School of Health and Human Services: the blog of Dean Shirley Szekeres

Welcome to the blog of the School of Health & Human Services

Welcome to the blog of Dr. Shirley Szekeres, Nazareth College's Dean of Health and Human Services. Founded in 1924, Nazareth College is a co-ed college with undergraduate and graduate studies in the liberal arts and sciences, and professional programs in health and human services, education, and management. The College is located near Rochester, New York, and currently enrolls approximately 2,800 students. For more information on the College, visit www.naz.edu.

10th Anniversary Celebration, NY Campus Compact

At the 10^th anniversary celebration of the New York Campus Compact, Sue Kwiatkowski shared details of the interprofessional program implemented at Mary’s Place, a refugee outreach center located in the Maplewood neighborhood in the City of Rochester.  CSD graduate  and undergraduate students, now in union with Art therapy students ( under Elizabeth Mott’s supervision)  have been coordinating an after school and summer program to address academic, social and overall wellness skills in this culturally rich environment.  The group meets on Wednesday afternoons from 3-6 pm and all are encouraged to come observe and join them for dinner.  Sue hopes to include students from more departments in HHS to add variety and richness to the program.  

Stephen Demanchick, New Co-Editor, Person-Centered Journal

Congratulations to Steve Demanchick, who was just recently approved to be co-editor of the Person-Centered Journal.  “The Person-Centered Journal (PCJ) is the oldest, continuously running, person-centered, peer reviewed publication in English and is sponsored by the Association for the Development of the Person-Centered Approach (ADPCA) to promote and disseminate scholarly thinking about person-centered principles, practices, and philosophy” (www.adpca.org).  Steve will be co-editor with a long time friend and colleague, Dr. Rachel Jordan, Director of the MH program at St. John Fisher. 

Congratulations, Steve!

 

Summer Events

Summer is always a little quieter on campus, but now it's time to begin getting back into the swing of things. The students are back and classes have started. I thought I would share with you a couple of events that happened this summer.

Every Thursday during the summer a different community group brings dinner and joins the refugee families of St. Mary’s Outreach for a meal on the front lawn. Sue Kwiatkowski works with grad and undergrad students at St. Mary's, teaching refugee children in an after school and summer school program. On July 28th, the Communication Science and Disorders Department, along with family and friends, served dinner at Mary's Place, joined by special guests, the band “The Bright Lights”.

Dr. Mary Gelder (a recent Naz. P.T. alum) and Chris Joyce (current P.T. student) were part of this summer’s crew on the Ride Across America, a bicycle race that goes from the west coast to the east coast. Mary and Chris both served as ‘chase-vehicle support’, which entailed navigating a vehicle behind one of their two assigned riders for approx. 1,500 miles across country, overseeing the riders’ nutrition, safety, stretching and general well-being. Mary and Chris received huge praise from William Reynolds, who said that ‘Team RWB made it through the race with zero penalties – something only 1/3 of 50+ RAAM teams do”.

Inside the Insider: Ethics and Tobacco

On February 21, we were fortunate to have Dr. Jeffrey Wigand speak to the Nazareth Community and guests. Dr. Wigand achieved national prominence when he became tobacco industry's highest ranking former executive to speak out to the public about the concerted effort of Brown and Williamson tobacco company to produce highly addictive cigarettes.  His public disclosure occurred on February 4, 1996 on the 60 minutes program.  In that interview with Mike Wallace, he described the cigarette as a "delivery device for nicotine".

Dr. Wigand's story was told in the movie entitled "the Insider" with Russell Crowe as Dr. Wigand.  It is a powerful movie that captures the ethical dilemma faced by Dr. Wigand and the price he paid for speaking out.  He stated that he has no regrets. Since his disclosure of the tobacco industry's "secrets", Dr.Wigand has mounted a crusade to prevent or eliminate smoking, especially targeting children and adolescents. 

The event was sponsored by Nazareth's School of Health and Human Services and Interdisciplinary Institute for Professional Ethics.