The UNMC College of Public Health will hold its first alumni reunion beginning at 6 p.m. on Oct. 10 on the third floor of the Maurer Center for Public Health. The reunion will celebrate the five-year anniversary of the UNMC Alumni Chapter and 10 years of the Master of Public Health program, as well as the establishment of two new funds with the University of Nebraska Foundation.
 |
Heather Talbott |
 |
Ira Combs |
The Omaha branch of the NAACP has awarded Ira Combs the 2014 NAACP Community Service Award. The award is in recognition of Combs’ longtime service to the community. An awards banquet will be held on Nov. 8. Combs is a community nurse coordinator with the UNMC College of Public Health and a longtime community health advocate.
Combs also has received the Public Health Association of Nebraska Jim Dills Distinguished Public Health Service Award. The award is intended to recognize an individual, agency, organization or business exhibiting outstanding leadership in establishing or improving public health services at the community or state level in Nebraska.
The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center at UNMC recently named Apar Ganti, M.D., as the institution’s representative on the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium’s steering committee. Dr. Ganti is associate professor of oncology-hematology at UNMC.
Andy Vasey, M.D., assistant professor, internal medicine/general medicine, made a plenary session presentation at the annual meeting of the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC) in Chicago last month. His presentation was titled, “Using Patients’ Needs to Transform Ambulatory Care: A Resident-run Patient Centered Medical Home.” The presentation looked at the work being done by the Midtown Clinic medical home team. A second employee with The Nebraska Medical Center, Ann Yager, director of radiation oncology at Village Pointe Cancer Center, also made a presentation at the AAHC meeting. Her presentation was titled, “Hearing the Voice of the Patient: The Development of a Patient and Family Advisory Group in Key Cancer Care Initiatives.”
Eileen Kingston has been appointed acting director, VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System. She has been serving as associate director for patient care/nurse executive since 1996. Prior to her VA tenure, Kingston served in private and government health care systems focusing on medical/utilization management in nursing and patient care services.
The “Advances in Parkinson’s Disease: The Continuum of Care” conference will be held on Oct. 31 at the DC Centre, 11830 Stonegate Drive. Registration deadline is Oct. 24. With the high prevalence of Parkinson’s disease in the Midwest, the conference will address the need for coordination of care, clinical guidelines for assessment and management, as well as an update on the current recommendations for the care of the Parkinson’s patient. For complete information on the conference, including registration costs, click here. To register, click here. For more information, contact Brenda Ram.
Lois Starr, M.D., and Jennifer Sanmann, Ph.D., completed their two-year clinical cytogenetics fellowship training through the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics this summer. They are now board-eligible in clinical cytogenetics. Dr. Starr is an assistant professor in pediatrics at MMI, and Dr. Sanmann is an assistant professor of MMI and pediatrics and associate director of the Human Genetics Laboratory.