Category: SharkBytes

NSU Student Recognized as United Way National Volunteer

Samantha Rodriguez

April is National Volunteer Month and United Way of Broward County is celebrating by featuring volunteers who have gone above and beyond to make a difference in their community. One of those volunteers includes NSU doctoral candidate, Samantha Rodriguez. Samantha is a student in NSU’s Clinical Psychology program and serves as Coordinator of the First Responder and Research and Training program. At United Way, she is a volunteer trainer for the monthly Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) program offered to local law enforcement agencies.

CAHSS Doctoral Student Named First Full-time Ombudsman at University of Alabama at Birmingham

Alicia Booker, M.A.

Alicia Booker, M.A., doctoral candidate in the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies (DCRS) in NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) was named the first full-time University Ombudsman at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In her position, Booker works with faculty, staff, mentored graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. Previously, Booker served as the Associate Ombudsperson at University of Cincinnati.

Prior to coming to NSU to earn her doctoral degree, Booker earned her master’s degree in Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management from Southern Methodist University where she is also adjunct faculty. She is a member of the International Ombudsman Association and the International Facilitators Association.

NSU’s College of Pharmacy-Palm Beach Hosts First-Ever Virtual Pinning and Awards Ceremony

The NSU College of Pharmacy-Palm Beach Campus hosted their Pinning and Awards Ceremony for the Class of 2021 via Zoom. This annual event celebrates the end of the students’ classroom study before they leave campus to enter a full year of experiential learning, also referred to as Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs) or rotations. In attendance were students, their friends and families, as well as administration, faculty, and staff of the College.

Dean Michelle Clark, Ph.D., addressed the students, encouraging them to be a Shark while on APPEs and demonstrate what it means to have that “NSU edge”, while maintaining balance in their personal lives. Guest speaker, Victoria Scott, Pharm.D., clinical manager at Wellington Regional Medical Center, emphasized the importance of professionalism. She also reiterated the value in networking and the impact that involvement in professional organizations will have in advancing the role of the pharmacist. Others sharing their remarks were student leaders, Louis Schobel (’20) and Mahalia Sanon (’21).

The program ended with an Awards Ceremony that recognized students from the Class of 2021 for their academic achievements, determination, professionalism, and SharkSpirit, along with high performing leaders from sanctioned professional organizations of the College.

“Transitioning a major event like this into a virtual platform was not an easy undertaking, but the Pinning and Awards Ceremony is a pivotal achievement in pharmacy school and the students have earned the right to celebrate this milestone. Cancelling the event was not an option.” said Rochelle Nappi, Ed.D., the assistant dean of the college in the Palm Beach.

Link to video on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/NSUCOP/videos/877257062686686/

NSU Doctoral Student Makes a Difference in the Flint, Michigan Water Crisis

Crystal Chavez, doctoral student in the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies (DCRS) in NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS), has shown that one person can make a difference! After having selected and studied the Flint, Michigan, water crisis as a case study in a class taught by Robin Cooper, Ph.D., Chavez became determined to take action. She started with an education campaign and contacted organizations in Flint, including Trinity Baptist Church. She learned much from them about the situation, including about a donation of The Water Box from rap artist Jaden Smith. Delivered in June 2019, this allowed residents to fill up jugs of water from a portable filtered water system, but even more water was needed.

Chavez decided to launch a Go Fund Me page and was able to raise enough money to buy over 40,000 bottles of water to ship to Flint. She decided to travel to Flint to help hand out the water and meet the team from Trinity Baptist Church. On the day of distribution, there were lines of cars already wrapped around the church equal to ten long city blocks. She hopes to make a second trip to Flint with more water.

According to Chavez, “My studies at NSU have given me a greater purpose for the type of work I was born to do.  This will be a part of my legacy in this life.  I am grateful to Nova, Dr. Cooper, and the people of Flint for helping me realize that the gifts I want to give the world are the gifts of love, kindness, compassion, and generosity.”

Halmos Student and Faculty Publish Sea Grass Article in Conjunction with USGS

This spring, Halmos Graduate student Erin M. Smith, with principle investigator (PI) Amy Hirons, Ph.D., co-PIs Dimitrios Giarikos, Ph.D. and Andre Daniels published an article entitled, “Heavy Metal Accumulation in Seagrasses in Southeastern Florida” in the Journal of Marine Biology and Oceanography.

Seagrass beds are among the most ecologically important systems in the marine environment. Seagrass environments also serve as critical habitat at some point in the life cycle of many species targeted for recreational and commercial fishing, as well as a major food source in the coastal ecosystem, with over 154 marine species known to feed on living seagrass. This provides a pathway for contaminants in the seagrasses to enter the marine food web. This study assessed the heavy metal concentrations in the three main seagrass species found in southeastern Florida seagrass beds.

The results show that the seagrasses in southeastern Florida waters do contain various concentrations of heavy metals. Higher concentrations of heavy metals were found during the wet season, while Zinc in seagrasses was at significantly higher concentrations during the dry season. The research detected that heavy metals were highest in leaves with attached epiphytes. Epiphytes in marine systems are species of algae, bacteria, fungi, sponges, and any other sessile organism that grows on the surface of a plant, typically seagrasses or algae. These epiphytes on southeastern Florida seagrasses contribute to heavy metals.

Seagrass beds provide important habitat for a wide range of marine species. Especially important in south Florida is the impact these beds have on sea turtles and manatees.

Hirons and Giarikos are faculty with Halmos College. Daniels is with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) which is located in the NSU Center for Collaborative Research on the Fort Lauderdale/Davie campus.

Counseling Association Newsletter Publishes two Articles by NSU Students

Two graduate students from NSU College of Psychology M.S. in Counseling program recently wrote articles that were published in the Winter 2020 newsletter of the Florida Association for Multi-Cultural Counseling and Development (FAMCD) a division of the Florida Counseling Association.

An article by Bruce Steinberg titled “A Patchwork of Protections” covered the patchwork of civil rights that members of the LGBTQ+ community face in Florida due to a lack of protections at the state or federal level. An article by Alessandro Antonucci titled “Immigrants in Therapy: Unique Challenges, Extraordinary Resilience” discussed the challenges that immigrants and refugees face when settling and adjusting to life in a new country. Both articles emphasized the need for counselors to understand these issues while providing therapy to clients from diverse backgrounds.

Assistant Professor Justin Maki, Ph.D., LPC, NCC, encouraged his students to submit articles to the FAMCD newsletter.

“I’m very proud of both of these students and their contributions to the newsletter, as well as for representing NSU and the Department of Counseling,” Maki said.

To read the newsletter articles, visit https://bit.ly/2z1SM9Z.

Educating Today’s Youth in a Career in Respiratory Therapy

The Department of Cardiopulmonary Sciences hosted two Palm Beach County public schools to NSU’s Palm Beach campus. Both of these events were focused on educating middle and high school students about a career in respiratory therapy. Approximately 50 students from L.C. Swain Middle School and Inlet Grove High School, enrolled in Pre-Medical Sciences program through Palm Beach Public Schools who attended this year’s career event.

At the event the students developed experience performing CPR on a high-fidelity simulator, intubate mannequins with an artificial airway, listen to breath sounds, and check oxygen saturations. For the students it was a great opportunity to interact with NSU current Bachelor of Science in Respiratory Therapy students who assisted at various stations. They all were extremely engaged, and everyone seemed to enjoy the overall experience.

The teachers from both programs stated how grateful they were for this opportunity, and how they would like to schedule this again as a potential annual event. The need for respiratory therapists amplified in the present-day Covid-19 crisis to engage and manage ventilators, which made this event more important and captivating for future career events to all who attended.

Sea Turtles Able To Nest In Peace As COVID-19 Empties Broward Beaches

Orders to stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic mean people aren’t allowed on the beaches in Broward County. Derek Burkholder, Ph.D., Halmos College Research Scientist and director of the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program, explains there’s an upside to that for marine life:

“One of the things that we’re experiencing with having our beaches closed to the public, is that it does kind of open up opportunities for our sea turtles,” Burkholder said.

Three different types of sea turtles come to lay their eggs on Broward beaches: leatherbacks come first. There are about a dozen nests so far, Burkholder said. Any day now the loggerheads should start laying their eggs — they make up the most nests in Broward. Later in the season, green sea turtles will make some nest, too. Loggerheads that come ashore in Broward County usually leave about 50 percent of the time, Burkholder said.

“For whatever reason, maybe they don’t like the conditions, maybe there’s not enough sand or maybe there’s too bright a light, or somebody running down the beach with a camera taking their picture … something might spook them back into the water without laying a nest. That’s what we call a ‘false crawl,’ he said. “For me it’ll be interesting to see what the loggerheads do and if we get a higher nest ratio to the false crawls, without a lot of people out there … If you don’t have quite as much trash on the beach, if you don’t have as many beach chairs on the beach and things like that they’re running into, then we might see more favorable conditions for these animals.”

Even though the beaches are closed to the public, the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program will continue to monitor the 24 miles of beach every day.

NSU’s Faculty, Alumna, and Graduate Student Publish in WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship

Kelly Concannon and Janine Morris (CAHSS Associate and Assistant Professors), Writing & Communication Center Faculty Coordinators, along with CAHSS Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media Master’s student Nicole Chavannes and alumna Veronica Diaz (both WCC graduate assistant coordinators at the time) published “Cultivating Emotional Wellness and Self-Care through Mindful Mentorship in the Writing Center,” in WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship, vol. 44, no. 5-6.

Building from a month-long commitment to mindfulness and self care project conducted in fall 2018, the authors suggest how, “administrators can implement mindfulness practices,” and that “setting in motion mindfulness practices with writing center tutors cultivates more effective working relationships in [writing centers].” The article takes readers through a journey of practicing mindfulness through the eyes of the authors, as it goes on to detail the week by week experiences the four encountered. The article ends with strategies for bringing mindful mentorship into writing centers, such as encouraging communication and sharing self-care goals among each other.

“I enjoyed working with Dr. Morris, Dr. Concannon, and Nicole on this project. As our mentors, Dr. Morris and Dr. Concannon offered us continuous support in our efforts to establish our own mentorship responsibilities. Our work together on this project pushed me to reassess my understanding of personal and professional ‘self-care,’ and as a result, made me a more present mentor to my fellow consultants,” said Diaz.

Learn more about the M.A. in Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media here.

Halmos College Research Group Announces Publication of a Special Issue of Frontiers in Marine Science

The DEEPEND Consortium is excited to announce the publication of a special issue of Frontiers in Marine Science, focusing on the results of their research over the past 5 years. The special issue will be titled: “Deep-Pelagic Ecosystem Dynamics in a Highly Impacted Water Column: The Gulf of Mexico After Deepwater Horizon.” It begins with a description of DEEPEND, including the overall aims, approaches, and rationale for studying the patterns and processes of the oceanic Gulf of Mexico as related to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, followed by a detailed methodology paper, data from which the bulk of DEEPEND studies were derived.

Overarching topics in this 16-paper special edition include:

  • Pelagic community abundance and distribution (encompassing microbial biota, pelagic crustaceans, cephalopods, and fishes),
  • Time-series analysis (encompassing petrogenic contamination, assemblage structure, and population genetics),
  • Environmental drivers,
  • Taxonomy (new species discoveries), and
  • Trophic interactions.

These research papers also encompass cross-cutting themes of biodiversity, connectivity, behavior, diel vertical migration, carbon flux, the biological pump, anthropogenic impact, and the epipelagic zone as nursery habitat for both shallow- and deep-living taxa.

Halmos has two members on the issue’s editorial staff, Dr. Tracey Sutton (Lead Editor) and Dr. Joe Lopez (Contributing Editor). To learn more about DEEPEND’s Special Edition in Frontiers of Marine Science and to view the published articles, visit: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/10575/deep-pelagic-ecosystem-dynamics-in-a-highly-impacted-water-column-the-gulf-of-mexico-after-deepwater.

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