Most recently, Dr. Silva Brown, Assistant Professor of Psychology, collaborated with a group of physicians, nurse managers, and administrators to develop a proposal that seeks to provide “home birth-like” set-tings within the safety of hospi-tal walls to expecting mothers in the local community. Currently, the trend in obstet-rics is moving towards creat-ing more “home-like” delivery options for patients. Many expecting mothers are seeking family-friendly environments, where they can labor with minimal medical intervention. Dr. Silva Brown worked closely with CoxHealth personnel to propose modifications to cur-rent patient-provider interaction practices, as well as reconstruc-tion of existing labor and delivery rooms to make them more like homes rather than hospitals. The project hopes to create safe “home-like” birth options that will improve the health of expecting mothers and their newborns.

It’s newsletter time again, and I’m so excited to share with you some of the outstanding things that are happening in the department. In addition, I have a couple of other updates that simply can’t go unmentioned. Last year, I was elected by members of the social science division to serve as their repre-sentative on the Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA) search committee, and it is my pleasure to introduce Dr. Steven Combs, our new VPAA and Dean of the College. Dr. Combs holds a Ph.D. in Communication Arts & Sciences from the University of Southern California and a

master of arts in Communica-tion Studies from the University of Kansas. He came to Drury from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, where he served as founding dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. I look forward to collaborating with Dr. Combs to expand opportunities for students and faculty in the behavioral sciences. Also, although I am saddened to report that she has accepted a position at Sacramento State University and will be leav-ing Drury at the end of the semester, I am very proud to announce that Dr. Patricia Morris, Assistant Professor of

Drury’s Edward Jones Center for Entrepreneurship and Cox-Health have collaborated with faculty to create a meaningful and challenging program for hospital personnel. Their efforts resulted in the development of the CoxHealth Leadership Development Program, a year-long interdisciplinary educa-tional experience that incorpo-rates faculty-created modules. Modules cover such topics as community health, diversity, and ethics. As part of the capstone, participants work with faculty mentors to design and propose a healthcare transformation project to CoxHealth leadership personnel. The projects address a specific community need that, when implemented, should in-crease and improve care among underrepresented populations. From the behavioral sciences, Drs. Trish Morris, Jennifer Silva Brown, and Mary Utley served as faculty experts throughout the program’s first-year.

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES NEWS • SPRING 2015 • NUMBER 13

DEPARTMENT OF BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, DEPARTMENT CHAIR PHONE: 417-873-7254/E-MAIL VLUTTREL@DRURY.EDU

Letter from the Chair

Faculty Involvement in CoxHealth

Program Continues

Sociology, has just received the 2015 Distinguished Book Award from the Midwest Sociological Society for her highly acclaimed book, Blue Juice: Euthanasia in Veterinary Medicine. Congratula-tions, Trish!

Drs. Vickie Luttrell and Steve Combs, Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Steve Edwards, CEO of CoxHealth (‘88) and Dr. Jennifer Silva Brown.

DEPARTMENT NEWS

Salutations! I am Katie Kobber-mann, a 1999 Drury Graduate with a master of arts in clinical psychology. I currently work as an Independent Life Coach. As both a student and alumna, Drury has always been so much more than an institute of higher learning. It’s an academic family that is actively involved in our local and global community. During my first year of col-lege I knew two things, I liked working with people, and I was good at problem-solving. Psychology was a natural fit! I took to campus life easily, although the accessibility was in need of some overhaul, but I’m no stranger to adapting. Drury allowed me to learn, to believe people can change, and to believe in self-growth and evolvement. As a Life Coach, my goal is similar to a therapist in helping people overcome existing fears

Hats off to Rachel Lloyd (‘02)and Dr. Charles Coller (‘69) for responding to our request for internship opportunities for our students! Rachel is the direc-tor of the Center for Academic Success and Excellence at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College where students can intern in the American Indian Center for Excellence. Charles is a psychologist at Mercy Hospital in Springfield where students can work with patients at the Marian Center, a mental health facility. If you are inter-ested in serving as an internship sponsor, please contact Dr. Valerie Eastman at veastman@drury.edu. Students completing internships in the summer can do so anywhere in the world, so there are no limits to geographi-cal location.

The Department of Behavioral Sciences is excited to announce the launch of a minor in com-munity health in the fall of 2015. Community health is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to improve the health charac-teristics of diverse communities through a research-based under-standing of social, cultural, and environmental determinants. Those who study com-munity health focus on the improvement of health via the promotion of positive health behaviors, access to preventive care, use of early identification and intervention programs, and disease management. Atten-tion is also given to healthcare legislation, causes and remedies of healthcare disparities, and healthcare challenges faced by underserved populations and undeveloped nations. Evidence suggests clearly that Drury is a destination school for pre-health students, and our pre-health programs include a wide variety of tracks, such as pre-dentistry, pre-medicine, pre-occupational therapy, pre-phy-sician assistant, and pre-veteri-nary medicine. In the behavioral

Hats off to Lloyd and

Coller!

Department to LaunchCommunity Health Minor

and beliefs that keep them from exploring their purpose and passions. However, coaching tends to be is more relaxed and intimate than individual therapy and may include everything from goal-setting, problem solving, educational, spiritual discussion, and it is catered toward each individual’s needs and goals. It can be challenging, but coaching takes on more of a casual friend-mentoring feel. Through my willingness to be vulnerable, I have met an abun-dance of unforgettable charac-ters, heard amazing stories, and witnessed incredible transfor-mations. These experiences have provided many connections to more people and places than I could imagine! I love looking back at my experiences and how that approach seems to have a reciprocal effect...It’s exciting to be working with others as I think of possibilities ahead.

ALUMNI PROFILE:Katie Kobbermann ‘99

sciences, many students pursue health-related careers in clini-cal or counseling psychology, clinical neuropsychology, social work, and medical sociology. Our new community health minor will enable students to better understand the underly-ing social, economic, psycholog-ical, and environmental forces that create health and social inequities in a community and will help them become more effective practitioners of health. For more information about our new program, contact Dr. Jennifer Silva Brown, program coordinator, at jsilvabrown@drury.edu.

My first experience with the Department of Behavioral Sciences was when I took Introduction to Psychology as a dual enrollment class my senior year of high school. I felt immediately comfortable in the small class and discovered the community of the department. When I came to Drury as a freshman that fall, I entered as a psychology major. The more classes I took, the stronger I felt about the field. It wasn’t only the classes that shaped my interest in psychol-ogy, however. At each step I was able to see role models in my professors and advisors. I learned what it looked like to be successful in this field, and my desire to become a professional practitioner grew exponentially. My internship and research ex-periences solidified this desire. Last fall, I began applying for clinical psychology programs,

The Voice of a Graduating Senior:

Rachel SwadleyKatie Kobbermann ‘99

and although it was challenging, I received support through the entire process. Dr. Vickie Lut-trell answered all my questions about what a strong applicant looks like. Dr. Jennifer Silva Brown read through numerous drafts of my personal statement and curriculum vitae to help ensure I was a distinctive ap-plicant. Dr. Rachael Herrington was my constant supporter and checked in frequently to make sure I was meeting deadlines. I was recently offered admis-sion into a master’s program in clinical psychology, and I know this could not have happened without professors who want to see their students succeed. As I close one academic chapter and open another, I have realized that Drury is really a special place. My academic journey truly defines what it means to be part of the “Drury family.”

Derossett Elected to Board of Directors of SCLT

Springfield, Missouri was recently identified by HUD as having the most severe fiscal distress in the state, featur-ing both a very low per capita income and very high poverty rate. One consequence is a severe affordable housing crisis. Dr. David Derossett, As-sistant Professor of Sociology, was recently elected to the Board of Directors for the non-profit Springfield Com-munity Land Trust (SCLT) which offers a novel approach to addressing this problem. Although the SCLT is relatively new, Community Land Trusts (CLTs) have existed since the 1980s. A CLT purchases houses with grant money or money from its own trust and sells these to qualified low and mod-erate-income families. Families only pay for the house, leasing the land which is held by the CLT. It’s this innovation which

makes the houses affordable. If a homebuyer decides to sell the house, a portion of the equity is shared with the CLT by agreement, while the resale value is calculated to ensure both a reasonable return on investment and that the houses remain affordable. In this way, families secure affordable hous-ing, earn equity, and establish a credit record, while the stock of quality affordable housing in the city is continually expanded. Dr. Derossett brings to the SCLT expertise from his research in Urban Sociology and a commitment to find-ing solutions to poverty. The Board features a collection of advocates, including represen-tatives from local banks, the City of Springfield, the Health Department, local housing providers - and now -from Drury University!

DEPARTMENT NEWS

Working with Drury’s Office of Admissions, the Behavioral Neuroscience Ambassadors Program will send members of the BRAIN student orga-nization to local high schools to promote the department’s Behavioral Neuroscience Minor as well as the field’s relevancy to their future careers. The Ambassadors first stop will be to visit students at Central High School in Springfield. Ambassador, Cody Nickels, looks forward to talk-ing to students, and he is also excited about the research he is conducting with fellow student, Ethan Sims, under the supervi-sion of Dr. Mary Utley, Profes-sor of Psychology, and Dr. Phil Stepp, Assistant Professor of Biology. Nickels and Sims are investi-gating the influence of binaural tones on attention through the use of an EEG machine and a psychomotor vigilance task. Binaural tones occur when a

Cody Nickels conducting EEG research as part of his Advanced Behavioral Research course.

BRAIN FormsAmbassadors Program

single continuous tone is pre-sented through headphones but at different frequencies between the left and right ear. “During the vigilance task, participants are presented with three auditory stimuli: silence, white noise, and binaural tones at 20 Hz. We are testing the possibility that beta-range binaural tones can increase at-tentiveness as well as whether participants’ dominant EEGs will shift toward the binaural tone frequency during the task,” said Nickels. Molly Gray (‘98), a social studies teacher at Central, worked with Nickels to coordi-nate the Ambassador visit, and she shares his excitement. “I think this could be very benefi-cial for our students. More and more of our IB kids are opting for Drury, and as a Drury alum myself, I’d love to give any addi-tional encouragement to attend Drury that we can!”

Herrington and StevensonPrepare for Mental

Health-Law ConferencePreparations for the Mental Health, Healthcare, Law, and Ethics Conference have been underway for months, and Dr. Rachael Herrington, Assistant Professor of Psychology, is serving on the planning com-mittee. Also involved is Laurel (Shealy) Stevenson (’86). The conference is scheduled for Thursday, September 3, 2015 at the University Plaza Hotel Convention Center. The training event targets psycholo-gists, physicians, attorneys, law enforcement, and related fields, and will address the dilemmas that individuals in each field face when encountering clients, patients, or colleagues battling mental health problems.

Those without formal training often feel ill equipped to address practical issues related to mental health, such as when HIPAA would allow a professional to break confidentiality to ensure an individual’s safety. Rigid ad-herence to HIPAA or attorney-client privilege may jeopardize the safety of an individual, but there are ethical concerns on each side. The conference will address these issues and include a panel discussion composed of local professionals from various backgrounds who will share ex-periences of how mental health issues have impacted them personally and professionally.

In March, Dr. Patricia Morris, Assistant Profes-

sor of Sociology, re-ceived the 2015 Distin-guished Book Award

from the Midwest Sociological Society for her highly acclaimed book, “Blue Juice: Eu-thanasia in Veterinary

Medicine.”