Tag: Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences

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

Audiology Department Offers Care to Special Needs Athletes

On Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022, the Audiology Department continued its long history with Special Olympics of Florida by providing hearing care to athletes with special needs.

Students from the second-year class tested the athletes’ hearing. Those athletes who were found to have permanent hearing loss were evaluated for new hearing aids.

Hearing aids will be provided through the Starkey Cares program, which has partnered with Special Olympics International for the past year.  Eight athletes were evaluated with four of them needing new amplification.

Thank you to the students and faculty who participated in the event.

Posted 11/06/22

Sports Science Master’s Student Interns at INTER MIAMI CF

Sigourney Kame at the INTER MIAMI FC Training facility.

Sigourney Kame, who is a sports science master’s student of the Department of Health and Human Performance (HHP) in the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences, recently completed a valuable internship as a sports performance coach at INTER MIAMI CF, which is a Major League Soccer (MLS) professional soccer team located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  This opportunity was facilitated by Tobin Silver, Ph.D., internship coordinator, professor of Health and Human Performance program.

Sigourney Kame with David Beckam, co-owner of INTER MIAMI FC.

Sigourney’s primary role as a sports performance intern consisted of leading the activation exercises before the team’s practice, perform the team’s dynamic warm-up and cooldown, assist the head coach with the sport-specific on-field warm-up and lead the team’s upper-body, lower-body, and full-body strength training. She was also responsible for tracking the GPS–STAT-Sports of the players and create a report displaying various sports science data such as the running speeds, metabolic loads, accelerations, decelerations, and distance traveled.

Sigourney had an amazing experience at INTER MIAMI FC and learned a lot from the sports performance coaches and was able to use here scientific knowledge in a practical manner. She was also very privileged to meet one of the team owners, David Beckam. She said, “It was a true honor to have met David Beckam and have a brief conversation with him. He treats everyone with the utmost respect and kindness and is an amazing professional I definitely look up to.”

Sigourney, who started her master’s here at Nova Southeastern University within the sport science department in Fall 2021 is set to graduate this Fall 2022 semester with her Master of Science in Sports Science degree and is super excited to what the future holds.

She further said, “My experience within the Sports Science department was fantastic. The sports science department consists of very knowledgeable professors who are all active and respected within the Sports Science field, always open to guide students with any career advice needed and help open doors for them. The faculty who prepared me for this opportunity include Dr. Corey Peacock, Dr. Tobin Silver, Dr. Monique Mokha, Dr. Jose Antonio and Dr. Anthony Ricci.  They were very influential to my personal and professional growth.”

Posted 10/23/22

Book Drive Benefits Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Awareness

From left, Amanda Perry, student in the Master of Science in speech-language pathology, Raquel Garcia, assistant professor of the Department of Speech Language Pathology, and Vanessa Lewinsky, student in the Master of Science in speech-language pathology.

September was Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) awareness month. The NICU is a critical care unit that services premature infants, as young as 21 weeks gestational age, and term infants with a variety of medical conditions. Reading to babies in the NICU has been shown to support baby’s brain growth, motoric development, and sensory experiences. Additionally, it promotes parent bonding, reduces infants/parental stress, and creates positive sensory experiences for the developing infant.

Raquel Garcia, SLP.D., CCC-SLP, CLC, CNT, BCS-S, an assistant professor in the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences Department of Speech-Language Pathology, is a trained speech-language pathologist, and certified neonatal therapist. She completed a social media drive for board books to donate to community hospitals in honor of NICU awareness month.

Garcia’s goal was to collect 30 board books in 30 days. By October 1, 2022, Garcia collected more than 250 board books in English, Spanish, and Haitian-Creole. Garcia has already donated 50 board books to hospitals impacted by Hurricane Ian, Tampa General Hospital, and University Hospital on NSU’s Campus.

Interested in learning more about reading in the NICU and/or donating board books to Dr. Garcia, please email her at rw602@nova.edu.

Posted 10/23/22

College Hosts Site for Health Professions Regional Summit

ASAHP participants in collaborative working groups.

The NSU College of Health Care Sciences under the direction of Elizabeth Swann, Ph.D., ATC, FNAP, on June 3, 2022, hosted one of three sites for the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions (ASAHP) Regional Summit.

From left, Elizabeth Swann, Ph.D., ATC, FNAP, executive director of the Center for Interprofessional Education and Practice, and Kristian Poitier, M.H.S.M., M.B.A, R.N., B.S.N., assistant vice president of the Academic Engagement and Strategies HCA East Florida Division.

This was an unprecedented engagement and collaboration between academic institutions and healthcare organizations joining together to create actions that will yield better health outcomes for patients. HCA Healthcare was our industry partner that provided discussion and feedback during the Summit.

Using the ASAHP Clinical Education Task Force recommendations as a foundation, more than 100 participants at the three locations engaged in intentional conversation about issues within the healthcare systems and what actions can be taken to make things better. Approximately 2/3 of summit participants came from ASAHP member academic institutions and 1/3 came from regional clinical partner organizations.

Throughout the day, each hub brainstormed on actionable ways to bring the patient voice more to the forefront and improve overall health outcomes. Ideas included– finding common ground and language to create a culture of collaboration, finding creative touchpoints for clinical rotations and mentoring, increasing student input, combining resources to increase productivity, and maintaining strong personal connections with patients and families despite expanded use of technology. The summit culminated in a virtual “Harvest Session”, where the three hubs shared their local dialogue on a national level.

Anthony Breitbach, Ph.D., ATC, FASAHP, FNAP, chair of ASAHP’s Interprofessional Task Force at Saint Louis University said, “By bringing healthcare practitioners into the conversation with academic institutions, we are able to have a measurable impact on the training for health care workers of the future.” After this successful event the college of Health Care Sciences is already working toward hosting the summit in 2023.

Posted 10/23/22

College Provides Evaluation for Florida Panthers Hockey Club

Faculty, alumni, and students, working with the Florida Panthers Hockey Club.

Faculty, students, and alumni from the Department of Health and Human Performance (HHP) in the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences, recently provided the NHL’s Florida Panthers Hockey Club with preseason physical assessments.

Corey Peacock overseeing students as they test for isometric strength.

Students of the Sports Science (M.S.) and Exercise and Sport Science (B.S) programs assisted Corey Peacock, Ph.D., associate professor, and Tobin Silver, Ph.D., professor, in supporting the Florida Panthers’ Sports Performance Team with physical metric testing. The students had an opportunity to complete hands-on physical assessments of strength, power, body composition and aerobic capacity while being provided direction by Mike Joyce, Florida Panthers head strength and conditioning coach, and Tim Wittenauer, Florida Panthers director of sports performance & rehabilitation. Silver and Peacock have provided this opportunity to students for nearly a decade.

Angie Dusak, M.S.S.S. graduate student, said, that she was “very appreciative for this great experience provided by the faculty at Nova Southeastern University, as this provided valuable networking and interactive learning in this field of sports science.” Additionally, the students and staff were able to review the data and understand the application of performance testing. Silver said, “the students learn so much about how an interdisciplinary sports medicine staff operates. They already have a great foundation of knowledge established from the Exercise Science curriculum. This provides an amazing hands-on opportunity to test that foundation of knowledge in professional sports.”

Posted 10/09/22

Physical Therapy Student Gets ASAHP Scholarship of Excellence

Haley Sweeney

Haley Sweeney, fourth-year physical therapy student in the Hybrid Doctor of Physical Therapy program at NSU’s Tampa campus recently received a Scholarship of Excellence Award from the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions (ASAHP).

Sweeney is originally from Wentzville, Mo., and obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Athletic Training in 2014.

She says she had a passion for continuing her education in order to best serve her athletes and went on to pursue her Master of Science in Exercise Physiology at the University of Central Florida. After working as a collegiate athletic trainer for a few years, she found that her favorite part of her job was taking the athletes through the rehabilitation process.

Through her experiences, she was drawn to continuing her education and obtaining her doctorate degree in physical therapy in order to make a larger impact. Her goal upon graduation is to work in sports medicine, helping athletes of all ages and stages of life recover from injury in order to live an active and fulfilling life.

Posted 10/09/22

Dietician Draws Educational Inspiration From Grandma

Nadine Mikati, Ph.D., RDN, LDN

Often immigration stories paint the picture of people who leave unrest in foreign lands, find sanctuary in the United States, and pursue the American dream. But for Nadine Mikati, Ph.D., RDN, LDN, an associate professor in nutrition at Nova Southeastern University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, things went a bit in reverse at first.

Mikati’s family is from Beirut, Lebanon. As a civil war raged there in the mid-1970s to 1990, her grandmother emigrated to the Michigan – followed by her parents – before Mikati was born. When she was 7, her parents decided to return to Beirut with her and her two sisters.

“It was a tough transition since I was used to parks, my friends, my school, communicating in English and then I went to live in a city that, at that time, had no parks for children,” she said. “I did not have any friends and I could barely speak the language then.”

It was one of those early moments in Mikati’s life that reinforced the importance of family and education.

“Little by little, with the help of my family and my school, I was speaking Arabic very well and got used to the system there,” she said. “And we would always go to Michigan and visit my grandma.”

Although her older sister Mira moved back to the U.S. after high school to attend college, Mikati stayed behind and earn her bachelor’s degree at American University in Beirut. It was there that she got her first taste of a possible career in promoting, teaching, and researching health eating habits.

“When I started my education journey back in 2003 in Lebanon, barely anyone had heard of a dietitian,” she said. “I was doing a college tour when I was exposed to nutrition as a major and immediately it resonated with me.”

Mikati obtained her B.S. degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from the American University of Beirut with distinction. She then left Lebanon and earned an M.S. degree in Nutrition and Food Science from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

Her passion for learning led her to complete a Ph.D. degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from Florida International University where her research primarily focused on obesity prevention.

Mikati designed and implemented an after-school intervention for children aged 6-11 to promote healthy eating habits and physical activity. As a Registered Dietitian, she has various experience in food service, clinical and community nutrition and was named Registered Young Dietitian of the Year in 2009 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Mikati has been teaching for more than a decade and September will mark three years with NSU. She says teaching has been something that has been ingrained in her since she was young.

“It all started as a kid,” she said. “I had a blackboard at home, and I would put all my stuffed toys as if they were sitting in a classroom and I would lecture them about the topic of the day. Flash forward to grad school, in 2007, I was offered the opportunity to become an instructor. It felt very natural to teach. Fifteen years later, here I am still teaching but now as a professor.”

On the research front, Mikati focuses on chronic disease prevention/management, food security and nutrition interventions for overall well-being. She says one of her shining moments has been a recent project she conducted at NSU.

“I received a quality-of-life grant from NSU,” she said. “We partnered up with two community organizations for this project and had students involved. The aim was to help individuals with chronic disease learn how to cook and eat better to lead a healthier lifestyle.”

Results of the project will be presented in a poster at a national conference in October.

“The satisfaction that I got from the participants at the end of the study, thanking us for this opportunity, reminded me of why I do what I do,” she said.

Nadine Mikati and her grandmother on Belle Isle in Detroit.

When Mikati reflects on her life, her career, and her educational ambitions, she fondly recalls her late grandmother’s inspiration and how grateful she is that her grandmother (who she calls “Teta”) decided to move to the U.S. many years ago.

“Teta was my role model. She learned English as an adult and became an unofficial translator for her neighbors in Michigan,” she said. “She also birthed nine children and so you can imagine how many cousins I have. I think all of us at some point lived with her. She would always push us all to get the best education.”

Posted 08/28/22

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