Author: iharrell

Hispanic Dental Association Recognizes Faculty, Students

Congratulations to NSU College of Dental Medicine faculty and students for their recognition at the 2023 Hispanic Dental Association Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas June 9-10, 2023.

Dr. Alexander Bendayan, Chair, Department of Prosthodontics at NSU College of Dental Medicine and President of Florida Chapter for Hispanic Dental Association Dr Elias Moron started the Hispanic Dental Association Leadership Program.

Also Dr. Elias Moron was recognized for his contributions to the research community and the Hispanic Dental Association. He Presented with a group of researchers the whitepaper labeled: “Oral Health Status, utilization of dental services and workforce of US Hispanics” . He also served as a judge for the student poster competition during the annual meeting.

Dr. Moron,  additionally, received an award for speaking at the Hispanic Dental Association “Sirviendo Nuestras Sonrisas Hispanas” as one of the most valued contributors to the Hispanic Dental Association.

Moreover, NSU College of Dental Medicine Students presented a poster titled “The New Face of Hispanic Leadership: The role of dental students in serving the South Florida underserved population.”

Posted 06/18/23

Local Shark Attack Victim’s Story Inspires NSU to Action

Earlier this year while getting ready for work, Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) media relations/public information officer Joe Donzelli had NBC’s Today Show on in the background when something caught his attention.

It was the story about Ella Reed, a Florida teenager who had been bitten by a shark while wading in the surf near her home.

“Working at NSU all these years, my ears prick up when I hear someone talking about sharks,” Donzelli said. “When I focused in on the story, I said to myself, ‘Oh, we’ve gotta get her to come shark tagging with our research scientists. That can’t be the only encounter she has with a shark.’”

Donzelli was impressed with her poise and courage – not everyone would be so blasé having been bitten by a shark. And something else in the story caught his attention.

“I heard that Ella was interested in being a marine biologist, and given NSU’s preeminence in the field, I knew this was a perfect match,” he said.

So, when he got to work, Donzelli reached out to the reporter who did the story for the Today Show. Almost immediately the reporter was intrigued and said he would reach out to the family to see if they were interested, after all, he already had a relationship with them. And, sure enough, they jumped at the chance.

“When I got the invitation to go shark tagging, I was super excited,” Ella said.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and researchers from NSU’s Guy Harvey Research Institute (GHRI) welcomed a crew from NBC’s The Today Show, along with Ella, her friend Kloe (who was with Ella and helped her when she was bitten), her brother and parents, who joined Mahmood Shivji, Ph.D., director of NSU’s GHRI and the Save our Seas Foundation Shark Research Center, and Derek Burkholder, Ph.D., an NSU research scientist and their crew for a day on the Atlantic Ocean to catch, tag, and release sharks off the Florida Coast.

You can see The Today Show story HERE

“Understanding sharks is vitally important for restoring and maintaining the overall health of our oceans,” Shivji said. “As high-level and apex predators, they play a major part in balancing the marine ecosystem, and if there are no sharks, the oceans and by extension, the Earth, will suffer.”

Shivji said that some estimates show that annually 100 million sharks are removed from the oceans.

“Clearly that is not a sustainable number, and many shark species have declined by 70-90 percent,” he said. “By learning as much about sharks as we can, that information can be used by ocean management authorities to properly conserve sharks for generations to come.”

When the day finally came to head out on the ocean, Donzelli said that the one thing everyone was nervous about was would they be able to catch a shark during the trip. He had been on trips in the past where they spent the entire day on the water and didn’t catch a thing.

“There’s an old saying – it’s called fishing, not catching,” he said with a laugh.

But nothing was going to dampen this day for Ella – after pulling up a few empty bait lines, bingo, they had a shark. And not just any shark, a nine and a half foot long, 500+ pound female tiger shark.

And true to form, Ella, fearless as ever, jumped right in and worked side by side with our marine biologists to gather tissue samples from the shark and even put the tag on its dorsal fin.

The group managed to catch two additional sharks – nurse sharks – during the trip, and each time Ella and her group was right there working with NSU researchers, enjoying every minute. In fact, with one of the nurse sharks, Ella, fearless as ever, jumped in the water and got up close and personal with the large fish.

When the group returned to shore, there was one more surprise for Ella and her family.

“We talked with our admissions folks, and they agreed that we needed to nurture her love of the ocean and marine biology,” Donzelli said. “So, we are reserving a spot for Ella when she graduates from high school and will work to provide her with as many scholarship opportunities as we can. We’d be lucky to have her become an NSU Shark.”

Posted 06/18/23

PCHCS Director Appointed to Editorial Board

Moya L. Alfonso, Ph.D., M.S.P.H.

Moya L. Alfonso, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., director of the Health Sciences Ph.D. and D.H.S. programs and associate professor, was recently appointed to the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Public Health at https://www.apha.org/Publications/American-Journal-of-Public-Health.

As an editorial board member, Alfonso will help to determine policy for the journal and address publishing issues as they emerge. The journal is a top tier journal in the public health field and has been published for more than 100 years. She is proud to serve in this professional capacity in addition to her role as director.

Posted 06/18/23

Pride Day Event Features Panel Discussion June 28

Register now for the upcoming BEDI Books + More Club Pride Day Event on June 28, 2023, from noon to 1:30 p.m. As a reminder, Pride Month and a time to celebrate the community and the achievements of people who identify as LGBTQIA+.

Don’t miss this special event and panel discussion on “Transgender Legislation and Transgender Community Support.” Again, we have a lineup of outstanding speakers, including Ashley Mayfaire from TransSocial, Daniel Tilley from ACLU Florida, Orlando Gonzales from SAVE, and Mateo Ventura Bruer from the AQUA Foundation. Join us for an engaging discussion.

Advance registration is required to ensure a safe and inclusive Zoom environment. The sign-up deadline is Monday, June 26. You can register here or at https://forms.gle/gP9rzzCpdhpm7bg26. The original Zoom link provided is no longer active. Please note that registrants will receive separate Zoom login details via email before the event on Tuesday, June 27.

Posted 06/20/23

Sports Medicine Clinic Enhances Patient Care Quality

Of the many clinics at Nova Southeastern University, there is only one that is focused on athletes. Located on the first floor of NSU’s University Center, the Sports Medicine Clinic is one of the university’s interdisciplinary units. This unique clinic facilitates the exchange of knowledge and expertise among professionals that promotes a comprehensive approach to athletic care and injury prevention.

Staffed with individuals from the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine and the College of Psychology, the clinic provides a beneficial opportunity for collaboration among various disciplines such as sports medicine physicians, physical therapists, athletic trainers, nutritionists, and clinical psychologists. This integration of different disciplines not only enhances the quality of patient care but also promotes a culture of holistic health and wellness on campus, which is designed to benefit both athletes and the larger NSU community.

The clinic’s administrative team includes Alessandra Posey, D.O., who serves as the Chair of the Sports Medicine Department; Lailah Issac, D.O., FAAPMR, CAQSM; and Roody Joseph, P.T., D.P.T., O.C.S. All are from the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine. Also on the team is Ryan Bennett, Psy.D. Dr. Bennett is a trained neuropsychologist and works in the College of Psychology.

In describing the clinic, Dr. Bennett stated, “Our interdisciplinary Sports Medicine Clinic here at NSU truly embodies the mentality of “One team, one goal.” It is an absolute pleasure working with this outstanding team as we continually strive to reach our unified goal by utilizing our knowledge and passion to help maximize the performance of our athletes and well-being of our community.”

Additionally, the clinic serves as a practical training ground for students pursuing careers in healthcare which allows them to gain valuable firsthand experience and exposure to a diverse range of medical conditions.

For more information about this clinic, please click HERE.

Posted 06/18/23

NSU Students Get Hands-On Shark-Tagging Experience

Nova Southeastern University students tagged 10 sharks through a graduate-level course that partners with a non-profit, the Field School. David Shiffman, NSU adjunct professor led the class to South Beach, in waters more than 100 feet deep, showing them the important roles of shark scientists.

The Field School helped with safely holding the sharks. Students touched the sharks to collect data from them, tagging the new sharks. When away from the sharks, the students sorted bait, prepared the drum line, which is a technique used to reel in the sharks and handled the boat’s maintenance.

Weeks of reading textbook pages, listening to lectures, and studying led up to hands-on experience with the top of the food chain. With three days on the boat, students learned exactly what takes to be a shark scientist. Unlike your regular classroom, this one took sail with plenty of lessons on deck.

Madeline Hammond, the graduate assistant for Dean Holly Lynn Baumgartner for the NSU’s Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, participated in the outing.

“This three-day trip was the field portion of a class that was offered as an elective for the master’s programs in the HCAS’s Department of Marine & Environmental Sciences,” she said. “It was the first time this class was offered, as this was Dr. David Shiffman’s first semester as an adjunct faculty.”

Shiffman is a well-known conservation biologist and many of the students were excited for the opportunity to take a class with him and gain hands-on experience on a research vessel; the first section filled up quickly, so the department and Shiffman opened a second section to allow more students to take the course, Hammond said.

Shiffman, a University of Miami alum, knew the founders and many of the crew of the Field School.

“This, along with the opportunity to experience spending overnights on a research vessel and the ability to invite guest scientists on board to speak with students, led Shiffman and the program office to host the field-portion of our class on the Field School boat in Key Biscayne,” Hammond said.

“As a student, I really liked this opportunity because it allowed me to learn whether or not I would enjoy the day-to-day life of being a field scientist, and it also gave me the opportunity to make connections with different scientists pursuing various environmental career paths that I otherwise may not have met,” she said. “As the first group of students to take this class, we offered Dr. Shiffman and the program office a ton of feedback … about the course so that they can decide whether to offer this class again in the future and if so, how they can adjust it to make it an even better experience for students in the future.”

See the video of their experiential journey!

Read the story The Current!

Producer: Paulina Riojas

Videographer: Ashley Lopez and Paulina Riojas

Posted 06/18/23

Journal Publishes STEM Project Headed by NSU Professors

From left, Jia Borror, Parin Somani, Hui Fang Huang “Angie” Su, and Mayor of Southwark Sunil Chopra at the 2023 Global Research Conference at King’s College, Cambridge in England

A project led by professors from NSU has garnered significant acclaim, being recognized and published in three renowned global journals. Spearheaded by Hui Fang “Angie” Su, Ed.D., a professor from the Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice, the project aimed to cultivate and foster the interest of a group of minority 9th-grade girls in the STEM fields.

The project took place in a school with a substantial population of minority students, who often require additional resources and support, through the collaborative efforts of NSU professors Teri Williams, Ph.D.; Jia Borror, Ed.D.; Julie Torruellas Garcia, Ph.D.; Arthur Sikora, Ph.D.; Yueting Wan, Ph.D.; Su; and the dedicated research team, the project successfully ignited the girls’ passion for STEM disciplines.

Su emphasized the significance of exposing the students to various STEM fields and integrating the arts to make the subject matter engaging and exciting. By employing hands-on activities, the project enabled the girls to establish connections and realize their potential to pursue careers in STEM. Williams noted that many girls were interested in environmental sciences, prompting the team to prioritize these topics and foster their curiosity.

The project aimed to shed new light on the STEM fields, highlighting their inherent beauty, intrigue, and hands-on nature. By encouraging the girls to envision themselves as future scientists or educators, the project aimed to expand their horizons and aspirations.

The outcomes of this groundbreaking study were published in esteemed journals, namely the Global Journal of HUMAN-SOCIAL SCIENCE: G Linguistics & Education, the Journal of Advanced Research in Social Sciences and Humanities, and the Global Research Journal. Su presented this noteworthy work during the prestigious 2023 Global Research Conference held at the University of Cambridge in the UK, where she also delivered the keynote address. Borror provided invaluable assistance during the presentation, contributing to the team’s success.

Su, Williams, Borror, and Ventakesh Shanbhag, Ph.D., were awarded NSU’s President’s Faculty Research and Development Grant for the upcoming 2023-2024 academic year as a testament to their exceptional achievements. This grant will enable them to continue their impactful work with young female students in higher grades, with the hope that these students may consider NSU as their educational destination of choice.

Ultimately, the project profoundly impacted the participating girls, who thoroughly enjoyed their involvement and expressed their gratitude for the invaluable knowledge imparted by the NSU professors.

Posted 06/18/23

Psychology Faculty Presents at International Conference

College of Psychology faculty, Janell Mensinger, Ph.D., presents.

On June 1, Janell Mensinger, Ph.D., fellow, Academy of Eating Disorders presented at the annual meeting of the International Conference on Eating Disorders in Washington, D.C. The paper highlighted unexpected findings on the relationship between interoception and disordered eating and was co-authored by doctoral students Katerina Rinaldi and Molly Robins, as well as CoP faculty member Paula Brochu, Ph.D. This work led to the bases for an R16 SuRE grant submission at the end of May that emphasized the need for further construct validation and inquiry into potential biases underlying the measurement of interoceptive sensibility – a critical transdiagnostic factor in mental and physical well-being.

The Academy for Eating Disorders Annual Meeting this year was special for multiple reasons. It was the organization’s 30-year anniversary, and it represented a much-needed reunion of clinicians and researchers in the field of eating disorders after three years of pandemic-related virtual meetings where the meaningful networking and face-to-face connections cannot be replicated.

Paula Brochu, Ph.D., and Janell Mensinger, Ph.D., making connections with Canadian collaborator Sarah Nutter, Ph.D.; Denver collaborator Erin Harrop, Ph.D.; and Florida School of Professional Psychology doctoral candidate Alexis Dosal.

Our students benefitted tremendously from the networking opportunities afforded by this in-person annual event after beginning their academic careers during the throes of a global pandemic that thwarted these invaluable experiences.

In a related project, Mensinger led a paper recently published in a special issue of the journal Eating Behaviors titled “The Integration of Eating Disorders and High Body Weight (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1471015323000302). This work represents the first publication, co-authored by clinical psychology doctoral students (Benjamin Shepherd, Stevie Schapiro, and Yashvi Aware) and CoP colleague (Paula Brochu, Ph.D.) out of the new CHEERS lab (Connecting to Heal Eating distress with Empowerment and Resilience for all Sizes, https://cheerslab.wordpress.com).

Posted 06/18/23

Audiology Department Attends Orlando Special Olympics Games

The Special Olympics of Florida Summer Games returned this May for the first time in three years. A large part of the State Games includes the Healthy Athlete program, which provides those athletes with free health screenings, treatment, and access to necessary medical devices and education. The 2023 Summer Games provided the athletes with over 3,500 screenings across multiple disciplines ranging from vision, fitness, dental, and hearing, just to name a few.

From right, Karah Gottschalk, assistant professor of audiology; Jackie Davie, audiology professor; and Au.D. students, class of 2027, Kathryn Dziwulski, Tamara Blemur, Amanda Cole, Taylor Morales, Katelyn Jacobsen, and Carly Kosciolek, in front of Disney ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida.

Healthy Hearing has been a part of the Special Olympics Healthy Athlete program for many years, and the NSU Department of Audiology, has played an active role in the Healthy Hearing program since 2010.  This year was no exception. Jackie Davie, Ph.D., NSU audiology professor, and South Florida regional coordinator for Healthy Hearing program helped organize and run the event. She was joined by eight NSU Doctor of Audiology program students and fellow faculty member, Karah Gottschalk, Au.D., Ph.D., NSU audiology assistant professor, who all volunteered for the 2023 Summer Games at the ESPN Wide World of Sports near Orlando. The NSU students were joined by fellow audiology and speech pathology graduate and undergraduate students from across the state. In total, nearly 40 students and ten audiologists helped with the event.

Five hundred and twenty-five athletes had their hearing screened over the two-day event. In addition, about 100 athletes received ear cleanings thanks to faculty member Gottschalk and several of our students, while over 25 were identified as having significant hearing loss that can be helped with the use of hearing aids. The athletes with significant hearing loss were provided with vouchers through the Starkey Cares program. This program provides the athletes with free hearing aids and follow-up care. One athlete returned to the NSU Audiology clinic shortly after the games, where she was fit with her own hearing aids thanks to the Starkey Cares program.

Taylor Morales, Au.D. students, class of 2027, and Special Olympics athlete after a hearing screening.

The Healthy Athletes program can only continue to provide help to the underserved athletes and individuals with intellectual disabilities with the help of medical professionals and students. In addition, students gain valuable experience working with individuals with intellectual disabilities. The reward of service not only benefits the athletes, but it also benefits the volunteers.

If you would like to volunteer with the Healthy Athletes program, feel free to contact faculty member, Jackie Davie at Jackie.davie@nova.edu, for additional information.

Posted 06/18/23

NSU Juneteenth Event Features Breakfast Book-Reading, June 19

Learn more and find out at the NSU Belonging, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (BEDI) Advisory Council’s “Juneteenth with a Breakfast + Book Reading” discussion on Monday, June 19, at the Alvin Sherman Library from 9 to 11 a.m. Join us in-person or via Zoom in reading, On Juneteenth, by Annette Gordon-Reed.

The “Breakfast + Book Reading” of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annette Gordon-Reed’s 2021 book “On Juneteenth.” To discover more about the history of Juneteenth and African American cultural traditions and access the book in print, eBook, or as an e-audiobook, click here to access the BEDI library guide compiled by the Alvin Sherman Library.

For this event, we are excited to have a panel discussion facilitated and moderated by Ransford Edwards, Ph.D., associate professor of political science from the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, William Hawks, Ed.D., assistant professor of management from the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship, and Tamara Lumsden from Campus Life.

The event will take place at the Adolfo and Marisela Cotilla Gallery on the second floor of the Alvin Sherman Library on NSU’s Fort Lauderdale/Davie Campus. For those attending online, here is the Zoom link to participate, and we request that you fill out the registration form.

The first ten registrants will receive a free copy of the book, so register now! Find out more or quickly scan the QR code in the attached flyer. Please share this information to encourage participation in this celebratory event.

Please also visit the BEDI Advisory Council website for information about upcoming commemorative and BEDI-related events.

Posted 06/01/23

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