictured left, overseeing students).

The 10-year term is noteworthy. According to ACOTE’s own manual: “Ten-year review cycles are granted to those programs that have no areas of noncompliance and have demonstrated exceptional educational quality.” Sounds like UIC OT!

Making the grade


Notebook

Shout out#UICHI

AHS’ MS in health informatics places No. 2 in TheBestSchools.org’s ranking of online master’s degrees in HI.

Chill out#UICAHS

Take a break in your day to spend a few minutes watching AHS’ new video in which nine faculty researchers represent the dozens more who dedicate their careers to discovering new knowledge that transforms how people can live well. Scan the QR code to see it now.

Check out#UICAHS

At www.ahs.uic.edu/alumniandfriends, you’ll find info for alumni about joining the AHS Alumni Board, nominating yourself for an award, using resources available through UIAA, and much more.

Look out#UIC

The UIC logo is getting refreshed, and we’ve got a sneak peek for you (right). Watch for this logo, in several variations, to start appearing on correspondence from UIC in 2015.

The Student Association of Medical Artists held its 2014 Art Show on the evening of Nov. 14 at the National Museum of Health + Medicine Chicago. The exhibit, “Inside the Mind of Medical Artists,” showcased digital artwork—displayed on the museum’s state-of-the-art, touch-screen walls—all created by graduate students in our biomedical visualization program.

See more images on the program’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/UIC.BVIS.

Showtime

#UICBVIS


Remembering Harry Knecht

#UICPT

On March 12, 2014, the college, particularly the Department of Physical Therapy, lost a revered member of our community when Harry Knecht passed away peacefully at the age of 90.

A founding faculty member of our PT department, Knecht would go on to serve as department head for almost 11 years before his retirement in 1989. As such, his influence on the foundation of physical therapy education at UIC is profound.

Knecht’s students remember him as a humble and serious-minded professor who cared deeply about them and the program. Those who came after his retirement might know the department’s Harry G. Knecht Movement Science Laboratory, which was dedicated in his honor in 1993 and is now directed by PT professor Alex Aruin.

“Although I didn’t have the opportunity to meet him personally,” says current PT department head Ross Arena, “it’s my great honor to lead the department that he helped establish 43 years ago, starting us on a path to becoming the nationally ranked program we are today. Our faculty and staff are grateful for Dr. Knecht’s many contributions to our department.”

AHS invited Knecht’s former students and colleagues to submit memories of him. On this page, we could only print excerpts from a few submissions, but full text and additional remembrances of Knecht can be found at go.uic.edu/Knecht.

“He used rolls of brown paper and mineral oil on our feet to teach us how to analyze gait patterns. I treasure the scientific inquiry Dr. Knecht instilled in each of us.”

Ken DavisUIC PT ’76

“I spoke at [a professional meeting] in 1983. It was my first presentation, and it didn’t go very smoothly. It was a great relief and honor to see Dr. Knecht in the audience. He let me know how proud he was that one of his former students was presenting. I think of him every time I give a talk and hope he would still be proud.”

Marsha Blake LawrenceUIC PT ’78

“What stands out in my mind was reconnecting with [Dr. Knecht] years later at APTA conferences and such. He had a little notebook/address book where he would keep his former students’ contact information. He remained interested in everyone years after they had graduated.”

Marie JarrellUIC PT ’87

“Since Harry retired from UIC in 1989, and I started in 1990, our paths crossed only a bit, but the fondness and esteem of others was contagious. Harry’s legacy continues to live on; past, current and future generations of PTs will continue to benefit from his wisdom, vision and dedication. As a beneficiary of that wonderful legacy, I am most grateful.”

Jeanne McCoyUIC PT faculty member, 1990-present


Notebook

More than six years ago, our Department of Occupational Therapy introduced an advanced, month-long, immersive practicum for doctoral-level students at the Centro Ann Sullivan del Peru (CASP) in Lima. It was the start of something extraordinary. Now the department is launching a new initiative with CASP, one they’re calling Therapists Without Borders (TWB). It offers an intensive, one-week cultural and clinical experience at CASP for advanced clinicians and OTD students who cannot get away for a full month. The setting couldn’t be better. CASP is a globally recognized hub of community-based research and teaching for people with disabilities, particularly children and young adults, most from very poor families. The center has received numerous international awards, and researchers and practitioners have come from five continents to study there.

In September 2014, the TWB program was piloted by OT professors Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar and Joy Hammel, as well as OTD student Carson Mumma. Also on the team was Robin Jones, project director for the Great Lakes ADA Center, housed in the Institute on Disability and Human Development at AHS. “During just one week,” says Suarez-Balcazar, “we worked with five participants and their parents on issues of participation, accessibility and mobility; we trained more than 50 CASP staff on how to develop low-budget adaptations to increase participation by CASP students; we delivered two educational sessions for students from Catholic University of Peru who come to CASP to learn about disabilities; we conducted a family healthiness workshop for 350 parents; and we engaged in several consultation projects. It was an exhausting and exhilarating week!”

Border crossing

DHD professor Glenn Fujiura was honored with the 2014 Outstanding Achievement Award from the Association of University Centers on Disability (AUCD). The award recognizes excellence in teaching, research and service to the community. In describing why Fujiura was selected, AUCD quotes his nominator: “Dr. Fujiura … is sought after by students because of his immense expertise in methodology and statistics, and his devotion to mentoring students. [His] stature in the field of disabilities is stellar both nationally and internationally.”

Fujiura accepted the award at the AUCD Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 11.

Outstanding!

OTD student Carson Mumma working with a CASP student in Peru.

The UIC team visited the home of Julio, a CASP staff member who has disabilities, to make accommodations in his home. Clockwise from Julio: Joy Hammel, Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, Robin Jones, Carson Mumma.

#UICOT

#UICDHD

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If you live in the U.S. today, you know something about diabetes. You or someone you

love might even be living with diabetes; 29.1 million Americans are, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s a life-altering disease that affects how the body uses blood sugar.

The complications of diabetes are many. One of them is a high risk for developing non-healing ulcers, particularly in the foot. Once that happens, it too often ends with amputation of a toe, foot or leg. Tim Koh, professor of kinesiology in the College of Applied Health Sciences, wanted to see what he could contribute to the treatment of these wounds, to help prevent them from exacerbating past the point of no return.

And so he did. Using his career in research into how tissue heals, his scientific instincts and a few serendipitous relationships, Koh has shown that a technique using low-intensity vibration may help wounds heal more quickly. His study was published in the journal PLOS One in March 2014. A kinesiologist in wound healing? “I’d been looking at tissue repair for a long time, but mostly in skeletal muscle,” says Koh. It was that work which led him, through a series of events, to meet William Ennis, chief of the Section of Wound Healing and Tissue Repair at UIC Hospital. They hit it off (not least of all because they’re both avid triathletes).

“Dr. Ennis’ work has really influenced my research, getting me out of the lab and seeing what’s actually happening to patients,” says Koh. “These are real people; they’re very sick, and wounds are one big issue that causes a lot of pain and suffering. So I started thinking about how my research might influence the patients and vice versa.”

Not long after that, Koh took note of research published by Stefan Judex, an investigator at New York’s Stony Brook University. Judex (another friend of Koh’s and another triathlete) and his team at SBU found that very low-intensity signals can accelerate bone regeneration in mice. Koh couldn’t help wondering what kind of effect such vibration could have on wounds.

The story of how kinesiology professor Tim Koh combined his research savvy, his

scientific instincts and a few good friendships to make a discovery that could transform the

lives of people with diabetes.

wounds

Shakingoff


Asked why he thought a technique used for bone growth might work for tissue healing, Koh laughs and says, “Well, in reality, it was a long shot. I think sometimes you have to take those leaps to get really interesting stuff.”

But it wasn’t entirely pie-in-the-sky thinking. There were similarities between the defects imposed on the Stony Brook rats and those that Koh had used for studying tissue healing in mice. Also, he knew of other studies that demonstrated increased blood flow with certain types of vibration, and he knew blood flow was important to tissue healing.

The more he thought about it, the more curious he became. So curious, in fact, that he borrowed from Judex a vibrating plate—a tool Koh describes as “not at all sleek, very lab-y”—with which to conduct a simple study in mice. He was just having trouble finding time to pursue it.

Enter two undergraduate students who were studying in Koh’s lab during the summer of 2011.

“Undergrads [in kinesiology] have less time in their curriculum [than MS or PhD] students to devote to research. They can’t spend hours in the lab, so not all work is suitable for them,” he says.

“This seemed like the perfect project.”

The students came in every weekday and put the mice on the plate for 30 minutes. At the end of 15 days, they harvested and analyzed tissue.

“It was one of those things where you think, nothing’s going to happen,” Koh recalls. “Instead, it was working a little too well, surprisingly well. So we thought, OK, we have to repeat it [to believe it].”

The team got almost identical results on the second experiment. And then they knew they were on to something.

Why does it work?

“[The vibration is] more like a buzz than an earthquake,” says Eileen Weinheimer-Haus, a postdoctoral fellow working with Koh and first author of the paper from the study.

That paper explains how wounds exposed to the buzzing vibration formed more granulation tissue, a type of tissue that’s very important early in the wound-healing process. Vibration helped tissue to form new blood vessels—a process called angiogenesis—and also led to increased expression of pro-healing growth factors and signaling molecules called

chemokines, Weinheimer-Haus says.

According to Koh, that could help to explain why the vibration works.

“We know that chronic wounds in people with diabetes fail to form granulation tissue and have poor angiogenesis, and we believe these factors contribute to their wounds’ failure to heal,” he says.

But for a scientist, belief doesn’t cut it; you have to find the evidence.

So Koh and his colleagues now want to determine whether the observed improvement in healing can be attributed to the changes they see in cell populations and gene expression at wound sites.

“Are the cells in the wound tissue directly sensing these vibrations, and that makes them better at healing, or is something more indirect and systemic happening?” Koh reports to be his next big question.

His team has already started to try to answer it by looking at bone marrow cells subjected to vibration.

“Obviously [vibration] has an effect on bone,” says Koh, recalling that he got started down this path after learning about the technique’s effectiveness in preventing

Postdoc Eileen Weinheimer-Haus, with Koh, was instrumental in the wound-healing study and also wrote the paper on a parallel study about the effect of vibration on muscle healing.

The vibrating plate that could be used in human trials (top) is a far cry from the one Koh’s team used in the mouse study.

continued on p. 14

THE APPLIED HEALTH SCIENCESSCHOLARSHIP FUND

The AHS Scholarship Fund distributes financial awards to outstanding student leaders anywhere in AHS who are high academic achievers, who have financial need, and who demonstrate a commitment to volunteerism within the UIC community and greater Chicago area.

Please join faculty, staff and fellow alumni in supporting our students’ achievement. Give online at ahs.uic.edu/support, send a check via the enclosed envelope, or contact Elise Krikau at 312-996-1339 or [email protected].


THE APPLIED HEALTH SCIENCESSCHOLARSHIP FUND

The AHS Scholarship Fund distributes financial awards to outstanding student leaders anywhere in AHS who are high academic achievers, who have financial need, and who demonstrate a commitment to volunteerism within the UIC community and greater Chicago area.

Please join faculty, staff and fellow alumni in supporting our students’ achievement. Give online at ahs.uic.edu/support, send a check via the enclosed envelope, or contact Elise Krikau at 312-996-1339 or [email protected].


bone loss. “It just seemed logical to look at bone marrow, where inflammatory cells and stem cells are produced.”

Early findings prompt him to suspect that the effect on bone marrow cells, which travel to wound sites following injury, is going to factor into the ultimate explanation of why vibration promotes healing. But he has yet to discover the hard evidence, “and we can’t rule anything out at this point,” he notes.

The next step

“It’s a very long process to take the data and put it into proposals to try to get funding that keeps things going,” says Koh.

Despite the excitement generated in the academic community by the PLOS One article, as of time of writing, the wound healing research has not been funded for a large-scale study. (The U.S. Department of Defense did award Koh’s team some funding for further examination into vibration’s effect on muscle healing, which they studied separately but parallel to wound healing in the same strain of mice.)

The wait for funding, so familiar to researchers in every field, may be partially attributable to the National Institute of Health’s grantmaking pattern, which National Public Radio reporter Richard Harris described as resulting in “boom-and-bust funding that is currently causing some scientists to spend more time writing grant proposals than they spend conducting research.”1

Another factor that might make funders slow to respond is the novelty of Koh’s method.

“As it is, there are techniques being used for skin-wound healing: ultrasound, electrical stimulation, laser,” he says. “They all provide local stimulation to the wound, and they all work in some measure. But our technique is different; it’s whole body stimulation. It’s quite a departure.”

Translation to humans

“The exciting thing about this intervention is how easily it could be translated to people,” Koh said. “It’s a procedure that’s noninvasive and doesn’t require any drugs.”

He’s already thinking about what needs to be done to get this data converted into human trials and ultimately into use for real people suffering from chronic wounds.

“Among other things, we’re going to have to figure out what people can tolerate [in terms of vibration level and duration]. We control the signal at the level of the plate, but that signal’s going to change as it gets to the wound location,” he says.

Koh also mentions the obvious: that diabetic patients may not be able to stand on a plate, unassisted, for 30 minutes, so they may have to sit, which then might require their legs to be weighted in some way. The first human trials will likely be with sedentary, healthy people, rather than people with diabetes.

“There’s going to be some trial and error in making these determinations, and clinical application is probably several years off,” says Koh, “but our preliminary work suggest that it could very likely be worth the effort.”1 “After the NIH Funding ‘Euphoria’ Comes the ‘Hangover,’” Sept. 24, 2014, www.npr.org/blogshealth

While chronic wounds are notoriously linked to diabetes, that’s not the only condition that can lead to problems with wounds. For a variety of reasons, advanced age, obesity, smoking, medication use, malnutrition and other factors may negatively affect wound healing.

“There are also a growing number of surgical procedures being performed,” reminds William Ennis, chief of the Section of Wound Healing and Tissue Repair at UIC Hospital.

He goes on to list the consequences of wounds to include cellulitis and other infections that require hospitalizations and antibiotics, surgery, pain, suffering and, when severe, even death.

Then Ennis mentions an unsettling fact: “In a four-year medical school curriculum, students get only 9.2 hours of dedicated education focused on wound healing.”

“Very few current treatments have strong, evidenced-based, positive outcomes,” says Ennis, adding that treatments are quite varied. “Vibrational therapy is low risk and could provide an easy-to-use treatment option for this medically complex patient population.”

It doesn’t end with diabetes

Bo Fernhall reflects on his first three years at the helm of our college

Going to the

Dean’s Office

Bo Fernhall joined the College of Applied Health Sciences as dean—the sixth in college history—in October 2011. He came to UIC from the University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign, bringing with him his wife and fellow faculty member Tracy Baynard, their two sons, and 30 years’ experience as a teacher, researcher and administrator in higher education.

On the occasion of Dean Fernhall’s third anniversary with the college, AHS Magazine sat down to ask him about his early impressions, recent accomplishments and future goals.

AHS Magazine: Three years ago you were in Urbana-Champaign considering accepting this role. What was it about the job that made you want it?

Bo Fernhall: It was a fantastic opportunity. The departments have an outstanding reputation. They’re highly ranked. They have top students. The faculties within those departments are excellent. First, they’re good teachers; that was evident from teaching awards, student evaluations and the like. Also, there are excellent researchers in every department who are nationally and internationally known for their work; they get awards for their work, they get grant money, they get published. And I saw opportunities to work with the faculty and staff to do something a little different and to move forward. That was exciting.

AHSM: What was the biggest surprise when you got to AHS?

BF: The biggest surprise was some of the administrative black holes that you can fall into. It takes much, much longer to do something that you had anticipated. For instance, it’s very difficult to hire people quickly, when you need someone who can move the college forward. It’s part UIC and part state regulations that make that so cumbersome. These black holes appear, and I was prepared for some of them, but not all of them.

AHSM: What’s the biggest challenge for AHS right now?

BF: I think our biggest challenge right now is the situation in the state. UIC is in very good shape. We know who we are, and what and who



we want to be, and where we’re going. The same thing is true of our college and our departments; we’re in really good shape. But the biggest challenge is how the state is operating—the financial difficulties of the state, the uncertainty about our retirement system, and so on.

AHSM: What do you think the college needs most right now?

BF: That’s a difficult question. I think we need to make sure we have a process for recruiting excellent students and excellent faculty. We’ve been very successful in diversifying our faculty, and not just diversifying it, but bringing in faculty that are hugely successful, that are good colleagues, great teachers and mentors. Now we have to ensure that we maintain the diversity of our faculty and our student body. Throughout UIC, we all agree that’s very important to us, and we are growing a lot, so we have to be sure we’re able to continue to grow correctly.

AHSM: “Diversity” can be just a buzzword. Why is it so substantially important to our college?

BF: Having students from all different types of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds strengthens not just UIC, but the state of Illinois and our country. Patients and clients of the professionals we educate come from all walks of life, so it’s critical that the people who treat and work with them are well-trained, well-educated professionals who also come from all walks of life.

AHSM: What have you enjoyed most about alumni you’ve met?

BF: Listening to their success stories and also the challenges they’ve encountered along the way. It’s been wonderful to see how much they appreciate their time at UIC, and their degree from UIC, and their willingness to give back, and be part of an active alumni group from UIC. We have wonderful alumni. They’re great people, and they’re willing to share their experiences, which is really nice.

AHSM: Some AHS alumni feel rejected by the college because we discontinued the programs from which they graduated. What would you say to them?

BF: I have met some alumni from programs we no longer have, and they’re very, very disappointed about that fact. I can understand that. But I want them to know that they built foundations for us, and we appreciate them. Take one example: Without physical education, we wouldn’t have kinesiology the way it is today; there’s a continuum between those fields. Alumni from those few discontinued programs are still part of our college, and we very much want to keep them with us. I’ve admired how many have been very successful beyond their initial training and reached into broader areas of healthcare or health promotion. They have wisdom to share with our college, with our current students, and hopefully they’re willing to stay connected and share it.

AHSM: What would you say you’re most proud of from your first three years?

BF: As a college, we’ve accomplished a lot together. The faculty, staff and I started talking about an Office of Research during my first year

The Essential Bo Fernhall

Bo Fernhall joined the College of Applied Health Sciences as dean and professor of kinesiology on Oct. 1, 2011. He came from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he served for seven years as professor of kinesiology and community health. For four of those years, he was also associate dean for research and academic affairs.

In higher education for more than three decades, the Swedish-born Fernhall is a renowned researcher in the area of cardiovascular function and lifelong health. He earned international attention with his work in increasing our understanding of why individuals with Down syndrome have low physical work capacity and how physical work capacity can be improved in this population. He is also recognized for: findings that firefighting causes stiff arteries and cardiac fatigue, which can help explain the high risk of cardiovascular events among firefighters; findings that exercise has differential effects in African Americans compared to Caucasians; and findings that weight training can significantly improve blood markers of cardiovascular health in young African-American men.

Fernhall is a member of the National Academy of Kinesiology, an extremely prestigious recognition. He is also a fellow of the American Heart Association, the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation.

In recent years, he has co-chaired the annual meeting of the North American Artery Society. In 2014, the ambitious, two-day event comprised 15 clinical lectures, 36 abstract presentations, and a live debate by top experts on one of the field’s controversial issues.

Fernhall is associate editor of the journals Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise and Exercise and Sport Science Reviews, two of the top journals in the field. Additionally, he serves on the editorial board of Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention. He is also author or co-author of some 260 refereed manuscripts, more than 300 research presentation abstracts, and 10 books or book chapters.


here, and my initial ideas about it were not well-received. The faculty had their own ideas—better than mine—about what they wanted. So we created an Office of Research in the faculty’s vision, which is why I think it’s so successful at this point.

I’m also very satisfied that we just got two new degrees approved: a PhD and a BS, both in rehabilitation science. The PhD is going to be huge for us as we help to create future academic faculty in OT and PT in particular, and the undergraduate program will fulfill a need for students who are going into occupational therapy and other less biology-based aspects of healthcare. That will help meet needs of the state of Illinois. Neither program will have students until fall 2015, but after a two-year process, they’re both on the books; they’re official.

I’m proud that we now have a clinical practice [in physical therapy] through a relationship with the [University of Illinois] Hospital. That’s a huge step in the right direction for us to be part of the clinical enterprise of the university.

Also, one of the main goals, when I started, was to strengthen ties with our alumni, and I think Alumni Weekend [inaugurated in 2013] is a big part of that. The feedback that we’ve received on it has

been exceptional. That’s a vehicle for us to recognize alumni, and to say thank you to all those people who get involved.

AHSM: What has AHS done in these three years that has increased its contribution to UIC?

BF: I’m confident our new clinical practice and academic programs are really going to enrich the campus. Another large area of impact our college has is through our involvement in [UIC’s] Center for Clinical and Translational Science. For instance, our Integrative Physiology Lab offers testing services, so if a UIC researcher based in another college needs measurements of some sort—say, they need maximal oxygen uptake or maximal exercise testing of a research subject—they can do it here on campus. Before we opened the lab, that wasn’t available, so they’d have to find some external place to do it. That’s really assisting the research effort campuswide.

AHSM: What do you still want to accomplish during your deanship?

BF: We need to continue to grow our clinical enterprise. It serves as a training ground for students, where they can get practical experience working with patients. It also opens the door for doing research

related to practice—lets us talk to patients directly and see what’s important to them and create research projects to address real concerns. Given the departments that we have, we are extremely well suited to create clinical practice. After all, we are a college of applied health sciences.

We also need to figure out the best way to have a greater impact in the community. By “community,” I mean the neighborhood directly around UIC, where our presence is rather minimal right now given our size, but also the greater community of Chicago and the state. How can we help to create higher quality healthcare? I think that’s where we need to look next.

AHSM: What do you want people to say about this college when you leave it?

BF: That we are high quality, that we have an impact on people. We make a difference in society, and we make this a better place to live.

Chicago broadcasting legend Merri Dee emceed the first AHS Alumni Weekend, inaugurated by Dean Fernhall in May 2013.

Dean Fernhall happily participates in the annual Challenge of the Deans free-throw shooting contest, held during halftime of a February game of the UIC men’s basketball team.


As a boy growing up in Springfield, Ill., Paul Wright

saw a good deal of crime and other “bad circumstances.” He needed a good influence. Surprisingly, he turned to a relative who was in and out of the juvenile detention system.

“My cousin was into a lot of bad things,” Wright says, “but he had a lot of good potential, and that came out through the martial arts.”

Wright was so impressed by what he saw that he started babysitting at age 12 to save money to enroll in a karate school.

He went on to study karate, hapkido and kung fu, and he eventually became a certified Tai Chi instructor. He also became

a high school wrestler. “Getting involved in martial arts really opened the door,” he says. “I realized that this was another way to be.”

Now 44, Wright is the Lane/Zimmerman Endowed Professor of Kinesiology and Physical Education at Northern Illinois University. (The post is the NIU College of Education’s first named professorship.) In 2014, he was honored with the AHS Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award for his internationally recognized work in positive youth development through sport and physical activity.

It was at the College of Applied Health Sciences that he found his life’s mission.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life,” he recalls, reflecting on his first graduation from UIC, when he earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences. “I started a master’s degree [at another university] and didn’t finish it. I would take a step forward and then a couple of steps back. I’m amazed my wife stayed with me.”

Sometimes, he says, you have to take a leap of faith. That leap came when he decided to make a series of “cold calls” to different universities, trying to find a program that fit his passion for helping young people change their lives through sport and activity.

He’ll never know the name of the person who referred him

Paul Wright earned his master’s in kinesiology at AHS in 1998. Sixteen years later, he returned to accept the college’s highest honor for his dedication to helping youth develop character through sport.

A leader’s leader

2014 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award Winner


to UIC professor Don Hellison. Hellison, now professor emeritus of educational psychology, was at the time a professor of kinesiology in AHS.

“It turned out he was doing all the things I was struggling to put together,” explains Wright. “He had developed the Teaching for Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) teaching model. He became my mentor. It was a perfect fit.”

As Wright progressed through the master’s program in kinesiology, he benefitted from his experience in the department’s outreach program, guided by Hellison, to work with underserved African-American youth living on Chicago’s economically depressed south and west sides.

“Once a week, Don would go to Englewood where he ran a basketball program,” says Wright. “We’d work with kids that some university professors might not hang out with.”

Wright went on to earn his doctorate in curriculum design, also from UIC.

Throughout his career, he has balanced research and teaching with service to organizations that help youth learn positive behaviors. While he was on faculty at the University of Memphis, he earned the 2011 Volunteer of the Year Award from the YMCA of Memphis and the MidSouth. Today

he volunteers to guide youth-focused, community-based organizations such as Adventure Works Inc. in DeKalb, Ill., and Beyond the Ball in Chicago.

“A lot of kids are troubled and make bad choices, but have a lot of good in them and a lot of potential as well,” he says.

Besides being a professor in NIU’s Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, Wright is also director of the department’s Physical Activity and Life Skills (PALS) Group, which promotes healthy development of children through physical activity programs.

“Many people believe sports build character, but it doesn’t happen automatically,” he says. “You can teach kids to be aggressive and bend the rules, but we’re trying to teach them life skills: self-control, confidence, perseverance and how to work with other people.”

In 2013, Wright received a grant from the U.S. Department of State to develop the Belizean Youth Sport Coalition to promote youth development and social change through sport in Belize. And just this year, he gave a series of lectures in Finland and Germany as a visiting Erasmus Mundus Scholar for the European Master’s Degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology.

Wright reports that one of his primary goals in life is to carry on Don Hellison’s Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility model.

“The biggest challenge and opportunity in terms of my influence in the field,” he says, “is … to provide leadership, as the TPSR model expands, in pushing others to be true to its original values and philosophy so that it’s not watered down and misinterpreted.”

The principle that guided Paul

Wright in finding his own career is the one he advises current students in the health sciences to follow.

“I am a really strong believer in following your passion,” he says. “Whether that’s choosing your degree program or a topic for a thesis, figure out what you’re actually excited and curious about.

“And real-world experience from working in your field will make your academic training so much more real and potent,” Wright adds. “Commit to your passion, and don’t be afraid to follow your gut because you don’t always know where things are going to lead.”

Coaches at Beyond the Ball in Chicago lead both sport and non-sport youth-development activities, all guided by Paul Wright’s philosophy: “To learn leadership, kids need chances to be leaders. It’s like learning a bounce pass [in basketball]. The kid tries it, the coach gives feedback, and the kid practices it with new knowledge. In leadership, kids try new skills while a ‘coach’ observes and gives feedback that the kids apply as they continue to develop as leaders.”

“Many people believe sports build character, but it doesn’t happen automatically. You can teach kids to be aggressive and bend the rules, but we’re trying to teach them life skills.”


AHS Loyalty Award

Gail S. Fisher’80 BS in Occupational TherapyClinical Associate Professor, Dept. of Occupational Therapy, UIC College of Applied Health Sciences

During more than 20 years with AHS, Gail Fisher has repeatedly gone above and beyond her faculty duties in service to the AHS community and her profession. Students and alumni from two decades have echoed the words of her nominator: “To me, Gail

is the face of UIC occupational therapy.” In response to needs she observed, Fisher created two roles for herself in the OT department: one as alumni liaison and a second as archivist, both bringing immeasurable benefit to the legacy of occupational therapy at U of I. She has served on dozens of committees—often as chair or co-chair—at the department, college and campus levels. Also, in her five years as board member, and now board chair, of the American Occupational Therapy Political Action Committee, Fisher has become a nationally recognized expert on healthcare reform related to OT practice. As she undertakes the high-visibility, high-impact work of that role, she proudly advertises her integral tie to AHS and her department.

Craig Goodwin Gosling’65 BS in Medical ArtDirector (Ret.), Dept. of Medical Illustration, Indiana University

For some five decades, Craig Gosling has been assisting and counseling students and faculty in AHS’ Program in Biomedical Visualization (BVIS). His loyalty culminated in 2013 when he donated the full collection of his own pen-and-ink illustrations to the BVIS program. At Indiana University

from 1972 to his retirement in 2001, Gosling led diverse, sophisticated projects ranging from creating anatomically correct simulators for medical teaching to producing bronze sculptures in honor of IU leaders and benefactors. He also introduced an aesthetic art and sculpture course for plastic surgery residents, the first of its kind in the nation. For his accomplishments, the Association of Medical Illustrators awarded Gosling the Brödel Award for Excellence in Education and the AMI Lifetime Achievement Award. Now, the gift of his masterfully simple and unique illustrations will continue to serve as a technical resource and an inspiration for future generations of BVIS students.

AHS New Alum Award

Neeta Suresh Kanekar’08 MS in Physical Therapy; ’13 PhD in Kinesiology, Nutrition and Rehabilitation University professor

Neeta Kanekar came to UIC for graduate study and quickly assembled an impressive body of scholarship. After earning her master’s degree, Kanekar won a prestigious two-year predoctoral fellowship training grant from the American Heart Association/

American Stroke Association as a principal investigator examining the postural control in individuals with stroke. She went on to lead research that focuses on (1) using noninvasive brain stimulation to understand brain plasticity following stroke and (2) rehabilitation interventions to improve functional outcomes in individuals with stroke. After finishing her PhD, Kanekar completed a postdoctoral fellowship at AHS, and in summer 2014 she returned to her home country of India to continuing teaching and researching at the university level.

Lauren Warnecke’09 MS in KinesiologyAdjunct Instructor, Dept. of Kinesiology and Nutrition, UIC College of Applied Health Sciences

As a master’s student at UIC, Lauren Warnecke studied the incidence and treatment of injuries sustained by professional dancers. During that time she developed Art Intercepts, a website that continues to serve as a vital resource to Chicago’s dance

community by promoting “the use of evidence-based practices in training and performance,” and seeking “to elevate artistry, dance education and dancer health.” She is frequently sought out as a spokesperson for the dance community in Chicago and is forging a parallel career as a dance journalist, regularly contributing to national websites such as danceadvantage.net, 4dancers.org and The Huffington Post. She is also a critic for SeeChicagoDance.com and is a columnist at Windy City Times. A certified personal trainer and functional training specialist, Warnecke is now pursuing her doctorate in kinesiology at AHS.

Alongside Paul Wright, four additional AHS alumni received awards from the college at a May 3, 2014, dinner in their honor.

2014 AHS Alumni Awards

More alumni win honors


Alumni

The latter half of 2014 saw multiple gatherings of alumni from several programs enjoying a range of happy occasions with AHS.

Come together

The dinner, which drew dozens of biomedical visualization (BVIS) alumni, was just one highlight of the Association of Medical Illustrators Conference in Rochester, Minn. Alumni were big winners of industry awards: Gary Schnitz ’80 received the AMI Lifetime Achievement Award, AMI’s highest honor. In the Student Art Salon, two new BVIS alumni won Awards of Merit:

Dorothy Fatunmbi ’14 and Cari Jones ’14. We also have to mention that two adjunct BVIS instructors were lauded as well: Karen Bucher was named a fellow of the AMI, and Cynthia Turner not only won an Award of Excellence in the Professional Salon; she also received the Brödel Award for Excellence in Education.

July 24: Alumni Dinner at AMI

More than 80 alumni and friends RSVP’d for this alumni networking event in Grant Park’s Spirit of Music Garden. While terribly inclement weather diminished attendance, kinesiology associate professor David Marquez still led a great conversation about his research into dance as exercise for older Latinos. Then the group took to the dance floor for cumbia lessons, never mind the rain.

September 12: AHS @ SummerDance Chicago


Alumni

Members of AHS’ first class to graduate from the doctor of physical therapy program gathered at Chicago’s West End Tavern to remember highs and lows they shared: regular salsa dancing excursions, mentoring new DPT students, experiencing 9/11 together, and mourning the illness and later passing of their classmate Kristi Walker.

September 13: PT Class of 2004 ReunionApril Clark had to miss the reunion because she was volunteering in orphanages in China during a four-month sabbatical from her job at UIC Hospital.

September 20: 70 Years of Occupational Therapy

Our OT department welcomed 18 alumni and one former professor from the 1950s and ’60s at a luncheon to celebrate the department’s 70th anniversary. Barbara (Rennacker) Hoch ’53 even brought—and posed with—the hat and white gloves that were part of the OT uniform when she was starting out.

Surry (Schwartz) Tresser ’57 has had a life! She lived in Hawaii in 1959 when it became our 50th state. She is a charter member of (now) Lamaze International. In 1977 she boarded a sailboat with her family to sail the Pacific for 18 months. After a long and varied career in OT, she and Norm, her husband of nearly 60 years, retired to Ashland, Ore. She wants her classmates to know that she’s still enjoying the Pyrex bowls they gave her as a wedding present in 1956.

>Kristen (Hutchinson)

Murphy is a supervisor

for school-based PTs/

OTs in the Southern Will

County Cooperative for

Special Education. She

is also a wife, mother,

kickboxing instructor and

obstacle-course tackler

who completed the Spartan

Chicago Super race in

September 2014.

Rochelle (Barbre) Sincox ’58 became one of the only three OTs at Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago after her graduation. She later transitioned to home care and eventually to working with seniors who have dementia. She retired in 2005 but still volunteers at the same senior care center one day a week.


Twelve of the 17 classmates gathered in Chicago to celebrate 40 years since graduating from the program in health information management (then called medical record administration). Dinner, reminiscing and a rousing game of HIM/UIC-related Jeopardy were all part of the fun. “Both teams did well. It’s amazing what we remember from 40 years ago!” says Karen Patena, who happens to now be the director of AHS’ HIM program. The women made the event more special by contributing a financial “class gift” to the HIM program in commemoration of their 40th reunion.

Many alumni came to campus for our biomedical visualization program’s biannual Frank Armitage Lecture, a day of seminars and celebrations related to medical illustration. The day ended at the International Museum of Surgical Science with private tours and a lecture by Northwestern University’s Daniel Garrison (pictured).

October 28: Alumni Reception at AHIMA

Some 15 alumni, several from the Class of 2013 (pictured), gathered at an AHS-sponsored reception at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego. The group took time to celebrate Teri Jorwic, assistant professor of health information management, who won an AHIMA Literary Legacy Award for her contribution to the field by co-authoring ICD-10-PCS: An Applied Approach, the premier textbook on how to code using the ICD-10-PCS coding system.

November 7: HIM Class of 1974 Reunion

October 9: The Frank Armitage LectureSee more photos from all these events on the AHS Facebook page: www.facebook.com/UIC.AHS.

2014

1974


Alumni Weekend 2014Conclusion

2014’s Alumni Weekend was even bigger and better than in its first year. It culminated with the Faculty and Alumni Awards Dinner on Saturday, May 3. You can read all about alumni award recipients on pages 18-20. Here, enjoy snapshots of the festivities, which began with a cocktail reception and led into the awards dinner. We energized the event this year with “Active Interludes” —including a Simon Says Challenge—led by Brian Wismer, PE ’91, who now owns the health entertainment and education company Brian Wismer Entertainment.

See more photos from the dinner and other Alumni Weekend 2014 events in the albums on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/UIC.AHS.

252013–2014 AHS MAGAZINE

APRIL 11, 2015

CE DAY

Ruth French Lecture with Kelly McGonigal, PhD Stanford health psychologist and Ted Talk lecturer

All AHS alumni are invited! Start the afternoon with a field-specific, continuing-education event. Stay for the 2015 Ruth French Lecture, delivered by Stanford University’s Kelly McGonigal, who will reveal the neuroscience behind behavior change. You’ll get new ideas for helping clients and patients adopt healthy new habits that stick. Close the afternoon with networking over cocktails.

Keep an eye on your mail and e-mail for details!

and the

Don’t wait until CE Day to come back to see us!

WINTERDANCE

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

An evening of mingling and moving

Join AHS alumni, faculty

and staff for this reboot of our rain-dampened outing to Chicago SummerDance.

Indoor Latin dance instruction followed

by open dancing and networking.

Also David Marquez, PhD, will be on hand to discuss

his research into the health benefits of dance for older

Latino adults.

Get details and RSVP: go.uic.edu/AHSWinterDance

#AHSmingles#AH

SC

Eda

y

Nonprofit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDChicago, IllinoisPermit No. 4860

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