Garcia, a highly accomplished administrator and researcher, is currently head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University, a position he has held since 2005, and is a professor in the department. Garcia joined the Colorado State University faculty in 1991.

Garcia also created the Integrated Decision Support Group in Colorado State’s Water Center and served as the group’s director throughout his tenure at the university. The mission of the Integrated Decision Support Group is to combine advanced modeling techniques with software engineering to guide organizational decision-making, mainly related to water resources issues.

Garcia has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than 95 funded projects with total funding of over $12 million and the single principal investigator on more than 70 projects with a total funding of over $6 million.

Garcia also served as associate director of the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station for five years, a position that allowed him to become familiar with the broad breadth of research that is conducted at Colorado State.

“Dr. Garcia is a terrific match for UVM,” said UVM President Tom Sullivan. “He embodies the kind of teacher-scholar we prize at UVM and seek to recruit to our faculty. He has also shown strong leadership ability in a variety of settings, a key attribute as we continue to enhance and build STEM education and research at UVM. Garcia received strong support throughout all his public interviews on campus from a large number of constituent groups. His research focus on water systems and the environment also fits well with the university’s and the state’s priorities.”

“I am very excited about joining UVM and the opportunity to work with an outstanding academic community and group of individuals," said Garcia. "I very much look forward to joining the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences and working closely with all members of the college, alumni and friends to continue to increase its national and international impact.”

Garcia is an expert in calculations of evapotranspiration (ET), the return of water vapor to the atmosphere by evaporation from land and water surfaces and plant sources; in remote sensing of ET; and in spatial analysis in natural systems, specifically in applications for water resources and irrigation and drainage.

Wright, who graduated with a bachelor's in English from UVM and teaches 12^th grade English and AP Literature, was one of 40 teachers and counselors nominated by principals across Philadelphia and was given the award at the Top of the Class Ceremony in Philadelphia, along with three other teachers. His creation of the Mastery Catamount Scholarship allows for up to five Mastery Charter School students to attend UVM on grants, scholarships and work study with student loan responsibility not exceeding $5,500 per year. Two students will enter UVM in the fall on the scholarships.

The idea for the scholarship started with a call by Wright to the UVM Admissions Office to inquire about Discovering UVM, a program assisting high school seniors from underrepresented groups with their college search by exploring academic and extracurricular offerings at UVM during a two-day immersion program. Wright worked with Deborah Gale, associate director of diversity and international admissions, to initiate the relationship between UVM and Mastery Charter, and credits Alan Tinkler, assistant professor in education and social services; Ellen Baker, director of teacher education; Beth Wiser, director of admissions; Chris Lucier, vice president for enrollment management; and senior admissions counselor Max Tracy for guiding him through the process of implementing the innovative scholarship program.

“While I was of course honored, the recognition would be incomplete without passing it along to those at UVM who were absolutely essential to the creation of this partnership,” said Wright. “I am certain that we all found ourselves in the world of education because we all in some way wanted to help children, improve our communities, and be a part of social change. Most educators never get a chance to see the impact they’ve made, but we, through our work together, have and will continue to change the lives of these young people from West Philadelphia.”

Researchers divided the Life’s Simple 7 scores into three categories: zero to four points for inadequate, five to nine points for average, and 10 to 14 points for optimum cardiovascular health and found:

• Every one-point increase toward a better score was associated with an eight percent lower stroke risk.

• Compared to those with inadequate scores, people with optimum scores had a 48 percent lower stroke risk and those with average scores had a 27 percent lower stroke risk.

• A better score was associated with a similar reduced stroke risk in blacks and whites.

• While black participants had worse Life’s Simple 7 scores than whites, the association of the Life’s Simple 7 score with stroke risk was similar in black and white participants. “This highlights the critical importance of improving these health factors since blacks have nearly twice the stroke mortality rates as whites,” says Cushman.

• Cushman and colleagues reviewed information on 22,914 black and white Americans age 45 and older who are participating in a nationwide population-based study called the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS).

Researchers collected data from 2003 to 2007 by telephone, self-administered questionnaires and at-home exams. Participants were followed for five years for stroke. Many of the study participants live in the Southeast region of the United States where death rates from stroke are the highest.

During the study, 432 strokes occurred. All seven health factors in Life’s Simple 7 played an important role in predicting the risk for stroke, but having ideal blood pressure was the most important indicator of stroke risk, researchers said.

“Compared to those with poor blood pressure status, those who were ideal had a 60 percent lower risk of future stroke,” Cushman says.

Researchers also found that those who didn’t smoke or quit smoking more than one year prior to the beginning of the study had a 40 percent lower stroke risk.

Each year, about 795,000 people in the United States have a stroke — the No. 4 killer and a leading cause of long-term disability. Every four minutes, an American dies from stroke. People can check their health status at the AHA’s My Life Check site.

In addition to Cushman, coauthors on the study are Ambar Kulshreshtha, M.D., M.P.H. (first author), Viola Vaccarino, M.D., Ph.D., Abhinav Goyal, M.D., M.H.S., and William McClellan, M.D., M.P.H., from Emory University; Suzanne Judd, Ph.D., Virginia J. Howard, Ph.D., Paul Muntner, Ph.D., and Monika M. Safford, M.D., from University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Yuling Hong, M.D., Ph.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Author disclosures are on the manuscript.

REGARDS is funded by a cooperative agreement from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services.

(This news release is adapted from a release produced by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.)

“The impact of the Larners’ generosity on the College of Medicine and the physicians educated there is immeasurable,” noted UVM President Thomas Sullivan. “Their understanding and support of cutting edge medical education and the importance of access and affordability for medical students has impacted many, many lives. Moreover, their commitment to UVM and its students has sparked a continuous stream of philanthropy from others, including physicians who benefitted from the Larner Endowment when they were students. It is fitting that we honor Bob and Helen in a lasting way by naming this important educational building in recognition of their longstanding dedication to our University.”

Dr. Larner and his wife Helen, who live in California, have a long history of giving at the UVM College of Medicine. In 1985 with an initial gift of $50,000, they established the Larner Endowment and Student Loan Fund. The Larners have contributed to the Fund every year since then, and their wish to create a culture of giving back has inspired gifts from an expansive network of donors that includes past recipients, other alumni, and friends.

Now totaling over $8 million in assets, the Fund continues to provide support for academically strong and financially needy medical students at the College. To date, the Fund has provided financial support to over 1100 UVM medical students and receives over 150 contributions annually, growing each year as recipients move on in their professional lives and are inspired to give back themselves.

“I developed, early on, an appreciation and respect for the quality of the medical education I received at UVM, and this appreciation was reinforced during my internship in Maine, my residency at Johns Hopkins, and through my years of practice,” said Dr. Larner, who celebrated his 95^th birthday in January. “Our hope is that the Larner Fund will continue to inspire its beneficiaries to think about giving back, if only in modest ways, even before they graduate.”

The Larners have also generously supported a number of medical education initiatives at UVM. The couple recently committed $1 million to build an innovative Team-Based Learning Classroom in the Medical Education Center Courtyard, which will support interactive and case-based learning for the College’s 450 medical students. The Larners also contributed $300,000 last year to purchase five cardiopulmonary simulators for the UVM/Fletcher Allen Clinical Simulation Laboratory.

“The extraordinary gifts of this remarkable couple have already made an impact on an entire generation of medical students and physicians,” said Frederick Morin, MD, dean of the UVM College of Medicine. “The Larners have a vision of the future that is truly inspiring, from their thoughtfulness in creating a fund that encourages giving back, to their appreciation of what it takes to prepare the physicians of tomorrow. It is an honor to be able to acknowledge their contributions through the naming of our Medical Education Center.”

The Medical Education Center was completed in 2005 as a collaborative project between UVM and teaching hospital partner Fletcher Allen Health Care. The Concourse, Pavilion and Courtyard buildings comprise 93,000 square feet of classrooms and lecture halls (including the Davis Auditorium at Fletcher Allen, Carpenter Auditorium, and the Sullivan and Reardon Classrooms), the Dana Medical Library, and additional teaching, learning and student support space that serve as the heart of the College. A celebration and naming ceremony is planned for fall 2013 during UVM Reunion and Homecoming.

Dr. Larner, a native of Burlington, received his bachelor's degree from UVM in 1939 and his M.D. in 1942. He completed an internship at Maine Medical Center, then served in the military at both Guadalcanal and Okinawa. He returned to complete his residency at Johns Hopkins, and went on to practice internal medicine with the Robert Larner Medical Group in Los Angeles. He retired in 1989. In 1992, at his 50th Medical Reunion, he was honored with the A. Bradley Soule Award, the highest alumni award given by the College of Medicine.

“I developed a keen awareness of benefits bestowed on my life by the medical education provided here, a lifetime that has been stimulating, interesting and satisfying,” said Dr. Larner. “And for all that, my thanks go to the University of Vermont and especially the College of Medicine.”

Enactus is a community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to enable human progress.  There are currently 535 Enactus teams worldwide with over 21,000 active students.  Enactus students apply business concepts to develop community outreach projects, transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world.

In April, the School of Business Administration team was named 2013 Regional Enactus Champions after the competition in New York City.  The team also earned the “Rookie of the Year” award.

Flagler College, in St. Augustine, Florida, was named the National Champion and will advance to the Enactus World Cup in Mexico this fall.

UVM’s Gund Institute for Ecological Economics and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources are hosting the seventh U.S. Society for Ecological Economics (USSEE) Conference. Academics, organizational leaders, students and other attendees will engage the theme of “Building Local, Scaling Global: Implementing Solutions for Sustainability.”

The conference’s final lecture will be free and open to the public.

As global concern grows about soil depletion, climate change, overconsumption, population growth, biodiversity loss — and a host of other pressures on planetary systems — ecological economics has been building a powerful body of theory and practice aiming to find ways forward toward a more sustainable future.

The conference will take a critical look at lessons about economic and ecological well-being learned in recent years at local, regional, and state levels--and identify solutions that can be scaled up.

Speakers and sessions

The conference will open Sunday, June 9, at 5:30 p.m., with welcoming remarks by Vermont Agency of Agriculture Secretary Chuck Ross, and Vermont State Senator Ginny Lyons.

On Wednesday, June 12, from 3:30 to 5 p.m., the final conference event will be a lecture and discussion, "Building Our Economy: Moving Past Rhetoric to a Just and Sustainable Future," with Riane Eisler and Nancy Folbre.

The lecture will be held in the Marsh Life Sciences Lecture Hall, Room 235, and is free and open to the public. Tickets are available through phone reservations, (802)-656-2943, or online registration.

Riane Eisler is the co-founder and president of the Center for Partnership Studies and the author of numerous books and articles, including the internationally acclaimed The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. Nancy Folbre is professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research explores the interface between political economy and feminist theory, with emphasis on the value of unpaid care work. In addition to numerous articles published in academic journals, she is the author of Greed, Lust, and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas.

Additional lectures and discussions during the conference will include international development specialist Robin Broad; environmental governance researcher Ashwini Chhatre; energy expert Cutler Cleveland; Nate Hagens, an authority on "peak oil" and resource depletion; Hal Hamilton, co-director of the Sustainable Food Lab; Cylvia Hayes, first lady of Oregon and leader of the Oregon Prosperity Initiative; UVM soil expert Fred Magdoff; Julie Nelson, a scholar of feminist economics; energy author Greg Pahl; ecological planning expert Bill Rees, who originated the "ecological footprint" concept; and Darcy Winslow a sustainability management expert from the MIT Leadership Center.

Gund leads

"Vermont and UVM are uniquely positioned to host the USSEE Conference," said Taylor Ricketts, director of UVM’s Gund Institute. "Vermont is a leader in alternative economic models and sustainability initiatives ranging from cooperative farming to alternative currencies. At UVM, our world-class academic community conducts research at the interface of ecological, social, and economic systems, and develops creative, practical solutions to local and global environmental challenges. "

“The Gund Institute has been a Vermont hub for transdisciplinary research and education on ecological economics for over a decade,” said Josh Farley, Gund Fellow and professor in UVM's department of Community Development and Applied Economics. “The USSEE Conference is a great opportunity to lay the foundations for an economic system dedicated to shared prosperity on a finite planet.”

The conference will cover more than 60 topics under three major implementing themes: Re-Building the Biophysical Base of Ecological Economics; Bridging Ecological and Behavioral Economics; and, Designing Social Policy and Education for the Anthropocene. The Biophysical Economics Association will hold their fifth  annual meeting alongside the USSEE in support of the theme around Re-Building the Biophysical Base of Ecological Economics.

Information, registration: uvm.edu/conferences/ussee/

For questions, please contact conference organizers at ussee13@uvm.edu.

Dairy Challenge is an innovative two-day competition for students representing dairy science programs at North American universities. It enables students to apply theory and learning to a real-world dairy while working as part of a four-person team. The goal of Dairy Challenge is to incorporate a higher-learning atmosphere with practical application to help prepare students for careers in the dairy industry. Teams analyze farm data and speak with farm owners and then develop recommendations for nutrition, reproduction, milking procedures, animal health, housing and financial management.

The UVM team wrote of the experience on their return: "We are proud of our accomplishment, and certainly it feels great to win, but it is important to note that Dairy Challenge is worthwhile because it offers so much more than the chance to win an award. It provides hundreds of students with the opportunity to network with professionals and students who will be our future bosses, colleagues, clients and friends."

The 2013 event attracted 223 college students from 37 dairy programs across the U.S. and Canada and included the first ever Dairy Challenge Academy, which was attended by UVM student Cassie Bromley, who also participates in the Advanced Dairy Management program at Miner Institute. The Academy was developed to expand the educational and networking event to more college students. Academy students also analyzed and developed recommendations for operating dairies.

The Advanced Dairy Management program is a collaborative effort between Miner Institute and the University of Vermont.  The program was started in 2000 and is a 15-credit UVM course taught by Miner Institute faculty and professionals from the dairy industry.
Miner Institute will be the host site for the Northeast Regional Dairy Challenge October 31 through Nov. 2, 2013.

A novelist, poet and short story writer, Broughton taught writing and literature for 35 years at the University of Vermont, from 1966 to 2001, chairing the English Department and developing and directing the Writers' Workshop Program, still in existence today. That program brings working writers to campus for readings and master classes; its most recent guest in April 2013: Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz.

As a writer, Broughton was recognized nationally, with awards and fellowships including the prestigious Guggenheim and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, and his work was selected for inclusion in the O'Henry Awards and Best American Poetry anthologies. He traveled as a cultural representative under the auspices of the State Department's United States Information Agency to southeast Asia, Egypt and to Italy, a country he'd visited many times over the course of his life and that figured prominently in his writing.

The New York Times wrote of his 1980 novel Winter Journey, which takes place in Rome: "Not the least of Mr. Broughton's accomplishments is to seize material we had thought to be worn out, used up, discarded, replaced -- by a newer model of artistry, the ironic grimace -- and make it somehow lyrical all over again. Craft counts."

In his early years in the English Department, Broughton noticed an uptick in the interest in writing poetry among students. "Dylan Thomas and the beat poets brought poetry down into the street, out of the clouds," he told a campus publication in 1972. That was an accessibility he believed in.

Born in 1936 in Bryn Mawr, Pa., he was educated at Exeter, Harvard and at Julliard as a classical pianist, ultimately receiving his bachelor's degree at Swarthmore. He told the Burlington Free Press in a 2001 article that the discipline he acquired at Julliard he took with him to the writing process. He received his master's in English literature from the University of Washington.

He was the author of four novels, A Family Gathering (1977), Winter Journey (1980), The Horsemaster (1981) and Hob's Daughter (1984); two collections of short stories, The Jesse Tree (1975) and Suicidal Tendencies (2003); and nine collections of poetry, Adam’s Dream (1975), In the Face of Descent (1975), The Others We Are (1979), Far From Home (1979), Dreams Before Sleep (1982), Preparing to Be Happy (1988), In The Country of Elegies (1995), The Origin of Green (2001) and A World Remembered (2010).

He is survived by his wife, Laurel Broughton, who also taught in the English Department, and by three children and five grandchildren. A celebration of his life will be held at Trinity Church, Shelburne, Saturday, May 25, at 11 a.m. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to Vermont Respite House or Kids on the Ball, c/o the King Street Youth Center.

Read a poem from A World Remembered, "The Old Orchard," reprinted in Vermont Quarterly in 2010.

The main ceremony and each college’s ceremony will be webcast live. See the complete schedule of all ceremonies and receptions.

This year, President Tom Sullivan will confer degrees on approximately 3,258 graduates, including 2,577 bachelor's, 439 master's, 122 doctoral, and 106 M.D. degree recipients, in addition to 14 post-baccalaureate certificates. Among expected degree recipients are students from 44 states and 79 international students from 17 countries. Approximately 1,207 graduates are from Vermont. The graduating class includes an expected 379 African, Latino/a, Asian and Native American (ALANA) and bi/multi-racial students.

Wynton Marsalis, one of the world’s great jazz and classical musicians, will deliver the address to graduates at the main ceremony and receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. Born to a musical family in New Orleans, Marsalis is celebrated for his contributions as a performer, composer, and educator. He has nine Grammy awards to his credit and is the only artist to win both jazz and classical Grammys in the same year (1983) repeating the same feat the following year (1984). In 1987, Marsalis co-founded a jazz program at Lincoln Center, which in 1996 became Lincoln Center’s twelfth constituent, Jazz at Lincoln Center. In 1997, Marsalis became the first jazz musician awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his epic oratorio, Blood on the Fields. He has written six books, most recently Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life (Random House, 2008) with Geoffrey C. Ward; and Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! (Candlewick, 2012), illustrated by Paul Rogers. Today Marsalis serves as Jazz at Lincoln Center’s managing and artistic director.

Four others will receive honorary degrees at the ceremony: James Douglas, Kathy Giusti, William Meezan and John Tampas. Learn more about these recipients.

For the second year, Guidebook, a free mobile app with event details, maps, local information and more, is available for download, and free wireless access will be provided at the ceremonies by choosing the “UVM Guest” network; no password is required.

The following street closings are planned in conjunction with commencement: from Friday, May 17, at 7 p.m. through Sunday, May 19, at 8 p.m., University Place will be closed from Colchester Avenue to Main Street, and South Prospect Street will be closed from College Street to the University Health Center entrance. In addition, on Sunday, May 19 from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., South Prospect Street will be closed from Colchester Avenue to Main Street, and College Street will be closed from South Prospect Street to South Williams Street.

Shuttle buses will run between ceremony sites and parking areas. A parking map is available on the Commencement 2013 website.  Guests are encouraged to carpool when possible and take shuttles from hotels when provided. Parking on residential streets is prohibited.

In keeping with the university’s end to the sale of bottled water on campus, guests are encouraged to bring a refillable water bottle from home. Water kiosks will be available on the green, where cups will also be provided for those without a water bottle. Commemorative commencement refillable water bottles will be available for purchase at the UVM Bookstore, at the commencement concession stands and at all food service locations.

Guests should also note that only service animals, and not pets, are allowed during the main commencement ceremony and each of the college and school ceremonies.

More information about commencement weekend is available on the Commencement 2013 website.

Registered nurses with similar interests and expertise are placed together as an online classroom community to enable collaboration throughout the nine courses (eight online, plus one week, on-campus simulation laboratory). The RN-BS Program is typically completed in three years — one course taken each semester (including summer). The distance learning component offers the flexibility of accessing the program from home, while the cohort provides a personalized student community able to connect with each other through a variety of Web 2.0 tools and social media, in both asynchronous and synchronous sessions.

The Institute of Medicine's Future of Nursing Report calls for increasing the percentage of nurses holding a BSN degree or higher to 80 percent by 2020. Additionally, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the American Organization of Nurse Executives and the American Nurses’ Association recommend a baccalaureate degree for professional nursing practice.

A partnership between the UVM Department of Nursing and Continuing Education, the UVM RN-BS Program has been in existence for more than twenty years with a distance learning option available since 2004. Inquire or apply online at UVM.                                                            

Hoffman is originally from Chelsea, Vt. He credits his college mentors, particularly Professors Martin Oyata, Cao Chunjing, and Brit Chase in the Fellowships Office for pushing him academically and intellectually while at UVM. After completing his Fulbright experience he plans to return to the U.S. and pursue a master’s degree in Chinese-English translation and interpretation. He ultimately plans to work as a language interpreter for the U.S. government or in the private sector.

Emma Kantrov ’12 has been awarded an English teaching assistantship to Brazil for the 2014 academic year. She will be teaching at a university and mentoring Brazilian students who will go on to become English language teachers throughout the country.

While at UVM, Kantrov majored in environmental sciences and minored in Spanish. She spent extensive time outside of the classroom working as a teacher and a tutor in after school programs run by the Burlington school district as well as the Sara Holbrook Community Center. Her experience tutoring refugees, immigrants and English language learners in the Burlington area inspired her to pursue science education as a career. The Fulbright will enable her to build on her teaching experiences while also perfecting her Spanish and Portuguese language skills.

Kantrov credits her college mentors, particularly Portuguese language professor Debora Teixeira, for their mentorship and support throughout the Fulbright application process. Originally from Lexington, Mass., she plans to return to the Boston area after her Fulbright experience and teach science in a high school that caters to newly arrived immigrants.

Brienne Toomey ’12 was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Germany for the 2013-2014 academic year. She will teach English as well as American government, history and civics, and she will also serve as an adviser to German teachers who teach English.

A North Andover, Mass. native, Toomey came to UVM to pursue environmental studies and to prepare to embark on a career that focused on environmental resource conservation. Her study of German language and culture (she was a double environmental studies and German major) played a prominent role in how she thought of promoting sustainable living in society. While studying abroad in Germany during her junior year, she saw how the country had made significant changes to its energy generation and transportation practices in order to live in a more sustainable and energy efficient manner. During her Fulbright year, Toomey plans to explore these practices and potentially bring these ideas back to organizations in the U.S.

Toomey graduated from UVM magna cum laude and as an Honors College scholar. While at the university she was an active participant in the DREAM Mentoring Program, and she regularly contributed her art work to The Water Tower. Since graduating she has been working for the National Gardening Association in Burlington. After returning from Germany in 2014, Toomey plans to continue her work in renewable technologies and sustainable initiatives.

A rigorous undergraduate intellectual experience is required to assemble a strong Fulbright proposal, and Toomey credits her mentors in the German and Russian language department for pushing her to perfect her language and enable her to study language through a cultural lens. She says Professors Wolfgang Mieder, Dennis Mahoney, Helga Schrekenberger, and Adrianna Borra were especially influential in her studies.

Doubleday, Hodulik, Hoffman, Kantrov, and Toomey are five of more than 1,500 U.S. citizens who will travel abroad for the 2013-2014 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support.

Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The program operates in more than 155 countries worldwide.

Since 2005, when the university put a centralized fellowship outreach and support program in place, 125 UVM students have won or been finalists in the country's most prestigious and competitive competitions, including the Fulbright, Rhodes, Goldwater, Marshall, Udall, Truman, Madison, Critical Language, SMART, Gilman and Boren Overseas scholarships.

It’s no surprise that he felt excited to return to his alma mater as a faculty member in 1982. Thinking back over the past 30 years in his role as a professor, he fondly recalls faculty meetings where everyone sat around the table dressed in dark business attire, Sam Feitelberg’s ability to convince faculty to perform embarrassing skits, and attending Jean Held’s dinner parties. Reed says he enjoyed “the adventure of problem-based learning modules” and became passionate about teaching “great students who inspire us and make the world a better place.”

As a member of the last master’s degree class prior to UVM’s transition to the DPT degree, alumna Jessica Goodine, M.P.T.’05, was one of only 16 students in the MPT program her first year. The small class size provided an excellent learning environment and created significant bonds among the students.

Goodine, who specializes in working with spinal cord injury patients and is co-founder of the nonprofit corporation Empower Spinal Cord Injury, says, “The program taught me how to learn in a completely new manner, how to start from the problem and work backwards through problem-based learning.” While she didn’t find this educational format easy, she says “it taught me how to look at a patient as a whole, work together with my peers, and how to perform an effective and efficient literature search.” Goodine says the influence of Deborah O’Rourke, P.T., Ph.D., clinical associate professor of rehabilitation and movement sciences, had the greatest impact on her.

“Her office door was always open, she always had time to listen, she was incredibly empathetic, and she was always able to provide me with advice and multiple solutions,” shares Goodine. “If it weren’t for Deb, I would not have finished my program and I would not be where I am today in my PT career.”

Current UVM Rehabilitation and Movement Sciences Professor and Chair Diane Jette, P.T., M.S., D.Sc., worked part-time for Feitelberg from 1975 to 1981 while her husband completed a  graduate degree in psychology at UVM. She believes that though PT education has changed over the past decades, it has also stayed the same.

“We have become much more evidence-based in our approaches to patient care,” Jette says. “In the 1970s, there was not a lot of empirical evidence to support our practice, so most of our treatment decisions were based on what we knew about the anatomy and physiology of the human body, but the effectiveness had not been tested. As both basic and applied science have provided more sophisticated information about how the human body functions, physical therapist researchers have advanced our clinical knowledge, physical therapists’ treatments have become more sophisticated and more are better supported by studies of their effectiveness.” Jette also explains why the education of physical therapists changed over the past 40 years.

“In the 70s, physical therapists were educated at the baccalaureate level and practiced largely in hospital settings. Now the majority of PTs practice in out-patient practices and many own their own practices. In most states, patients may receive treatment by physical therapists without physician referral.”

It was due to this increasing scope of practice, expanding knowledge base and focus on professionalism, explains Jette, that all U.S. physical therapy programs now award the DPT degree. When she arrived at UVM in 2006, the PT program was in the process of transitioning to the DPT, and classes were small, but in the past six years, the program’s cohort size has tripled and the curriculum has been completely redesigned.

“Our DPT students have courses that prepare them to participate in healthcare at the system and societal levels, including health policy, quality improvement in healthcare, health care ethics and health promotion and wellness,” says Jette. “Because the focus of healthcare has shifted in many respects to the management of chronic conditions, and PT has a large role in improving  and maintaining the health and function of individuals with many types of conditions, our students now have courses that aid their understanding of how pharmaceuticals affect their patients and their interventions, how imaging studies can be applied and interpreted in designing their treatment plans, and how to advocate for access to healthcare resources for their patients across their lifespan.”

Despite four decades of evolution and these major curricular changes, the characteristics of UVM’s PT students have not altered over time. According to Jette, they are “passionate, hard-working, creative and highly intelligent.” And, she adds, they will be playing a vital role in the evolving health care system and all of our lives.

“Our graduates will be helping all of us manage the inevitable changes that come with aging and allowing us to remain active and functional through our older years,” she says. “They are, and will continue to be, Sam’s legacy.”

John J. (Jack) Murray, M.D.’63, is the 2013 recipient of the A. Bradley Soule Award, established in 1983, which honors an alumnus/a whose loyalty and dedication to the College of Medicine most emulate those qualities found in its first recipient, A. Bradley Soule, M.D.'28. Dr. Murray has a long history of dedication and service to the University Of Vermont College Of Medicine. Returning to Burlington, VT in June 1968, having served two years in the U.S. Air Force, Dr. Murray worked as a pediatrician in private practice and as a clinical instructor in the Department of Pediatrics at the College of Medicine from 1968 to 2007. During his clinical teaching years he was privileged to help educate residents and medical students. He developed the Pediatric Senior Sports Medicine elective in 1983, serving as its director until 2005. As a member of the UVM Admissions Committee from 2007 through July 2012, Dr. Murray has helped to select an impressive group of candidates for admission to the College who best display its values. His dedication to excellence in medical practice is reflected in his service on that committee, and in the wisdom acquired from his many years of working as a pediatrician. He has been a class agent for the Class of 1963 since graduation, ensuring that the members of his class remain engaged with the College and one another. Dr. Murray also earned the Medical Alumni Association’s Service to Medicine and Community Award in 1995.

Alumni honored with this year's Distinguished Academic Achievement Award, established in 1985, which recognizes outstanding scientific or academic achievement, include:

Richard H. Feins, M.D.’73, Professor of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Dr. Feins is a thoracic surgeon. He trained in general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Rochester, where he served on the faculty until 2005. He then moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as Professor of Surgery and head of General Thoracic Surgery. Throughout his career Dr. Feins has demonstrated creative leadership and innovation in thoracic surgery education. He has served on the American Board of Thoracic surgery as a director for eight years and then as Chair from 2007-2009. In addition, he has served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Joint Council for Surgical Education, the Thoracic Surgery Foundation for Research and Education, and the General Thoracic Surgery Club. e is the co-director of the national Cardiothoracic Surgery Resident Boot Camp and the Executive Director of the Cardiothoracic Surgery “Senior Tour,” a nationwide organization of retired cardiothoracic surgeons who volunteer in the training of cardiothoracic surgery residents. Dr. Feins is recognized nationally as a “go-to-guy” on matters pertaining to the education of future thoracic surgeons and for simulation based training. In addition to having compiled an extensive bibliography of publications and prestigious awards, Dr. Feins, with his wife, Ceil, somehow managed to find time to devote their energies to a competitive collegiate rowing program they co-founded on the Erie Canal, which has become on the premier such programs in the U.S.

Edward P. Havranek, MD ’ 83, Professor, University of Colorado School of Medicine; Cardiologist, Denver Health Medical Center; Director of Health Services Research, Denver Health

Dr. Edward P. Havranek is a Denver, Colo., cardiologist with a long-standing interest in measuring and improving the quality of care for cardiovascular disease, particularly heart failure. His current funded research focuses on causes and solutions to the problems of health disparities based on race and ethnicity. Dr. Havranek currently serves as chair of the American Heart Association’s Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Annual Scientific Forum Program Committee and is a member of the Database Steering Committee for the American Heart Association and the Technical Advisory Committee for Colorado’s Regional Health Information Organization. He was a clinical coordinator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-sponsored National Heart Care Projects from 1999 to 2005, chair of the Care Standards Committee of the Heart Failure Society of America from 2002 to 2006, and a member of the governor’s Health Information Technology Advisory Committee for Colorado in 2008 and 2009. Dr. Havranek serves on the editorial boards for several major cardiology journals.

Douglas W. Losordo, MD ’83, Interventional Cardiologist and Professor of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois

Dr. Losordo is board-certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, and interventional cardiology and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American College of Physicians, the American College of Chest Physicians, and the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions. His major research interests encompass angiogenesis/vasculogenesis, progenitor/adult stem cells, tissue repair/regeneration, and vascular biology. Working with the late Jeff Isner at St. Elizabeth’s Medical in Boston, Mass, he developed a program in therapeutic angiogenesis and cell-based tissue repair and executed the full “translational medicine” paradigm: identifying novel therapeutics in the laboratory, developing these strategies in small and large animal models and designing and executing first in human clinical trials. Dr. Losordo previously served as director of the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute and as the Eileen M. Foell Professor of Heart Research at Northwestern University’s School of Medicine and director of the Program in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

The College's Service to Medicine and Community Award, established in 1984, is presented to graduates who have maintained a high standard of medical service and who have achieved an outstanding record of community service or assumed other significant responsibilities in addition to their medical practice. The 2013 recipients of this award are:

Joyce M. Dobbertin, MD ’98, Family Physician, Corner Medical Office, Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital

Dr. Joyce M. Dobbertin has been a dedicated and active member of her local community in St. Johnsbury, Vt. As a physician, she has been tireless in her involvement with patient care as well as the coming of age of medicine as regards electronic health records, community outreach and epitomizing what a “community doc” should be. She is the physician champion for the Vermont Blueprint at NVRH, Corner Medical helping with the design and implementation of the Blueprint in the Northeast Kingdom.   Dr. Dobbertin was named Physician of the Year in 2012 by the Vermont Medical Society and Medical Director of the Year in 2008 by the Vermont Health Care Association. For the last several years, Dr. Dobbertin has served as Volunteer Medical Doctor for two weeks a year at the Hillside Medical Clinic in Punta Gordo, Belize and performed similar volunteer work in Kingston and throughout Jamaica.   In addition, she served on the Board of Trustees of the Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital in St. Johnsbury from 2007 to 2010.

Omar Khan, MD ’03,Medical Director, Preventive Medicine & Community Health & Director, Global Health Residency Track, Christiana Care Health System; Chair, Global Health Working Group, Delaware Health Sciences Alliance; Section Editor, Global Health, BMC Public Health

Dr. Omar Khan has made extensive contributions in the realm of global & community health, including experience working with USAID and serving as faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the University of Vermont, where he helped start the Global Health electives in the Department of Family Medicine. In addition to his appointments at Christiana Care and Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, both in Delaware, he holds faculty appointments as clinical associate professor with Drexel University’s College of Health Sciences and as clinical assistant professor with the Departments of Family Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Jefferson Medical College, and the University of Vermont. A reviewer or editorial board member for a number of prestigious medical journals, including JAMA and The Lancet, he has authored or co-authored five books in the area of global/community health. His most recent book, Megacities & Global Health, co-authored with Greg Pappas, was published in 2011. Dr. Khan has authored over 55 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and in January 2012 was appointed as a Reviewer for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). In 2009 he was named a “Top Doc” by Philadelphia magazine.

The Early Achievement Award, established in 2000, recognizes early-career physicians for outstanding academic achievements or contributions through community or medical service. The 2013 award recipient is:

Halleh Akbarnia, MD ’98, Attending Emergency Physician, St. Francis Hospital of Evanston, Ill.

Dr. Halleh Akbarnia joined the medical staff of Saint Francis Hospital (SFH) in 2007, and is an active member of the SFH Critical Care, Sepsis, and Graduate Medical Education Committees.  She served as the Chair of the Performance Distinction Committee, representing SFH at the System level, and a member of the Medical Executive Committee 2010-2011.  She was awarded the “Non Medicine Specialist of the Year” for the 2010-2011 year by graduating 2011 Internal Medicine Residents and the 2009-2010 “Teacher of The Year” by the Resurrection Emergency Medicine Residents.  Prior to joining St. Francis Hospital, she was assistant Medical Director at her residency program, VCUHS/MCV in Richmond, Virginia and was named “Teacher of the Year” in 2005 by the residents there.  Dr. Akbarnia is class agent for The Class of 1998.  She is an “outstanding leader within her class” and “has continued to unite our class” years later, writes one of her nominators.

For awards information, go to the 2013 Medical Alumni Association Awards website.

Images of the recipients are available for download here.

The United Academics 2013 Jeffrey Brace Awards go to UVM students Alex Buckingham, a senior nursing student originally from New York; Tracie Ebalu, a senior psychology major from New York City and Lagos, Nigeria; Jessica Fuller, a sophomore from Hummelstown, Penn., double majoring in economics and history; Chelsea Howland of Springfield, Vt., a sophomore nutrition and food science major; Hang Nguyen of Denver, Col., a senior studying medical laboratory science; Emily Reynolds, a senior biochemistry student from Waterbury, Vt.; Alyssa Solomon, a sophomore from Andover, Mass., majoring in environmental studies; Carina R. Valadez Villasenor, a senior social work major from Modesto, Cal., and Chester, Vt.; and Erik Wallenberg of Burlington, a master’s student in history.



Joanna Kamhi, originally of Essex Junction, Vt., received the second annual Linda Backus Memorial Scholarship. Kamhi is a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in politics, philosophy and economics with a concentration in distributive justice.

"This year we had an unusually strong group of applicants, so the scholarship committee had hard decisions to make,” said Denise Youngblood, professor of history and chair of the scholarships committee. “It’s gratifying to learn about the social and economic justice activities of so many hard-working, engaged student activists and to be able to recognize some of them with these awards.”

Learn more on the United Academics website.