This Week@WesternU April 22-26, 2013

Commencement 2013

The 32nd Annual Commencement Exercises for Western University of Health Sciences will be held May 15-17, 2013 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena, Calif. Here are some important reminders to graduates regarding commencement. Please forward to friends and family as appropriate.

Graduate Reminders

Commencement website: The commencement website at http://www.westernu.edu/commencement/ has all kinds of useful information, including parking maps, directions, and instructions. Please pull all necessary information from the site before heading to the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

Live webcast: We are pleased to announce that the commencement ceremonies will be webcast live at http://www.westernu.edu/commencement/cs_webcast.php. Please let those who are not attending know, so they can watch you online.

Guest Reminders

Doors Close Early: The front doors will close at 9:20 a.m. for morning ceremonies and 2:50 p.m. for afternoon ceremonies, and will re-open after the processional, invocation and national anthem. It’s essential that all of your guests be seated in the auditorium prior to the doors closing. If your friends/relatives tend to be late … you might tell them it starts 30 minutes earlier.

General Admission Tickets: Tickets are required for all ceremonies except College of Pharmacy and College of Veterinary Medicine.

Inaugural Ceremony for:

College of Podiatric Medicine

Wednesday, May 15, 9:30 a.m.

Keynote Speaker: Edward James Olmos

Actor, producer and humanitarian

College of Pharmacy

Wednesday, May 15, 3 p.m.

Keynote Speaker: Jenelle L. Sobotka, PharmD, FAPhA

Professor, Endowed Chair of Pharmacy Practice, Ohio Northern University Raabe College of Pharmacy

College of Allied Health Professions

College of Graduate Nursing

Thursday, May 16, 9:30 a.m.

Keynote Speaker: Jason Hwang, MD, MBA

Physician and author

College of Veterinary Medicine

Thursday, May 16, 3 p.m.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald

Veterinarian, actor and comedian

College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific

Graduate College of Biomedical Sciences

Friday, May 17, 9:30 a.m.

Keynote Speaker: Jason Hwang, MD, MBA

Physician and author

East West Dinner honors Victor Law

Western University of Health Sciences honored longtime San Gabriel Valley pharmacist and entrepreneur Victor Law, RPh, BPharm, at the University’s 7th annual East West Scholarship Dinner April 13, 2013, at the Hilton San Gabriel. Click here to read the full story.

Limb Preservation Center holds grand opening

The grand opening of the Limb Preservation Center (LPC) at Western University of Health Sciences drew more than 50 people to the University’s Patient Care Center (PCC) on Friday, April 19, 2013. Click here to read the copy block and view the slideshow.

From the College of Pharmacy:

Preventing obesity, and slowing and ultimately ending the national obesity epidemic, will require a cultural change that must be led by parents, educators, community leaders, and future generations of health professionals, a national weight and health expert told a Western University of Health Sciences audience Thursday, April 18, 2013. Click here to read the full story.

Scholarship Golf Classic

The College of Pharmacy will hold its inaugural Scholarship Golf Classic on May 23 at Morongo Golf Club at Tukwet Canyon. Registration begins at 9 a.m., and time of play will be 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Shotgun-play format will include contests for low score, longest drive, closest to the pin, and hole-in-one. Click here to read the full story.

Kudos and accomplishments

The PGY1 (postgraduate year 1) Community Practice Residency, directed by Dr. Karl Hess, has received accreditation from the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP) for 3 years.

This is a credit to Dr. Hess for establishing and maintaining a high-quality program, having graduated four residents – Drs. Chih-Wei Dai, Christine Gabrielian, PharmD ‘09, Chairat Supsin, PharmD ‘10 and Christal Pham, PharmD ‘11. He currently has a fifth, Dr. Stephanie Liang.

Dr. Cynthia Jackeviciushas been selected to serve on the editorial board of the journal Circulation – Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. This honor is in recognition of her productivity and reputation as a researcher and scholar in the area of cardiovascular medication use outcomes.

Second-year pharmacy student Celine Gharibian was awarded the WesternU Summer Research scholarship to work with Dr. Gollapudi Shankar, as mentor.

From the College of Graduate Nursing:

At the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses’ annual conference, Dawn Stone, PhD(c), RN, ANP-BC, COHN-S, provided a pre-conference workshop: “Demonstrating Cost Containment: The Occupational Health Nurse and Case Management Role.”

From the College of Allied Health Professions:

Stephanie Bowlin, EdD, PA, dean of the College of Allied Health Professions, recently announced that the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant Inc. (ARC-PA) has granted the Department of Physician Assistant Education the maximum accreditation length of seven years, through March 2020.

Department of Physical Therapy Education

Kudos and Accomplishments

Assistant Professor Mary Hudson-McKinney, PT, MS, DPT, NCS, is an invited speaker for the Multiple Sclerosis Care Forum to be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 27, 2013 at the Sofitel Hotel in Los Angeles. This one-day program, sponsored by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in cooperation with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, will provide attendees with the skills necessary to successfully manage complex health needs and provide high-quality, cost-effective care to individuals with multiple sclerosis.

From The College of Veterinary Medicine:

University Advancement and the College of Veterinary Medicine are proud to recognize the annual CVM Honors Day program today, Monday, April 22, 2013. Between Honors Day and the Senior Award ceremony in May, more than 35 CVM students will receive nearly $50,000 in scholarship support. We are grateful to the many donors that make this possible, including corporations, foundations, alumni, faculty, staff and other friends.

We are particularly pleased to recognize two new endowed scholarships providing their student support for the first time this year: the Worell Avian Medicine Endowed Scholarship, and the CVM Faculty & Staff Endowed scholarship.

From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific-Northwest:

Kudos and Accomplishments

Dr. Brion Benninger had his research work on the term anastomosis accepted in the Journal Anatomy. His work focused on an important common descriptive medical term used in surgical specialties, physiology and anatomy that is represented multiple ways with weak definitions and strong meanings. He has brought a classification system for using the term anastomosis. Anastomosis: an Important Clinical Term with Multiple Non-Standardized Definitions and No Formal Classification. He was also recently commended for his invited lectures abroad. Dr. Benninger is the Professor/Vice Chair, Medical Anatomical Sciences, on the Lebanon campus.

From the College of Optometry:

Click here to view the latest College of Optometry news.

From the Pumerantz Library:

The perspectives of surgeons, physicians, and nurses are richly documented in the history of Civil War medicine, which highlights the heroism and brutality of battlefield operations and the challenges of caring for the wounded during wartime. Yet the experiences of injured soldiers during the conflict and in the years afterward are less well known. “Life and Limb: The Toll of the American Civil War” focuses on disabled veterans and their role as symbols of the fractured nation.

The Harriet K. & Philip Pumerantz Library will host the “Life and Limb: The Toll of the American Civil War” traveling exhibition, created by the National Library of Medicine, from April 15 to May 18, 2013. We would like to extend a special thank you to John Hiroto for loaning us his items from his collection. We are also extremely grateful to Bert J. (Hans) Davidson, MD, PhD, executive director of the Southern California Medical Museum, for loaning his collection of medical instruments and tools from the Civil War era.

WesternU being previewed on The Autism Channel website:

The show "Direct from Western University" now has promotional material on the Autism Channel website, featuring an overview of WesternU. Click here to view the website. If you click the forward arrow on the right, it leads to previews of Faculty for Autism Collaboration & Education’s (FACE) eight episodes.

From University Advancement:

Gloria L. Austin and her three adult children – Doug, Charles and Lynette – and their families recently made a gift of $40,000, completing the $250,000 pledge that established The Dr. Robert L. Austin Endowed Lectureship in Pediatric Medicine and Pediatric Health Care Policy.

Towne and Gown Golf Classic

The Towne & Gown Golf Classic is back and will be held on Monday, June 10, 2013 at Red Hill Country Club in Rancho Cucamonga. Be on the lookout for your registration info.

To register, please visit www.westernu.edu/golf, or email Austin Braunwalder or call him at (909) 469-8495.

Sudden Snack success

On Wednesday, Apr. 17, the WesternU Alumni Association gave away ice cream sandwiches to 600 smiling students in Ethan Allen Park as part of their periodic Sudden Snack program. The giveaway event, held from 4 to 5 p.m., was timed to coincide with the end of the IPE small group meetings for first-year students, and provided a place for those students to meet with their friends and classmates, as well as for other students to take a break from studying.