Tag: Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences

Professor Patricia Gaffney Receives Outstanding Educator Award

Patricia Gaffney, Au.D.

Each year, the American Academy of Audiology asks colleagues, friends, and mentees to look around their professional circles and recognize members who are deserving of recognition for outstanding service to audiology and the hearing sciences. This year, Patricia Gaffney, Au.D., was chosen as the 2023 recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award and the Department of Audiology could not be prouder!

Gaffney has distinguished herself as a superior professor in the Department of Audiology, where her demanding didactic courses, clinical supervision, and research mentorship have earned her high respect from her students and her faculty colleagues.

Gaffney has been teaching doctoral audiology students since her appointment to Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in 2007. She teaches multiple courses in vestibular science and amplification where she skillfully weaves theory to practice from classroom to clinic. In the clinical realm, Gaffney precepts students and provides care to patients in the NSU Audiology Clinic.  Most of her clinical focus is seeing adult and pediatric patients with vestibular complaints. This is where you can truly see Gaffney’s impact as students start translating what they have learned in the classroom to clinical practice.

Gaffney’s teaching philosophy is simple:

“Make our students into the best audiologists. When you produce good audiologists, that speaks for itself in the profession. The impact of well-trained audiologists is a continuous process because it means that patients will be treated in the way they need, and when the graduate become a preceptor, it will enhance the knowledge of the next generation of audiologists. Every day when I teach, that is in the forefront of my mind. This guides how I plan my semester, write lectures, precept students in the clinic, and counsel them.”

Gaffney represents the very best in education and we are all better for having been her colleague over the years.

Posted 03/05/23

Student Receives AOTF National Scholarship for Research

Claire Mireau

Claire Mireau, a Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences Ph.D. student in Occupational Therapy, was awarded the American Occupational Therapy Foundation’s (AOTF) Bonita Kraft Occupational Therapy (OT) Doctoral Student Scholarship for the year 2022-2023 for her dissertation project.

This scholarship recognizes outstanding emerging OT scientist acquiring their degree and pursuing research in the areas of mental health and serious mental health. Her project is titled: “Effectiveness of Occupational Therapy Services for Individuals with Co-Occurring Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders in Intensive Residential Treatment: A Retrospective Study.”

Claire has been working closely with her dissertation committee members – Rebecca Estes, Ph.D., OTR, dissertation chair (NSU), Steven Hecht, Ph.D., NSU professor, Department of Education, and Sally Wasmuth, Ph.D., OTR, Trustees of Indiana University. On April 2023, AOTF will announce the award at the upcoming State of the Science Symposium at the AOTA Conference.

Posted 03/05/23

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Week Features Several Events

NSU College of Dental Medicine; the University Advisory Council Member for Belonging, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion; and Humanism and Diversity Committee, honored Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday during their Third Annual Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Awareness Week January 17-20. The week emphasized the importance of maintaining and enhancing humanism, diversity, equity, and inclusion and a sense of belonging and providing informative and educational information and opportunity for students, faculty, and staff.

Below were the highlights of the event:

CDM BEDI Speakers Series Presentations

  • Topic: “Building Belonging: How Do We Do It, and Why is It Important”
    • Speaker: Robin Cooper, Ph.D. Cooper is the assistant dean/ professor of Conflict Resolution and Ethnic Studies with NSU’s Halmos College of Arts and Sciences
  • Topic: “The Impact of Implicit Bias and Cultural Humility in Patient-Centered Care”
    • Speakers: Archana Vatwani PT, DPT, Ed.D., MBA & Diana Cherkiss, MMS, MPH, PA-C. Vatwani is an associate professor with NSU’s Physical Therapy Department at Nova Southeastern University. Diana Cherkiss is an associate professor and the Academic Director of the Physician Assistant program at Nova Southeastern University

The Student “Diversity” Essay Competition was intended to increase awareness, promote understanding, and engage students in a discussion to help foster diversity and inclusion within our Dental Community. Danny Minh Nguyen, a D4 Dental Student, received the 2023 Diversity Essay competition First Place. He received the Dean’s Coin Award and a check for $500 presented by Dr. Steven Kaltman, dean of College of Dental Medicine, Dr. Hal Lippman, Executive Associate Dean of Operations, Dr. Aryia Amini, Director of CDM BEDI

CDM BEDI, SGA and Student Clubs presented Sock Drive to Benefit Local Homeless Shelters in our community

Posted 02/19/23

Health Care Sciences Faculty to Represent U.S. at International Meeting

Carole Zangari, Ph.D.

Carole Zangari, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, ASHA-F, BCS-CL, professor of Speech-Language Pathology, was elected to the Board of Directors for the U.S. Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (USSAAC). She also will serve as the liaison to the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC). Additionally, Zangari is the new Coordinator for ISAAC Region 1, which includes the U.S., Canada, Peru, and Brazil. These organizations work to improve the lives of children and adults with the most severe communication disabilities who are unable to meet their communication needs with speech alone.

For the past six years, Zangari has been actively involved with the USSAAC Disaster Relief efforts, helping nonspeaking people with ALS, autism, and developmental disabilities prepare for and recover from hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and other major disasters. The group’s activities support disaster preparedness and recovery across the US, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.

Zangari will represent the U.S. at the ISAAC biennial meeting in Mexico this summer. She has also been invited to present a pre-conference workshop entitled “Baby Steps: Fostering AAC and Language Development in Preschool Children.”

Posted 02/19/23

Health Care Sciences Faculty Receives Simulation Award

Melissa Morris, MSN, RN, CPN, CHSE

Melissa Morris, MSN, RN, CPN, CHSE, the director of simulation and interactive technology with the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences, recently received the Award for Research in the Field of Virtual Reality Simulation.

The honor was presented to Morris at the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare 2023 in Orlando on January 21-25.

The criteria considered for the award were:

  • How current is the research
  • Impact on patient care and learners and cost
  • Innovation (new or modified; how it is different from the current solutions)
  • Generalizability (how many programs/departments/professions can use it with success, (i.e., meeting outcomes)”

Morris was the primary investigator and team leader on this project.

Posted 02/06/23

Retreat Draws Fort Lauderdale, Tampa Bay Faculty Members

The Tampa Bay Regional Campus (TBRC) and Fort Lauderdale faculty met Friday, November 5, for a departmental retreat. The retreat highlights included discussions of Tampa Bay’s recent accreditation experience, team-building activities, a tour of the TBRC Occupational Therapy (OT) department, and the collective creation of our department’s vision board. Ricardo Carrasco Ph.D., OTR/L, FAOTA, program director, welcomed our team with a delicious homemade meal.

The following two days the OT faculty attended the annual Florida Occupational Therapy Association (FOTA) conference. The conference was sponsored and held at the TBRC. Eighteen faculty, from the department of occupational therapy, presented their poster, short courses, and/or workshops along with students from both Fort Lauderdale and TBRC campuses. A special thank you to Beverly Seredick Murphy, OT.D., OTR/L, assistant professor, for her efforts in coordinating with the FOTA representatives and NSU to make this event happen.

Overall, the conference attendees were impressed with the campus, presentations, classroom space, building technology, and labs. The conference provided a great opportunity to promote all OT programs.

Posted 12/12/22

PT Program Helps Provide Free Parkinson’s Course

NSU Tampa Bay’s Physical Therapy program teamed up with a local non-profit Parkinsonlife Corporation (pdLIFE) and provided a FREE Continuing Education Course on the rehabilitative management of individuals with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) on November 19 – 20, at the Tampa Bay campus.  The continuing education course included both presentation and lab sessions where individuals with PD allowed rehabilitation treatments to be practiced and applied.

Individual with PD allowing concepts to be applied.

The goal of the continuing education course was to train local therapists in the best practices of care for individuals with Parkinson’s Disease and increase the number of therapists in the bay area who can effectively treat individuals with PD.

Ryan Duncan D.P.T., PT, a researcher and faculty member at Washington University, presented to 30 Bay Area therapists, including alumni from the Tampa Bay D.P.T. program.  Parkinsonlife Corporation was founded and developed by Meredith Defranco, D.P.T., PT, during the pandemic and has continued to thrive.  Providing this continuing education course was one step in pdLife’s goal of establishing interdisciplinary care teams for the management of individuals with PD in the Tampa Bay area.

For more information, please visit Parkinsonlife Corporation (pdLIFE) at https://parkinsonlife.org/.

Posted 12/11/22

LEC Conference Connects, Engages, And Inspires

NSU’s Learning and Educational Center (LEC), under the direction LEC’s executive director, Diane Lippe, Ed.S., hosted a two-day virtual conference that showcased a variety of NSU educators presenting on a wide array of topics. The theme for the conference was, “Connect, Engage, Inspire,” and it gave NSU faculty and staff an opportunity to share their knowledge and practices with other educators at the university. Presentations covered teaching strategies, technology tools, BEDI (belonging, equity, diversity, and inclusion) practices, student engagement, and more. Some sample presentation titles were: “That’s Debatable: How to Create Better Writers Using Micro-Debates,” “Developing and Using Vision Statements to Enhance Course Design and Improve Student Outcomes,” and, “Connecting Faculty and Student (Re)Engagement with Relationship-Rich Education.”

Presenters represented the Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice, the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship, the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences, the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine, as  well as the Writing and Communication Center and the Learning and Educational Center. The conference also included two highly engaging presentations by Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs, Ron Chenail. According to conference organizer Marti Snyder, Ph.D., “Opportunities such as this year’s virtual conference facilitate sharing of teaching and learning best practices across NSU. We were thrilled to have 250 registered attendees representing all NSU colleges and many offices. We are grateful to our attendees, presenters, LEC staff, and the LEC Advisory Council for their contributions to this successful event.”

Congratulations to the Learning and Educational Center for organizing and hosting the 2022 Teaching and Learning Conference!    To watch the video recordings of the conference presentations, please visit the conference playlist here. You can also visit the Learning and Educational Center’s website here.

Posted 12/11/22

SLP Department Chair Featured for Community Service

The Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) Department is proud to announce that our department chair, Melissa Edrich, Ed.D. CCC-SLP, was featured in the Virtual Connections November 2022 newsletter.

Virtual Connections is a national network of providers and facilitators who offer online support groups to individuals with aphasia, a language disability that is a result of stroke or other brain injury. Edrich has been facilitating Virtual Connections groups since 2020. Individuals from around the world participate in these groups, seeking information and support. Virtual Connections is a service of an aphasia-focused technology company, Lingraphica, in partnership with an aphasia advocacy organization, Aphasia Recovery Connection.

Virtual Connections has been a source of education for NSU SLP students, who learn about the experience of living with a communication disability in many different locations and situations.

Free groups are provided thanks to the service of facilitators like Edrich, other NSU SLP faculty, and many others around the United States.

Posted 12/11/22

Physical Therapy Students Learn About Homelessness

According to the Florida Coalition to End Homelessness, Florida has the third largest homeless population in the U.S. behind California and New York.  With the cost of housing in S. Florida coupled with inflation, the demographics of the homeless are changing and numbers increasing.

Although the numbers are significant, curricula exposure of students to homelessness is minor at best.  As DPT students may encounter homeless individuals in their clinical experiences, dispelling stereotypes and providing opportunities for interaction and education have been integrated into the curriculum.

The Fort Lauderdale DPT program has partnered with the Broward Partnership for the Homeless (BPHI) at the Deerfield site,  as a component of the Integrated Clinical Education  (ICE) experiences.  Under the supervision of Isabella Preble, Community Relations Specialist, BPHI, and Debra Stern, PT, DPT, DBA, NSU, first year students are participating in the Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers volunteer program.

This Service Learning initiative is providing education about needs of the homeless of all ages; toddlers through aging adults, and the services available in Broward County.  Each student spends one afternoon in the fall semester learning, interacting, serving and preparing a meal for the 186+ residents of the center.

Posted 11/20/22

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