This Week@WesternU, Nov. 11-15, 2013

Fifth Annual Leadership Symposium at Western University of Health Sciences

The Fifth Annual Leadership Symposium will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013 in Compatriots Hall, HSC. Leaders from the community have been invited for an interactive panel discussion about leadership. The theme will be Community Leadership. The keynote speaker will be Sylvia Shaw, MD, and she will be accompanied by four panelists— Michelle Hodges, JD; Stephanie Nigg, JD, MPH, Kaiser Permanente; Diane Masseth-Jones, Executive Director of the YWCA North Orange County; and Jessica Cavanaugh.

The Symposium, hosted by the Educational Leadership class, is part of the Masters of Science in Health Science program, College of Allied Health Professions. Join us for an interactive and informative meeting. Refreshments will be served. Seating is limited. For more information and to RSVP, please contact Jacque Mosco at 909-469-5397 or jmosco@westernu.edu.

Click here to view a flier.

WesternU presenting sponsor of ADA’s Step Out: Los Angeles Walk

More than 1,800 walkers and 296 teams participated in the American Diabetes Association’s Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes Los Angeles walk on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013 at Griffith Park.

Western University of Health Sciences was the presenting sponsor. WesternU formed a team and participated in the walk, and also handed out University-themed goodies and information at the WesternU/Patient Care Center booth.

Click here to read the full story and to view a slideshow.

WesternU provides early admission linkage for Cal State Fullerton students

Leaders from Western University of Health Sciences and California State University, Fullerton held a signing ceremony Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013 on the WesternU campus in Pomona, Calif. WesternU’s College of Pharmacy fashioned a linkage agreement with CSUF creating an Early Admission Program (EAP). Click here to read a previous story about the linkage agreement.

Click here to view a photo of the signing ceremony.

Scientists from China come to U.S. to learn to build captive population of the giant panda

Scientists from the China Conservation and Research Centre took a crucial first step to repopulate the giant panda into the wild by recently visiting with a renowned reproductive biologist from Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif. The scientists, Yingmin Zhou and Xiaoyu Huang, come from an organization that manages three main giant panda breeding facilities in Wolong, Dujiangyuan, and Bifengxia.

They began their 20-day United States visit with three days of training with WesternU physiologist David Kersey, PhD, who recently was a key contributor in artificially inseminating (AI) Zoo Atlanta’s 15-year-old giant panda Lun Lun, who gave birth to twin panda cubs on July 15, 2013.
Click here to read the full story.

From the College of Pharmacy:

Message from College of Pharmacy Dean Daniel Robinson

We have just learned from the California Board of Pharmacy that WesternU Pharmacy Graduates (2013) out-performed all other California schools on the CPJE, which is one of two exams required for licensure in California. NAPLEX results were previously reported by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy at 99.21 percent.

CPJE Pass Rates for all California takers was 89.6 percent, with a range of 79.7 to 94.7 percent. The pass rate for all takers was 82.6 percent. The WesternU pass rate was 94.7 percent.

Of the 1,660 candidates who took the CPJE for licensure in California, 45 percent were trained outside of California.

Congratulations to our 2013 graduates for their outstanding performance and to our faculty, who continue to deliver an outstanding, rigorous and highly relevant curriculum.

From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:

Kudos on accomplishments

First-year COMP student Bryan Bennett and Dr. Elizabeth Rega are among the co-authors of a poster presented at the 73rd annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meetings recently held in Los Angeles. The poster is about a specimen from the La Brea Tar Pits and is titled, “A pathological timber wolf femur (canis lupis) indicates survival after traumatic amputation injury.”

Dr. Brion Benninger published the following article in Clinical Anatomy: “Formally Acknowledging Donor-Cadaver-Patients in the Basic and Clinical Science Research Arena.” Click here to view the article.

From the College of Allied Health Professions:

Department of Physical Therapy Education News

Assistant Professor Bhavana Raja, PT, PhD, recently had an article published in Online First for Physical Therapy titled, “Accuracy of Two Activity Monitors in Detecting Steps in People With Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury.” Online First articles are published online before they appear in a regular issue of Physical Therapy, Journal of the American Physical Therapy Association (published online ahead of print Sept. 19, 2013) doi:10.2522/ptj.20120525. With advances in sensor technologies and signal processing techniques to measure walking activity in the home and community, this study examined the accuracy of two consumer/patient activity monitors, the FitBit and Nike+ Fuelband in identifying stepping activity in people with stroke and traumatic brain injury. In addition, the accuracy of these two activity monitors were compared to the StepWatch Activity Monitor and a pedometer, theYamax SW701 Digi-Walker Pedometer.

From University Advancement:

Kelvin Mark, DO ’90, has initiated a COMP endowed scholarship in honor of his parents, Guey C. Mark, MD, and Clara T. Mark. Dr. Mark attended the COMP conference in Monterey last month and shared that he had a wonderful conversation with Dr. Ethan Allen, Treasurer of the WesternU Board of Trustees. Dr. Mark will join us in April to present the first award at Honor’s Day 2014. Dr. Mark is a practicing anesthesiologist in Sacramento, where he resides.

From the Patient Care Center:

Follow the Patient Care Center on Twitter, @WesternUPCC, and Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/WesternUPCC, to receive tips, recipes and information throughout November in recognition of American Diabetes Month.

From the Office of University Recruitment/Strategic Enrollment Management

Preview Day

Registration is open for WesternU Preview Day from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, 2013, highlighting health education opportunities offered at Western University of Health Sciences.

Preview Day, held in and around WesternU’s Health Education Center (HEC), 701 E. Second St., Pomona, Calif., will provide potential students the opportunity to get more information about a health profession program of interest, hear about the admissions process, learn about financial aid, see curriculum firsthand, discover how to become a competitive applicant, and meet students and faculty.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in learning more about any of our degree programs offered, please feel free to encourage them to visit our prospective student website for more information or to register for Preview Day.

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Western University of Health Sciences, 309 E. Second St., Pomona, Calif. 91766

909-623-6116