In the Spotlight

Faculty and Staff Notables

Spread the word about your achievements by submitting your faculty or staff notable.  Please submit your notable to Mark Vanderhoek at vanderhoek_m@mercer.edu.  Please include your full title and your school/college with your submission and do not use acryonyms. 

Dr. Paul Gallant, associate professor, presented a family therapy training workshop, titled "Help with Very Challenging Problems: Unlocking Potential with Narrative Therapy," at the Narrative Therapy Center in Silver Spring, Md., on Oct. 19. He was also invited to present a training to the Intensive Family Therapy Certificate Program at the XXI International Family Therapy Congress in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 23. Dr. Gallant also had his article accepted for publication in March, titled "'No worry allowed. Get out!': A case study tribute to the life and work of Michael White," inContemporary Family Therapy. vol. 35, (1). Pp. 29-40. DOI 10.1007/s10591-012-9225-3.

Dr. Doris Greenberg, assistant professor of pediatrics, served as a faculty member for the American Academy of Pediatrics during its review course, titled "An Intensive Review of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics," held in Phoenix, Ariz., Nov. 28-Dec. 2.

Dr. Edward C. Klatt, professor of pathology and director of the Biomedical Problems Program, presented a seminar on Feb. 8, titled "Information Technologies, the Net Generation and Pathology Education," at the 1st Forum on Education in Pathology sponsored by the Faculty of Medicine of Botucatu University in Botucatu, Brazil.

Dr. Steve Livingston, associate professor and program director of the Master of Family Therapy Program, co-presented "Treating Suicidal Adolescents: Considering Family Structure and Role Assignment," a workshop at the 21st World Family Therapy Congress of the International Family Therapy Association in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 22. Dr. Livingston also served as a moderator for a series of three international family therapy clinical presentations at the World Congress.

Dr. Darren D. Moore, assistant professor and community placement coordinator in the Master of Marriage and Family Therapy, was elected as the chair of the multicultural issues committee for the Georgia Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and in October was elected to serve as an official mentor for the minority fellowship program sponsored jointly by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In addition, Dr. Moore presented his research, "Life After Bariatric Surgery: Men's Perspectives on Self-Concept, Intimate Relationships and Social Support," at the National Council on Family Relations annual conference in Phoenix, Ariz., Oct. 31 and presented a workshop, titled "Stress and Substance Abuse," at the Jackie Robinson Foundation's 40th annual Mentoring and Leadership Conference in New York City on March 1.

Dr. J. Paul Seale, professor and director of research, Dr. J. Aaron Johnson, research scientist and Jason Dhabliwala, research assistant, received Best Abstract Award for Program and Curricula for their presentation, titled "Impact of resident training on alcohol screening and brief intervention services in primary care clinics," at the annual meeting of the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse, Bethesda, Md., on Nov. 1-3. Dr. Seale, Dr. Johnson, Audrey Green, MS3, and Alex Woychek, research assistant, presented "Identifying the predictors of patient treatment initiation following an SBIRT referral from the emergency department" at the Addiction Health Services Research Conference held Oct. 17-19 in New York. Dr. Seale, Dr. Johnson, Woychek, Dhabliwala and Nicole McCollum, MS3, presented "'Completing' SBIRT services: Exploring factors associated with patients seen vs. patients missed in a busy emergency department" at the Addiction Health Services Research Conference on Oct 17-19 in New York. Dr. Seale also co-presented "Delivering SBIRT services in an emergency department setting: Exploring patterns of patient entry and characteristics of patients screening 'at risk' for substance abuse" at the Addiction Health Services Research Conference held Oct. 17-19 in New York with Dr. Johnson, Akin and Woychek. Dr. Seale and Dr. Johnson co-authored, "Use of AUDIT-Based Measures to Identify Unhealthy Alcohol Use and Alcohol Dependence in Primary Care: A Validation Study," in the journalAlcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research.(2013 Jan;37 Suppl 1:E253-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2012.01898.x. Epub 2012 Jul 26.) Dr. Seale, Dr. Monique Davis-Smith, associate professor, and Dr. Ike S. Okosun, associate professor, co-authored "Applicability of a combination of hemoglobin A(1c) and fasting plasma glucose in population-based prediabetes screening" in theJournal of Diabetes,(2012 Dec;4(4):407-16. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-0407.2012.00188.x.).

Dr. Christopher Senkowski, professor of surgery and program director of the surgery residency, recently published a manuscript in collaboration with the American College of Surgeons, titled "Surgeons as institutional employees: a strategic look at the dimensions of surgeons as employees of hospitals." The manuscript is part of an effort by the American College of Surgeons Division of Health Policy and Advocacy to educate its members. This manuscript was distributed to every ACS member in the nation.

Dr. Eric K. Shaw, associate professor of community medicine, gave an oral presentation titled "Barriers and Facilitators to Performing Care Coordination in Primary Care" at the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) annual meeting in New Orleans, La., Dec. 2-5. He was also a co-author on a second oral presentation titled "Using an Online Discussion Forum to Prospectively Collect and Analyze Qualitative Data: Lessons Learned From Care Coordination in Primary Care."

Dr. Tina L. Thompson, senior associate dean for academic affairs, was accepted to the Harvard Macy Institute, "A Systems Approach to Assessment in Health Science Education Program," on March 10-15.

Dr. Wei-Hsiung Yang, assistant professor of physiology, and lab member Chiung-Min Wang recently published an article, titled "De-SUMOylation on ATF3 enhances p53-ATF3 binding and trans-activation of p53 responsive promoter but not p53 stability," inThe North American Journal of Medicine and Science(accepted on Jan. 29 and in press).