Dean's Monthly Communication: March 2007

Message from Dean Woods
Congratulations to Patricia Butterfield who will assume the deanship at Washington State University Intercollegiate College of Nursing, effective July 1, 2008. We will welcome having a collaborator on the other side of the Cascades and wish Patricia and Phil well as they migrate east!

As happy as we are for Patricia, I know that many of us wonder about the potential impact of this latest transition. Having just presented my own transition plans to you, I can understand some of you feeling a sense of instability in the organization.

Having watched this organization weather prior transitions, I know that we will take some time to reflect on what we need in the new leadership. I encourage each of you to give some thought to the leadership challenges facing the Department of Psychosocial and Community Health and those facing the school as a whole. I will be consulting with the PCH department and others in the school as I decide on an interim chair appointment. I look forward to hearing your input. As the search committee for our next dean is named, I will be sure that you are informed so that you can offer them your input. I am confident that both transitions will be managed well and with the best interests of the school in mind.

Thank you all for the beautiful piece of Mikasa crystal presented to me by Terri Simpson, our nursing faculty chair, at the recent celebration of the Reid Endowed Deanship. The kindness you have all shown me is a true joy! We all deserve to celebrate this wonderful gift to the school that will help insure our future success. It is a privilege to accept that acknowledgement from you!
—Nancy Fugate Woods, PhD, RN, FAAN


Campaign UW: Creating Futures
CENE in the Desert
Tracy Ostrem, assistant dean of development; Brenda Zierler, associate dean of technology innovations in education and research; and I will travel to Palm Springs this month to meet with potential donors to the SoN's Center for Excellence in Nursing Education (CENE). At a luncheon hosted by Ellery and Kirby Cramer, members of the SoN's Campaign Advisory Board, donors will see demonstrations of a baby simulator and an interactive birthing simulator and learn more about our school's plans for upgrading our current learning lab and developing a second lab for cross-disciplinary training with medical students and health sciences students.


Honors and Awards
Pamela Potter, postdoctoral fellow, Dept. of BNHS, was honored in January for her study comparing the impact of sliced oranges, orange aromatherapy and control condition of deep breathing on common side effects of cryopreserved stem-cell infusions. Alongside Seth Eisenberg, clinical faculty, Dept. of BNHS, she presented her findings at the Seattle Nursing Research Consortium and won Best Podium Presentation. The abstract will be honored and presented as one of the highest-scoring abstracts at the 32nd Annual Congress of the Oncology Nursing Society meeting in April. Each year, the three top-scoring clinical scholarship submissions are presented in a special session on evidence-based practice.

Nominations Sought for Annual SoN Teaching Awards
The 2007 Excellence in Teaching Award Selection Committee has begun soliciting nominations for the school's four Excellence in Teaching Awards: one for excellence in teaching undergraduates, one for graduates, one for excellence in clinical teaching, and one for excellence in promoting diversity. Recipients will be selected and notified no later than May 8. Find out more on our awards criteria page.


International Visitors
On March 20-22, Patricia Butterfield, chair and prof., Dept. of PCH, will host the following visitors from the Shanghai Jiao University, China: Lily Hsu, dean; Fu Li Juan, vice dean; Yang Yu Ki, senior faculty; and Tang Hong Mei, vice director of academic affairs.

The School is also pleased to host Wipida Kunaviktikul, dean, and Punpilai Sriraporn, associate dean for graduate study, from the nursing school at Chiang Mai University in Thailand. They will visited the SoN April 2–4.


Faculty
Patricia Butterfield, chair and prof., Dept. of PCH, has accepted the position of dean at the Washington State University Intercollegiate College of Nursing in Spokane and will start July 1. She will develop a transition plan under Dean Woods's direction to help ensure the continuity of activities associated with departmental operations and programmatic initiatives.

Clark Johnson, research assoc. prof., Dept. of PCH, had his abstract accepted for a poster presentation during the 13th annual meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers in Chicago, June 10-14. Dr. Johnson's presentation is titled, "Brain activation and grief: Modeling subject-specific responses to profoundly emotional stimulation."

Bobbie Berkowitz, Alumni Endowed Prof., Dept. of PCH, has been invited to join the Institute of Medicine board on Population Health and Public Health Practice. The board focuses on issues affecting the health of the public, including population-based public health measures and the public health infrastructure. Find out more about the board on the IOM Web site.

New Internal Web Resource for Principal Investigators
The Office for Nursing Research recently launched a Web site to help faculty develop and critique their research and grant design. The site facilitates group consultations—or modeling parties—that allow investigators to have their work reviewed informally before they send it for official review. The Web site explains what to expect from group members, how to request a modeling party and more.


Staff
James Oliphant recently joined the BNHS staff as a fiscal specialist II. He has more than 20 years of financial management experience working with Union Pacific and Canadian Pacific Railways. James and his wife recently lived and worked in Seoul, Korea.

Chris Jones joined the de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging in February as the center's new manager. Chris has an MSW/MPH in gerontology from UC Berkeley and a strong background in public health, social work, gerontology and aging-health planning. During his professional career, he has held key positions with the Department of Public Health for Seattle and King County, the Washington State Department of Health, the Northwest AIDS Foundation and the Agape Foundation in San Francisco.

Carole Heffelinger, program support supervisor in CNE, retired this month after 24 years of service to the School of Nursing and 29 years at the University of Washington. She worked on behind-the-scenes details for as many as 35 CNE conferences each year and developed CNE's exhibitor and sponsorship programs. Thanks to Carole for her many years of service to our school.


SoN in the News
The following SoN faculty and have recently been featured in major media outlets:

• Marie-Annette Brown, prof., Dept. of FCN, was featured on KING 5 News on Feb. 28, for her book When Your Body Gets the Blues. The report recommended her book as a good source of information for women who experience a marked energy decrease in winter months, but who are not actually suffering from depression or seasonal affective disorder (SAD).


• Karin Huster, '05 BSN, was featured in The Daily on Feb. 27. Her pictorial medication scheduler helps AIDS patients in non-English-speaking countries overcome language barriers and keep track of their complex treatment schedules.


• Pamela Jordan, assoc. prof., Dept. of FCN, and her Becoming Parents program were mentioned in the sidebar of a Feb. 3 Seattle Times story for her work with new-parent couple-support programs. The main article featured a local couple who have adjusted their work lifestyles in order to have more time for their children.


• Nancy Woods, dean, was featured in three media outlets recently: Jan. 23: The Puget Sound Business Journal reported that SoN received a $3.5 million gift from BOB '43, '48 and JEAN '47 REID to establish an endowed deanship.
• Feb. 6: An article in The Daily announced Dean Woods as the first recipient of the Robert G. and Jean A. Reid Endowed Deanship in Nursing.


• Feb. 11: KVI radio interviewed her as an expert on menopause during its Patient Power segment.