The Doctorate of Physical Therapy Class of 2019 received an esteemed visitor to their Health Care Systems Class taught by Associate Professor Dr. Natalie Michaels this week.
Congressman Jim Cooper came to talk about the current state of health care in the United States. He talked candidly about the current situation in both the federal and state governments regarding health care, focusing his talk on physical therapy and answered questions for the students.
Alumnus Mark Fry (’85) has recently published a new book, DETERMINED: Encouragement for Living Your Best Life with a Chronic Illness, which offers a refreshing outlook for those living with a chronic illness. Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis over 20 years ago, Fry shares his own personal story of living with an illness while offering advice and encouragement for others who share that experience.
Specifically, the book offers biblical encouragement to those who don’t know what to do post-diagnosis but want to live a more positive and encouraging life.
Belmont is preparing to celebrate National Public Health Week this year. During the first full week of April each year, the American Public Health Association (APHA) brings together communities across the United States to observe National Public Health Week (NPHW) as a time to recognize the contributions of public health and highlight issues that are important to improving our nation. Each day of NPHW 2018 will focus on a different public health topic that’s critical to creating and sustaining a healthy nation.
Daily Themes
Monday, April 2: Behavioral Health
Tuesday, April 3: Communicable Diseases
Wednesday, April 4: Environmental Health
Thursday, April 5: Injury and Violence Prevention
Friday, April 6: Ensuring the Right to Health
Belmont University’s Public Health Program will be hosting several events to celebrate NPHW this year:
On Friday, March 16, Belmont University hosted Mike Tabor, DDS, as a speaker for an on-going linked cohort course (LCC). For the past three years, Dr. Danielle Garrett, assistant professor of chemistry education and Dr. Linda Holt, associate dean of CLASS and associate professor of English, have participated in a LCC, linking a major chemistry course and a literature course during the spring semester. The common theme for the two courses is forensic science. Each year, through a QEP grant, they have been able to involve their students in an interesting and engaging experience, including visiting the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, bringing an interactive mystery theater production to class and inviting an author as a guest speaker.
This year, they sought out Tabor, a native Tennessean, who currently runs a local private dental practice and is involved in forensic dentistry where he uses dentistry in forensic identification. Tabor has served as the Chief Forensic Odontologist for the State Medical Examiner’s office in Nashville since 1983. In addition to his private clinical practice, he has served as President of the Tennessee Board of Dental Examiners, President of the American Board of Forensic Odontology and the Section Chair for the Odontology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Science. He also serves as a senior consultant for the Criminal Investigations Division of TBI under its Medicaid Fraud Unit. He is a nationally known speaker in his field of forensic odontology and has lectured internationally to dentists, law enforcement and death investigation officers in Australia, New Zealand and Haiti. He has coauthored two scientific texts in addition to his creative writing.
From 2014-2017, Tabor was on faculty of the University of Tennessee College of Graduate Medicine at UT hospital as assistant professor of dentistry in Knoxville. He has authored Walk of Death, a forensic novel. His second manuscript, Out of the Darkness, has been completed and submitted for edit and publication for anticipated release. He is currently working on his third forensic novel, Grave Mistake, all three of which are based on his true case file experiences.
Tabor was invited to campus as part of a two-part event. First, he held a Q&A discussion with students in the LCC. During this discussion, Tabor addressed his thoughts about the future of forensic science, how modern forensic fiction writers have more to write about with the maturation of DNA and how the introduction of DNA has impacted our legal system and the way human bite mark cases are handled. Tabor then spoke at a convocation event for Belmont students – Taking a Bite Out of Crime: How Forensic Dentistry Helps to Solve Mysteries – where he talked about what forensic science is, the need for forensic science and several interesting cases he worked on that were solved based on forensic dentistry.
“Beyond Dr. Tabor’s amazing professional career and wealth of knowledge, I was so impressed with his enthusiasm and zeal for wanting to engage with our students,” Garrett said. “After the event, I asked Dr. Tabor what compelled him to want to speak with college students, after all of his other speaking experiences.” Dr. Tabor replied, “Over the years, I have had the privilege of instructing other forensic scientists, law-enforcement agents, medical examiner teams, and other dentists about the science of forensic odontology. In those cases, I was teaching the details of the specialty I have practiced since 1983. At this point in my career, I feel now is the time to instruct a younger group of our population that will carry the torch forward into the fascinating field of forensic science. As I looked into the young eyes of the audience at Belmont University, I really felt a strong connection with these students. I am honored to share some responsibility in helping shape their career choices.”
More than 100 students attended the convocation. Attendees were engaged, asking questions throughout the talk. Tabor even stayed after to continue discussions with several students. “We had a good number of questions from the students, more than I had been expecting. The detailed nature of the questions made it obvious that these students have a strong interest in forensic sciences,” Tabor said.
Garrett and Holt felt that Tabor provided a unique perspective not only for their students, but for the Belmont community as a whole, helping them to develop insight into the challenges of accurately and effectively analyzing and communicating scientific information in writing, to gain awareness of the realities of the use of forensic techniques in criminal investigations, and to see the possibility of unique multi-disciplinary career opportunities.
To those students interested in pursuing forensic medicine, Tabor gives the following advice. “An exciting part of forensic science is the vast diversity of specialty within the forensic team. The parent organization, the American Academy of Forensic Science continues to actively recruit young students from high school through graduate school in the many components to our field. There are also many mentors in forensic fields that are willing to share their knowledge and experience with the young scientists of today.”
Dr. Pete Giordano, psychological science, has published a book chapter titled “Personality is Culturally Constructed and Maintained: Helping Students Think Globally about Themselves and Others” in the book Culture Across the Curriculum: A Psychology Teacher’s Handbook (Cambridge University Press, 2018), edited by Kenneth Keith. You can learn more about the book here.
Chemistry professors Drs. Alison Parker, Rachel Rigsby and Justin Stace, along with Belmont Chemistry majors Avery Daniels, Tyra Avery, Hannah Peterson, Amber Ansari, Christopher Hanson and Mary Barber attended the 255th American Chemical Society (ACS) 2018 National Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana March 18-22, 2018. ACS organizes two national meetings and expositions each year, and each one attracts an estimated 11,000 to 13,000 chemists, chemical engineers, academicians, graduate and undergraduate students and other related professionals. Students and faculty enjoyed a graduate school fair, undergraduate research poster sessions and graduate and professional research presentations at the meeting.
Four Belmont students presented their undergraduate research posters:
Avery Daniels (and Dr. Justin Stace) presented “Synthesis, characterization and spectroscopy of a terbium-centered complex: Remarkable emission from a colloidal mixture”
Tyra Avery (and Dr. Danielle Garrett) presented “Greener options in the chemistry classroom: a titrimetric analysis of coffee”
Hannah Peterson presented Elucidation of amino acids regulating the species-selective activation of TRPM8 by coal fly ash particle
Amber Ansari (and Dr. Rachel Rigsby) presented “Lipid extraction of wet algal biomass via osmotic shock”
English Professor Dr. Beverly Schneller has eight recent publications to boast, ranging from four books to a conference presentation. Her publications include:
First-year honors political science major Tyler Redmon won first place in Extemporeous Speaking at the Tennessee Intercollegiate Forensics Association’s (TIFA) annual state tournament held at Tennessee State University last weekend. He was named State Champion in the Extemporaneous Speaking Category for 2018.
Redmon said in an interview, “I believe the Forensics team has been one of the most amazing parts of my time here [at Belmont]. We’ve put in tons of work practicing for a whole year now, and it’s incredible to see that work pay off by winning a state championship. Extemporaneous speech can be intimidating at first; having to write and memorize a seven minute speech in thirty minutes while finding a source for every point you make isn’t exactly easy to pick up, but through the great support of my team and lots of practice, I was able to succeed. Winning at TIFA as a novice wasn’t something I was expecting, but with the help of a great group of people around me, I was able to accomplish that goal.”
Associate Professor of Management Information Systems Dr. Lakisha Simmons has been awarded the Susan Short Jones Emerging Leaders Award by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. Metropolitan Nashville Chapter. Jones was the founding president of the chapter and a lifelong community activist. The award was presented at the Women of Color Luncheon at Belmont, part of the Sister for Sister Conference hosted last weekend. Simmons participated on the Digital Divide panel at the event. She is the Speaker and EdTech Founder of Homework Suite Student Planner, an assignment tracker app for students.
Belmont University has recently announced that Dr. Jane Duncan has been named as the University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts Associate Dean, a new position that was recently created. Duncan will begin her new role July 1.
Coming to Belmont from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Duncan has worked as a theatre educator for many years and with many populations including students ranging in age from 4- to 90-years-old. While at NSU, she served the institution as the Director of Accreditation, on a Department of Education Title V Grant and most recently, as Executive Director of Assessment and Accreditation. She was also recognized with the Adjunct Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award in 2011.
In addition to her 12 years at NSU, Duncan has held appointments at the University of Central Arkansas and Barry University. She has experience working within academic affairs, program review, assessment of student learning outcomes, curriculum and faculty development and oversight of compliance with regional, specialized and accrediting standards. Duncan holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from Florida State University, an MFA in Acting from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BA in Theatre from the University of Dayton.
Duncan said, “I am thrilled to join the Belmont community and combine my academic credentials (theatre) and recent professional experiences (assessment and accreditation) to serve the students in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. I felt so comfortable and welcomed when I visited campus in January and look forward to building on the practices and traditions that have already been established. I eagerly anticipate working with students, faculty and staff in upholding the mission, vision and values at Belmont.”
In her new role on Belmont’s campus as Associate Dean, Duncan will focus on accreditation, curriculum and assessment. She will serve as a collaborative leader among various departments, working to develop and implement academic curricula, procedures and processes pertaining to curriculum development, accreditation reporting and planning, assessment and assurance-of-learning activities, student advising and faculty development.
Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts Dr. Stephen Eaves said, “Dr. Duncan brings a perfect mix of academic, teaching and arts experiences to our campus. We know that her engaging personality, creativity and passion will greatly benefit all.”
