Kudos

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Awards and Honors

L. Maximilian Buja, M.D., executive vice president for academic affairs and holder of the Distinguished Chair in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and George Stancel, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) and the John P. McGovern Endowed Professor in the Biomedical Sciences, have been reappointed to the board of the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library for 2006-07. Alternates are Irma Gigli, M.D., deputy director of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases, holder of the Hans J. Müller-Eberhard Chair in Immunology, and the Walter and Mary Mischer Distinguished Professor in Molecular Medicine, and Gwin Morris, Ph.D., vice president for institutional advancement.

Kamal Busaidy, D.D.S., clinical assistant professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery, Dental Branch (DB), has received a Faculty Educator Development Award from the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Foundation of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. A career development award for junior faculty, only four such awards are given annually nation-wide.

DB Dean Catherine M. Flaitz, D.D.S., the William N. Finnegan III Development Board Professor in the Dental Sciences, was among a select number of oral health leaders chosen to attend a forum June 23 to discuss the improvement of oral health through collaborations with key community health agencies during the American Dental Education Association-Maternal Child Health Bureau Head Start Forum.

James Grotta, M.D., chairman of the Department of Neurology, Medical School (MS), and holder of the Roy M. and Phyllis Gough Huffington Distinguished Chair, was a guest of honor Aug. 7 at “Music Heals,” a Greater Houston Area Chamber, Solo and Ensemble Competition at the Alley Theatre. A portion of the proceeds from this event, sponsored by the Be the Light Foundation, was earmarked for the American Heart Association to increase awareness and prevention of heart disease.

Barry D. Kahan, Ph.D., M.D., director of the Division of Immunology and Organ Transplantation, MS and GSBS, was presented with an honorary doctorate June 22 at Warsaw University in Warsaw, Poland. Kahan was honored for his development of immunosuppressants and for innovations in the biology of transplant tolerance.

Heidi Kaplan, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, MS and GSBS, has been elected as vice chair of the American Society of Microbiology Conference on Cell-Cell Communication in Bacteria. After a year in this position, she will succeed to the chairmanship.

Brent King, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, MS, was elected secretary/treasurer of the Association of Academic Chairs in Emergency Medicine (AACEM). In most cases, those elected to this position progress to the presidency of the organization over a period of three years. The AACEM is organized as a committee of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, whose mission is to foster emergency medicine’s academic environment in research, education and health policy through forums, publications, inter-organizational collaboration, policy development and consultation services for teachers, researchers and students.

Richard Knight, M.D., associate professor of surgery and chief of the Solid Organ Pancreas Transplant Service, MS, was appointed to the Pancreas Transplantation Committee of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network /United Network for Organ Sharing (OPTN/UNOS). UNOS manages the nation’s OPTN under contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Division of Transplantation. The OPTN brings together medical professionals, transplant recipients and donor families to develop organ transplantation policy.

Theresa Koehler, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, MS and GSBS, has been selected to serve on the editorial board of the Journal of Bacteriology.

Michael Lorenz, Ph.D., assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, MS and GSBS, has been selected to serve on the editorial board of Eukaryotic Cell.

Marianne Marcus, Ph.D., the John P. McGovern Professor in Addiction Nursing, School of Nursing (SON), has been appointed to two state advisory committees. Governor Rick Perry appointed her to the Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral and Treatment Grant Steering Committee to advise on the $17 million grant to Harris County for implementing activities in the hospital district. Eduardo J. Sanchez, M.D., commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, appointed her to the Drug Demand Reduction Advisory Committee to advise the legislature on drug policy issues.

Pedro Ruiz, M.D., professor and vice chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, MS, was made an Honorary Fellow of the Egyptian Psychiatric Association and delivered the Okasha Lecture at Ain Shams University July 6 in Cairo, Egypt.

Presentations

As part of the International Program of the School of Medicine of the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, Mexico, Jeffrey Actor, Ph.D., associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, MS and GSBS, gave a series of 10 seminars to medical students May 28-June 3. The presentations featured multiple aspects of medical and clinical immunology, including basic mechanisms of immune response as related to inflammation and mechanisms for host protection against pathogens.

Several SON faculty members presented research at the Sigma Theta Tau 17th International Nursing Research Congress in Montreal, Quebec, Canada:

Nancy Busen, Ph.D., associate professor of nursing for target populations, presented “Facilitating Risk-Reduction Among Homeless Youth” in the July 20 podium session on Issues in Child and Adolescent Health.
Sandra K. Hanneman, Ph.D., the Jerold B. Katz Distinguished Professor in Nursing Research; Nikhil S. Padhye, Ph.D., assistant professor, Center for Nursing Research; and Kortney Green, a former Honors Program student, presented “Ethnic Differences in Salivary Cortisol of Doctoral Nursing Students” in the July 22 podium session on Cultural Influences in Healthcare.

Kristin Ownby, Ph.D., assistant professor of nursing for target populations, SON, and three others presented a series of workshops about peripheral neuropathy in Milwaukee in April; Portland, Maine, in June; Oakland, Calif., in July; and Seattle, Wash., in August. The workshop, called “Show Me the Evidence,” was sponsored by the Oncology Nursing Society. It included evidencebased practice guidelines for the prevention and management of four common symptoms.

Publications

Joan Engebretson, Dr.P.H., professor of nursing for target populations, SON, coauthored the article “Photovoice as a Social Process of Critical Consciousness,” which appeared in Qualitative Health Research. First author is Elizabeth Carlson, D.S.N., alumna of the school’s D.S.N. program and postdoctoral fellow at the UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Photovoice provides photographic training, cameras and film to help individuals in a community learn to advocate and express themselves. The article reports how photovoice in a lower income, African American, urban community was able to generate community-based participatory research through a culturally relevant social process.

Engebretson and a colleague from Georgetown published “Neural and Cognitive Basis of Spiritual Experience: Biopsychosocial and Ethical Implications for Clinical Medicine,” in Explore. This article describes the role of patient spirituality and spiritual experiences in clinical settings, and includes discussion of the “Taxonomy of Spiritual Experience,” previously published by Engebretson and Diane W. Wardell, Ph.D., associate professor of nursing for target populations.

Donna Warren Morris, associate professor, School of Dental Hygiene, DB, is co-author of “Oral Cancer Exams: Does your Practice Pass?” in the June issue of Texas Dental Journal. She is author of a continuing education article, “Caries Risk Assessment: Using the Medical Model of Care for Prevention and Intervention,” in the June issue of Contemporary Oral Hygiene.

Mary Ellen Ross, Dr.P.H., assistant professor of nursing systems, SON, and Lu Ann Aday, Ph.D., professor of behavioral sciences, management and policy sciences and the Lorne Bain Distinguished Professor in Public Health and Medicine, School of Public Health, are authors of “Stress and Coping in African American Grandparents Who Are Raising Their Grandchildren,” published in the July issue of Journal of Family Issues.