College of Health and Human Services

Each year at this time, you receive a letter from the dean of the College of Health and Human Services, providing you with news along with an invitation to participate in the college’s annual fund.

Communication Sciences and Disorders | Family Studies | Health Management and Policy | Kinesiology | Nursing | Occupational Therapy | Recreation Management and Policy | Social Work

Communication Sciences and Disorders

This year has yielded exciting news from the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department, and I’d like to take a moment to share some of that news with you:

Our undergraduates are entering prestigious graduate programs across the country; we frequently receive requests from graduate program directors at other universities who are familiar with one or more alumni from our program and are anxious to recruit others; our graduate students are in high demand, with many having the enviable task of wading through multiple job offers in search of the perfect fit. Clearly employers recognize the value of a graduate education at UNH. The department boasts a 100 percent pass rate on the ASHA praxis exam and 100percent employment in the students first year following graduation.

Faculty and students completed another productive year in disseminating new knowledge through publications and conference presentations. Collectively we presented more than a dozen papers at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association national conference, with several co-authored by students and faculty.

The department has long recognized the presence of a gap between its academic and clinical training components. As a previous student and/or friend of the program we are sure you recognized the inadequacy of video recording and viewing capabilities in the clinic areas. The poor quality of images and distortions of sound make it impossible to collect data that might otherwise inform clinical decision making and/or research. While UNH has earned the Carnegie Foundation’s top rating as a research facility, the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders faculty and students find they must leave the university to conduct much of their research.

It is our vision to transform the clinic space to a state of the art facility in which research and clinical activities can be digitally recorded and shown. Such a facility would:
• Assist undergraduates involved in our clinical assistant program as well as those completing observation requirements for certification.
• Provide outstanding sources of feedback via recordings for graduate clinicians and their supervisors.
• Provide real life examples via tapes to support classroom instruction, which would be instrumental in training.

As the department continues to expand, resources are spread thinner and thinner. In these challenging times, your support means more to us than ever. Please consider making a gift to support students and their important work for UNH and the University community. You can make your gift to the College of Health and Human Services Dean’s Fund for Excellence or support the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department directly. Your thoughtfulness will support training and research. New recording facilities will be a tangible statement of your regard for the program and commitment to the next wave of students and faculty.

Thank you for your support. Your faculty wishes you all the best.

Stephen N. Calculator, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair

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Family Studies

This year has yielded exciting news from the Family Studies Department, and I’d like to take a moment to share some of that news with you:

Dr. Malcolm Smith, who holds a joint appointment with Family Studies and UNH Cooperative Extension, founded the Family Education Collaborative, an outreach scholarship project with the Manchester YMCA which will provide a laboratory for students to research parent and family education, and serve as the only family resource center in Manchester. Dr. Dora Chen, assistant professor and associate director of the Child Study and Development Center (CSDC), and her collaborator, Dr. Leslie Crouse, assistant professor of education, received the 2008 Technology Leadership Award at the annual meeting of the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators in November for their research study, Table Computers for Young Children? Exploring Their Viability for Early Childhood Education, which brings tablet computers into classrooms with 3-6 year-old children.

The Growing a Green Generation Project, an initiative of the CSDC was awarded a 2008 Wuzzleburg Preschool Garden Award by the National Gardening Association and sponsor Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! One of only 75 recipients nation-wide, the project was selected for its demonstrated commitment to creatively and actively engaging young children in the gardening process as a way to help them get off to a great start and to develop a lifelong love of learning. The award included a $1,000 package of gardening and nature education supplies.

The CSDC also finished two exciting projects. The first, a diversity-themed outdoor mural called "Looking In, Looking Out," was created by Seacoast artist Richard Haynes in collaboration with the center's 3- to 6-year-old students. Haynes, associate director of admissions for diversity at UNH, worked with a group of CSDC 3- to 6-year-olds for five sessions over a three-week period. The students apprenticed in his technique, learning color theory and exploring the complementary and contrasting colors that are Haynes’s signature. The second project, a natural playground, combines landscape elements, pathways, weather and sun patterns, plant groupings, and other natural materials and structures to create miniature landscapes that aim to foster play and learning opportunities. The CSDC’s natural playground is the first of its kind in the state.

Senior Victoria Stanhope received a 2008 Steelman Fellowship. Under the supervision of faculty mentor Dr. Corinna Tucker, associate professor and graduate program coordinator, Victoria worked at Families First in Portsmouth, NH to develop a family support program for families with children going back to school. She is currently interning at A Safe Place, a domestic violence shelter.

Excellence from students, faculty and alumni like those above is made possible in part from support from alumni like you. Every year, thousands of alumni support the UNH community by participating in the UNH Annual Fund. In these challenging times, your support means more to us than ever. Please consider making a gift to support students and their important work for UNH and the University community. You can make your gift to the College of Health and Human Services Deans Fund for Excellence or support the Family Studies Department directly.

Thank you for considering the UNH Family Studies Department in your charitable giving.

Elizabeth M. Dolan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair

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Health Management and Policy

We are proud that the Health Management and Policy (HMP) Department offers programs that train students at the baccalaureate and masters level to manage health care organizations, public health programs or agencies, and/or set policy related to health care. Funds from generous alumni like you are used to support both students and faculty.

Students are provided the opportunity to participate in professional presentations and conferences, and also receive scholarships as a result of alumni funds.

Faculty are provided the opportunity to enhance their professional development with regard to research, datasets, professional memberships/licensure, and conference attendance.

This year has yielded exciting news from the HMP Department, and I’d like to take a moment to share some of that news with you:

Professor Bob McGrath has been named the first Carsey Faculty Fellow, a position designed to support his research agenda, which currently focuses on areas related to access to health care services and its socio-economic determinants.

Kristina Griffin, an HMP senior, recently was awarded second place in the annual Richard Stull Health Management essay competition sponsored by the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). Kristina’s paper was on the subject of the ethical and financial considerations of health care referrals. She presented her paper at the national ACHE Congress last month.

Charles Randall and Anna Thomas were the recipients of the second annual alumni recognition award awarded to HMP alumni who have contributed time, energy and expertise over a period of many years to the department and its students. Charles is manager of budget and reimbursement for Manchester’s Catholic Medical Center. Anna is deputy public health director for the Manchester Public Health Department. Excellence from students, faculty and alumni like those above is made possible in part from generous support from alumni like you. Every year, thousands of alumni support the UNH community by participating in the UNH Annual Fund.

We know these are challenging economic times but please consider making a gift to support students and their important work for UNH and the University community. You can make your gift to The College of Health and Human Services Deans Fund for Excellence or support the Health Management and Policy Department directly.

Thank you for considering the UNH Health Management and Policy Department in your charitable giving.

James B. Lewis, Sc.D.
Associate Professor and Chair

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Kinesiology

First of all, I would like to thank you. Thank you for your tireless support of our department, our faculty, and our programs. Our programs are as successful as they are in great part because of your support. The Kinesiology Department, which comprises five options—athletic training, exercise science, physical education pedagogy, outdoor education, and sport studies—is the largest major in the College of Health and Human Services and one of the largest and most popular at the University of New Hampshire.

As of January 2009, the Department of Kinesiology is under one roof in a newly renovated, fully operative New Hampshire Hall. Because of the generous support from the College of Health and Human Services, alumni, the University, and a private donor, a $5.5 million renovation project of the building was completed. Included in this project is the department’s new three story-high climbing wall that stretches the length of the old gym. Used by the outdoor education and physical education pedagogy programs, the climbing wall is both a great teaching facility and a great research facility. Due to this renovation, New Hampshire Hall now fully accommodates the teaching, research, and service missions of the department. Learn more

However, even with a newly renovated facility, sustaining and even expanding our departmental mission can only be realized through generous alumni support. Your financial support is crucial to student education and faculty development, especially in these challenging financial times. Please consider making a gift to support students and their important work for UNH and the University community. You can make your gift to the College of Health and Human Services Deans Fund for Excellence or support the Kinesiology Department directly.

Thank you for considering the UNH Kinesiology Department in your charitable giving.

Ron Croce, Ph.D.

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Nursing

Greetings from the Department of Nursing! We continue to have several initiatives in the Department of Nursing that respond to the nation’s ongoing nursing shortage. In addition to a major revision of our undergraduate curriculum, we have developed a proposal for a Statewide Nursing Initiative. We plan to increase the number of students in our Direct Entry Master’s in the Nursing program from 24 to 32 by 2010 and have developed a part-time direct entry option. We are exploring the development of a nursing cohort at Keene State College (KSC) and a new accelerated baccalaureate program at Plymouth State University (PSU). We plan to re-open our family nurse practitioner track for the fall 2009 semester and are working to develop collaborative relationships with other nursing programs to expand our master’s program and our nurse practitioner offerings to include nurse-midwifery, gerontology, and psychiatric/mental health.

International study abroad opportunities and exchanges provide vital educational experiences for both our faculty and students. Three faculty and 17 nursing students traveled to Celaya, Mexico for two weeks this March in a new exchange program with the University of Guanajuato. Our students learned about the Mexican health care system and provided direct care to clients. Seven students and I assisted in 10 births in one day alone! Many students said that the experience was life-changing for them. This coming October, we hope to host three faculty and 12 students from the University of Guanajuato here in Durham.

New clinical faculty have joined us this year as experts in the clinical setting, along with Dr. Joan Hahn, a gerontology nurse practitioner whose work focuses on disabled adults. I am honored to work with this wonderful faculty who are so strongly committed to students, nursing, and the community, and am delighted to work with nursing students who are eager to learn and will be our future leaders in the profession.

Thank you for your ongoing support of Nursing at the University of New Hampshire. It is through your efforts as ambassadors of our program that UNH has achieved its reputation for excellence. We know these are challenging economic times but we hope you will continue to be able to support this excellence by making a gift through the UNH Annual Fund to support students and their important work for UNH and the University community. You can make your gift to the College of Health and Human Services Deans Fund for Excellence or support the Nursing Department directly.

Best regards,
Lynette Ament, PhD, RN, CNM, FACNM, Associate Professor and Chair

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Occupational Therapy

This year has yielded exciting news from the Occupational Therapy (OT) Department, and I’d like to take a moment to share some of that news with you:

• Enrollments in our programs are full, and our application pools remain strong. We are offering three new graduate OT elective courses this spring including Ergonomics, Upper Extremity Rehabilitation and Splinting, and Sensory Integration. We have also developed a new core course entitled Psychosocial Evaluation and Intervention, taught by Professor Vroman.

• We continue to involve our students in a number of community programs including Stepping Stones and Compass Care in Portsmouth, Sprucewoods in Durham, and Easter Seals in Dover. We would like to thank all of our community partners in these centers for enriching the learning experiences of our students, and to our many Adjunct Faculty, Elena Llombard, Amy Van Splunder, Elyse Gallo, Carol Davis, and Barb Kresge, who support our students when they are at these sites.

• Shelley Mulligan, associate professor, has settled into her second year as chairperson, and the faculty is currently involved in a number of exciting research projects. To name a few, Professor Mulligan is examining early markers to assist in the identification of infants with autism. Professors Griswold and Simmons are piloting a new assessment tool for evaluating the social interaction skills of adults and children. Professor White is engaged in a number of projects related to increasing our understanding of the relations between stress responses and occupational performance, and Professor Merrill is completing her dissertation work investigating the long term impact of parenting children with developmental disabilities through adulthood.

Important projects like these are partially funded through generous alumni support and are crucial to student education. Every year, thousands of alumni support the UNH community by making a gift through the UNH Annual Fund.

We fully understand that these are challenging economic times but please consider making a gift to support our students and their important work for UNH and the University community. You can make your gift to the College of Health and Human Services Deans Fund for Excellence or support the Department of Occupational Therapy directly.

Thank you for considering the UNH Occupational Therapy Department in your charitable giving.

Best regards,
Shelley Mulligan, Ph.D., OTR/L,
Associate Professor, Department Chair, Graduate Faculty

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Recreation Management and Policy

This year has yielded exciting news from the RMP Department, and I’d like to take a moment to share some of that news with you:

• Two new faculty members will be joining the RMP Department in fall 2009. Dr. Alison Wilder joins RMP with an expertise in long-term care and therapeutic recreation after teaching at the Metropolitan College of Denver for the past three years. Dr. Chris Harrist joins the RMP Faculty after completing his doctoral studies at Texas A & M. Chris brings an expertise in positive youth development and youth sports. Dr. Lou Powell will be retiring at the end of this academic year though we will continue to access Dr. Powell’s teaching and administrative expertise as she will teach a few fall courses and chair the College of Health and Human Services Strategic Planning Committee as well. We are most appreciative of all Lou has given to the department and the College over the past 20 years. She was an integral part of making the RMP Department nationally recognized for its excellence in teaching.

• Over 70 current TR Majors and UNH-TR alumni were in attendance at this year’s New England Therapeutic Recreation Association’s Fall Conference. This year the NETRA Conference was hosted by UNH and held at the New England Center. It was wonderful to see so many alumni present and hear the inspirational stories that so many of you told as the keynote speaker, Dr. Jeffrey Salloway, asked for your healing stories in your work with your clients. Our current students were impressed by the many UNH alumni connections they made and they hope to have an opportunity to intern with or work with many of you in the future.

• All of you remember, planning events in the community as part of RMP 557–Recreation Services Program Design. This year more than 15 events were designed, organized and implemented by the 70 students enrolled in the fall ’08 semester. Dr. Ann Morgan was busy traveling from Exeter to Newmarket to Dover to Portsmouth to observe our students in action–building social capital in the surrounding communities.

We fully understand that these are challenging economic times but please consider making a gift to support students and their important work for UNH and the University community. You can make your gift to the College of Health and Human Services Deans Fund for Excellence or support the RMP department directly.

Thank you for considering the UNH Recreation Management Program in your charitable giving.

Best regards,
Janet Sable, Ph.D., CTRS
Chair and Professor

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Social Work

This year has yielded exciting news from the UNH Social Work Department, and I’d like to take a moment to share some of that news with you:

• Last month, the Social Work Outreach Center, a service of the University of New Hampshire located at the McConnell Center in Dover, recently teamed up with three local community problem-solving initiatives: the CASH Campaign of Southeastern New Hampshire, the Alliance for Community Transportation (ACT) Project, and the Workforce Housing Coalition of the Greater Seacoast.

• Over the next nine months, faculty and students from the Social Work Outreach Center will help plan and conduct research on community needs and available services as well as the systems needed to support the projects. The work is a part of the Center’s commitment to integrating social work education and community service, including providing local social service agencies, like those housed in the McConnell Center, with undergraduate and graduate social work student interns as well as support with program evaluation and grant-writing.

• Starting next spring, the Social Work Outreach Center will begin its efforts to support the Workforce Housing Coalition of the Greater Seacoast. Students plan to work with Lisa Henderson, director of the Workforce Housing Coalition, and other coalition members to collect data on the specific needs and challenges of families working in the Seacoast region. The effort builds on recent legislation passed in New Hampshire to promote workforce housing.

Projects like these are partially funded through alumni support and are crucial to student education. Every year, thousands of alumni support the UNH community by participating in the UNH Annual Fund.

We know these are challenging economic times but your gift to support students and their important work for UNH and the University community will make a significant difference. You can make your gift to the College of Health and Human Services Deans Fund for Excellence or support the Social Work Department directly.

Thank you for considering the UNH Social Work Department in your charitable giving.

Best regards,
Jerry D. Marx, PhD
Associate Professor and Chair

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