A University of Kansas associate professor will join Washburn University this fall as the new dean of the Washburn Nursing School. Monica Scheibmeier has served on the KU nursing faculty for more than 14 years, but she will replace Cynthia Hornberger as the head of Washburn nursing on Aug. 1.
Scheibmeier received both her bachelor's degree and her doctorate in nursing from KU and her master's degree at the University of Arizona. She has participated in multiple health organizations, including the Kansas State Nurses Association and the Kansas Public Health Association, in addition to her university involvement.
Earlier this year, Scheibmeier was selected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Hornberger will return to her duties as a full-time nursing professor.
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Alumni looking to reconnect with their alma mater are playing a significant role at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Serving as volunteers on the Grayhawk research panel at the Landon Center on Aging, people over 60 years old participate in studies related to cognition and aging conducted by KUMC researchers.
“It’s kind of an interesting way to gauge where you are for your age,” said Barbara Garrity, who has been volunteering for the program for over seven years.
Garrity graduated from KU-Lawrence in 1980 with a degree in general studies and pursued a career in medical management. After retiring, she said she was looking for something to do and heard about the Grayhawk program.
“It makes me feel like I’m doing my part for science,” she said. “The researchers can’t conduct their studies without us.”
Currently, the Grayhawk program is seeking over 300 volunteers for a visual attention assessment. Some of the tests will include searching for a certain letter among a page of other letters, or looking at a picture of a grocery shelf and trying to locate a certain object. The test will measure how quickly participants can find a target object. The long-term goal of this project is to build other assessments to determine a good test for driving ability.
There are many other assessments also taking place, and volunteers can choose when they participate. Joan McDowd, PhD, associate director for research at the Landon Center on Aging and leader the Grayhawk program, keeps a database of volunteers, but said they are always in need of more. Being a graduate of KU or KUMC is not among the requirements, but they have found that alumni enjoy it because it reconnects them back to their university.
“Our volunteers are a great bunch of people and we are thankful for their service,” said McDowd.
If people are interested in learning more about the Grayhawk program or signing up as a volunteer, they can contact McDowd at (913) 588-0646 or jmcdowd@kumc.edu. More information can also be found online at www2.kumc.edu/coa/Research/grayhawk.htm.
The KU School of Medicine is fortunate to have many faculty members who hold a special place in the hearts of the students they have taught over the years.
Every year, medical students get the opportunity to honor one of these inspirational faculty members through the Rainbow Award, which acknowledges the KU SOM physicians and community preceptors who display outstanding attributes of professionalism and excellence in medicine and who pass these same characteristics along to their students.
Past winners of the Rainbow Award include Drs. David Robbins, Mary Duff, Daniel Dickerson, Vance Burns, Steven Simpson, Belinda Vail, LeAnn Detar-Newbart, Debra Smith, Michael Moncure, and Linda Campbell.
Two weeks ago, the students chose Mark Meyer, MD, associate professor in family medicine and associate dean for student affairs, as this year’s Rainbow Award recipient. Dr. Meyer is loved by many of his students because he always has their best interests at heart. He sets a great example by being dedicated to his patients, and he shows exemplary professionalism toward everyone with whom he works. The fact that he is the personal physician of many fellow doctors speaks volumes about how he is viewed by his colleagues and students.
The other finalists for this year's award were: Gary Doolittle, MD, professor of hematology and oncology; Mary McDonald, MD, assistant professor in family medicine; John Shell, MD, Coffey County Medical Center; and Tyler Hughes, MD, general surgeon for McPherson Hospital.
Congratulations to Dr. Meyer on this award, and thanks to all of the faculty who teach students.
Increasing the funding KU Medical Center receives from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is vital to its continued excellence in life-saving research and innovation.
Recently, the latest rankings for the KU medical, nursing, and allied health schools for federal fiscal year 2008 were released.
The School of Medicine has once again improved its rank, rising to 65th in the nation among all schools and improving from 39th to 36th among public schools. In addition, with one exception, all of the school's basic science departments are in the top 25 for public medical schools, and the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology is ranked in the top 10 at number five.
Considering the KU School of Medicine was ranked 81st in the country in 2005, this is a tremendous achievement.
In 2006, the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation released Time to Get it Right, with the goal for KUMC to become a top-50 institution by the year 2015 and for the basic science programs to be in the top 25.
“With the momentum we are building, I’m confident we can meet this goal,” said Barbara Atkinson, MD, executive vice chancellor of KU Medical Center.
The School of Nursing is ranked 31st among 82 schools of nursing that receive NIH funding. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, there are 762 schools of nursing with four-year or higher programs, so this ranking clearly puts KU in an elite category among nursing schools.
Finally, to round out KUMC’s prestigious rankings, the School of Allied Health is ranked 12th out of 50 public and private schools of allied health in the nation that receive NIH funding. Among public institutions, the school is ranked 9th.
“I am very proud of all our faculty members and their work to secure funding for innovative research, especially during these challenging economic times,” said Atkinson.
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The University of Kansas Medical Center