Annual Faculty Meeting
Recipients of annual faculty awards will be honored today during the Annual Faculty Meeting at 4 p.m. in the Sorrell Center’s Fred Paustian Amphitheater. The meeting will be webcast live and can be viewed by clicking here. Click here to visit a Web site dedicated to UNMC’s faculty award winners.
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The UNMC campus community today will celebrate the accomplishments of its faculty for exceptional teaching, mentoring and community service.
Others will be recognized for their long-standing tenure at UNMC.
Faculty, staff and students are invited to attend and pay tribute to the honorees during today’s Annual Faculty Meeting, which begins at 4 p.m. in the Sorrell Center’s Fred Paustian Amphitheater. A reception immediately follows.
Profiles of the following award recipients have appeared online in UNMC Today and can be found in the UNMC Today archives (info.unmc.edu).
Spirit of Community Service
- Jeffrey Baldwin, Pharm. D., associate professor in the College of Pharmacy; and
- Stan Harn, D.D.S., professor in the College of Dentistry.
Outstanding Teacher Awards
- Marlene Lindeman, assistant professor in the College of Nursing;
- Connie Miller, Ph.D., assistant professor in the College of Nursing; and
- Jennifer Parker, M.D., assistant professor in the College of Medicine.
University of Nebraska’s Outstanding Research and Creative Activity (ORCA) Award
- Stephen Rennard, M.D., Larson professor of internal medicine-pulmonary medicine, College of Medicine.
Faculty members who have marked service milestones ranging from 10 to 40 years also will be recognized during today’s ceremony. Three faculty members will be recognized for 40 years of service, nine will be recognized for 30 years of service. Their biographies are below, followed by the names of UNMC employees with 20 and 10 years of service.
College of Dentistry – 30 years
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Wayne Kaldahl, D.D.S.
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Wayne Kaldahl, D.D.S., is a native of Omaha and attended Nebraska Wesleyan University and the UNMC College of Dentistry. Following his dental education, he served in the United States Air Force for three years. Dr. Kaldahl then received his periodontal specialty training at the University of Washington, School of Dentistry. Before joining the Nebraska faculty in 1979, he practiced in Denver and taught part time at the University of Colorado, School of Dentistry. Next to his wife, Karole, three children and their spouses, three grandchildren and his dog, Dr. Kaldahl’s love is clinical periodontics, which includes teaching, patient care in practice and research.
College of Dentistry – 40 years
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David Shaw, Ph.D.
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David Shaw, Ph.D., is professor and chairman of the department of oral biology at the UNMC College of Dentistry. He joined the faculty of the University of Nebraska in 1969 and was appointed department chairman in 1987. He and his wife, JoAnne, have three sons and 10 grandchildren. His primary research interests have been in the toxicology of dental medicaments. The Fremont native serves as course director of the pharmacology courses for dental students and lectures on dental therapeutics in courses for dental hygiene and graduate students. Dr. Shaw serves as co-chair of the MSIA Graduate Program at UNMC, chairman of the Physiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics Section of the American Dental Education Association and as a basic science consultant for the American Dental Association’s Commission on Dental Accreditation.
College of Nursing – 30 years
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Peggy Pelish, Ph.D.
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Peggy Pelish, Ph.D., is associate professor in the College of Nursing, program director of the Children’s Health and Neonatal Health graduate program specialties. Dr. Pelish is a pediatric nurse practitioner in practice at the UNMC Physicians Pediatric Clinic and the Community Health Center. She earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1977 and her master’s degree in nursing in 1982 from UNMC. In 1988, she earned her doctoral degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International and is the past president of the Midwest Chapter of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners.
College of Nursing – 30 years
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Nancy Waltman, Ph.D.
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Nancy Waltman, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the College of Nursing – Lincoln division. She received her BSN in 1976, her MSN in 1978 and a Ph.D. in education in 1988. In 1995, she received a post-master’s certificate in the adult nurse practitioner program. Dr. Waltman teaches in the master’s level graduate nursing program, practices as a nurse practitioner four hours per week, and conducts research on prevention of osteoporosis in breast cancer survivors. She received NINR (R01) funding for her research from 2002 to 2007 and has numerous publications in refereed nursing journals. In 2006, she was awarded the Pennie Z. Davis Faculty Research Award.
Eppley Institute – 40 years
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Sidney Mirvish, Ph.D.
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Sidney Mirvish, Ph.D., obtained his post-doctoral degree in organic chemistry at Cambridge University. He then held positions in South Africa, Israel and Madison, Wis. Since 1969, Dr. Mirvish has been a member of the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer. His research area is the induction of cancer by chemicals, especially N-nitroso compounds (NOC) derived from sodium nitrite. In 1972, Dr. Mirvish, the late Phil Shubik and others reported that vitamin C inhibited NOC formation from nitrite. This finding led to the current inclusion of vitamin C and related compounds in all nitrite-preserved meat products to reduce their content of NOC. On this basis the University of Nebraska awarded Dr. Mirvish an Outstanding Research and Creativity Award in 1986. Dr. Mirvish recently has returned to this question and works to improve the safety of these meat products by reducing their content of specific, potentially harmful, NOC.
Munroe-Meyer Institute – 30 years
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Marsha Sullivan
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Marsha Sullivan is director of the speech/language pathology department at the UNMC Munroe-Meyer Institute (MMI). She began her career at UNMC in the audiology and speech/ language pathology department in the School of Allied Health Professions, where she provided speech pathology services in the hospital and developed expertise in the area of voice disorders. She teaches the graduate class in voice disorders for the speech/ language pathology department at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Sullivan’s current position emerged when the speech/language pathology departments from the hospital combined with the speech/language pathology department at MMI. Combining these departments allowed her to further develop clinical skills with children with disabilities. MMI’s Speech/Language Department includes a clinic for children with speech and language disorders funded by the Scottish Rite Masons and the Hattie B. Munroe Center for Augmentative Communication. The staff provide consultative services to area schools in augmentative communication, participate in the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders, specialized speech and language assessments, speech language pathology inpatient services at The Nebraska Medical Center and in University Physicians’ clinics. Sullivan also coordinates the Scottish Rite Masons’ RiteCare clinics for children with speech and language disorders in Nebraska.
College of Medicine – 30 years
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Dean Antonson, M.D.
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Dean Antonson, M.D., is medical director of the medical center’s pediatric liver and small intestine transplantation program. He received a bachelor of arts degree in biology from Carleton College in 1970 and his medical education at UNMC. His pediatric residency and pediatric gastroenterology fellowship were completed at UNMC and Vanderbilt University. Dr. Antonson has played an integral role in many UNMC programs throughout the years including serving as medical director of the eating disorders program and chairman of the Institutional Review Board (IRB). Dr. Antonson has served on the Children’s Hospital & Medical Center IRB since 1997. He enjoys all aspects of medical education, particularly lecturing. He also has been active in the Boy Scouts of America for the past 30 years.
College of Medicine – 30 years
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Kurtis Cornish, Ph.D.
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Kurtis Cornish, Ph.D., was born and raised in Salt Lake City. After serving four years in the Army, he received bachelor’s and master’s of science degrees in physiology from the Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and then went on to get his Ph.D. in cardiovascular physiology from Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, N.C. From there, he came to the University of Nebraska where he did a two-year postdoc and is currently a full professor in the UNMC Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology. Dr. Cornish has worked in cardiovascular research, with a focus on the neural control of blood volume in conscious animals, especially primates. He has taught at UNMC since 1979 and has taught cardiovascular physiology to first-year medical students since 1990. He organizes and coordinates the June Term for third-year medical students. He has served on several committees and has been chairman of the College of Medicine grievance committee since 1991. His love, however, is teaching.
College of Medicine – 30 years
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John Kugler, M.D.
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John Kugler, M.D., professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine and clinical professor of pediatrics at the Creighton School of Medicine, is a recognized expert in the field of pediatric cardiology and cardiac arrhythmias. He is chief of the UNMC/CUMC Joint Division of Pediatric Cardiology at Children’s Hospital. He received his medical degree from UNMC in 1974, and completed his pediatric residency at UNMC in 1976. He completed his fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Kugler specializes in arrhythmias and electrophysiology. He has published numerous articles in professional journal and given presentations on a variety of pediatric cardiology topics and has served on many national committees, most recently involved with quality improvement initiatives.
College of Medicine – 30 years
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Jorge Rodriguez-Sierra, Ph.D.
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Jorge Rodriguez-Sierra, Ph.D., joined UNMC as a post-doctoral fellow in 1978. Today, he is a professor of genetics, cell biology and anatomy and directs the graduate neurobiology course. Prior to joining UNMC, Dr. Rodriguez-Sierra spent two years at the Primate Center of Wisconsin Madison, where he worked on different neuronal approaches to the study of hypothalamic control of pituitary function in monkeys. He received his doctoral degree from Rutgers University (New Jersey) in the field of neuroendocrinology. His research interests include the aging process of the brain and the free radical and degeneration of the central nervous system.
College of Medicine – 30 years
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Donald Swanson, M.D.
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Donald Swanson, M.D., is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is board certified in psychiatry and adolescent psychiatry, and his primary interests are in adolescence and addictions. He is a graduate of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Prior to joining UNMC in 1978, he was on the faculty of the University of Witwatersrand and later with SUNY-Stonybrook. For many years, he was director of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry within the UNMC Department of Psychiatry and the director of outpatient services at the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute. He has served as the clinical services medical director for the combined Creighton-Nebraska Department of Psychiatry, and was the psychiatry service chief for The Nebraska Medical Center. He also was the medical director for the University Drug and Alcohol Program.
College of Medicine – 40 years
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Robert Wigton, M.D.
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Robert Wigton, M.D., grew up in Omaha and attended Central High School. After graduating from Harvard College, he returned to UNMC for medical school, residency and a MS in physiology. Since completing residency in internal medicine, he has been an attending physician and pursued interests in teaching, patient care and research. He was named a Teaching and Research Scholar of the American College of Physicians and later spent a sabbatical year at the University of Pennsylvania. At Nebraska, he has been associate dean for graduate medical education since 1976 and also was associate dean for academic affairs and chief of the section of general internal medicine. As author of more than 150 research publications and book chapters, he has received national recognition for his research in medical decision-making and medical education. He has been active in a number of national medical and research societies. He also enjoys studying medical history, particularly the history of the College of Medicine.