Retirements

Saturday night, Bernard and I joined well over 100 people at a retirement party given by Health Behavior and Health Education, in honor of Linda Cook’s 35 years at the School as a student services manager. For many of our applicants, people like Linda are their first point of contact with the School.  Linda and her colleagues in other departments interpret rules and requirements for our students, and along with many faculty members, help students find financial aid and jobs and support them through life’s crises. They are cheerleaders, advocates and, sometimes, the conveyers of tough love. Frankly, if faculty members were asked to play all these roles, they would get fewer grants and publish fewer papers.  Anyway, the party was spectacular, not in terms of lavishness (it wasn’t) but in the love and loyalty that was displayed and celebrated. JoAnne Earp did a wonderful job recounting, in human terms, the many ways she, as a chair, came to depend on Linda.  Happy retirement Linda! We thank you for everything.  By the way, in this very budget-sensitive year, readers should know the party was made possible by donations from many people, including me.

Thanks and good-bye also to Lesa McPherson, HR manager in Epidemiology, who will retire Wednesday after 30 years at UNC and the School. She got a great send-off from people in Epidemiology and elsewhere in the School who will miss her.  Lesa has been through many changes in the state personnel policies over the years, and has efficiently managed to guide many faculty and staff members through the sometimes-confusing HR policies and procedures. She and all the School’s HR managers keep on top of changes to policies and procedures that allow so many of us to get paid on time. They’re also there to help with any problems or grievances that might arise. We are so grateful for their diligence and patience.

I am moved by the loyalty of people to the School and the School to them.  Unfortunately, we have had to lay people off from their jobs this year (not Linda or Lesa).  This is a difficult topic to discuss because of personnel issues that preclude us from more than general statements, but it has been painful for everyone involved.

NCPHA

I will be meeting some of our alumni and attending the opening session of the North Carolina Public Health Association (NCPHA) in Asheville tomorrow.  Happy Monday! Barbara

New NC Cancer Hospital dedicated

On last week’s very hot Wednesday, I attended the opening ceremony for the new NC Cancer Hospital. It’s a beautiful, light-filled, human scale building. The new hospital represents an amazing transformation from the early 20^th century TB sanitarium that was the Gravely Building. The setting for cancer care at UNC now matches the quality of the health care providers, procedures and science.

Shelley Earp, III, MD, Lineberger Professor of Cancer Research, and director, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, received a standing ovation even before he spoke. Everyone in that audience understood how much the new hospital bears the imprint of Shelley’s dedication and passion for our patients, this state and UNC.

I was especially moved by Carolyn Sartor, MD, associate professor and chair, clinical research radiation oncology, who spoke movingly, with hope and positivity, about her roles as healer, scientist and patient. She talked about living well with cancer and about all the people in the future who will live well with cancer, because of North Carolina’s investment in cancer care. She said, “We bring the best of the past and the hope for the future.”

The latest issue of our School’s magazine, Carolina Public Health, focuses on the impressive efforts of our faculty to defeat cancer. With the generosity of the University Cancer Research funds, we all can have great hope for the future.

Happy Monday. Barbara

A field of dreams in Chapel Hill

(Monday, Sep 14)

My husband and I paid a visit to the emerging HOPE Garden on Homestead Road in Chapel Hill. Imagine a field of dreams in which UNC students, partnering with others, are cutting bamboo, assembling raised planting beds, creating trellises for beans and other vegetables to grow and much more. (They’re also eating, talking and seemingly having a good time.) They are doing more than creating beds for plants; they are sowing seeds of hope for the homeless and other individuals who will benefit from the fruits (and vegetables) of their labor. David Baron is the heart, soul and brain behind the operation. But he has had a lot of help from many people. Orange County gave land to the project, Department of Parks and Recreation has helped, NC State faculty and stud

ents are providing landscape architecture advice, APPLES is offering service credit, and UNC students are contributing their notable enthusiasm and hard work. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This isn’t just about giving to the homeless. It is also about collaborating with them, teaching them and providing the foundation for new independence. We came away uplifted by the potential of the garden but also by the realization of what our students can do when they put their minds to it. David’s tenacity, inventiveness, charisma and vision are awesome. If anyone is interested in volunteering, get in touch with David Baron. The article below from the UNC news provides more detail. There also are beds for anyone to rent to grow food—local, healthy and pretty cheap.

UNC sophomore David Baron receives a Projects for Peace grant for HOPE Garden
Wednesday, May 06, 2009

A sustainable way to address homelessness in Chapel Hill resulted in a $10,000 grant for its creator, David Baron of Atlanta, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Baron’s Homeless Outreach Poverty Eradication (HOPE) Garden was one of more than 100 student-initiated projects to receive a Davis Projects for Peace grant from philanthropist Kathryn W. Davis.

HOPE Garden is a partnership of Carolina students and the Town of Chapel Hill working in collaboration with the N.C. State University department of horticulture science. In this project, homeless people will train and work alongside volunteers and mentors in a community garden, with land donated by the town. The workers will gain valuable job skills and income, while the organic produce they grow will be sold on the UNC campus and given to disadvantaged families, who could not otherwise afford to buy this fresh, high-quality and nutritious food.

“HOPE Garden will promote employment security, food security and the overall security that comes from strong community ties,” Baron said. “It will promote peace by bridging the gaps that exist in the Chapel Hill community, while providing program participants and the community at large with a greater sense of communal security.”

Davis Projects for Peace invited all students from partner schools in the Davis United World College (UWC) Scholars Program plus students at International Houses worldwide and Future Generations to submit plans for grassroots projects for peace, to be implemented during the summer of 2009. University students from nearly 100 campuses will collectively receive over $1 million in funding during the summer of 2009 for projects in all regions of the world.

Happy Monday. Barbara

Each year as dean, I enjoy the first week of School more than the last year. Easy for me, of course, no books to purchase, no worry about exams to come and no classes. Each year, new students come with great experiences behind them, tremendous commitment, excellent GREs and grades, and immense motivation to change the world for the better.

This year, it was exhilarating to welcome our 529 new students, talk with them about why they have come here and, in some cases, alleviate their anxieties about how well they will perform. From our really smart new undergrads in environmental sciences and engineering, biostatistics, health policy and management and nutrition, to our new master’s and doctoral students across the School, it’s hard not to be excited by what these students already have done in their lives and what they hope to accomplish.

FHI fellows make first-rate presentations

For the last four years, 14 of our students have been selected to serve as FHI fellows through  the generosity of Family Health International, under the leadership of Ward Cates, MD, MPH, President of Research at FHI and a member of our School’s Advisory Council, and Lucy Siegel, PhD, Director of Research Resource Development at FHI.  They’ve  worked with Peggy Bentley and Gretchen Van Vliet at the School to develop the program. Last Friday, Gretchen, Sian Curtis, me, and several others from our School went to FHI’s offices to participate as three UNC FHI fellows (Heather Marlow, MCH, Kate Clouse, EPI and Kate Patterson Gilles, HBHE) presented their work. I doubt most of us on the faculty were as polished at their ages as the three women who presented their work. They’re having excellent, diverse research experiences, developing and testing interventions to reduce risk of AIDS, evaluating clinical trials to prevent AIDS and examining other aspects of the AIDS problem. They’re using new technologies like mobile phones to communicate with at-risk populations, analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, learning how culture influences behavior and spending time in clinics with patients.  The variety of experiences will give them a great head start on their careers after they complete their degrees. We are so grateful to FHI for partnering with us to provide these fellowships.

Senator Kennedy dies; end of an era

I did not think Ted Kennedy’s death would hit me as hard as it did. Unlike the tragic deaths of his brothers, he lived his life in both years and accomplishments. He was there for so much of my life, championing the causes in which I and so many more others believed, exhorting us to do better, care more, treat people fairly, provide health care for all, advocate for those who could not do so themselves-the kinds of fundamental beliefs we in public health hold dearly. Not a perfect man, he was nevertheless a good man. Without Kennedy’s moving oratory and nearly messianic belief in health insurance for all, bitter partisan battles could overwhelm the momentum for change. I hope not.

I was in my mid-20s when I was leaving the Capitol after a hearing about breast cancer reconstruction and insurance coverage (Not so long ago, people debated whether reconstruction should be covered.), an issue on which Ted Kennedy was far ahead of many other people of his time. I mistakenly got on the elevators reserved for Senators and Representatives and was alone on the elevator with Ted Kennedy. I wish I could say that in that brief passage, I said just the right thing, but no such luck. He smiled, I smiled, and we disembarked. Still, it was a moment to remember, even years later when we’d been at some of the same Washington events, and I’d been to testify on the Hill, participated in Rose Garden events and become comfortable in DC. Still, there was always Kennedy.  There is no one like him and his passing is a loss for us all. Still, his dreams should not die.

Happy Monday, Barbara