The New Mexico Legislature is in session and we are actively supporting the following key initiatives:
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Senate Bill 56 addresses loan repayment for service in New Mexico. We are lobbying to ensure a continued increase in funds for this program as such increases will be mutually beneficial to our graduates and our State.
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House Bill 97 is an initiative to provide low-interest loans for rural primary care practices.
Looking ahead to 2023, should Governor Lujan-Grisham be re-elected, she is expected to focus on major tax reform in New Mexico. As such, we will be exploring some initiatives that we believe will be beneficial to both our College and the State. More details to come on that front.
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- President Hummer and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Burrell staff last Friday at the Staff Council’s coffee and pastry reception. Thanks to all who attended and to Staff Council for putting on a great event!
- Congratulations to our Burrell faculty and staff for the very successful Interprofessional Practice & Education event on campus on February 11th, when our OMS-II students teamed with students from the UTEP Colleges of Nursing and Pharmacy to learn with, from, and about each other’s roles in clinical care delivery. I received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our El Paso colleagues about our faculty, staff, students, and facilities. Well-deserved, I might add!
- As we prepare for the 2022-23 budget process, I would like to recognize our faculty and staff leaders, along with the Office of Finance, for all the work that goes into our financial planning. I appreciate the spirit of good stewardship that is vitally important to our success as a College of Osteopathic Medicine.
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Institutional Advancement |
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The Office of Institutional Advancement would like to encourage faculty and staff to sign up to become employee givers! Your pledge will support our students as they navigate through medical school. The amount of donation is up to you; you can choose to donate one time or commit to a monthly pledge. In gratitude to you for your commitment to our students, employee givers will receive tokens of appreciation throughout the year! Check out the photos below to see what items our givers have received in the past! To learn more or to enroll, click here.
We are still collecting submissions for the Get to Know Our Grads campaign through the end of February! Share your favorite photo of yourself along with three interesting facts. Submissions will be featured on our social media page in the weeks before Match Day, to be held this year on March 18th. To learn more about the submission guidelines and to submit to the campaign, click here.
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Administration & Operations (HR, IT and Finance) |
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Finance: In January, we were busy with the required calendar year-end tax and financial reporting, including distribution of forms W-2, 1099, and 1098-T to our employees, contractors, and students, respectively. We processed $18 million in federal student aid received and $5 million in student payments.
HR: As a reminder to all employees, this is a good time of the year to review contact information in Greenshades. If any information needs to be updated, you can do so in Greenshades. Also, if you would like to make updates to your current W-2 on file for tax withholdings please see either Christa or Dawn in the Office of Human Resources.
Facilities: As we anticipate the opening of the new building, planning is underway for remodeling of our current building to address expanded instructional space and to repurpose office space to be vacated by Student Affairs and Clinical Education. More information will be forthcoming in the upcoming month.
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Fund Your Next Medical Education Research Project with an AACOM Grant. There’s still time to submit an AACOM Research Grant Proposal. Awards up to $10,000. Proposals are due March 7th, 2022.
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Our summer research programs will be here soon. Now is a great time to update your CITI training. For more information about training requirements, CLICK HERE.
- Human Subjects Research (IRB) protocols for the March 28th, 2022 meeting are due on March 15th, 2022.
- Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) protocols for the March 9th, 2022 meeting are due on February 24th, 2022.
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Did you know that the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs will print your Burrell College research poster? Contact us at research@bcomnm.org for more information.
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Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology |
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January 24th, 2022, the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology had the pleasure of hosting Chris Bashur, Ph.D. as part of Burrell College’s Distinguished Researcher Seminar series. In his presentation, entitled Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering and the Cellular Microenvironment, Dr. Bashur discussed a few of his projects, including the use of an in vivo bioreactor mouse model for determining the percentage of collagen needed in electrospun conduits to modulate the inflammatory response and promote remodeling and endothelialization. Dr. Bashur is an Associate Professor in Biomedical and Chemical Engineering and Sciences and Program Chair of Biomedical Engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Fla. His research explores how cells interact with their microenvironments to engineer small-diameter vascular grafts, focusing on three major areas: (1) developing novel biomaterials, (2) exploring cell – microenvironment interactions, and (3) determining the viability of constructs in vivo.
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Department of Biomedical Sciences |
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Department of Clinical Medicine |
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Department of Clinical Education |
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Class of 2022: Our 4th-year students are finishing up the year, with 2 ½ blocks left until graduation!
Class of 2023: Students have started their 8th block and have 4 more blocks left. We are preparing to have them back on campus in April for OMM day and residency readiness presentations. They have also started to build their 4th-year schedules. All Regional Academic Centers will begin medical explorer programs to ensure there is outreach within the local RAC communities.
Class of 2024: Students have submitted their Surgery II and Internal Medicine II Selectives and Rotation schedules for their entire year are being confirmed with our preceptors. They will begin their On-Boarding Phase I & II for Clinical Teaching Site Credentialing in April.
We are working closely with Faculty Affairs to host our PPDP: Preceptor Professional Development Program- Session 2. This session will include information about the OMM curriculum during Rotations and a review of research opportunities for our Preceptors.
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Department of Physiology and Pathology |
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Our department will host a Pathology faculty candidate on February 21stt and 22nd. Dr. Al-Ani will be delivering his teaching demonstration on “Inflammatory Bowel Disease” on Monday, February 21st, from 1:00 - 2:00 pm in Room 160. All are welcome to attend; thanks to those of you who have already agreed to participate in his itinerary.
We will host our Distinguished Researcher for the spring semester on March 17th at noon in room 158. Dr. Robert Carroll from the Department of Physiology at East Carolina University, Brody School of Medicine, will present: “Amplifying Diverse Health Experience Stories: The Health Experiences Research Network.”
The open position for a Physiology faculty member has been updated and re-posted, as we continue to seek another colleague in this discipline.
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Office of Enrollment Services |
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The College’s deadline for accepting new AACOMAS applications submissions is March 31st, 2022. The deadline for all applicants to return their Supplemental Applications, and all other application materials necessary for screening, is April 15th, 2022. At present, interviews dates are scheduled to run through end of April. Admissions has also already begun recruiting and advising for the upcoming 2022-2023 AACOMAS application cycle which will open to applicants at the beginning of May 2022. Please direct any prospective 2023 cycle applicants to contact Admissions directly, as some of the minimum Admissions requirements will differ from those in place for the current 2022 cycle. Updated minimum required information for the 2023 cycle will be published and available online in the near future.
The Office of Financial Aid would like to congratulate Yandry Varela, OMS II. He was selected as a national recipient of the White Coat Investor, “Champions Program” financial literacy book coalition. As a recipient, he was given 170 books by James M. Dahle, MD, the White Coat Investor’s Guide for Students: how medical and dental students can secure their financial future, to distribute to the student body. The event to recognize Mr. Varela is on February 23rd, followed by a presentation by US Bank entitled, Understanding Credit and Mortgages, with an invitation to all cohorts, staff, and faculty. The OFA also partnered with Air Force HPSP Recruiters, TSGT Aubrey Saenz, and TSGT James McCollum to record a session about the HPSP program, which is available upon request. The Office of Financial Aid would like to thank Dr. Cindy Funk for accepting the position of Chair for the College's Scholarship Committee. The 2022-2023 College's estimated cost-of-attendance will be available on our website by mid-March and will reflect increases supported by data from the national Consumer Price Index.
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Tuesday, Feb 15th, 12 - 1 pm Year 1 Lecture Hall - The Cimarron River College will be sponsoring a Residency Panel. Residents from Memorial and Mountain View from various specialties will be available for a Q & A session.
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Friday, Feb 18th, 6 pm - SOMA Dinner with Doctors. Dinner for students to network with local physicians in various specialties.
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Friday, February 18th, 2:45 pm – The Spring Hiking Series will begin with a trip to the Prehistoric Trackways exploring the brachiopod fossils. This hike has been organized in collaboration with The Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks and the Health and Wellness Club.
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Monday, Feb 21st, 5 - 6:30 pm - The Emergency Medicine Club will be hosting a Stop the Bleed event, (a nationwide bleeding control curriculum). The course will be taught by certified Stop the Bleed instructors. Participants will receive a certificate of completion.
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Friday, Feb 25th, 9 - 1 pm - The Ophthalmology Club will be hosting a Community Health Fair at Las Cruces City Hall. Members of the Las Cruces community can receive screenings to include BP, HR, RR, Blood Glucose, BMI, and vision.
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Every Friday afternoon during the month of February at 2 pm Year 1 Lecture Hall – In collaboration with the Library and the Office of SA we will host a Black History Month Film Series:
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February 18th - Selma
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February 25th - Hidden Figures
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Every Sunday from 2 - 3:15 pm at Dwell Yoga Studio and Ruby Sun Studio – Spring Mindfulness Series (Meditation & Yoga)
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Accreditation and Compliance |
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The College and Board of Trustees approved and posted a new College Policy, B2012 Academic Freedom Policy. The new policy applies to both faculty and students, see the College website for more details.
The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) Comprehensive Site-Visit is scheduled for November 7-8. Faculty, Staff and students will meet with the HLC team in small groups. We will send out a detailed schedule as the date approaches.
The College submitted its Mid-Cycle Report and Annual Report to the COCA, thank you to everyone who provided documentation.
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Faculty Affairs has appointed 17 new preceptors since January 15th, 2022.
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- Patricia Howlett, Administrative Assistant, joined the library staff on January 24th.
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The first student Therapaws stressbuster event of 2022 occurred on February 2nd. The next visit will be on March 2nd. Stop by and pet a pup!
- New jigsaw puzzles are coming soon! Among other benefits, puzzles are believed to exercise the left and right brain simultaneously, improve short-term memory, and relieve stress by entering a meditative state.
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For library resources to support Endo/Repro I, Neuroscience II, and/or PSY, go to Year 1 or Year 2 Subject Guides for easy access to these and other course resources.
Database Spotlight: McGraw-Hill’s AccessMedicine, is a collection of interactive resources related to studying and clinical practice in science and medicine. It provides medical students with a variety of resources needed to excel in basic science studies and clerkships. For more information, visit: https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/ss/About.aspx
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Faculty Council Leadership has resumed meeting this semester and is working to schedule two Faculty Council meetings for this Spring term. We will have more to report soon, but we hope you're all enjoying the warmer weather! |
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The Staff Council hosted President John Hummer and Dean Bill Pieratt for coffee and pastries on Friday, February 11th. Thank you to everyone who joined in on the fun. It was great to see staff enjoying a break with their colleagues and administration!
The Council is planning another Professional Development session in March. More details to follow!
Lastly, we would like to welcome our newest testing center coordinator, Josie Benavidez! We are so happy to have you!
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In February there is everything to hope for and nothing to regret.
Patience Strong
Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.
Oprah Winfrey
If January is the month of change, February is the month of lasting change. January is for dreamers… February is for doers.
Marc Parent
Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.
Walt Whitman
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Confucius
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Laughter Can be the Best Medicine |
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What is a frog’s favorite month? February. It has a Leap Year.
What’s for breakfast on really cold days in February? Frosted Snowflakes.
What’s the difference between a $20 steak and a $55 steak? February 14th.
Why do skunks love Valentine's Day? Because they're scent-imental creatures!
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BEAR:
Building Expectations of Alliance and Respect
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