As the 2021-2022 semester begins, President Milone-Nuzzo reflects on Sunday’s Commencement ceremony, welcomes new and returning students, faculty, and staff, and commends the entire IHP community for its successes, dedication, and perseverance

Tiffany Passie will use a Health Policy Fellowship from the Physician Assistant Education Association to advocate for a bill in the U.S. Congress that would allow graduate students to receive subsidized Stafford federal loans.

Dr. Ruth Palan Lopez, associate dean of research in the School of Nursing, is working with a team of researchers to create cognitive training protocols for smart, human-like robots to evaluate and assist patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive disabilities.

Read more about their motivation and their fundraising goals.

Suellen Breakey, PhD, MSN ’94, a distinguished teaching associate professor of nursing, was recently appointed as the associate director of the Center for Climate Change, Climate Justice, and Health.

Rachel Pittmann, MS-HPEd ’21, MS-SLP, CCC-SLP, has been appointed director of the Sanders IMPACT Practice Center. She will be transitioning over the next several weeks from her current roles as assistant professor of CSD and coordinator of the Aphasia Center to the full-time IPC director position.

Anne Thompson, PT, EdD, an adjunct professor of health professions education, received a 2021 Outstanding Service Award from the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy.

Beth Cornforth, PT, DPT, NCS, an instructor in the Department of Physical Therapy, is co-investigator with Dr. Thurman Wheeler from MGH Neurology on a three-year NIH grant: "Extracellular RNA biomarkers of myotonic dystrophy type 1." It is funded through Massachusetts General Hospital.

Teresa Kimberley, PhD, PT, FAPTA, director of the Brain Recovery Lab and director of the PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences program, has been awarded a two-year, R21 grant from the NIH: "DYT1 genotype – and phenotype-specific brain circuits dystonia." She is working with colleagues from MGH and MUSC on this project which aims to understand why some people with the genetic mutation associated with DYT1 dystonia develop the dystonic symptoms and others never develop the disorder.

Marc Maffei, MS, CCC-SLP, is the PI on a three-year, NIH F31 fellowship training grant: "Kinematic and Acoustic Analysis of Speech in Autism Spectrum Disorder." He is a student in the PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences program working with Dr. Jordan Green in the Speech and Feeding Disorders Lab.

Farquharson, K., Hogan, T. P., & Fox, A. B. (2021). Factors that influence non-word repetition performance in children with and without persistent speech sound disorders. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12663

Perry, B. J., Nelson, J., Wong, J. B., Kent, D. M., & Pooled Resource Open-Access ALS Clinical Trials Consortium. (2021). Predicting dysphagia onset in patients with ALS:

The ALS dysphagia risk score. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis & Frontotemporal Degeneration. Advance online publication.

Gabrieli, J. D. E., & Christodoulou, J. A. (2021, July). The neuroscience of reading:

Mudd-Martin, G., Cirino, A. L., Barcelona, V., Fox, K., Hudson, M., Sun, Y. V., Taylor, J. Y., Cameron, V. A., American Heart Association Council on Genomic and Precision Medicine, Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing, & Council on Clinical Cardiology. (2021). Considerations for cardiovascular genetic and genomic research with marginalized racial and ethnic groups and indigenous peoples: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation. Genomic and Precision Medicine, 14(4), Article e000084.

Chan-Smutko, G., Diaz, J. S. (GC ’21), & Pagliaruol, J. (GC ’21). (2021, June). Social justice. equity, diversity, & inclusion: A toolkit for genetic counseling. New England Regional Genetics Group Conference.

Burns, R. (GC ’21). (2021, June). Genetic Testing to Gain Diagnostic Clarity in Neurofibromatosis Type 2 and Schwannomatosis. Children’s Tumor Foundation 2021 Virtual NF Conference.

Cirino, A. L. (2021, June). Supporting genetic counseling student research. New England Regional Genetics Group Conference.

Cirino A. L. (2021, July) Genomics Boot Camp. Heart Rhythm Society Scientific Sessions. Boston, MA.

Ritter, E. M., Park, Y. S., Durning, S. J., & Tekian, A. S. (2021). The impact of simulation based training on the fundamentals of endoscopic surgery performance examination.

Annals of Surgery. Advance online publication.

Shikino, K. (MS-HPEd '20), Rosu, C. A., Yokokawa, D., Suzuki, S., Hirota, Y., Nishiya, K., & Ikusaka, M. (2021). Flexible e-learning video approach to improve fundus examination skills for medical students: A mixed-methods study. BMC Medical Education, 21(1), 428.

Hillier, M., Williams, T. L., & Chidume, T. (2021). Standardization of standardized patient training in medical simulation. StatPearls.

Flanagan, J. M., Post, K., Hill, R.  & Winters, L. N. (2021). Findings from a provider-led, mindfulness-based, Internet-streamed yoga video addressing the psychological outcomes

of breast cancer survivors. Holistic Nursing Practice, 35(5), 281–289.

Mevawala, A. S., Strunk, F. A., Haghiri-Vijeh, R., Corless, I. B., Ramaswamy, P., Kamp, K. J., Scott, S., & Gray, S. (2021). Scientific global nursing hackathon experience. Nurse Educator. Advance online publication.

Knipe, R. S., Spinney, J. J., Abe, E. A., Probst, C. K., Franklin, A. (DPT ’21), Logue, A., Giacona, F., Drummond, M., Griffith, J., Brazee, P. L., Hariri, L. P., Montesi, S. B., Black, K. E., Hla, T., Kuo, A., Cartier, A., Engelbrecht, E., Christoffersen, C., Shea, B. S., Tager, A. M., & Medoff, B. D. (2021). Endothelial-specific loss of sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor 1 increases vascular permeability and exacerbates bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1165/rcmb.2020-0408OC

Ugne Aleknaite, MSN ’16, is the 2021 recipient of the Seinfeld Hartman Compassionate Care Prize at Nantucket Cottage Hospital.

Roberta Brehm, DPT ’15, is featured in the Vantage Point blog post, Physical Therapist Heals with “just her hands and some hope.” She completed a VA residency program and is now working at the Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans’ Hospital in Missouri.

Jennifer (Troland) Mogensen, MS ’05, CAS ’10, is a co-author of the ASHA article, “Getting Students to Self-Advocacy -- Step by Step.”

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