Author: iharrell

Facilities Management, Public Safety Perform Rain Rescues

When a crisis strikes, Nova Southeastern University’s many unsung heroes spring into action to ensure the safety of our campuses. This month’s heavy rain event was one such emergency, leaving vehicles stranded, parking lots flooded, and employees on a couple of our campuses stranded.

Oceanographic Campus in Dania Beach

Fort Lauderdale recorded almost 26 inches of rain in a 24-hour period on Wednesday, April 12, 2023, in what was called a “1-in-1,000-year rainfall event.” Fort Lauderdale officials said city’s stormwater system was only built to handle 3 inches of rain within 24 hours.

The rains caused chaos across Broward County, triggering abandoned cars, shuttered schools, and closure of Fort Lauderdale International Airport (FLL). FLL was forced to cancel hundreds of flights Wednesday and Thursday because of severely flooded runways. The airport reopened Friday morning, April 14.

Leading the charge in heading off disaster were Seth Mangasarian, the Physical Plant Director for the Office of Facilities Management; Paul E. Turner, the Director of Public Safety and Emergency Management; and Randall Seneff, Executive Director of Facilities Management.

While the Davie Campus experienced some abnormal flooding and a few disabled vehicles, the bigger issues were encountered on NSU’s East Campus at 3100 SW 9th Avenue in Fort Lauderdale and its Oceanographic Campus at 8000 North Ocean Drive in Dania Beach.

In an effort to get a jump on the developing situation, Jim Lambe, NSU’s Associate Director of Technology & Communications, sent out several alerts on the SaferWatch app, three hours ahead of flood issues.

“We urge the NSU Community to get the SaferWatch app,” Turner said. “It’s the primary vehicle for sending out alerts.”

Within a 15-hour period, NSU’s emergency team rescued a total of 34 people at the oceanography and east campuses. According to Mangasarian, Turner, and Seneff, it took a village to save the village. The three commended the many people who joined in the effort to secure the safety of others:

  • Ulises Roque and Julio Rojas joined Mangasarian to help at the Oceanographic Campus.
  • Kirsten Green and Michael Walsh joined Turner at the East Campus
  • Mallica Reynolds and Anna Ramirez-Clero help stem the tide of flooding at Museum of Art Building in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Public Safety Officer Leonard Rauch was also involved.

In some cases, the team had to help others shelter in place, transport people from buildings, and in one case they provided help and shelter to a random motorist who had just had surgery and found herself trapped with her son near the East Campus.

At the Oceanographic Campus, 14 people were initially stranded. Roque, Rojas, and Mangasarian rescued nine people over two trips. Five researchers decided to remain on the campus, and the team secured the area and allowed them to stay under the watchful eye of Public Safety Officer Andy Dany.

“The entire work of the team was amazing,” Mangasarian said. “There were a lot of great things that happened that night, from an outstanding facilities team.”

Many thanks as well to all the people who had personal damages and losses yet persevered to protect their homes and families and continue their dedicated work for NSU.

Posted 04/23/23

Program Founder/Adjunct Professor Receives PA Award

Michael Caplan

Michael Caplan, M.S., PA-C, the founder of the certificate in Emergency Medicine program, and adjunct faculty at the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences in the Department of Health Science, was presented the Physician Assistant of the Year 2022 Award for the southeast region.

The certificate program in emergency medicine is for physician assistants who are interested in obtaining specialized education in emergency medicine to prepare them for a position in a high-acuity emergency department.

Posted 04/23/23

Student Studies Harmful Algal Blooms in Lake Okeechobee

Paisley Samuel

Lake Okeechobee (or Lake O) can be considered “Florida’s Inland Sea,”, as it is  the largest lake in the southeastern United States and is located at the center of Florida’s Everglades ecosystem. Before heavy development in the 19th century, Lake O provided freshwater to the Everglades ecosystem to its south. Now the lake has been permanently altered by a series of major drainage projects which allow canals to drain the water to sustain large South Florida urban communities and agriculture.

Unfortunately, because of the increasing development, nutrient pollution and degrading water quality, cyanobacterial based harmful algal blooms (or cyanoHABs) have now become a common occurrence in Lake Okeechobee. In recent decades, these bloom events have increased in both abundance and prevalence.  However, unequivocal causes for the blooms have not yet been identified.

Four years ago, the molecular microbiology and genomics (MMG) laboratory at the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Center (GHOC) and the Department of Biological Sciences (DoBS) in Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS)  was commissioned to investigate the microbial community structure of HABs through a grant from the Army Corp of Engineers, Aquatic Nuisance Species Research Program (ANSRP). Working with the colleagues at the Florida Gulf Coast and the US Geological Society, the MMG has now generated millions of DNA sequence reads of the freshwater bacterial communities from 19 sites around Lake O.

“The samples were taken during active blooms and also more quiescent periods for comparison over the last three years,” says Paisley Samuel, a marine science master’s student.

She will soon graduate from Halmos and the MMG laboratory, as well present a portion of her thesis research in a talk titled  “Effects of Cyanobacteria Harmful Algal Blooms on the Microbial Community within Lake Okeechobee, FL” to a professional audience at this year’s Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration (GEER) meeting in Coral Springs (https://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/geer/).  Her attendance at the meeting was generously sponsored by the South Florida and Caribbean Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (SFC CESU) which “was established in 2000 under the leadership of the Department of the Interior and has led to the partnership of nine federal agencies and 21 academic institutions and non-government organizations.”

“Ms. Samuel has done a masterful job at generating the data in the laboratory and then carefully learning various computational methods to analyze the large volumes of digital sequence data. This has now produced a coherent and interesting story about microbial community dynamics that could affect cyanoHABs on the lake”, says Dr. Jose (Joe) Lopez, a professor and director the MMG Laboratory.

Posted 04/23/23

Lab Finds Differences between Port and Reef Sediments

Port Everglades

Marine ports can be very busy places. From the vantage point of NSU’s Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (GHOC), one can easily observe and be part of the boat traffic going in and out of Port Everglades Inlet (PEI). This includes small and large recreational vehicles, Coast Guard patrols, sleek and modern looking yachts, huge tankers, and cargo vessels, loaded with oil or other commodities, and of course cruise ships ferrying passengers to good times in the Caribbean.

All this activity contributes to PEI being one of the busiest ports in the SE United States, which started almost a century ago in 1928.  The human activities also set the port physically apart from nearby natural habitats, which our laboratory has corroborated by profiling the marine sediments from both port and nearby coral reef sites. Molecular microbiology analyses provide some stark contrasts.   “Although most of the sites are within a few kilometers from each other, and are connected by daily tidal flows, the port and reef microbial communities showed distinct characteristics which were statistically significant.”, says Jose (Joe) Lopez, Ph.D., a professor with a laboratory at the GHOC and the Department of Biological Sciences in Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS).

The study was analyzed and co-written by Lopez and affiliate NSU faculty, Lauren Krausfeldt, Ph.D., and published in the open access online journal PeerJ.  With the help of dedicated NSU students, like Catherine Bilodeau and Hyo Lee, and project initiation by former FL Dept of Environmental Protection manager, Shelby Casali, molecular microbiological methods, now routine in the field, were applied to uncover the details of which microbes live in nearshore or port sediments.  The universal gene used to identify bacteria, is called 16S rRNA, which has been previously used to characterize other samples ranging widely from shark and human teeth, octopus skin, sponge and anglerfish tissue in the GHOC molecular microbiology laboratory run by Lopez.

In the Port Everglades study, NSU researchers found that some photosynthetic cyanobacterial group abundances decreased in the reef sediments in 2021, which could indicate changing irradiance reaching sensitive corals and other symbiotic hosts that depend on sunlight.

The new PeerJ study on marine sediments has potential ramifications on local coral reef health, because routine dredging and other human activities can stir up port sediments that ultimately disperse and settle on nearby coral reef habitats.  This data, along with previous microbial research in the Lopez laboratory describing water quality provides useful baselines that can be used by local environmental managers.

Posted 04/23/23

Students Selected for Institute for Future Scientists in O.T.

Lanoris Parker

Each year, the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), and the American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF), selects 20 participants from a nationwide pool of promising entry-level occupational therapy students for the Institute for Future Scientists in Occupational Therapy.

During the first AOTA/AOTF institute, OT class of 2017 student Bryce Carsone Smith, represented the NSU Tampa Bay O.T.D. program. This year, two NSU of the selected twenty participants include entry-level O.T.D. students, Lanoris Parker­–Fort Lauderdale, and Deborah Kofsky–Tampa Bay.

First year O.T.D. student Lanoris Parker was a personal trainer prior to entering the O.T.D. program, and upon graduation with a Masters in Kinesiology, received a commission with the US Army Medical Specialty Corps as an Army Reserve Second Lieutenant. His interest is in learning about the interconnectedness of physical activity, brain science, and occupational therapy. Due to lack of resources and inadequate teaching and aware of health disparities, he is motivated to participate in occupational science and help elevate research to improve mental health and fight against the rise of mental disorders.

Deborah Kofsky

Deborah Kofsky, fourth year O.T.D. student, is completing her final clinical rotation and doctoral capstone experience for her OTD degree. Her academic performance is marked with grades on the top 5% of her cohort, and qualified her for scholarships, including repeat awards of the NSU Chancellor’s scholarship.  She completed the rigorous 6-sequence OTD research curriculum, capped with a podium and poster presentation and a manuscript for submission to a juried publication. In addition, she served a one-year internship with the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Rehabilitation and Disability Special Interest Section supporting initiatives for community-based activities.

The future scientists will participate during in-person sessions at the AOTA INSPIRE Annual Conference & Expo in Kansas City, Missouri, when they will be matched with leading occupational therapy scientists to address topics such as possibilities within OT science, considerations when evaluating potential doctoral programs, and career opportunities as a scientist. The facilitators and mentors of the will be composed of faculty and doctoral/post-doctoral students from established research programs around the nation.

Hopefully, both Deborah and Lanoris will achieve the purpose of the AOTA/AOTF Institute for Future Scientists, which include being part of a group of potential scientists, connecting with other potential entry-level scientists with mentors in the occupational therapy scientific community, and developing a peer scientific network.

Posted 04/23/23

Congresswoman Tours NSU Center for Collaborative Research

From left, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz; Jean Latimer, Ph.D., director of the AutoNation Institute for Breast Cancer Research and Care; Ken Dawson, NSU’s senior vice president for Research and Economic Development; and NSU Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Dr. Harry K. Moon.

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz recently toured NSU’s Center for Collaborative Research. While on campus, she visited the AutoNation Institute for Breast Cancer Research and Care as well as the Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine.

Posted 04/23/23

USchool Students Compete at State Science and Engineering Fair

After earning 1st place at the regional science and engineering fair, eighth graders Adam Ginsburg and Samuel Mays were invited to compete at the State Science and Engineering Fair of Florida where they once again earned top recognition for their projects. Join us in congratulating Adam for coming in 4th place and Samuel for winning honorable mention.

Adam and Samuel were among more than 900 aspiring engineers, scientists, and mathematicians from across Florida to have their projects evaluated at the state-level competition.

Way to represent USchool!

Learn more about NSU University School’s college preparatory program for students in Preschool – Grade 12 at www.uschool.nova.edu.

Posted 04/23/23

Here Are the Winners of the 2023 STUEYs

NSU’s Division of Student Affairs proudly introduces the winners of the 25th Annual Student Life Achievement Awards (most commonly referred to as the STUEYs). This annual celebration recognizes students, faculty, staff, corporate partners, and alumni who have contributed to building a greater sense of community and campus life.

Please join us to congratulate this year’s winners and they are:

  • Sean Stanton, Abraham S. Fischler College of Education & School of Criminal Justice: Student of the Year (Overall)
  • Lohitha Guntupalli, B.S., NSU Tampa Campus: Regional Campus Student of the Year
  • College of Optometrists in Vision Development, College of Optometry: Graduate Organization of the Year
  • Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, INC. The Gamma Alpha Delta Chapter, Division of Student Affairs: Undergraduate Organization of the Year
  • College of Psychology Student Government Association, College of Psychology: Student Government of the Year
  • 2021-2022 Men’s Basketball Team, Athletics: Athletic Team of the Year
  • Monica Puga, MSN, Ron and Kathy Assaf College of Nursing: Alumni of the Year
  • Ester Costa, Halmos College of Arts and Sciences: Juan Pablo Correa Memorial Scholarship 2023
  • Toni Spadaro, Barry and Judy Silverman College of Pharmacy: Staff Person of the Year
  • Rodrigue Colas, Ed.D., Facilities Management: Administrator of the Year
  • Paula Brochu, Ph.D., College of Psychology: Co-Curricular Adviser of the Year
  • Van Horn Law Group (Chad Van Horn, ESQ.), Shepard Broad College of Law: Corporate Partner of the Year
  • Aarti Raja, Ph.D., Halmos College of Arts and Sciences: Professor of the Year
  • Linda S. Rouse, O.D., College of Optometry: Executive of the Year

Student of the Year by Academic Unit

  • Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice: Sean Stanton
  • College of Computing and Engineering: Major Gray
  • College of Dental Medicine: Jim Skaff
  • College of Optometry: Janelle Gardner, B.S.
  • Barry and Judy Silverman College of Pharmacy: Abigail Sundberg
  • College of Psychology: Catalina Uribe, M.S.
  • Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine: Lexi Frankel
  • Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine: Lauren Taylor, B.S.
  • Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences: Sarah Repasky
  • Farquhar Honors College: Alexandra Lugo
  • Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship: Daelan Mangiafico, B.S.
  • Halmos College of Arts and Sciences: Olivia Singleton
  • Ron and Kathy Assaf College of Nursing: Kelly Campbell, MSN
  • Shepard Broad College of Law: Summer Book
  • NSU University School: Sunny Suaya

Dental Medicine Faculty Member Receives Advocate Award

Aryia Amini, D.M.D.

Aryia Amini, D.M.D., from NSU’s College of Dental Medicine was the recipient of the 2023 American Student Dental Association (ASDA) “Advocate Award.”

ASDA is a national student-run organization that protects and advances the rights, interests, and welfare of dental students. The organization strives to inform students about the issues impacting their profession and provides opportunities to advocate for their rights as future dentists.

Today, ASDA has more than 23,000 student members, located in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

The “Advocate award” recognizes faculty/school administrators who have shown a commitment to dental students and organized dentistry.

Amini currently serves as:

  • NSU College of Dental Medicine Belonging, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (BEDI), Director
  • NSU BEDI University Advisory Council, Executive Committee Member
  • NSU College of Dental Medicine, Predoctoral Clinical Lead
  • NSU College of Dental Medicine Humanism and Diversity Committee , Chair
  • NSU College of Dental Medicine Humanism and Diversity eNewsletter, Editor
  • NSU College of Dental Medicine BEDI Newsroom, Editor
  • NSU College of Dental medicine Introduction to Dental Profession, Course Director
  • NSU College of Dental Medicine Practice Management, Course Director

Posted 04/23/23

USchool Students Earn Top Awards in Chinese Competition

Congratulations to the following Middle and Upper School students who earned top awards in their respective categories at the 17th Annual Florida Statewide Chinese Competition!

In addition to the awards listed below, seventh grader Lal Y. placed first in the Middle School Advanced Level Creative Project category and seventh grader Nazar A. placed second. Our Middle School team also placed second in the jeopardy competition.

Middle School Advanced Level Individual Listening, Speaking and Reading Competition:

  • Nazar A.: Superior in speaking, Superior in reading and Superior in listening
  • Lal Y.: Superior in speaking, Outstanding in reading, and Excellent in listening
  • Alexey K.: Excellent in speaking, Excellent in reading, Excellent in listening

Middle School Intro Level Individual Listening, Speaking and Reading Competition:

  • Xavier M.: Superior in speaking, Outstanding in reading and Outstanding in listening
  • Sebastian M.: Outstanding in speaking, Outstanding in reading, Outstanding in listening
  • Brandon C.: Superior in speaking, Excellent in reading and Outstanding in listening
  • Liam M.: Superior in speaking, Good in reading and Excellent in listening
  • Zack W.: Superior in speaking, Excellent in reading and Good in listening
  • Jake S.: Outstanding in speaking, Excellent in reading and Excellent in listening

Upper School Level 2 Individual Listening, Speaking and Reading Competition:

  • Savva S.: Superior in speaking, Outstanding in reading, Outstanding in listening
  • Martina L.: Superior in speaking, Superior in reading, Superior in listening
  • Victoria R.: Superior in speaking, Outstanding in reading, Superior in listening
  • Andrew L.: Outstanding in speaking, Excellent in reading, Outstanding in listening
  • Jeffrey Z.: Superior in speaking, Superior in reading, Superior in listening
  • Dean R.: Outstanding in speaking, Superior in reading, Superior in listening

Upper School Level 3 Individual Listening, Speaking and Reading Competition:

  • Chase R.: Outstanding in speaking, Excellent in reading, Superior in listening
  • Maddie G.: Superior in speaking, Outstanding in reading, Outstanding in listening

Learn more about NSU University School’s college preparatory program for students in Preschool – Grade 12 at www.uschool.nova.edu.

Posted 04/23/23

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