August 2014

Chief Operating Officer

Dwayne Martins

  • Welcome to Tracey Rutledge who is joining our team as the new Executive Director, Development. Tracey has held senior positions in Brescia Foundation (Executive Director) and Women's College Foundation (Vice President and Acting President). Tracey's first day will be October 6. Tracey will focus on building the team to support Schulich's Medicine & Dentistry’s vision with a drive to surpass the current campaign's goals by the campaign's completion in 2018. You can expect to meet Tracey as she  will be attending a number of meetings during her first few weeks.
  • Please be reminded that budget season is only three weeks away and that the process is a four year budget cycle.
  • Congratulations to Rosemary Hicks, Finance and Jennifer Parraga, Communications & Marketing on their promotion to the positions of Director for their respective departments.

Media Relations

Crystal Mackay

  • This month, we were pleased to announce to media our Leaders in Innovation Dinner speaker for this year, Victor Garber who will share his personal connection to Alzheimer's disease and his dedication to advocacy.
  • The ice bucket challenge for ALS provided great photo and video opportunities for us and garnered a lot of attention through social media. Dr. Strong was featured in the local news speaking about how the funds raised by the ice bucket challenge might influence the world class research being done right here at home.
  • I am always looking for ways to help promote the amazing work that you do in the media. I encourage you to contact me with story ideas, and to let me know about upcoming publications that may be of interest to the public. 

Dentistry

Nancy Kalbfleisch

  • In September, we will be welcoming a new Schulich Dentistry faculty member:
  • Dr. Hasan Alkumru DDS, PhD, Specialist in Prosthodontics, FRCD(C)
    • Dr. Hasan Alkumru was the Interim Head of Department of Prosthodontics and Director of Graduate Prosthodontics Program in the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto. He has been lecturing for more than 25 years and is an internationally recognized speaker on Fixed Prosthodontics, Esthetic Restorations and Implant Supported Dental Prosthesis. We are delighted Dr. Alkumru will be joining the Schulich Dentistry team.
  • On August 29, Schulich Dentistry welcomed the incoming classes of 2018 and ITD Class of 2016 at the annual White Coat Ceremony. The Oath of Commitment was recited by all 54 first year dental students and 20 Internationally Trained Dentists led by Mr. Irwin Fefergrad, Registrar, Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario.
  • Drs. T. Ari, N Ari & L. Kalman will attend a NCOHR and McGill Dentistry Symposium re: thinking interdisciplinarity in oral health research. This symposium seeks to address the challenges of siloed research and facilitate innovative/interdisciplinary collaboration among dental faculties, schools and other disciplines.

Research

Mady Hymowitz

  • We are very pleased to welcome Stacey Bastien to the Research Office. Stacey will be responsible for administration of research training programs including SRTP, SROP, MD/PhD, NSERC USRA, Clinician Scientist, and CIP.  
  • Several new internal funding competitions have been announced:
    • Schulich Equipment AID (Advancement, Improvement, Development) Grant to provide Schulich Medicine & Dentistry faculty with a mechanism to acquire, develop or improve equipment directly used for research that they cannot obtain through other funding channels.
    • Faculty Support for Research in Education (FSRE) to facilitate and enable scholarship in education.
    • Collaborative Research Seed Grants (CRSG) to provide seed funding for the formation and development of new interdisciplinary collaborative research teams.
  • New options and strategies are being reviewed to deal with funding gaps resulting from changes at CIHR.

Human Resources


Betty Holme

  • A reminder of the importance of processing faculty appointments in a timely manner to ensure that faculty appointments have been processed and approved by the Dean and Provost before the faculty members starts working at Western. The Office of Faculty Relations does no longer accept back dated appointments. 

Finance


Rosemary Hicks

  • The Mustang Market e-procurement system training sessions are underway. If you have not yet signed up for a training session, please do so as soon as possible. The Mustang Market contact for training is Kristen McGill.
  • Budget meetings have been set and begin at the end of this month. If you have not yet been scheduled for a meeting, please contact Jessica Jamieson. Shortly, we will be communicating the information that we would like to discuss at these meetings. If you have any questions, please feel free to email or call me.
  • As travel and conference season is underway, please ensure that you understand the travel guidelines and restrictions. Any questions please refer here and do not hesitate to contact Ronnine Elston or any member of the Finance Team.

Basic Medical Sciences


Basic Medical Sciences Undergraduate Education (BMSUE)
Dr. Candace Gibson

  • Classes resumed for undergraduate students on September 4. During the next month, enrolment data will be audited for accuracy in preparation of the MTCU count in November. Again this year the acceptances in the Basic Medical Sciences First Entry program were above expected resulting in more than 800 new first year students coming our way.
  • Schulich Medicine & Dentistry faculty and staff will be attending the Ontario Universities’ Fair in mid-September to provide information about the BMSUE Program and the Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience. Organizers anticipate that again over more than 120,000 high school students will attend the three-day fair.
  • An informative video about the BMSc Program will begin production at the end of the September. Faculty and BMSc students will be interviewed and filming will highlight the undergraduate laboratory facilities in MSB and DSB.


Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
Dr. Andrew Watson

  • We have received notice that we have Top 2 thesis downloads at Western University for July 2014:
    • Probiotic therapy for heart failure: Investigating the potential anti-hypertrophic properties of probiotics (5.03 downloads per day, 146 downloads to date) - Grace L. Ettinger, Microbiology and Immunology, MSc (Supervisors: Dr. Greg Gloor and Dr. Gregor Reid)
    • Exposure to Environmental Contaminants and Stress as Determinants of Health in Three Communities: Walpole Island and Attawapiskat First Nations and Naivasha, Kenya (2.1 downloads per day, 103 downloads to date) - Deirdre Phaedra Henley, Pathology, PhD (Supervisor: Dr. Jack Bend).
  • The Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry welcomed 682 students across our 17 graduate programs. We extend a warm welcome to those returning, and wish all of the new students a successful new academic year.
  • Neurosciences is holding their Social Event at the Grad Club, September 16 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. All new and returning graduate students are welcome to attend, as well as the entire neurosciences faculty. Register online
  • September 24 - November 5 Students, Staff and Faculty members will be representing Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at nine distinct recruitment events nationally.

Communications

Jennifer Parraga

  • Welcome to new communications team members:
    • Andrea Richter, Communications Coordinator
      • Andrea will serve as an adjunct member of the School's team as she support all communications and media relations needs for the Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative (ONDRI). Andrea previously worked with NPT Chartered Accountants, General Dynamics Land Systems and Blackberry. She has an BA in Business and Psychology form the University of Waterloo. Andrea is located on the 2nd floor in CSB and will participate in many joint initiatives with the Schulich Medicine & Dentistry Communications Team. Andrea joined us on September 8.
    • Jesica Hurst, Communications Coordinator
      • Jesica has joined the team as a full-time communications coordinator, where she will support communications and marketing for a number of key portfolios including our alumni communications, research and postgraduate medical education, as well as some of our basic and clinical departments. Jesica previously worked with the Faculty of Education and the town of Caledon. Throughout her undergrad, Jesica worked with the Western Gazette. She is a Western alum and has a BA in MIT, as well as certificates in Professional Communications and Writing. Jesica joined us on September 15.
  • Congratulations to Kristin Tate
    • Kristin Tate has been promoted to Special Events Officer for Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. Kristin will strategically lead and operationally manage all the School's events (internal and external). She will work closely with the School's alumni and development team to map out a strong alumni engagement strategy on the events side of the house.  Kristin has been with the School for more than two years, and most recently has been expertly managing the School's web redevelopment. Prior to coming to the School, Kristin worked with a local marketing agency and the Budweiser Gardens, where she was responsible for large event management. Kristin will begin in this role in mid- to late- October, as we will want her replacement on staff before a transition can take place.
  • We successfully launched three new websites in August: Anatomy and Cell Biology, Medical Biophysics and Medical Imaging.
  • Nearly all Phase Two teams have been trained and more than 90% of the website maps have been approved and created in CASCADE (the new content management system).
  • It’s been a busy few weeks with events, development of new recruitment materials and videos, production of Rapport Magazine and preparation for Homecoming, as well as several ALS Ice Bucket Challenges (check out the videos).
  • We were pleased to support the UME White coat ceremony and the Family and Friends event and the Jane Goodall event. We have worked closely with Admissions on updating their brochures, with Grad Studies on the development of a new recruitment prospectus, online interactive brochure and out of province website, advertising and positioning. We’ve also been supporting updates to the MPH video. The 2014 issue of Rapport Magazine is on its way – we hope you all enjoy it this year. It will be online next week.
  • As part of our support of LEW, a new awareness campaign has been developed. It’s been launched with a highly visual posters, visix slides and some new messages to be shared through the blog. We will be planning some events and supporting other new initiatives throughout the year, including the production of a new Schulich app.
  • We have been working with the UME on strengthening awareness for Accreditation 2015. Watch for some new full sized banners, posters, and articles coming at the end September.
  • Homecoming 2014 will be upon us in a few days. Check out the website for events you to attend – there’s still time to register.
  • New swag has been flooding our offices, from new Schulich Medicine & Dentistry water bottle, coffee mugs, mittens, and some very fun Cole and Parker – purple socks, there will be plenty of new items for purchase in the next week or two. Watch the website for updates.

Information Services

Sergio Rodriguez

  • During the past several months Information Services has worked with UME and LEW to develop a new system for absence tracking for medical students. Beginning September 9, all absence tracking for UME students will be done through the School’s Single Sign-On (SSO) system. Students will log in and make their requests and, administrative staff will be notified of the request and work within SSO to manage (approve/deny/track) the requests.
  • Renovations and technology renewal are now complete for HSA101 and MSB384. The renovations and upgrades in technology should allow users of the rooms to more effectively leverage those facilities to carry out critical Schulich Medicine & Dentistry business. Beginning in September, the Edtech team in IS will be adding new technology to the small group rooms in the lower floor of the Medical Science building.
  • August saw another busy month for Information Services, assisting our Medical and Dental education offices to prepare for the start of a new academic year including the creation of new student email accounts and mailing lists, software updates on all Schulich managed classrooms, as well as VERC facility orientation for all year 1 students.

Project Management Office/Strategic Technology Commons

Dale Shelley

  • Registration is open for the 2-Day 'Focus' workshop (Process Improvement & Management Methodology & Tools) October 14 & 15. If you would like to participate, please send your request to pmo.inquiry@schulich.uwo.ca to register.  
  • Registration is also open for the Standard Operating Procedures Workshop (SOP) - please email stc@schulich.uwo.ca for dates and to sign up.
  • Strategic Technology Commons (STC) is participating in the evaluation of courses vis-a-vis the Instructional Design Committee as well as working with Schulich IS on various projects related to curriculum delivery. If you are interested in Instructional Design or Training or for any consultation, please contact stc@schulich.uwo.ca  with your request.

Education

John Ruicci

  • Dr. George Kim is the new Assistant Dean Rural Regional and Community Engagement. He has been busy during the summer months working with the team to get know the current-state realities and to begin to explore future-state opportunities
  • The Master of Public Health program welcomed 41 new students this year including 10 international students from Nigeria, China, India, Saudi, Pakistan and Palestine.
  • Undergraduate Orientation was, by all accounts, a huge success welcoming 170 new first year medical students.

Alumni Relations and Development

Jan New

  • Effective September 2, Amber-Lee Beattie is now a Development Associate. Her new position will increase our ability to respond to inquiries related to general fundraising, fund balances, etc.
  • Two Donor-funded Chairs in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry were recently approved and formalized by Senate:
    • The "Dr. James Roth Research Chair"A renaming of the Chair in Health Analytics to: the "Dr. Adam Linton Chair in Kidney Health Analytics"

Facilities

Kevin Inchley

  • HSA 101 and MSB 384 renovations are complete. MSB 016 through 029 are complete from a physical perspective. Audiovisual monitors will be added to these rooms in the very near future.
  • Information about room bookings can be found here
  • Major changes have occurred with recycling at Western. Coffee cups and lids from all major vendors are now acceptable in the blue beverage container recycling bins. In addition, these bins can now accept all plastics labeled 1 through 7 (previously only plastics 1, 2, 4 and 5 could be accepted). Please do not throw your coffee cups or beverage containers in with paper recycling in your office bin as caretaking staff will not sort it and all of it will go in the landfill. Click here for more information.