A Decade of Excellence
Shaping tomorrow’s leaders for better health outcomes worldwide.
A healthier future
Charter
Better health outcomes require better solutions .
The College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University is committed to translating scientific health research and discovery into practice. We prepare students to address the challenges facing our populations to stay healthy, improve their health and manage chronic disease. We bring people together to improve the health of the communities we serve, reaching them where they live, learn, work and play throughout the lifespan.
Our values
Translational science. We are lifelong learners who move evidence into practice.
Collaboration and teamwork. We work together toward a common goal of improving health outcomes.
Equity and inclusion. We maximize opportunities for people of diverse backgrounds, abilities and perspectives.
Agility and accountability. We adapt to change efficiently, are reliable and are willing to take risks.
Integrity and honesty. We lead by example with strong ethics.
Health and respect. We enable the health and well-being of our communities, students, faculty and staff.
Health,
Downtown Phoenix campus
West Valley campus
everywhere
Our presence on every ASU campus and on partner sites connects a dynamic community, reflecting a rich tapestry of cultures and ideas that enhance education and research. Complementing our physical presence, we also provide a robust and engaged online community, enabling a seamless exchange of knowledge and interaction among students and faculty worldwide.
Polytechnic campus
California Center
Lake Havasu
Tempe campus
By the numbers
The only health college of its kind , the College of Health Solutions embodies excellence, access and impact.
Each year our students improve the health of our community with nearly 300 internships and placements in the areas of movement sciences and health education and health promotion. 925 undergraduate and graduate students have participated in translational research with over 100,000 engagement hours, 103 grants and 142 publications since the inception of translational teams in 2019.
$189+ million in sponsored research. We have consistently been awarded an average of $15+ million annually since 2012.
1,000+ community partners, including private companies, nonprofits and health organizations.
$19+ million in total philanthropic giving with over 4,800 gifts and commitments since 2012.
21 new degrees since 2012, including seven new undergraduate degrees, 14 new graduate degrees and 12 certificates and minors.
#1 in graduates accepted to physical therapy schools in the state, surpassing all other Arizona universities.
Faculty and staff 562% increase since 2012
Undergrad and graduate students 171% increase since 2012
93%
first-time pass rate on the exam to become a registered dietitian—against a national average of 88%.
On campus
6,900+
total students enrolled in the college across all campuses. (2023)
48% of our students are from underrepresented minority populations. Online 49% of our students are online and live all over the world. (2023) 84 countries represented. (2022)
Looking back 2006
Dr. Keith D. Lindor, former dean of Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, joins ASU as executive vice provost of health solutions.
Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust establishes a $10-million strategic investment fund that benefits college initiatives.
College of Health Solutions established in May.
ASU ramps up efforts to meet health care challenges.
2006
Doctor of Behavioral Health degree program launched.
2010
Arizona State University, Mayo Clinic and the City of Phoenix start plans for the Arizona Biomedical Corridor.
2012
International School of Biomedical Diagnostics launched in partnership with Dublin City University of Ireland.
2014
2009
Nutrition program— one of the oldest academic programs at Arizona State University—celebrates centennial.
2011
School of Nutrition and Health Promotion established.
ASU Online launches. Instructional kitchen opens at Downtown Phoenix campus.
Department of Biomedical Informatics moved to the new Mayo Clinic campus in Scottsdale.
2013
School for the Science of Health
Care Delivery launches in the College of Health Solutions.
Sun Devil Fitness Complex opens in downtown Phoenix, includes lab space for movement science classes.
Ten new degree programs announced.
2006 – 2023
Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine welcomes first cohort of students, including science of health care delivery students.
Deborah L. Helitzer appointed dean of ASU’s College of Health Solutions.
The college begins the process to reimagine the structure of traditional academic units.
2017
The College of Health Solutions responds to the COVID-19 pandemic and launches the Diagnostics Commons with support from The Rockefeller Foundation.
2020
2016
The Collaboratory on Central opens inside the historic Westward Ho building.
The Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University Alliance for Health Care is formed.
2018
The ASU University Senate approves the establishment of programs by areas (with disestablishment of the five academic units) in the College of Health Solutions on Sept. 27.
2022
ASU Health—a new approach to drive innovation in medicine and health care—is launched with the College of Health Solutions as an element of its learning health ecosystem.
2023
The College of Health Solutions celebrates its first 10 years.
In the media
Published Time, Nov. 8, 2023
“Try as we might, a lot of exercise typically does not result in a significant amount of weight loss,” says Glenn Gaesser, a professor of exercise physiology at Arizona State University.
Read more at https://time.com/6330809/ozempic-wegovy-mounjaro-healthy
Published The Arizona Republic, Aug. 1, 2023
Read more at https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-health/2023/07/26/ prolonged-heat-is-a-force-multiplier-of-chronic-illness-research-says/70459772007
“We can do some work with better materials, more shade, more green spaces,” Moseley said. “The city of Phoenix is doing a very good job at trying to address this. ... Phoenix is already addressing issues that will face many, many cities in the next 20 years.”
Pope Moseley, research professor
Published
USA Today, May 29, 2023
Read more at https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2023/05/29/ what-is-whey-protein-supplements-explained/70255279007
Carol Johnston, PhD, RD, a professor of nutrition at Arizona State University, says that consuming whey protein is one way “to increase dietary protein intake,” and that the “amino acid profile of whey protein allows for maximal protein synthesis.” At the very least, “whey protein is a highly bioavailable source of animal protein that is absorbed quickly after ingestion,” says Johnston.
Published
The Washington Post, Dec. 21, 2022
“What we wanted to know was, how would deliberately inefficient walking affect energy costs?” said Glenn Gaesser, a professor of exercise physiology at Arizona State University in Phoenix, who led the new study.
To find out, Gaesser and his colleagues gathered 13 healthy adults, ages 22 to 71, and had them watch the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch several times.
In practical terms, these findings suggest super-silly walking can be strenuous enough to qualify as “vigorous exercise,” Gaesser said.
Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/12/21/monty-python-silly-walk-exercise
Published
Cronkite News, March 8, 2022
Read more at https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2022/03/08/ life-expectancy-fell-a-shocking-1-8-years-in-2020-covid-not-sole-culprit
Swapna Reddy, a clinical associate professor at Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions, called the fall in life expectancy “an unprecedented and shocking … world event” that is “bigger than anyone anyone would have predicted.”
“We have not seen a dip like this since literally a world war … I think it really starts putting into perspective the effect of COVID-19 on our population,” she said.
Published
The New York Times, Dec. 14, 2021
“We’ve moved from hospitals to central labs to your living room,” said Mara Aspinall, an expert in biomedical diagnostics at Arizona State University.
Read more at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/14/health/coronavirus-omicron-next-pandemic.html
Published
CNN, Aug. 30, 2021
In Johnston’s research, the people who benefited most from the use of vinegar were insulinresistant, a condition called prediabetes.
“In those with prediabetes, it was too good to be true,” she said. “It fell a good bit and stayed that way. It may be this is the group that could benefit the most.”
Carol Johnston, associate dean and professor
Read more at https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/10/health/benefits-of-apple-cider-vinegar-wellness
Published
The Washington Post, Feb. 27, 2021
Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/the-science-of-intermittent-fasting/2021/02/26/68f53c80-754611eb-948d-19472e683521_story.html
And what’s going on in the body to make it healthier to eat at one time than another?
Daily biological rhythms may be central here, says Dorothy Sears, an obesity researcher at Arizona State University. It’s during the day that your body is best able to process food, says Sears, who wrote about the metabolic effects of intermittent fasting in the 2017 Annual Review of Nutrition.
MPR News, Nov. 10, 2020
“In Arizona, on our ACA marketplace we have about over 75% of those that receive coverage on the marketplace receive subsidies, which really mutes the kind of changes in premium that we’ve seen over the last few years here. Look, about a quarter do not receive subsidies and it’s expensive for them, I mean we can’t really sugar coat that one. I wouldn’t say a majority of Americans that are seeking coverage and insurance coverage through the ACA are in that same boat, but definitely we can’t ignore the percentage that are.”
Swapna Reddy, clinical associate professor
Published The Arizona Mirror, Nov. 10, 2020 Published
Read more at https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2020/11/10/will-the-supreme-court-strike-down-the-affordable-care-act
Read more at https://www.azmirror.com/2023/04/21/a-pandemic-experiment-in-universal-free-school-meals-gainstraction-in-the-states
Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, a professor of nutrition and leader of the Arizona State Food Policy and Environmental Research Group, said offering free school meals reduces the social stigma for low-income students, increasing participation and nutritional benefits for those who need it most.
Published
KJZZ, April 8, 2020
Read more at https://kjzz.org/content/1521631/what-data-mapping-reveals-about-coronavirus
“There’s a few novel ways that were tracking this pandemic that are beyond sort of the traditional way that public health does surveillance, and that is through what’s called digital epidemiology, as well as genomic epidemiology, so digital epidemiology sort of takes advantage of all the data being generated and published online.”
Published
American Heart Association, Dec. 19, 2019
“Our water needs change from day to day based on factors such as environmental temperature and activity level,” Kavouras said. “If you are an Ironman athlete who trains four hours per day, your water needs are higher than somebody who is sedentary.”
Stavros Kavouras, assistant dean and professor
Read more at https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/12/19/are-you-drinking-enough-water-during-winter-months
Matthew Scotch, associate dean and professor
Published
The National Post, Nov. 7, 2019
Read more at https://nationalpost.com/health/the-case-for-getting-fitter-not-slimmer
Every year over the past several decades, 25 to 50 per cent of the American population has attempted to lose weight. Yet the prevalence of obesity has doubled over that same period. “The only conclusion is that (the focus on weight) has not worked—it literally, on a population level, has not worked,” Gaesser says. “And it’s insane to think it’s going to work in the future if we just tried a little bit harder.”
Glenn Gaesser, professor
Published
The State Press, Nov. 13, 2018
“The knowledge that sitting can be harmful for our health has been around for the last 15 years.” Buman said. “Smoking is something you can abstain from, but you can’t abstain from sitting. The problem isn’t sitting itself, but prolonged sitting.”
Matthew Buman, director and professor
Read more at https://www.statepress.com/article/2018/11/ spcommunity-which-is-worse-for-your-health-sitting-or-smoking
Published
The New York Times, Oct. 26, 2017
Gaesser says that “the physical and mental arousal” that occurs when people end their seated stillness and stroll, pedal or stand up improves attention, memory and other cognitive skills. He also speculates that because the volunteers had never before cycled at work, the novelty of that activity amplified its stimulative effects and impact on thinking.
Glenn Gaesser, professor
Read more at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/well/move/thinking-brain-exercise.html
Published
The Guardian, Nov. 2, 2016
Read more at https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2016/nov/02/ why-dont-people-always-lose-weight-when-they-run
“The human body has a pretty good capability for regulating its bodyweight,” says Glenn Gaesser, professor of exercise science at Arizona State University. “We all have a set-point range for our weight and, while the average person may consume three-quarters of a million calories per year, from year to year we weigh pretty much the same thing unless something happens that greatly distorts our lifestyle, such as a purposeful weight-loss diet, or some sort of tragic event that changes our behavior.”
Published
The Arizona Republic, Jan. 27, 2015
“We have the cutting-edge, Cadillac version of bike-share programs in Phoenix,” said Adams, who is a Grid Bikes member and commuter to the downtown campus. “They have GPS and are smartphone connected.”
Marc Adams, professor
Read more at https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/events/super-bowl/2015/01/27/ grid-bike--phoenix-mayor-greg-stanton/22320759
Published Arizona PBS, Jan. 8, 2015
Read more at https://azpbs.org/horizonte/2015/01/diabetes-and-diet
“It’s hard to change your diet when you’re so used to eating certain ways and people are busy, and it’s hard for them to adhere to exercise programs. And so my strategy has been to try to identify simple diet strategies that hopefully people can adhere to for a long term.”
Carol Johnston, associate dean and professor
Published
The Washington Post, Nov. 12, 2014
Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/11/12/ the-disturbing-ways-that-fast-food-chains-disproportionately-target-black-kids
“Fast food restaurants in black neighborhoods have significantly higher odds of using kids’ meal toy displays to market their products to children compared to restaurants in white neighborhoods,” said Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, the lead author of the study. “The associations we observe are troubling because we know that black children are at higher risk for consuming unhealthy diets including fast food, and have higher prevalence of obesity.”
Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, director and professor
Published
USA Today, April 17, 2013
“People hear a lot about what they should eat, but not how much they should eat. Many have no idea what a healthy portion of chicken, rice, fruits and other foods are, and that is one of the reasons we are eating way too much.”
Simin Levinson, clinical professor
Read more at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/17/health-food-portion-control/2091865
Top-notch faculty
The College of Health Solutions stands out for its world-class faculty scholars, researchers and practitioners dedicated to advancing the field of health and health care.
With expertise ranging from nutrition to biomedical diagnostics, public health to health care policy, these professionals bring a wealth of knowledge and innovation to their work. They are not just educators but active contributors to their disciplines, often involved in cutting-edge research that pushes the boundaries of health science and practice.
Faculty at the College of Health Solutions engage in interdisciplinary research that addresses critical health challenges, such as chronic disease prevention, health care technology development, and the creation of sustainable, patient-centered health care systems. Through their research, they contribute to the body of knowledge that informs evidence-based practice and policy-making, working towards a future where health solutions are more accessible and effective.
This commitment to innovation and excellence directly impacts student success at the College of Health Solutions at ASU. Faculty members serve as mentors and role models, guiding students through rigorous academic programs and research opportunities. They foster an environment where students are encouraged to think critically, work collaboratively and gain the hands-on experience needed for future careers in health. By integrating professional experience with academic instruction, Health Solutions faculty ensure that students are well-prepared to meet the complex demands of the health care industry and become the next generation of leaders and changemakers in the field.
Our esteemed faculty, renowned for their expertise across health and health care fields, research, and education, consistently push the boundaries of current knowledge and practice, setting a gold standard for excellence and innovation.”
Michael Yudell, vice dean
Mara Aspinall
Mara Aspinall co-founded the biomedical diagnostics program at Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions.
She came to ASU during a lengthy career as a health care industry leader with a strong commitment to active civic involvement. She is managing director and co-founder of BlueStone Venture Partners, a venture fund investing in life sciences technology companies in the Southwest. She is also managing director of the consulting firm, Health Catalysts Group, a firm dedicated to the growth of health information technology.
What drew you to the college?
“Whether it’s in the U.S. or around the world, there is so much strong technology in the health care area today, but it’s not being used to
“What I liked about the broader vision of the College of Health Solutions is the ability to truly create health solutions and that it runs the gamut from nutrition all the way up to the highly technical area of diagnostics.”
its greatest effect to the greatest number of people enough of the time.
“What I liked about the broader vision of the College of Health Solutions is the ability to truly create health solutions and that it runs the gamut from nutrition, which is not thought of enough as the key science it is, all the way up to the highly technical area of diagnostics and in between using informatics and data to find the people that are most in need and the technologies that most connect to the greatest opportunities in health care. What the College of Health Solutions means to me is the science of implementation. We don’t have to create the new technologies, they exist and there are other parts of ASU looking at that. We need to find a way to connect them to the right people and the right time. And by people I mean patients, physicians and payers.”
What more do you want to accomplish while here?
“For diagnostics in particular, I have two goals. One is to increase the awareness of the power and possibilities of diagnostics. Two, more broadly, is to establish diagnostics as an independent discipline, separate, but still critical to drugs and therapeutics. We’re the only school in the world that does this. That means to me we have a responsibility to use diagnostics as the core facilitator in a way to enable better health.
“I love being part of the College of Health Solutions because we know that no man, no woman or no discipline is an island. To work with colleagues around the college allows us to have a greater depth of understanding of how new technologies can and should be used.”
B. Blair Braden
B. Blair Braden is an associate professor in the College of Health Solutions and director of the Autism and Brain Aging Laboratory in addition to leading the autism translational team. Braden’s focus is on aging adults on the autism spectrum.
“One of the things I love about the College of Health Solutions is interfacing with the public,” Braden said. “The bread and butter of what I do, and the team does, is follow older autistic adults over time and see how aging will impact them. Traditionally we think of autism as something that affects kids and very little
“My big, big goal is to have an Autism Center of Excellence here at ASU and the College of Health Solutions. They are National Institutes of Health-funded centers.”
attention given to adults and a miniscule amount of attention is given to older adults. But it’s starting to get a lot more attention out there in the world, which is interesting.”
What drew you to the college?
“I’m a neuroscientist by training. I was trained in a psychology department. I love my training, I love psychology as a field, but being a researcher in psychology was really never what I wanted to do. I felt there was this disconnect between psychology and the real world in health care. That disconnect is gone in the College of Health Solutions. What drew me here was the idea that my research was going to make a difference in the real world.”
What more do you want to accomplish here?
“My big, big goal is to have an Autism Center of Excellence here at ASU and the College of Health Solutions. They are National Institutes of Health-funded centers. They fund them every five years and that’s kind of the pinnacle of doing impactful autism research. That is my goal that I’m laser focused on right now.”
Glenn Gaesser
Glenn Gaesser is a professor of exercise physiology in the College of Health Solutions. His research focuses on the effects of exercise and diet on cardiovascular fitness and health.
According to his ASU biography, his work on exercise training in adults has led to a greater understanding of the value of exercise intensity, especially high-intensity interval training, on cardiovascular and metabolic health. He has also written about and lectured on the subjects of obesity, fitness and health and has been a strong proponent of the idea of health at every size. Gaesser’s work challenges the conventional wisdom of the health implications of obesity and he
“I was drawn to ASU because of the close linkages between the exercise science faculty and the nutrition faculty, and a shared doctoral program.”
encourages a weight-neutral approach to treating obesityrelated health conditions.
He is the author of several books, including “Big Fat Lies: The Truth About Your Weight and Your Health.”
Gaesser’s time at ASU predates the formation of the College of Health Solutions and his answers to the questions in this story reflect that.
What drew you to the College of Health Solutions?
“I was drawn to ASU because of the close linkages between the exercise science faculty and the nutrition faculty, and a shared doctoral program. It was only after I arrived at ASU that the College of Health Solutions subsequently came into existence and we were ultimately placed within the College of Health Solutions as
part of a reorganization of our departments that began in 2009.
“We spent time in Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation (CONHI at the time) and also as a separate School of Nutrition and Health Promotion for a few years prior to becoming part of the College of Health Solutions in 2013.”
What do you hope to accomplish while you’re here?
“As for the future, I have plenty of research ideas that fuel my intellectual curiosity and plenty of good colleagues in the College of Health Solutions to collaborate with.”
Karen Gregory-Mercado
Karen Gregory-Mercado is a senior lecturer that specializes in developing, refining and assessing ASU’s health and wellness coaching curriculum.
Prior to coming to the College of Health Solutions, GregoryMercado was a health and wellness coach for the insurance company Cigna Healthcare. She was asked to teach a health and wellness course at ASU and that experience inspired her to become a teacher.
She found she loved working with students and said it gave her energy. Finding ways to make a difference and an impact in people’s lives helped her find meaning in her life.
Since coming to ASU she has served as director of the healthy lifestyles and fitness science
“I want to develop initiatives that are meaningful in the realm I’m interested in, that is developing groups of minority students and getting them interested in health and wellness coaching.”
degree program. She also helped develop the health and wellness coach certificate.
What drew you to the College of Health Solutions?
“Working for Cigna, my role was too divided, too scattered. I thought teaching would be the thing that could bring all of my knowledge and my experience together in one place so I’m not so scattered. It was almost serendipity, being in the right place at the right time. Someone that knew my background invited me to teach a class and the rest is history.”
What do you hope to accomplish here?
“I’ve accomplished quite a bit but for what I want to do next I’m stepping aside from my role as director. I want new generations of professionals to take that role and lead and move forward. I
want to develop initiatives that are meaningful in the realm I’m interested in, that is developing groups of minority students and getting them interested in health and wellness coaching.
“Next semester I have a study abroad trip to Puerto Rico. It’s digging deep in social determinants of health, bringing students there during the spring break and having them experiencing different types of institutions and different types of programs that are available to improve the health and well-being of Puerto Ricans. As a Puerto Rican myself that adds another layer of meaning to my life. I came to the U.S. to develop myself and study. And I feel like I’ve gotten so much knowledge I want to be able to give part of it to my island. That’s kind of the next step in my life.”
Maureen McCoy
Maureen McCoy is an associate teaching professor in the College of Health Solutions and is the dietetic internship director.
McCoy is a two-time ASU graduate and was excited to return to her alma mater in 2014 to educate future professionals in her field.
She is also grateful to be able to serve the university community in her role as faculty advisor for the Pitchfork Pantry, a food pantry for ASU students.
What drew you to the College of Health Solutions?
“I graduated from ASU with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. So when I first started working here, it was exciting to come back to my alma mater and educate future dieticians and future nutrition professionals. Just to be
“I’ve done a lot of work in the improving food access space. There is still a lot of work to be done both in our own ASU community as well as the surrounding communities on all four campuses.”
able to make a difference was the guiding force behind that.
“I really enjoy having a position where service is so encouraged. In typical jobs I’ve had before coming to academia, it was like if you have time to do that outside of your job, go ahead and do that. At ASU I’ve really been able to find my passion in that space and really make a difference in that space, which is exciting.”
What do you hope to accomplish while you’re here?
“I’ve done a lot of work in the improving food access space. There is still a lot of work to be done both in our own ASU community as well as the surrounding communities on all four campuses. I hope to delve into that area more and connect students and community members with resources and the ability to access nutritious foods.
“In my career previous to ASU I always had a compassion and empathy for helping in the community space. When I came to ASU I had the opportunity to start working with the Pitchfork Pantry, I started to gradually make more and more community connections. In figuring out the space around food access and food insecurity, I think it started to grow as my reach into the community grew. It was also really exciting to form this cohesive power network of students, faculty and staff who were equally passionate about this issue to really make a big difference and continue to grow our reach and be able to help more students.”
Alicia Montalvo
Alicia Montalvo wears a lot of different hats in her work with the College of Health Solutions.
Listed as an assistant teaching professor, Montalvo teaches a variety of courses in addition to serving as co-chair of the college’s Council for Inclusive Excellence and is a member of the ASU Committee for Campus Inclusion and is co-host of the committee’s In Unity podcast.
She is a certified athletic trainer, injury epidemiologist, fitness enthusiast and avid collaborator.
According to her ASU bio, her research revolves around injury epidemiology in physically active populations, identifying intervention points based on the socioecological model and health equity. She also consults with Sun Devil Athletics on work related to a combination of data analytics, sports science and injury prevention.
“I get to teach a wide variety of classes I probably wouldn’t get to teach in other places. I get to teach in a lot of different programs, which is cool.”
That freedom and flexibility is one of her favorite parts about working at the College of Health Solutions.
“It’s like a candy store,” Montalvo said with a laugh. “I have to make a decision of ‘do I get involved with this or that? This tastes really good, but I’m also having a lot of this other thing, so I can’t have that.’”
What drew you to the College of Health Solutions?
“I love my colleagues. I think I work with the best people. I love the structure of the college. I’ve had experience before with being underneath a person in a position of power and who abused the power. I feel very safe in the structure (at the college) that’s flat. It can be chaotic and confusing, but I think it allows faculty members who enjoy autonomy to thrive. It also allows faculty members to chart their own path.
“I get to teach a wide variety of classes I probably wouldn’t get to teach in other places. I
get to teach in a lot of different programs, which is cool. I think in a lot of other places you belong to a program, you teach in that program, you live and you die in that program. I know it’s a lot of work, but I feel like we govern ourselves. The dean, of course, makes decisions and we have other people making decisions, but I feel for the most part a lot of things are faculty driven.”
What do you hope to accomplish while here?
“I think a lot of people who are my age say they don’t know what they want to be when they grow up. I think it’s a journey. We’re constantly evolving, but I feel fortunate to be in a place with so many opportunities. So, while I don’t know what that future looks like for me, I feel very confident there is something for me here, I need to meet the people or do the things or whatever to find it and do it.”
Punam Ohri-Vachaspati
Punam Ohri-Vachaspati is a professor of nutrition at the College of Health Solutions. She leads the ASU food policy and environment research group.
According to her ASU biography, her research examines social determinants of health, specifically in low-income, minority communities. She also studies the impact of government health policy in shaping food and physical activity environments in school settings and communities.
Her work has been funded by multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, among others. She has worked on health care and nutrition issues with U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
Ohri-Vachaspati was on sabbatical at the World Health
“In the coming years, I want to conduct more impactful research, informed by my experiences of working in the U.S. Senate and at the World Health Organization as part of my two sabbaticals from ASU.”
Organization when she answered the questions for this article.
What drew you to the College of Health Solutions?
“The exciting growth potential at the then School of Nutrition and Health Promotion was the main driver. We were able to hire several stellar faculty within a few years of my starting at ASU and this growth has continued as we became the College of Health Solutions. There was also this sense of possibilities and collaboration that was inviting.”
What more would you like to accomplish here?
“It has been a wonderful 13-plus years at ASU. It has been a highly productive time for me—I have grown as a researcher, a teacher, and most importantly as a mentor.
“In the coming years, I want to conduct more impactful research, informed by my experiences of working in the U.S. Senate and
at the World Health Organization as part of my two sabbaticals from ASU. I also want to develop a stronger mentoring program at the College of Health Solutions to support our faculty at all ranks and in all tracks. And I am ready for new opportunities and challenges that come my way.”
Swapna Reddy
Swapna Reddy is a clinical associate professor in the college as well as an adjunct assistant professor in health care administration at Mayo Clinic’s Alix School of Medicine—Arizona. Her focus is looking at how law and policy can be used to improve population health and health outcomes and reduce health disparities and inequities.
She came to Arizona with her family primarily for a career opportunity for her husband. Though she started her professional life as a lawyer, her heart was in public health and she was interested in pursuing opportunities in academia. That led her to joining the faculty at the College of Health Solutions.
What drew you to the college?
“I had the pleasure of meeting with leadership and some folks
“I think we have a really unique opportunity to provide evidence-based information on policy and equity issues.”
here and what was interesting to me was the interdisciplinary nature, not just of the curriculum, but the faculty as well. It was an opportunity to join a group of interdisciplinary faculty to deliver on the topics I’m really passionate about—health policy, health disparities and equity pieces—and to do so with a group of folks that have lived experience and expertise in different aspects of the health care system and health care world.”
What do you hope to accomplish while here?
“A few things. There have been a few pieces over my tenure here that are really close to my heart. One is the development of the Health Policy and Equity Network. I was the first faculty that created that, now I’m co-faculty and we have great multidisciplinary leadership for that affinity network.
“Number two, I’m also faculty with our joint certification with the
Mayo Clinic school of medicine. That type of collaborative work has also been really enriching for me.
“Something that has been unexpected and fun is media. I did a little bit of media before I got to the College of Health Solutions but I’ve had the opportunity to do more since I’ve been here. There have been so many opportunities that, honestly, I would have never thought would have come down the pike in the past eight years. I think it would be really amazing to expand that more and to find opportunities, maybe at a national level. The main reason is I think we have a really unique opportunity to provide evidencebased information on policy and equity issues.”
William Riley
William Riley is a professor of health care systems in the College of Health Solutions. He joined the faculty at ASU in 2013 after serving as the associate dean of the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health and more than 20 years of executive experience as former president and CEO of several private sector health care organizations.
Riley is a leading authority in health care finance and has worked to help assist safety net organizations in dealing with health care payment reform. He is recognized as a national and international expert in quality improvement methods, techniques and implementation.
He leads translational research projects in international settings, oral health value-based care
“I was drawn to the College of Health Solutions for the opportunity to establish the science of health care delivery program [now health care administration and policy], an innovative initiative aimed at improving health care system performance.”
and multisector alignment to achieve a culture of health. Riley is co-leader of the college’s Safety Net Advancement Center in Arizona which works to improve the health care safety net across the state, particularly in rural areas and ensure equity and access for underserved populations.
“As College of Health Solutions faculty, I am grateful for the numerous opportunities to excel in education, research and community service,” Riley said. “It is a privilege to prepare students for important work in health care and to help launch their careers.”
What drew you to the College of Health Solutions?
“I was drawn to the College of Health Solutions for the opportunity to establish the science of health care delivery program, an innovative initiative aimed at improving health care system performance. The SHCD program was a unique
partnership between ASU and Mayo Clinic that presented exciting prospects.”
What do you want to accomplish in your time here that you haven’t already?
“I lead an interdisciplinary research team which undertakes groundbreaking approaches to improve health care equity and population health for underserved communities. Dean (Deborah) Helitzer’s commitment to translational research and community engagement perfectly aligns with my research interests. Her support for our research efforts has been exceptional and very much appreciated.”
Dorothy Sears
A chance meeting on the way to a professional conference resulted in Dorothy Sears coming to the College of Health Solutions in 2018.
On that trip, Sears, now professor of nutrition and executive director of clinical and community translational science, met Professor and Associate Dean of Faculty Success Carol Johnston, who painted a glowing picture of life at ASU.
“We were sharing what kind of research we were doing and we were excited about each other’s work,” Sears said. “She invited me to give a talk and while I was here she gave me a tour. She showed me the facilities and talked about how easy it was to do clinical research here.”
That meeting and the subsequent talks led to Sears coming to ASU. Since then she has progressed
“We can shepherd ASU, as an institution, into a new phase of clinical research capacity and quality.”
to take leadership roles in the college.
What drew you to ASU?
“I was attracted to the idea of being at an institution where the faculty was supported and getting the resources available to help enable them to do the work they wanted to do. Where I was, there was no one doing nutrition research and I was interested in doing nutrition-related research. So I was drawn to a place where I would have colleagues who were experts in nutrition.
“I also liked (Dean Deborah Helitzer) a lot. My impression of her was very good. I had a good feel for what she was saying and what her vision was for the college. So that was enough for me.”
What do you hope to accomplish while you’re here?
“In general, a couple of things. I have a couple of big research programs I’m trying to get off the
ground. Some of these we would call center grants. These are large grants that have more than a million dollars of funding per year.
“In my leadership role I’m heading the effort to apply for a different type of center. That is a center grant from the National Institutes of Health called a clinical and translational science award. This is a type of funding that supports clinical research infrastructure and training for faculty in an institution to conduct clinical research and translate the findings to communities.
“I’m also chair of a new, ASU-wide committee, the Clinical and Community Translational Research Committee. We have faculty from across ASU that are involved in clinical research of some sort. I plan to get this committee up and running so we can shepherd ASU, as an institution, into a new phase of clinical research capacity and quality.”
Sonia Vega-López
Sonia Vega-López, a professor in nutrition with the College of Health Solutions, came to ASU in 2008 because she was interested in doing nutritionrelated work with Hispanic populations.
In her time at the university she has become known for her work and was recently invited to take part in a National Institutes of Health panel designed to discuss ways to better serve that population.
“That was really meaningful,” Vega-López said. “It means that the effort I put into being really conscious of how to work while respecting the culture and specific needs of that population is recognized and that’s satisfying.”
She said the interdisciplinary approach of the college has also been beneficial to her efforts.
“Something I’m really invested in is the diversity work I’ve been doing with the college.”
“My transition to ASU and becoming part of the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center allowed me to work more closely with social scientists and look at how the social sciences can really support health-related work, health disparities work and health equity work,” Vega-López said. “Merging (social sciences with nutrition science) is fascinating.”
What drew you to the College of Health Solutions?
“I was interested in working with a Hispanic population and doing nutrition-related work with this population. When there was a position open in what used to be the department of nutrition, that seemed to be the perfect fit for me.”
What do you want to accomplish while you’re here?
“There is a lot more to do and a lot more to offer the community. I have transitioned over time to more intervention work with the Hispanic community. And I also
shifted to doing work at the family and household level instead of the individual level. So, I still want to be able to do more work in that area and look at areas where we can promote healthy eating and healthy lifestyles at that level.”
“Something I’m really invested in is the diversity work I’ve been doing with the college. I think there is lot of room for implementing efforts and strategies to make the College of Health Solutions a place we can really be proud of the inclusion and diversity work we have to make it a welcoming place for students, for faculty to work and thrive and for staff to feel like we’re all a big community that is supportive of everyone. That’s something that’s really motivating for me.”
Corrie Whisner
Corrie Whisner, an associate professor with the College of Health Solutions (among other positions with the university), joined the faculty in 2014. Her research focuses on the effects of diet on human metabolism with a particular focus on the effects of dietary components on the gut microbiome and related metabolic diseases.
Lately, Whisner has become increasingly interested in an area of biology known as “omics,” various disciplines in biology whose names end in the suffix -omics, such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, etc.
“I’ve become more and more interested in the omics scene,” Whisner said. “Mixing the microbiome with the metabolome, the transcriptome, all these different omes, create huge data
“My goal is to identify targeted methods of intervening on the gut microbiome and contribute to future health recommendations that optimize growth and development in the formative years.”
and the opportunity to understand how and why things work the way they do.”
What drew you to the College of Health Solutions?
“The biggest draw to ASU and the College of Health Solutions was the mission and charter of the university. Being able to provide anyone, regardless of background, an education. And the idea that everyone is worthy, able and capable of doing that resonates with me as a first-generation college student.
“In the College of Health Solutions it also has become apparent in ways I didn’t even think about when I first wanted to join ASU, like the idea of having non-traditional students. Students coming back for a second or third degree or who were stay-at-home parents who are finally going to get a degree. That’s made class really fun, seeing all of the different perspectives and knowledge that everyone brings from their own lived experience has been cool.”
What do you hope to accomplish while you’re here?
“I am currently working on understanding how diet and other lifestyle behaviors interact with the gut microbiome and how these interactions influence health trajectories. I am extremely passionate about how the gut microbiome impacts the health of pregnant women, infants, children and adolescents. These life stages encompass periods of rapid growth and development which offer unique opportunities for disease prevention and these populations have largely been understudied with regard to the gut microbiome.
“In the future, I hope to delve deeper into diet and gut microbiome interactions to better understand how gut microbes utilize the food we eat to produce signaling molecules that communicate with other organs in our bodies.”
From research to practice
“Good health is one of our most important resources. When we have good health, we can engage better with the world, accomplish our goals, and take care of ourselves and our families.”
—Deborah Helitzer, dean of the College of Health Solutions
practice
It can take years, if not decades, for innovative ideas to reach practical use, particularly when those ideas involve health care. Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions looked for a better way.
College leaders decided to create translational teams to try and speed up that process. According to the college’s website, translational teams bring together researchers, clinical and community partners, industry innovators and students with different skills and perspectives. By bringing all kinds of people together, translational teams aim to better understand the different layers of the problem they are trying to solve from the beginning.
Deborah Williams, a clinical assistant professor in the College of Health Solutions, signed on in 2018 to focus on translational science and research.
“The overall goal was to drive innovation in research and best practices to decrease the time between discovery and implementation and policy change to improve population health,” Williams said. “If you work across the translational spectrum, the general time period we see, with the caveat of COVID-19, is about 14 to 17 years between discovery and implementation. That time was way too long.”
In addition to speeding up the timeline from academic research to practical use, the development of translational teams helped identify the need to bring the community into the process.
“The effort was to have community-driven projects so that we knew from the very beginning what the community needs were,” Williams said.
Since 2018 the college has implemented 11 translational teams that have brought in millions of dollars in research grants and provided solutions to a variety of issues including, but not limited to, the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We pivoted very quickly (during the pandemic),” Williams said. “The translational teams provided a place to identify faculty and their expertise and pull them in. We ended up with several new teams because of that. There was a COVID-19 team that started which has now expanded to include almost all infectious diseases.”
Those translational teams are:
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Cancer Prevention and Control
• Child Language and Literacy
• Infectious Disease Prevention and Public Response
• Improving Outcomes for Children with Cleft Palate
• Integrated Rehabilitative Solutions for People with Movement Disorders
• Interdisciplinary Approaches to Problems of Substance Use
• Maternal Child Health
• Metabolic Health
• Patient Work
• Safety Net Advancement Center in Arizona
The structure of the translational teams at the College of Health Solutions is quite unique, Williams said. Other universities have similar teams, but those units get together to get funding for a particular research project.
“To my knowledge, at least when we started, there were no teams that required community partners and students to be part of those teams,” Williams said.
Published
ASU News, Dec. 8, 2023
College of Health Solutions grad turned extra year of athletic eligibility into a master’s degree
Only a year after appearing on the list of notable 2022 graduates from ASU News, soccer star and classroom wizard Lieske Carleer is back on the 2023 list as she graduates with her master’s degree in clinical exercise physiology.
Carleer, from Winterswijk, Netherlands, is being honored as the College of Health Solutions’ Outstanding Graduate.
An extra year of athletic eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic gave Carleer the chance to pursue her master’s degree through the university’s accelerated master’s program. Without that extra time, she would have already been back in the Netherlands playing soccer.
Carleer was named an All-Pac-12 second-team pick; however, she gives credit to others when asked about receiving the award.
“It was nice to get recognition for my own effort; also, two other
teammates that made that same team, which was really awesome to see that at the Pac-12 level,” Carleer said. “People also recognize the quality that we have in our team here at ASU.”
Humble, strong, hardworking and perceptive are some of the few in a long list of words used to describe Carleer.
“You can’t do it alone,” she said. “You have to work together, and that’s both on the field, off the field, and also at school and in my career. It’s the same thing.”
Question: What was your “aha” moment when you realized you wanted to study the field you majored in?
Answer: I was like, “I have an extra year of eligibility. I’m going to see if I can do something with that.” Then this clinical exercise physiology program came about, and I’m just very interested in everything to do with the body and how the body responds to exercise and how you can optimize that for performance or
for health. This master’s was a great way to take a deeper dive into the health aspect of exercise.
Q: Why did you choose ASU?
A: The ASU coach came to visit the European Championship that I was playing in when I was 16. He saw me play and liked what he saw and invited me. I was not really planning on coming out to the U.S. at all. He asked me to come visit, and I was like, “Oh, might as well see what it’s all about.” Then I came here, and I saw the facilities and how you’re able to combine high-level settings with getting your degree and just the flexibility that they offer. I just really liked what I saw and saw it as a great opportunity to develop myself both personally, academically and in my sport.
Q: What’s something you learned while at ASU—in the classroom or otherwise—that surprised you or changed your perspective?
A: I’ve learned a lot more about myself. About my body, what I need and how I perform optimally.
Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to those still in school?
Lieske Carleer, who was an All-Pac-12 conference pick as a member of ASU’s women’s soccer team, was named the College of Health Solutions’ Outstanding Graduate for fall 2023. Also mentally, like what I need from other people and how to communicate what I need and to make sure that people know that as well. I was just surprised by the fact I learned so much off the field about myself and how I work as a human being.
Q: Which professor taught you the most important lesson while at ASU?
A: Dr. (Donna) Hitt, she’s the head of the CEP program that I’m currently in. She has been such a blessing to work with throughout my master’s. She’s been so flexible with me and my schedule with soccer, all the games that I’ve played, and also the master’s schedule in general.
A: Get as much experience and make as many connections as you can. Because the connections and the experience that you get, that’s what’s going to help you determine what you want to do.
Q: What was your favorite spot on campus, whether for studying, meeting friends or just thinking about life?
A: I usually go to the coffee shop (Fillmore Coffee Co. and Infusion Coffee) just off campus. I just meet with people at the coffee shop, drink a coffee, catch up, and then do homework and hang out.
Q: What are your plans after graduation?
A: The goal is still to play professional soccer. I hope to start with that, this coming January actually. I’ve been doing job interviews, but not for a health care career, but for a soccer career at the moment.
Q: If someone gave you $40 million to solve one problem on our planet, what would you tackle?
A: I’m not going to go too deep into it because that’s very heavy stuff. But it’s the wars in Ukraine, Palestine and Israel. Those people are in danger.
Published ASU News, Sept. 29, 2023
‘Freshman 15’ may be a myth, but beneficial gut microbiome still important
One of the long-held beliefs about college students is the “freshman 15,” the idea that first-year students gain an average of 15 pounds when they first enter college because they don’t know how to manage their food consumption.
There’s just one problem with that belief: It may not be true.
A study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information showed that students gain an average of only 3.2 pounds throughout their first year of college.
But, according to a paper co-written by Corrie Whisner, an associate professor in Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions, and postdoctoral student Alex Mohr, poor eating habits and weight gain—even if not as substantial as the “freshmen 15”—can lead to health problems later in life.
Their study, published in Gut Microbes, a leading gut microbiome journal, explored
the intricate relationship between dietary habits, lifestyle changes and the gut microbiome for college freshmen living in on-campus dormitories, and how the community of microorganisms in digestive tracts plays a pivotal role in overall health.
“To our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal study to observe a statistically significant relationship between weight change and the structure of the gut microbiome in dormitory-dwelling emerging adults during the first year of college,” Mohr said.
ASU News talked with Mohr and Whisner, who are also researchers in ASU’s Biodesign Center for Health Through Microbiomes, about their study.
Editor’s note: The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Question: The “freshman 15” is a widely accepted idea. How does your research challenge or support it?
Whisner: I guess I would start by just prefacing what the freshman 15 is now. That’s sort of an
outdated term. Now, students are actually only gaining about two to five pounds in their freshman year. The literature is associated with the fact that students are entering college at a greater weight, so there’s maybe less room for adding additional pounds. But that weight gain can continue beyond freshman year. Some citations state that by the end of your second year, you’ve gained about, on average, 10 pounds. So what we’re talking about in our paper is much more subtle shifts in weight, but they’re definitely representative of what’s common in college populations these days. And it doesn’t mean that it’s less impactful.
Q: Can you explain the role of the gut microbiome in weight regulation among college students?
Mohr: That’s pretty complex to answer, but basically, there’s a lot of interactions going on with the foods that we eat, particularly foods that we know are more beneficial for the microbes that are harbored in our gastrointestinal tract, particularly in the lower portion. One thing
we noted with the cohort was that they weren’t eating as much fiber as they should. They were well under the amount of fiber needed. Generally, we know that when you’re eating greater fiber, you’re supporting communities of microbes that are more generally associated with health.
Q: Your paper highlighted two specific microbes: prevotella and bacteroides. Why are they significant?
Mohr: Bacteroides is generally more associated with a Westernstyle diet, like a higher-fat diet. Prevotella is associated with a higher-fiber diet. We found a trend where if you have a higher ratio of prevotella to bacteroides, that is more associated with someone that is either lower in body weight or has lost body weight—whereas those that stabilized in weight or gained weight had a lower ratio. One of the more important findings in the paper was that we found it was very difficult over the academic year for a person to shift between those two
states, basically between a prevotella-dominated state to a bacteroides-dominated state.
Q: Isn’t this sort of common knowledge, the idea that if you eat more fiber and less fatty foods you’ll maintain or lose weight?
Mohr: What we’re finding, or what at least this data is suggesting, is that the composition of the microbiome is important in terms of not dictating necessarily, but at least being associated with if you’re going to be predisposed to gaining, losing or maintaining weight.
Q: So, it’s as simple as eating healthier?
Mohr: Unfortunately, it’s not that easy because one of the analyses that we did was looking at how you can shift into a prevotella-dominated microbiome versus a bacteroides-dominated microbiome. It’s not as simple as eating more fiber because these microbes are very antagonistic, meaning that they don’t really like to be with each
other. The results showed that the baseline composition of the gut microbiome matters, and a reductionist approach of simply eating more fiber is not enough. The broad set of factors examined, including physical activity, sleep, depression and various dietary attributes, show a more personalized approach is likely needed to promote the microbiome states.
Q: Corrie, how would you describe your findings?
Whisner: Our study underscores the importance of the gut microbiome’s composition in weight dynamics. The freshman year can significantly impact late-stage adolescents’ gut health. While earlier beliefs suggested our microbiome is fixed by age 3, our findings indicate potential for change even during later stages. Harnessing this understanding can profoundly affect health interventions tailored for young adults.
20, 2023
ASU professor says Phoenix is ground zero for study of heat-related illnesses
“What urbanization has done in Phoenix, its rise of high low temperatures, outstrips any city that we’ve ever looked at,” Moseley said. “This is a major metropolitan area with a massive rise in the temperature markers that determine human illness.”
When it comes to examining health risks associated with extreme heat, Phoenix is ground zero.
That’s the conclusion of Pope Moseley, a research professor in Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions.
For more than 30 years, Moseley, a lung and intensive care physician, has led National Institutes of Healthfunded research groups focused on heat-related illness.
He said Phoenix, with its urban heat islands and sustained high summer temperatures, is “the best natural laboratory that exists anywhere.”
“What urbanization has done in Phoenix, its rise of high low
temperatures, outstrips any city that we’ve ever looked at,” Moseley said. “This is a major metropolitan area with a massive rise in the temperature markers that determine human illness.”
Moseley and Marisa Domino, a professor in the College of Health Solutions, are conducting research using hospital and population data to make the public aware that more people are impacted by heat than those suffering common heat-related illnesses such as heatstroke.
They plan to publish a paper on their research and, hopefully, develop an app that will help people better understand their health vulnerabilities during extreme heat periods.
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An interdisciplinary research team at Arizona State University is developing the SUEDE Shoe wearable smart shoe system to actively support the ankle without hindering natural motion.
Solution | Faculty
New SUEDE shoes apply smart tech to ankle injury prevention
Ankle sprains are one of the most common musculoskeletal injuries, usually involving a stretched or torn ligament in the joint. A simple misstep leading to a sprain can significantly impact physical activity and quality of life.
Prevention and recovery of ankle sprains usually involve external passive supports, such as tape and braces. But these solutions can cause problems. Ankle sprains can significantly affect physical activity, and current prevention and recovery methods can cause additional problems. An interdisciplinary research team at Arizona State University is developing the SUEDE Shoe wearable smart shoe system to actively support the ankle without hindering natural motion.
Long-term use of passive methods can weaken the supporting muscles and soft tissue around the joint, making a person reliant on their perpetual use. While restricting the motion of the joint can prevent future sprains, it also causes the ankle to be less able to deal with
disturbances such as uneven terrain without added support and negatively alters the natural function of the foot and leg.
A team of researchers from Arizona State University is creating an active, automated ankle support system to overcome the limitations of current treatment methods.
The Smart User-Effective DataEnabled, or SUEDE, Shoe is a wearable smart shoe system that actively supports the ankle without hindering natural motion. Its soft brace can adjust the stiffness of the support to assist the user as needed, rather than the less-helpful constant support tapes and traditional braces offer.
“Wearable devices can provide continuous support to the human user during daily activities,” says Hyunglae Lee, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU who is leading the team developing the SUEDE Shoe.
“With recent advances in sensor and actuator technologies and control and machine learning algorithms, we also expect the wearable device will be smarter, smaller and more comfortable.”
It will also provide users with real-time, cumulative injury risk assessment and help them to follow clinical treatment guidelines through an intuitive smartphone-based user interface.
The project—supported by a $1.074 million National Institutes of Health R01 research grant—is a collaboration between the Fulton Schools, the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and the College of Health Solutions at ASU that will also involve orthopedic medicine and physical therapy consultation by the CORE Institute and Rise Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy.
“The active smart shoe system requires a tight integration of innovations in sensor data processing, smart actuation, biomechanical modeling, injury prediction and closedloop control, and extensive user experience study and clinical integration study, which cannot be achieved without an interdisciplinary team of engineers, behavioral science researchers and clinicians,” Lee says.
“We
helped create a clear line of sight between the policy goals and to develop processes so that physicians and behavioral-health experts could improve care for their patients.”
News, March 29, 2023
$9M grant to improve Arizonans’ health
Arizona State University has received a $9 million grant to continue its work with Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) to advance health equity and address patients’ whole-person care.
The university helped AHCCCS, the state’s Medicaid agency, to improve health outcomes since 2019, according to William Riley, professor of health care delivery in the College of Health Solutions. Riley leads the project along with co-principal investigator George Runger of the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence. ASU’s College of Health Solutions will continue efforts in phase two of the AHCCCS project using data analytics and health system design to increase equity and decrease disparities in the health care system.
“Six years ago the Arizona Medicaid program, AHCCCS, received a $315 million waiver to integrate primary care and behavioral health,” Riley said about phase one of the project. “We led the project in the last three years to work with over 400 health systems and clinics and over 1,000 physicians to improve population health metrics.
It was very well received and highly regarded.”
“Phase two will focus on advancing equity and addressing health-related social needs to better impact health outcomes,” he said.
The grant is part of a larger, $250 million program that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services renewed last fall. The 1115 Waiver authorizes states’ Medicaid programs to make experimental or innovative changes and will run through Sept. 30, 2027.
The second phase of the project
The Targeted Investments Program helped improve the connection between physical and behavioral health-care providers at the patient level to increase access to a full array of services.
TI 2.0, the second phase, will get more providers involved through a range of initiatives aimed at addressing social drivers of health.
These enhanced initiatives include:
Effectively coordinating healthcare providers and community partners to address an individual’s whole-person care needs, including primary care, behavioral health and health-related
social needs such as housing instability, food insecurity and transportation.
Systematically identifying and reducing inequitable health outcomes within the health care organization’s patient population.
Adopting culturally and linguistically appropriate services standards to advance health equity, improve quality and help eliminate health care disparities.
Riley said the College of Health Solutions team led efforts to analyze failure modes in care delivery, then worked with physicians and clinics to develop processes to improve care.
“Physicians are at the front line seeing patients every day,” Riley said. “The care systems are often not aligned between organizations to coordinate care, and the processes are not designed to deliver care for a population of patients.
“In phase one, we helped create a clear line of sight between the policy goals and to develop processes so that physicians and behavioral-health experts could improve care for their patients.”
The college will continue those efforts in phase two using data analytics and health system design to increase equity and decrease disparities.
“Working with my colleagues at the UN and the people of Haiti was one of the high points of my life.”
‘Incredible’ work helping earthquake survivors in Haiti informed this ASU grad’s views
Rodrick Johnson’s time in Haiti serving as a technical advisor for the United Nations helped form his decision to pursue a degree in the Doctor of Behavioral Health program (specializing in management) through Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions.
Johnson was already on the island on Jan. 12, 2010, when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the country, killing more than 200,000 people. Johnson spent days working search-and-rescue missions before being retasked with managing the logistics of both humanitarian medical aid delivery and the transportation of injured people to hospitals and clinics.
“Working with my colleagues at the UN and the people of Haiti was one of the high points of my life,” Johnson said. “It was a very tough time, and we lost many people. But the work we did together in that tough time was incredible.”
That work helped Johnson determine that he wanted to learn more about the delivery of health care services.
Question: What was your “aha” moment when you realized you wanted to study the field you majored in?
Answer: I knew I wanted to learn more about the delivery of health care services when I worked in Haiti just after the earthquake of 2010. I found myself managing the logistics of both humanitarian medical aid delivery and the transportation of injured people to hospitals and clinics.
Q: What’s something you learned while at ASU—in the classroom or otherwise—that surprised you or changed your perspective?
A: I learned just how huge and diverse the various academic fields can be. It’s mind-blowing to see the depth and breadth of so many disciplines.
Q: Why did you choose ASU?
A: ASU is consistently listed as one of the most innovative universities in the United States. It contributes as much original research as Ivy League schools. When it came to choosing a university, ASU was the best choice I could have made.
Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to those still in school?
A: We have all at least thought of quitting; it gets hard. But keep going. It will all be worth it in the end.
Published
ASU News, Nov. 9, 2022
Professor’s work could help World Cup athletes stay on top of their game
When Floris Wardenaar tunes in to the upcoming World Cup soccer matches starting Nov. 20 in Qatar, his focus might be a little different than the average viewer, especially during the breaks in play.
Wardenaar, an assistant professor in the College of Health Solutions, will have an eye out for what goes on during stoppages when the matches get underway. Wardenaar is one of the authors of a new paper on hydration opportunities during the FIFA World Cup.
The idea for the paper came from conversations with Josh Beaumont, a former athletic trainer with the ASU women’s soccer team.
The researchers looked at recordings of the 2018 World Cup tournament in Russia to get an idea of what kind of opportunities players had to stay hydrated during games.
Wardenaar noted that the climate in Qatar is considerably warmer than Russia—which is why the tournament that is normally held in summer had been moved to late fall—but the difference in seasons could provide for similar conditions even as a result of this change.
“Even though that sounds nice, here in the Phoenix area we all know that even winter can be quite warm, especially when the sun shines,” Wardenaar said. “Looking at the situation with Qatar and this upcoming world championship, I figured out that the conditions could be pretty similar to the last World Cup.”
Wardenaar credits Jennifer Vanos, assistant professor in the School of Sustainability at the College of Global Futures, with help in pulling those calculations together.
Players don’t take advantage of most breaks during World Cup play
Wardenaar and Vanos found that players took the opportunity to take a drink during roughly only a third of the stoppages in play due to substitutions, injury or video reviews by the officials. That behavior didn’t seem to increase much under hotter conditions.
What was somewhat encouraging, however, was that players sometimes took opportunities to take a drink without waiting for the play to stop.
Wardenaar said he hoped teams and officials would use the data from this study to develop strategies to keep players better hydrated during matches.
“Here in the Phoenix area we all know that even winter can be quite warm, especially when the sun shines.”
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“With my business, it started as a school credit. ASU allowed me to get credit for starting my business. Education can be extremely bureaucratic. To have that level of flexibility was huge in my being successful in what I’m doing now.”
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Vivienne Gellert feels well prepared
Vivienne Gellert, BS medical studies ’17, said her personal experience with health care shaped her views of the system and inspired her to take action.
She used her education at the College of Health Solutions to help reach those goals.
Gellert was badly injured in an automobile accident while she was in high school and saw first hand how frustrating and inefficient the system could be.
“You can ask anyone and they’ll tell you the health care system is broken,” Gellert said. “It’s easy to say that and get super frustrated with it, but at the end of the day, what are you going to do about it? In order to do something about it, we have to do something different and (the College of Health Solutions) prepared me to do just that.”
Gellert’s solution started with putting an argument she used in debate class into action. Her idea was based on connecting with people who are experiencing homelessness in downtown Phoenix. The title of that speech was “Give a man your jacket, not your dollar.”
That led to the creation of a nonprofit organization called BakPak while Gellert was still in college. It was designed to directly connect people experiencing homelessness to resources and became the basis for a nonprofit, Elaine, and a company she has since founded named Gellert Health.
The value of a flexible curriculum
The daughter of two physicians, Gellert was on the path to follow in her parents footsteps but an internship as a medical scribe at a hospital in a low-income area helped her change her mind.
The College of Health Solutions was an ideal environment for her because of the flexibility that comes with the variety of programs offered.
“For me specifically, it was very entrepreneurial,” Gellert said. “I had ideas I wanted to carry out and I needed the curriculum to be flexible to be able to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish.
“With my business, it started as a school credit. ASU allowed me to get credit for starting my business. Education can be extremely bureaucratic. To have that level of flexibility was huge in my being successful in what I’m doing now.”
Her education in medical studies helped her carry out her vision. And she said the College of Health Solutions will help countless others achieve their goals as well.
“If you look at some of the graduates of the College of Health Solutions I’ve met, they’re incredible,” Gellert said. “They are going to medical school. They are starting their own companies. They are going to work for companies that are directly touching patients’ lives and they’re bringing new knowledge from their education to implement change.
“In the spirit of the 10th anniversary, I think we should take a minute to look at the contributions that the College of Health Solutions has already made to our community. They should feel honored they’re there every day with these students. It’s working.”
Published ASU News, July 28, 2022
ASU students connect Native Health clients to housing, food, jobs
New internship program lets undergrads work one-on-one with individuals, navigating complex problems.
When clients come into the Native Health center—a local clinic that provides health care for urban American Indians, Alaska Natives and other individuals—they often need more than a doctor’s appointment or a prescription.
Some of them need help getting a job, or food, or housing.
Students at Arizona State University are helping these patients navigate the sometimes complicated path to finding the resources they need through an internship program in the College of Health Solutions.
The Helping Hands internship places undergraduates in the Native Health centers in Phoenix and Mesa, where they work one-on-one with clients. The program has finished its first full year.
“We wanted to find a way for our students to have meaningful engagement and to help them learn about social services and the social determinants of health in the community,” said Elizabeth Kizer, a lecturer in the College of Health Solutions and team lead for the Patient Care translational team.
“This was an opportunity to be in a clinic, meeting with clients with diverse needs and connecting them with services in the community that Native Health doesn’t have on-site,” Kizer said.
“Referring the clients to outside agencies is something that takes a lot of work away from staff, and they build a partnership so it’s a ‘warm handoff’ of the client that’s more personal.”
The partnership began last fall, with two students in the first cohort. They sat in the Native Health lobby handing out COVID-19 test kits, hand sanitizer, masks, granola bars and water bottles to walk-in clients before talking with them about what they need.
Susan Levy, communications coordinator for volunteers and community involvement, supervises the interns on-site at the Phoenix center, which includes a branch of the state Department of Economic Security.
“We see a lot of people in the lobby who aren’t just patients,” she said. “We serve the community as a whole.
“You can’t just say to them, ‘Here’s a phone number. Call the housing hub.’ They need more than that.”
Many of the clients don’t have internet access or even phones, or the minutes on their phones are limited, so even looking for help is difficult, Levy said.
“The students have been amazing and have made such a huge difference in the community that we serve, and our staff has come to rely on them.”
Fernanda Lozano, a senior who is majoring in health care administration and policy, said that when she began the
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internship last September, she had to learn quickly on the job.
The students spent a lot of time updating the center’s list of resources and eligibility requirements, which government agencies change frequently.
“If you just want to get your credits over with, this is not the internship for you. This is for interns who care about people and want to make a difference in the community. You work hard, but it’s fulfilling to see the people you’ve helped,” Lozano said.
“We see a lot of people in the lobby who aren’t just patients,” she said. “We serve the community as a whole.”
Native American high school students take part in a cooking demonstration during the INSPIRE Summer Camp on June 21. The camp is designed to help expose Native American students to career options and college life at ASU.
Published ASU News, July 8, 2022
Native American high school students explore health careers
Keanu Stevens was eager to show off his new skill of inserting a breathing tube in a mannequin designed for medical professionals to a group of family and new friends.
Stevens, from Sells, Arizona, was part of a group of students who spent a week with ASU College of Health Solutions faculty, staff and alumni while taking part in the INSPIRE Summer Camp, a college readiness program for Native American high school students.
A member of the Tohono O’odham Nation, Stevens said the chance to bond with other students with similar goals and ambitions was meaningful for him.
“It was learning that I am not alone,” he said. “Learning that there are other Natives who want to do some of the things that I want to do was the highlight of the week.”
The students were able to choose among six areas of study at Arizona State University, including health, and spent the week learning about possible degrees or career options in those areas. In addition to health, the students explored arts and design, business, Indigenous leadership, law and policy, and STEM.
They also had an opportunity to take part in one of five cultural activities: drum-making, ribbon skirt bag-making, beading, art and drawing, and traditional and contemporary singing.
At the June 24 closing ceremony, the students were able to show their parents and other family members what they learned during the week.
One of the things students in the health track demonstrated was the use of a mannequin designed to help medical professionals learn how to intubate a patient. The students, including Stevens, took turns showing off what they learned during the closing ceremonies.
For Stevens, another highlight included the cooking and nutrition demonstrations put on by ASU College of Health Solutions alumna Denee Bex, owner of Tumbleweed Nutrition, who showed the students how to make blue corn mush parfaits using local and traditional Navajo ingredients.
Stevens is interested in a career that involves showing people healthier ways to eat.
“I want to be able to be out in the community giving people dietary advice and showing how our day-to-day cultural foods can be used in healthier ways,” Stevens said. “I want to help people be healthy.”
Published ASU News, April 1, 2022
Written off as a kid, ASU health solutions alumna now writes her own story
Wendy Boring-Bray was all of 16 when she got kicked out of high school. A tumultuous home life had the teen acting up long before the day an angry school counselor told her, “You will never become anything.”
“I’ll never forget what that counselor told me,” Boring-Bray recalled.
What was her teenage reaction? “I said, ‘challenge accepted.’”
Today, Boring-Bray has a Doctor of Behavioral Health (clinical) degree from Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions and a thriving practice in California.
“I was not the traditional student at ASU,” Boring-Bray said.
In fact, she wasn’t the traditional student anywhere, because along with getting expelled from school, she was also kicked out of her childhood home.
“This is what led me to become a therapist,” she said.
After leaving home, Boring-Bray
lived with a friend whose mother enrolled her in a trade school to be a front-office medical assistant.
“I’d work all week and go to school on Saturday,” she said. “I learned how to pay rent, how to keep my head above water.”
To remain afloat, BoringBray stayed on the medical track, working in many roles. She became a phlebotomist and longed to become a medical doctor.
An early marriage at age 20 and the subsequent birth of her daughter at age 23 took BoringBray away from her studies briefly, but she was back to school via online learning by age 25. She earned the degree and credentials to go into marriage and family therapy, and she never quit learning, eventually turning to the field of behavioral health.
“The Doctor of Behavioral Health program was a perfect merge of my therapy skills and my medical background,” Boring-Bray said.
How does her practice work?
Behavioral health takes an integrated approach to health
care, something Boring-Bray explained using some of the veterans she sees as an example.
“I’m working with anger issues, post-traumatic stress disorder, hypertension, anxiety and depression. Those mental health conditions can exacerbate things like hypertension,” she said.
Boring-Bray has case managers working with her to help the vets navigate the VA and their physical conditions while she addresses the mental health of her patients.
“With an integrated system like the one at our clinic, we’re hitting medical needs, mental health and case management all at once. We have all that in-house,” she said.
Boring-Bray adds that this approach is just now taking off, a newer, innovative player in the medical arena. It’s a good thing she didn’t believe it when she heard she’d “never become anything.”
Now, she’s using her degree to help create new paths to holistic wellness.
Boring-Bray spoke recently about her ASU experience and her views on health care.
Today, Boring-Bray has a Doctor of Behavioral Health (clinical) degree from Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions and a thriving practice in California.
Question: How are you impacting health for both individuals and your community?
Answer: You can’t improve the health of your community without improving the health of the individuals in it. Integrated health care takes the approach of helping the individual look at their lives as a whole, not just a mental or physical ailment that is currently impacting them. A doctor of behavioral health will look at the individual’s lifestyle, medical history, mental health history and how motivated the person is to make changes to make the ailment better. By helping individuals make lifestyle changes like eating healthier, we can help patients be able to give back to their communities in different ways, such as coaching Little League or other
volunteering. This helps build strong communities.
Q: What did you learn at ASU that helped prepare you for your career or for the next step in your career journey?
A: Like so many others, I was brought up in the medical community believing that there was only one form of health care—siloed health care, where individual providers are housed in their separate practices and are not communicating with other providers. ASU taught me that health care can look vastly different, and the evidence shows that when providers work together to treat the entire patient, not just the symptomatology, magic can and does happen. Patients are more apt to receive better care and have more positive results when
providers work collaboratively in a health care setting.
Q: What advice do you have for others wanting to make a difference in health?
A: First and foremost, never give up! I knew that I would be a doctor one day, but it looks very different than I imagined it would. Health care is a vast field with a niche for almost everyone. Even if an individual is not interested in direct patient contact, there is a need for people in administration, technology, human relations, marketing—almost everything— because health care is a community all its own. Never doubt that you can make a difference!
Sept. 29, 2021
Using passion for speech therapy to build award-winning business
Talk to any school-based speech-language pathologist and you’ll likely find they are a talented therapist committed to helping kids with communication disorders. That SLP is probably also juggling a huge caseload and buried in paperwork.
Lisa Kathman and Sarah Bevier, College of Health Solutions alumni from the speech and hearing science program, tamed the paperwork with SLP Toolkit, a product and company they launched in 2016. This year, SLP Toolkit earned the prestigious Sun Devil 100 award, which recognizes the 100 fastest-growing companies owned by ASU alumni.
Sun Devil 100 winners are ASU alumni who have been in business for at least three years and have earned revenues of $250,000 or more for three years. Kathman and Bevier were in the top 10 of the 132 alumni who earned this honor in 2021.
Meeting a market need
In 2015, these two SLP entrepreneurs were working for Mesa Public Schools when Kathman, who was the lead SLP for the district, first noticed that all the SLPs under her were struggling with the same issues.
“Back in the 90s, an SLP might have a caseload of 40 students. Now, caseloads in Arizona can be anywhere from 65 to 95 students. A further challenge: An SLP may be seeing a large variety of issues presented by those kids.
“If I’m the SLP for a school, I’ll be serving whatever kids need help there. I felt like I had to know something about everything,” Bevier explained.
As lead SLP, Kathman had a bird’s-eye view of the school district, which allowed her to see and hear from all the SLPs about the issues they were having. One of those issues was the escalating volume of paperwork.
“You have to document every treatment session and do daily billing to Medicaid,” Kathman said.
School-based SLPs also must perform assessments for each child, create a treatment plan and then track and report progress toward goals.
The shared struggles so many SLPs had in common prompted Kathman to send out a message to all therapists in her school district.
“Sarah was the only one out of about 125 SLPs to respond to this call,” Kathman recalled.
From classroom to boardroom
“When I saw Lisa’s email, I knew I wanted to be involved because I wanted something to help improve the paperwork of my job,” Bevier said. “I’d already been trying to figure out a better solution.”
What Bevier and other SLPs had been doing was carrying information on each student in manila folders, scribbling session notes on paper and inputting data into reports or Medicaid billing software later. They also conducted assessments and treatment plans all by themselves.
Kathman and Bevier started looking for a better way to do these tasks through automation. The team spent a year researching best practices, mapping out electronic processes and pulling together comprehensive information that would help school speech therapists make appropriate treatment recommendations. After cramming all that work in after full days on the job for their first year, the team hired application developers to help them build the tool they envisioned.
Getting SLP Toolkit built wasn’t easy or cheap. The women maxed out their credit cards and tapped into their 401(k) savings, life insurance and loans to fund the effort.
“We knew we were going to be able to find the money and the resources we needed because we felt so passionate about how desperately this solution was needed,” Bevier said.
By 2017, SLP Toolkit was a fulltime job for both entrepreneurial speech-language pathologists.
Today, SLP Toolkit operates on a software-as-a-service model with a modest price tag and some 10,000 users.
Lisa Kathman and Sarah Bevier, two College of Health
Solutions alumni from the speech and hearing science program, tamed the paperwork lion with SLP Toolkit, a product and company they launched in 2016.
The goal of the ASU Community Collaborative is twofold: provide students with real-world experience and enhance the quality of life for the residents.
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ASU students support Westward Ho residents during pandemic isolation
The COVID-19 pandemic has been hardest on the most vulnerable people, and Arizona State University students have been working to help one group in downtown Phoenix.
Residents at the Westward Ho apartments—low-income older adults and those with disabilities— have faced extra burdens over the past year. A population that was already susceptible to loneliness was further isolated when they couldn’t see friends and family in person.
For several years, the ASU Community Collaborative has been supporting the Westward Ho residents, and while the COVID-19 pandemic created difficult challenges, that help has continued. Students checked in on the residents over winter break, made sure the food cart was stocked and are thinking of ways to resume some activities.
“We knew that as long as our ZIP code was in the red zone, we would not be open for services. The residents were losing hope because we would tell them we had to wait for the numbers to
get better, and that was the only answer we had.
“Now, we’re doing what we can to find alternatives and to just make things work.”
Starting in January, the ASU team began offering several outdoor, socially distanced activities for the residents, including social hours and mindfulness sessions. More meetup groups are planned.
And the students also figured out how to help residents access computer time and other services.
The goal of the ASU Community Collaborative is twofold: to provide students with real-world experience and to enhance the quality of life for the residents. Based on the first floor of the Westward Ho, it includes the School of Social Work, the School of Community Resources and Development, the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation and the College of Health Solutions, coordinated by the Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy.
When the pandemic hit in March, in-person services such as counseling were switched to Zoom, which was
very challenging, said Stacey Gandy, an instructor in the School of Social Work and the program coordinator for the ASU Community Collaborative.
“Many residents don’t have internet,” she said. “And navigating technology is hard.”
With the summer to plan, the team was able to resume some services in the fall semester, including the food cart.
“When we came back in the fall, we got to hear for the first time what it was like for them over summer not having us here and not having the food cart when food was a big issue for them,” Elliott said. “So in the fall we had to get it back in shape.”
"This got us working together and stretching our minds and working as a team. We’re really engaged, bouncing ideas off each other and thinking about the residents.”
Bookman said he sees the residents as his mentors.
“They’re helping me to be a better social worker and preparing me for my success,” he said. “They’re definitely helping me as much as I’m helping them.”
“I was attracted to linguistics because I was interested in how concepts are translated from one language to another and in the different ways language develops.”
Alumna turns her passion for language into a career
In pursuit of a career that embodied her appreciation for language, Arizona State University alumna Elizabeth Meadows became a speech-language pathologist at Kino Junior High School.
“I wanted to do something with language and also with Spanish,” said Meadows, who completed her undergraduate and graduate coursework at ASU. “I was attracted to linguistics because I was interested in how concepts are translated from one language to another and in the different ways language develops.”
In 2007, Meadows started her Bachelor of Arts program in English linguistics from the Department of English with a minor in Spanish from the School of International Letters and Cultures. As a merit scholar in Barrett, the Honors College and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, she was able to travel during her undergraduate experience, studying abroad in France and Argentina. Meadows also completed a Fulbright program in Uruguay before attending graduate school at ASU. In 2016, she received a Master of Science in communication disorders from the
College of Health Solutions, which prepared her for clinical practice in speech-language pathology.
“I was very lucky to be able to travel as a first-generation college student,” Meadows said. “Those experiences really opened me up to the world and broadened my perspective.”
This past year, Meadows was on the Kino Junior High School staff as a speech-language pathologist. She works with students who have developmental language disorders, which affect their ability to understand language and express themselves.
“Speech-language pathology is a really diverse field. I work with students who have expressive and receptive language disorders as well as some speech disorders. I also work with students on the autism spectrum with social language challenges.”
For example, some students have difficulty following and parsing complex sentences because the meaning of subordinate clauses isn’t clear. Students with these language disorders will have a block in understanding the context of academic content. They may also have trouble expressing their thoughts about what they do and don’t understand in a clear way to others.
“They might have a decent idea in their head about the content, but when they’re asked to explain it or write it down, they’re not able to express it,” Meadows said. “This can lead to a whole lot of frustration and behaviors that interfere with learning and other students’ learning.”
Next year, Meadows will continue as a speech-language pathologist but will also be working with the Mesa Public Schools district once a week as a bilingual evaluator. She’ll visit other sites and help other speech-language pathologists who have concerns about bilingual students who may be struggling with language differences rather than an actual language disorder.
“My Spanish minor really solidified my ability to be able to do this type of work,” she said.
Meadows encourages students in college to take advantage of any opportunities for travel. She said it definitely helped her find her passion and discover what she wanted to do as a professional.
“I never really thought about travel as a child or teenager,” Meadows said. “But my experiences abroad really helped me and my appreciation for language and that’s what led me to pursue speech-language pathology.” Articles
ASU News, May 2, 2016
Helping hometown health
Andy Meza aims to make a difference in the underserved populations in Yuma.
Andres “Andy” Meza’s goal in life is lofty but achievable: to leave a mark on the Hispanic community.
If the 22-year-old Yuma native continues to follow his educational path, that goal will be attainable in just a few short years.
Meza, a kinesiology major from the College of Health Solutions, is headed to A.T. Still University’s satellite campus in east Mesa after he graduates from ASU in May, to obtain his doctorate in physical therapy. He says after he becomes a doctor, he’ll head back to Yuma, where he’ll help address the needs of an underserved population.
“Being a border town, Yuma has a lot of field and blue-collar workers and not a lot of health care professionals,” Meza said. “The language barrier is a real problem, and there’s often a miscommunication between patient and provider. Lack of communication could lead to a treatment that’s not right for them or put them on a path they don’t necessarily want to be.
“I want to help people understand the service I am trying to provide to them.”
Meza is graduating summa cum laude with a 3.95 GPA and is the last of his siblings, who are all firstgeneration college graduates. He is, however, the first in his family to pursue a graduate degree.
Question: What was your “aha” moment, when you realized you wanted to study the field you majored in?
Answer: While taking my management course, I realized that if I was going to invest all this time in school, I better like what I am learning—I needed to do something that I love. I knew that I wanted to do
physical therapy in high school, but I didn’t want to go to school for seven years, I just wanted four years and done. However, after being at ASU, I realized that the seven years would be worth it if I liked it versus four and not liking what I am doing. Plus, I didn’t like the coding as far as engineering goes. The little things in the human body made me really like what I was learning.
Q: What’s something you learned while at ASU—in the classroom or otherwise—that surprised you, that changed your perspective?
A: When in doubt, you can always rely on real science. After butchering various myths in a few of my classes, it made me realize how gullible one can be. Now I can make sure to always do my research before being influenced, even if it isn’t science-related.
Q: Why did you choose ASU?
A: I knew I wanted to stay in state, from Yuma, this is the closest city to me and family is very important to me. It was really important that I have access to them whenever necessary. And who wants to live in Tucson, right?
The football games, big campus, bigger city—I come from a small town and wanted to try something different as far as demographics go as opposed to being confined in a small town like my entire life.
The engineering program drew me here, and I started off in mechanical engineering and didn’t like what I was learning, and we learned about the human body and realized that that was what I was passionate about learning and switched to kinesiology after reviewing majors.
Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to those still in school?
A: Get to know your professor personally. They aren’t there to present a lecture; they genuinely care about your success. Whether it is personally, professional or academic advice, they may be the perfect person to guide you in the right direction. You’ll never know when you need a helping hand.
Second piece of advice: Don’t mess around early; leave yourself some cushion. When times start to get rough, that extra cushion can save your grade or GPA regardless if it’s the beginning of your college career or your last semester.
“When in doubt, you can always rely on real science. After butchering various myths in a few of my classes, it made me realize how gullible one can be. Now I can make sure to always do my research before being influenced, even if it isn’t science-related. ”
Published ASU News, April 27, 2016
One step closer in solving speech disorder
ASU assistant professor’s study finds new candidates for genetic cause of disorder; could mean much earlier diagnosis in infants.
People take preventative measures every day. We use seat belts to prevent injury, wear sunscreen to prevent skin damage and lock our doors to prevent burglaries. Any way you look at it, preventing a disaster is preferable to dealing with its aftermath.
The same holds true for medical disorders; prevention is always better than attempting to treat after diagnosis. For a great number of disorders, that’s not always possible. But thanks to the research of ASU assistant professor Beate Peter, we are one step closer to being able to do this for childhood apraxia of speech, or CAS.
In a study published today in the leading scientific journal PLOS ONE, Peter details how she was able to identify mutations in mainly two genes that may cause the disorder. Knowing more about the genetics of speech problems will allow parents with children at risk for the disorder
to take action earlier than was previously possible.
CAS is a motor speech disorder that affects roughly one to two of every 1,000 children. Children with CAS have problems saying certain sounds and words because they have trouble orchestrating all the different muscles in their speech system. This makes it extremely difficult for them to convey their thoughts and emotions. Peter calls the disorder “a great source of frustration” to the children it affects as well as their families, often causing children to act out or—worse—give up on speaking altogether.
“One mother once told me, ‘He doesn’t have any friends—none of the kids at preschool want to play with him,’ ” Peter said. “So there is a huge area of need … to do more than just wait until they have a diagnosis and then treat.”
A former school-based speechlanguage pathologist, Peter thought that perhaps the answer to filling that need lay in our genes. And so in this, her latest study, Peter chose two separate families in which incidences of CAS were very high to delve into the genetics of speech disorders.
After running a battery of tests on the family members and asking them lots of questions to determine who among them did and did not have speech problems came the “most crucial” step: obtaining a DNA sample from each member of each family. For each of these DNA samples, Peter obtained computer files with more than half a million genetic markers spread across all chromosomes (imagine a huge text file with the markers for one entire family: dozens of columns and more than nine million lines), and for a few samples, she also obtained computer files with readouts of the entire exome, which consists of all pieces of DNA that contain the recipes for making proteins.
Using a program developed by researchers at her alma mater, the University of Washington, Peter fed each family’s genetic marker files into a computer to look for parts of chromosomes that likely were inherited along with the speech problem. Once she found these chromosomal regions, she checked them for harmful exome variants that were inherited only by family members with the speech problem.
What she found was that members of each family who were previously determined to have a speech problem also shared a specific gene marker. Members of each family who were previously determined not to have a speech problem did not have that specific gene marker; an indication that most likely, the gene marker shared by members of the family who have a speech problem is indicative of a shared genetic anomaly that likely caused the speech disorder.
“One mother once told me, ‘He doesn’t have any friends—none of the kids at preschool want to play with him,’” Peter said. “So there is a huge area of need … to do more than just wait until they have a diagnosis and then treat.”
“Veterans are at high risk to all of these due to disproportional rates of obesity, and it’s driven primarily because of lifestyle behaviors.”
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New smartphone app encourages vets to BeWell
Veterans can face a number of challenges when they return home from the battlefield.
Some suffer through PTSD or depression. Others grapple with sleep disorders. And many have to deal with the reality of permanent injuries.
But one trait that doesn’t get much publicity might be the most widespread and damaging of all: inactivity.
After spending years in a culture that regimented every part of the day—including physical activity— soldiers often come back to unstructured and sedentary lives. The change can lead to declining physical and mental health.
However, there could be help on the way. A transdisciplinary team of researchers at Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions and the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, along with the Phoenix VA Health Care System, are developing an Android-based smartphone app called BeWell24. The app is aimed at veterans who are susceptible to metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of conditions that puts individuals
at greater risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
“Veterans are at high risk to all of these due to disproportional rates of obesity, and it’s driven primarily because of lifestyle behaviors,” said Matthew Buman, an assistant professor.
“They come back from deployment challenged in many ways. They have a new set of stressors in how to habituate themselves back into daily life and tend to, at earlier ages than non-veterans, develop risk factors for disease.”
A $50,000 Virginia G. Piper
Charitable Trust seed grant has enabled Buman and his team to develop an app that monitors a combination of three behavioral components—sleep, sedentary behavior and physical activity—in a 24-hour cycle.
“Time is disproportionately distributed between them, and increasing time in one inevitably requires decreasing time in another,” Buman said.
Buman and Dr. Dana Epstein, chief of nursing research evidence-based practice at the Phoenix VA, just finished a pilot study of veterans ages
30 to 65. They asked vets to use the app to monitor their activity for an eight-week period, hoping that smartphone-based behavioral changes could lead to improvements in sleep, sedentary behavior and physical activity.
Preliminary findings have already shown that the app can significantly improve sleeping and activity patterns in the eight-week window.
“We know that reallocating just 30 minutes a day of sedentary time with equal time of sleep or physical activity can lead to improvements in health,” Buman said.
Creating smart health solutions with biomedical informatics
Adela Grando is a new professor with the Department of Biomedical Informatics in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University. Trained in artificial intelligence with a background in computer science, Grando moved into the biomedical informatics field because she felt it offered great applications in medicine, and exciting opportunities for innovation.
“It’s a very cool area of research with so much impact,” she says about the role of biomedical informatics in health care –especially in clinical practice. “And there is good synergy here at ASU, and many collaborations with Mayo Clinic. They are willing to push the boundaries.”
Research and teaching within ASU’s Department of Biomedical Informatics takes place on the Mayo Clinic campus in north Scottsdale, where faculty and students are able to work closely with Mayo providers and patients
to carry out research and develop new tools and interventions.
Biomedical informatics is a fairly new interdisciplinary field that incorporates knowledge and expertise from various fields, according to Grando. “Biomedical informatics doesn’t always start with biomedical informatics,” she said. Researchers and practitioners often start out in computer science, mathematics, statistics, imaging, psychology, medicine, public health and many other fields.
While the scope of biomedical informatics is broad in nature— and growing—ASU works within four distinct application domains: bioinformatics, imaging, public health and clinical. The end result for each is finding solutions and creating interventions for patients.
The interdisciplinary nature of the program is motivating for Grando and her students because of the constant learning that takes place and the focus on developing solutions by looking at the problem from multiple perspectives.
A clinician presents a problem, said Grando, and biomedical informatics practitioners set out to solve it. Both, and oftentimes others, are needed to create the most effective solutions for health. “They don’t know what we know, and we don’t know what they know,” she said. “I cannot do it on my own.”
Collaboration is the foundation for a new smartphone application that Grando and three of her graduate students are developing for patients with diabetes. The app, iDecide, is a decision system that utilizes medical evidence in its processing—critical for a tool that will be trusted by patients.
Grando and her students spent months learning about diabetes to prepare for the project in order to build a safe and effective tool for consumers who will use it, starting with the patients from Mayo Clinic who have been entrusted to her team.
“We benefited from the advice of an internist, an endocrinologist, a registered nurse working as a diabetes educator, an expert on human-computer
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interaction, two experts in decision support systems and a postdoctoral visitor trained on the development of smartphone apps for health care,” she said. The first prototype could help her determine if patient goals are realistic, such as health habits, exercise and nutrition. Artificial intelligence has been programmed into the application to remember user habits (and reinforce the good ones), calculate insulin requirements and recommend follow-up actions that are more realistic and tailored to the lifestyle of the patient.
“It’s a very cool area of research with so much impact,” she says. “And there is good synergy here at ASU, and many collaborations with the Mayo Clinic. They are willing to push the boundaries.”
Published ASU News, April 1, 2013
Farmers market project wins President’s Award for Social Embeddedness
Society’s push for healthier eating habits has produced global trends centered on locally grown food, and farmers markets and their influence among communities have recently skyrocketed.
It was for this reason that Matthew Buman and his team, Farmer’s Markets for Health, decided to research the topic and focus on new age technology and its effects on farmers markets in underserved communities. According to Buman, the Farmer’s Markets for Health team continuously looks at new and innovative ways to promote healthy lifestyles, especially in farmers markets.
“Farmers markets offer a unique opportunity of healthy food options that also serve as social gathering places for communities,” Buman said. “This combination is ideal for reaching communities in ways that are effective in addition to creating environments and promoting behaviors that are health enhancing.”
As part of the Farmer’s Markets for Health research, a team of ASU faculty, staff, students and community partners throughout Arizona and across four different departments completed two projects to identify technology solutions to barriers that preclude use of farmers markets.
Members of the team included Christopher Wharton, Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, and Eric Hekler of the School of Nutrition and Health Promotion’s nutrition program; Amy Woof of the exercise and wellness program; students Farryl Bertmann, Jonathan Kurka, Amanda Gordon, Kristin Fankhauser, and Gina Lacagnina; and community partners Dee Logan, Cindry Gentry, and Art and Heather Babbott.
Buman and his team were awarded the President’s Medal for Social Embeddedness—an award which recognizes ASU faculty and staff who have worked as part of a departmental, interdepartmental or transdisciplinary team to demonstrate excellence in embedding the university in the social and cultural fabric of the surrounding community.
The first project addressed the financial barriers of farmers markets by implementing wireless card reader terminals in five farmers markets throughout the state, increasing overall sales and the use of food assistance program benefits. Although Buman noted that technology itself is not the most interesting part of his work, he disclosed that he is interested in harnessing new technology that can overcome challenges in the field.
“In our case, purchasing goods at farmers markets, especially for low-income individuals relying on SNAP (Supplemental
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Research team: Matthew Buman, Amanda Gordon, Jonathan Kurka, Farryl Bertmann, Eric Hekler, Christopher Wharton
Nutrition Assistance Program), was a major barrier and so it wasn’t so much the technology, but the capability of these new technologies that was intriguing. Also, it was difficult for researchers and market managers to get accurate ‘real-time’ perceptions from consumers on how they were experiencing the market,” Buman said. “Technology offered unique opportunities to overcome these barriers.”
Buman notes that the hardest part of this project was the difficulty in finding and developing relationships with community partners, but also admitted that this time the process was relatively easy. “We were very fortunate to have willing partners that had real problems we could work together to solve,” he said.
Solution | Students
March 5, 2013
Researcher finds exercise may be intervention for Down syndrome
Marcus Santellan’s aunt says he’s more talkative at home, using longer sentences, now that he’s in an exercise program at Arizona State University. The young man with Down syndrome is helping ASU researchers find out whether intense, assisted exercise can improve cognitive, motor and emotional functioning in adolescents with DS.
Katy Lichtsinn, an ASU kinesiology senior who acts as his cheerleader and mentor, warns his aunt that Marcus might be tired after pedaling at 110 rpm.
“I’m not tired,” says Marcus, taking a gulp from a water bottle. “But I can’t feel my legs.”
Persons with DS, a chromosomal condition that affects about 400,000 children born in the United States, have broad cognitive impairment and physical characteristics that limit their ability to perform functional tasks of daily living. To date,
there have been few, if any, behavioral interventions that have been shown to bring about improvement in their functioning.
Shannon D.R. Ringenbach, an associate professor of kinesiology in the School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, hopes to show that Assisted Cycle Therapy has the potential to improve the lives of people with DS. She has received a $150,000 grant from the Eunice Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to conduct the study.
A smaller pilot study she carried out two years ago revealed that adolescents with DS improved their speed of information processing and manual dexterity, even after one Assisted Cycle Therapy session. The same was not true after one voluntary exercise session, since people with DS tend toward sedentary behavior and have reduced strength.
An innovation in Ringenbach’s approach is the use of a specialized stationary bicycle with a motor, so participants exercise
faster. Assisting in the research are about 15 ASU undergraduates and one doctoral student, who monitor the participants carefully and urge them on. Participants are tested periodically on their functional behaviors, manual dexterity, executive function and depression.
“It’s really remarkable that by doing this kind of exercise, they begin to think faster,” says Ringenbach. “We believe they develop new brain cells. We don’t know yet how long it will last. But it has the potential to dramatically change the quality of their lives. With early intervention in children with Down syndrome, it’s possible it could improve their IQ.”
Exercise has been shown to improve cognitive, physical and mental health in people with Parkinson’s disease.
“A lot of children with Down syndrome are smart and able to learn to do things, but they get left behind in the research,” she says. “He is well loved, with two devoted aunts. But it’s nice to have people at the university who are looking into this.”
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“A
lot of children with Down syndrome are smart and able to learn to do things, but they get left behind in the research,” she says. “He is well loved, with two devoted aunts. But it’s nice to have people at the university who are looking into this.”
– Shannon D. Ringenbach, associate professor of kinesiology
Participants’ families tell Ringenbach that their children enjoy the program a great deal. They are talking and interacting more, their moods are better, and they’d like the program to continue. She hopes to extend her research by developing a motorized bike for smaller children, and perhaps to develop a program for individuals with DS at the downtown YMCA.
“The Kitchen Café provides students with the opportunity to practically apply the principles they learn in the classroom related to operating a food service organization and food service management.”
– Simin Levinson, instructor for
NTR445
Management of Food Service Systems
ASU nutrition students open, operate nonprofit retail cafe
Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix campus has opened a public retail cafe in the School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, serving up economical and healthful menu items by students.
Called the Kitchen Café, the nonprofit venue is an upperdivision course staffed by nutrition students in the program’s Management of Food Systems course and is required before students can apply for their capstone internships. The cafe is open four days a week for breakfast and lunch and located on the ground floor of the College of Nursing and Health Innovation Building I, 500 N. 3rd Street, Phoenix.
understanding of their job,” Moody said. “The Kitchen Café gives students the unique opportunity to experience what it’s like to work in a real production kitchen, so when they go on to senior positions they are better able to manage their employees.”
Meals are prepared in the stateof-the-art, energy efficient and environmentally sound Nutritional Instructional Kitchens, which are attached to the cafe. The facilities are independent of the university’s campus dining program, which is managed by Aramark. Menu items include salads, quiche, chicken, fish, soups, bread, wraps and fresh fruits.
related to operating a food service organization and food service management,” said Simin Levinson, instructor for NTR445 Management of Food Service Systems.
Future plans call for the start of an onsite garden that will supply Kitchen Café with fruits and vegetables. Articles have
The Kitchen Café’s days and hours of service are Tuesday through Friday, open for breakfast from 8:30 to 9:50 a.m. and for lunch 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Cash and credit cards are accepted.
The program allows for students to gain experience working in a kitchen and retail environment while they hand-prepare, cook and serve meals at a reasonable price under the supervision of Chef Kenneth Moody, instructional retail kitchen coordinator.
“It has always been my belief that to properly manage someone, they need to have a basic
The nutrition program educates approximately 800 students annually and offers four degrees: human nutrition, dietetics, food and nutrition management and nutrition communication. Career options in nutrition include becoming a registered dietitian, a food service director, a restaurant business entrepreneur, or a food industry professional.
“The Kitchen Café provides students with the opportunity to practically apply the principles they learn in the classroom
“America spends too much for health care that has sub-optimal outcomes. We need to move to a new model for health in this nation.”
ASU establishes College of Health Solutions as new health education model
Arizona State University established the College of Health Solutions in May 2012 as part of its strategic initiative to build a new model for health education.
The new college includes the School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, the Department of Biomedical Informatics, the School of the Science of Health Care Delivery, and the Doctor of Behavioral Health Program. The college also will collaborate with affiliated ASU health units, including the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, and numerous research centers and programs, such as the Center for Health Information and Research, the Health Care Delivery and Policy Program, and the Healthcare Transformation Institute.
The multi-disciplinary college is led by Dean Keith D. Lindor, MD, who also serves as executive vice provost, and who joined ASU in January after serving seven years as dean of the Mayo Clinic Medical School in Rochester, Minn.
The mission of the College of Health Solutions is to better promote good health, prevent and control disease, and to improve health outcomes for patients and their families. To accomplish this mission, it serves as a knowledge exchange and catalyst for collaboration among health-related units across ASU, as well as providing support for health-related academic programs, transdisciplinary research initiatives and strategic partnerships.
Right time for change
“It is time for a new model of integrated and interprofessional health education and delivery given the current costs and patient outcomes of the U.S. health care system,” Lindor said. “America spends too much for health care that has sub-optimal outcomes. We need to move to a new model for health in this nation.”
Arizona is an ideal state and ASU a great university at which to build that model. The state has a highly diverse population which is underserved, lacks access to health care, and is at higher risk for chronic illnesses such as obesity and diabetes. ASU also does not have a medical school or center with vested interests in the status quo of health education.
The School of the Science of Health Care Delivery is being formed and will offer a specialized master’s degree in science of health care delivery for ASU graduate students in fall semester 2013. When the announced Mayo Medical School – Arizona Campus in Scottsdale opens, the degree will be offered to Mayo medical school students concurrently with their medical degree. The Mayo medical school is believed to be the first medical school to offer such a program. Articles have
Influence and impact
The College of Health Solutions is committed to creating influence and impact in the community and beyond. Philanthropic efforts not only support the educational aspirations of students but also contribute to the advancement of health care and well-being for all.
These stories are just a glimpse into the impactful donations and scholarships that have been established at the College of Health Solutions. Each contribution, no matter how big or small, plays a crucial role in shaping the future of health care and improving health outcomes for individuals and communities.
impact
It’s a ripple effect. One student benefits from an endowed scholarship and goes on to affect many lives and improve health and quality of life in astounding ways.”
—Alma Chavez Strasser, director of development
courtesy of the Burnett family.
Photos
Sharing the gift of education
Education has long been a guiding principle in Nancy Burnett’s family and in hoping to pass that gift along to others, she set up the Burke-Burnett Endowed Scholarship.
The scholarship will provide support for students enrolled at the College of Health Solutions with a focus on movement science and human performance.
“Our family believes in education,” Burnett said. “I just decided the best thing I could do with my estate was to provide funds for students.”
A third-generation Arizonan, members of Burnett’s family attended colleges and universities throughout the southwest, including the three public universities in Arizona. Her mother and brother “ended up at that other school” (the University of Arizona), Burnett said with a chuckle.
Her grandmother, Elizabeth Ross, earned a teacher’s certificate in 1916 from the Normal School in Flagstaff (now Northern Arizona University), while a great aunt earned a library science degree from the University of California—Berkeley and another great aunt earned a degree in the history of Hispanic America from UCLA and a master’s degree from Occidental University.
Burnett enrolled in ASU’s business school fresh out of high school in the late 1960s, which led to a career as what she described as “one of the original computer nerds.” Twenty years of sitting at a desk in front of a screen led her to an interest in exercise and fitness so she enrolled in ASU’s movement science program where she earned her second degree.
Her collegiate journey started while the country was still engaged in the Vietnam War and she decided to re-enter college for the second time after celebrating her 40th birthday. She was impressed
with the growth ASU experienced in between those two terms as a student and further impressed with the progress that has come since then.
“When I decided to get the second degree the school had grown a lot,” Burnett said. “They offered a degree I was interested in, so I became a freshman again at age 40. I’m more impressed with the way its grown since then, especially in the last 20 years or so.”
The College of Health Solutions is one of those developments that has made an impression on Burnett.
“When I first set up my estate there was no College of Health Solutions,” Burnett said. “I just made kind of a general donation for exercise science. So when I found out there was this college, which surprised me, I was really happy to be more specific and establish an actual scholarship.”
Another reason she endowed the scholarship was to help with another aspect of attending college: the cost. She said when she started college the first time, tuition was about $20 per credit hour.
“You could work and go to school and the cost wasn’t a big deal,” Burnett said. “Books were more expensive than the credits. Now it’s just an extraordinary cost to go to school anywhere and people need help. I thought a scholarship fund would be a good thing to do with the estate. It’s part of our family heritage to get educated.”
Published ASU News, March 24, 2023
Family honors sailor’s life and legacy
Scholarship open to any College of Health Solutions student with demonstrated interest in the military.
One day, years ago, Patrick and Teri Caserta checked the lunch money account they had set up for their son, Brandon, at his elementary school.
They were surprised to see the account had far less money than they thought it should. So, they questioned Brandon about it.
“We asked him if he was eating two lunches or anything like that,” Teri Caserta said. “He said he wasn’t, but that he noticed kids that didn’t bring a lunch or didn’t have a lunch, and he would buy them lunch. And he asked if that was OK, or if he should stop.
“We’re like, ‘No, you do what you want to. You just have to let us know that you’re using it so we can fund it.’”
That legacy of giving and helping others is one reason the Casertas have started an annual scholarship at Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions in honor of Brandon, who died by suicide on June 25, 2018, while he was a member of the Navy.
The Brandon Caserta Memorial Scholarship, worth $1,000 annually, will go to a student in the College of Health Solutions who has a demonstrated interest in the military, said Paola Gale, assistant director of development for the college with the ASU Foundation. It’s also the first scholarship open to any student in the College of Health Solutions.
“That’s significant,” Gale said. “We might have a student looking at medical studies or another field and see that there’s no scholarship for that program. Our scholarship coordinator was delighted that this is really the first scholarship that is open to all (College of Health Solutions) students.”
The $1,000 scholarship is only the beginning. Patrick Caserta said they are donating one-third of their estate to ASU after their death, an amount significant enough that it will pay for a four-year education for several students.
“Their estate gift to fund the Brandon Caserta Memorial Scholarship, the first scholarship at the College of Health Solutions that is open to any of our majors, along with supporting active military and veteran health
initiatives at (the college), will make a difference for many years to come,” said Deborah Helitzer, dean of the College of Health Solutions. “The Casertas’ gift will allow (College of Health Solutions) students, faculty and staff to continue and expand on our current efforts in support of better health for our nation’s military and veterans.”
Patrick Caserta said he and Teri decided to contribute a portion of their estate in part because he was a student in the College of Health Solutions from 2009 to 2014.
“We feel his legacy was saving lives,” Patrick said. “That’s what the Brandon Act is about and that’s how we want to preserve his legacy, with our foundation and the scholarship.”
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Ronald Youngberg, namesake of the Ronald E. Youngberg Scholarship endowment fund.
Giving that lasts
Endowed gifts create ‘sustainable legacy’ for the College of Health Solutions.
When Ronald Youngberg walked through the door of the ASU Speech and Hearing Clinic for treatment following a stroke, no one—not even Youngberg himself—realized the impact he would make on the College of Health Solutions.
“Dad was really struggling with aphasia, even after completing a therapy program at a local hospital,” said his daughter Paula Webb.
Doctors referred him to the college’s speech clinic for individual and group sessions, where he made significant progress.
“He really enjoyed the group sessions because they gave him an opportunity to socialize with others dealing with similar circumstances,” Webb said. He would return home from those sessions in much better spirits, sitting down immediately to do his homework for the next week’s session, Webb recalled.
Graduate students often led those sessions as part of their training to become speech-language pathologists. And while Youngberg personally benefited from the therapy, he also felt he was helping the students with their education by giving them hands-on experience.
That’s why, when he passed away in 2014, the family established the Ronald E. Youngberg Scholarship endowment fund to honor their father and provide financial aid for speech-language students. Since 2016, 11 students have benefited from Youngberg’s legacy.
An investment in the future of health
Because the family created an endowment instead of donating a one-time gift, the Ronald E. Youngberg Scholarship has had an exponential impact, said Alma Chavez Strasser, director of development for the College of Health Solutions.
“A one-time gift funds a scholarship or program once, but gifts set up as endowments are invested, and we use the dividends from those investments to honor the donor’s wishes without having to spend the original gift,” she said. “It’s a sustainable legacy.”
Some donors initially believe that establishing an endowment is financially out of reach for them and their families, she said.
“Endowments are feasible for many individuals and families. Pledges can be paid over a number of years, making them more financially attainable,” she added. “A $25,000 donation paid over five years, for example, generates an ongoing investment that makes a difference long after the five-year commitment is completed.”
The power of sustainable gifts
Seeing those gifts in action is the most gratifying part of her job, Strasser said.
“It’s a ripple effect. One student benefits from an endowed scholarship and goes on to affect many lives and improve health and quality of life in astounding ways,” she said.
Kristopher Singleton is one such student. Inspired by a speech therapist he once job shadowed in his Detroit middle school, he came to ASU to pursue speech-language pathology after seeing one therapist have to split her time among five schools in his impoverished school district. The scholarship he received allowed him to complete his degree and work toward his dream of opening an affordable speech clinic for the children living in poverty in his former neighborhood.
When she retired in 2016, Professor Emeritus Linda Vaughan established the Linda A. Vaughan Scholarship Fund to help nutrition students at ASU’s College of Health Solutions finance their educations.
Nourishing a profession
Professor emeritus continues to support ASU’s nutrition program through scholarship endowment.
Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions is now home to one of the largest and most respected nutrition and dietetics programs in the U.S., but there was a time when nutrition at ASU was a small program in ASU’s Department of Home Economics, tucked away among its degrees in family studies, housing, textiles and clothing.
Linda Vaughan, professor emeritus and former director of the nutrition and dietetics program, was one of the driving forces behind its transformation into a thriving program of almost 1,000 students, five bachelor’s degrees, three master’s programs and a collaborative PhD in exercise and nutritional sciences, all located in a prominent place on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus. When she retired in 2016, Professor Emeritus Linda Vaughan established the Linda A. Vaughan Scholarship Fund to help nutrition students at ASU’s College of Health Solutions finance their educations.
Even in retirement, she has continued to shepherd the nutrition program’s growth through the Linda A. Vaughan Scholarship Fund, an endowment that helps nutrition students realize their academic goals.
Humble beginnings
Recalling her early days at the university, Vaughan said, “We had a very traditional home economics department with degrees typical of the 1980s— family studies, child development, textiles and clothing, and a housing unit.” Then the program modernized, changing its name to family studies and human development, but reference to the nutrition program was left out of the new name.
Several years later, room for the nutrition program became available on the ASU Polytechnic campus. Under Vaughan’s leadership, the nutrition program
moved there, giving the program both autonomy and more visibility in course catalogs and other ASU documents, which immediately spurred growth.
There was room for improvement, however. The Polytechnic campus opened in 1996 on the former Williams Air Force Base in Mesa, and the nutrition program was housed in the Air Force base’s remodeled buildings.
“What used to be operating rooms at the Air Force base hospital was turned into our research space,” Vaughan said. “The cafeteria was rehabbed into our food labs. That was a challenge.”
So was the site’s location, a 35-minute drive from ASU’s largest campus in Tempe and a distant trek for anyone in the northern and western parts of the Phoenix metro area. Then, eight years later, the university moved Vaughan and her team to ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus. The program got new teaching and research labs, a commercial kitchen to teach food and restaurant management, and access to the latest in instructional technology.
“It was the best move ever,” Vaughan said.
The nutrition program’s enrollment surged from 60 students in the Department of Home Economics to more than 500 when Vaughan retired in 2016 after 36 years at ASU.
Expanded philanthropy during pandemic has lasting impact
In March 2020, COVID-19 shut the doors to the ASU Speech and Hearing Clinic at the College of Health Solutions, but it didn’t end services to clients.
A generous donation from the Phoenix Scottish Rite of Freemasonry Foundation allowed the clinic to pivot to telehealth services and keep providing therapy to those in need despite stay-at-home orders. The Masons also funded four scholarships to support graduate students training to be speech-language therapists.
Building blocks of success
“Around 20% of kids in America have challenges on some level with speech or reading,” said Mike Bernhardt, a member of the Scottish Rite Phoenix chapter and one of the board members for the chapter’s charitable foundation. “These are very capable kids, and we’re
very proud to be serving them because there’s a connection between the ability to read, the ability to learn and the ability to be free-thinking.”
Fellow Mason and board member Tony Darin works with Bernhardt in the Scottish Rite Foundation and notes Scottish Rite has been committed to children’s learning success for more than 100 years. In the 1950s, that commitment expanded to include supporting speech and language therapy for children. Today, Scottish Rite Masons fund nearly 180 RiteCare Centers, clinics that provide therapy for a range of childhood communication issues. Literacy is also a focus for the Masons.
That’s why Bernhardt and Darin’s chapter reached out to Kelly Ingram, clinical professor at the College of Health Solutions, four years ago and began supporting the Summer Program for Elementary Literacy and Language (SPELL).
This program is for children who are falling behind the state’s standards for reading,” Ingram explained. “It’s essentially a
therapy camp, and the Scottish Rite provided scholarship funds for families who cannot afford to send their children to the camp.”
A pandemic pivot SPELL camp provided daily, three-hour sessions at the clinic until 2020 forced remote learning.
“It’s hard to keep a second grader’s attention for three hours in an online format, so we had to shift what we were doing,” said Tracey Schnick, the clinic’s business manager. “We shortened some of our programs, which reduced the cost of them a bit.”
Then, to keep delivering services to clients who might be struggling financially due to pandemic job cuts, Ingram and Schnick asked the Scottish Rite team if they would provide a gift to cover a broad variety of clients in need.
“They said ‘yes,’ and that allowed us the freedom to provide a wide range of services that could not be covered any other way,” Ingram said.
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Thanks to Scottish Rite’s support, 86 patients received free group and individual treatment for a total of 220 telehealth sessions throughout the summer in 2020. “They were a huge part of our success, and we are so thankful that with their help we were able to provide services to those in need last summer,” Ingram said.
Chavez Strasser, director of development for the College of Health
Alma
Solutions, pictured with (from left): Phoenix Scottish Rite Foundation board members Mike Bernhardt, Curtis White and Tony Darin.
Photo courtesy of Mike Bernhardt.
Greg and Anita Mayer
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Family values find generous expression in Mayer scholarship fund
From an early age, Greg Mayer’s large, extended family ingrained two principles into their children: One: Get an education. Two: Give back to your community.
Those family values live on and live well in both the establishment of the Drs. Gregory K. and Anita P. Mayer Science of Health Care Delivery Scholarship at the College of Health Solutions and in Mayer’s ongoing work with the college and the greater Phoenix medical community.
For Mayer, a physician and former senior executive with Arizona’s Hospice of the Valley, and his wife Anita Mayer, a doctor of internal medicine at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, the scholarship represents their belief in both the power of education and the mission of the College of Health Solutions. Mayer has been a professor of practice and faculty for the science of health care delivery program since 2016 and has been a part of the college’s evolution from a collection of separate health-related departments to a unified college committed to improving population health and well-being.
“Education is critical to society’s advancement and to maximize an individual’s potential in order to find solutions to current problems and problems that future generations will likely face,” Mayer said. “When I first joined the college, I immediately saw the quality of its programs and its students and faculty, and through the years, I’ve watched the college as a whole get even better as it has come together and focused on research, education and collaborations that are making a difference in our communities.”
Started in 2019, the scholarship has been awarded twice to two graduate students in the science of health care delivery master’s degree program. This year’s recipient was Katie Coleman, who said the scholarship allowed her to complete a degree that has been of great benefit in her current role as a director of utilization management operations and member services in a California pediatric primary care network. “I work extensively with the regulatory agencies and the many regulations that apply to managed care programs in California. The lack of consistency in the interpretation of regulations creates wide gaps in how health care is applied. I hope to make a difference that could improve the care received by patients throughout the state.”
The Mayers recently added to the scholarship fund, an increase that will allow even more graduate students in the science of health care delivery program to benefit, said Deborah Helitzer, dean of the College of Health Solutions. “Our students are our future hope for solving population health challenges. Greg and Anita clearly understand that and are setting an example for others with their investment in our students. I am so appreciative of this support that helps our students to go out and make a difference in the communities we serve.”
Mayer attributes his passion for education and community to the influence of his large, close-knit family, especially the examples set by his greatgrandfather, Oscar F. Mayer, the founder of the Oscar Mayer meat company.
In the community
The College of Health Solutions values community engagement as a cornerstone of our mission. Through partnerships with local organizations, health agencies and community members, the college fosters a sense of collective responsibility for health and well-being.
By actively involving the community in research, education and outreach efforts, the College of Health Solutions works to empower individuals to take ownership of their health and make informed decisions.
Through these collaborative efforts, the College of Health Solutions aims to create a supportive environment and community where everyone has access to resources and opportunities to lead healthy lives.
“We really value the relationships we have with the providers and organizations in Arizona who work hard to provide high-quality accessible health care for Arizona.”
—Marisa Domino, executive director, Center for Health Information and Research
ASU colleges team up to host sports testing for Valley high school athletes
Local high school athletes were able to get valuable feedback on their skills and abilities thanks to an event developed by the Integrative Human Performance Lab within the College of Health Solutions and the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
Event day operations were also supported by ASU’s Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions.
The event took place at Glendale Apollo High School on Nov. 4 and tested multiple measures of athletic performance, including a 40-yard dash, shuttle drills, vertical jump, reaction time testing, broad jump and upper body strength measures—similar to what might be seen at the NFL Scouting Combine to assess players looking to be drafted.
Noah Feinberg, a master’s student in strength and conditioning, said the event gave students a chance to learn skills that
would be valuable to potential employers in the sports science, athletic training, and strength and conditioning fields.
“It’s hands-on experience being able to test athletes in large groups and handle large amounts of data,” Feinberg said. “That’s something you probably wouldn’t be able to do unless you volunteer for events like this. It’s also a chance to be a part of the community and give back to the kids in Arizona. It’s a fun event. It’s testing athletes and being able to give them a cool experience.”
Each athlete received an individualized report to help them understand their strengths and weaknesses. The data collected was also used to create team reports for the high school coaches to provide information on their performance and help develop future programs.
Apollo High School senior Jordan Walker said he enjoyed the event, particularly the 40-yard dash and three-cone shuttle drill, where he recorded some of the fastest times.
He said he hoped the information might help him in his goal of playing college football.
“It really was a great experience for me,” Walker said. “I’ve never done anything like this before with lasers and exact timing and stuff. I think it was a great experience to get myself out there and maybe post (results) on (X, formerly known as Twitter) or some place for college coaches to see.”
Oct. 11, 2023
ASU center shares community-health project results with stakeholders
During a meeting on Oct. 4, Arizona State University’s Center for Health Information and Research, or CHiR, shared research and results from ongoing projects and initiatives at the center with community stakeholders.
“We’re very proud of our projects and the people who work in CHiR,” said Marisa Domino, executive director of CHiR and a professor at ASU’s College of Health Solutions, which houses the center. “This is a chance to showcase the skills they have and what they bring to the table.”
The projects discussed focused on three different areas:
Heat and health: A presentation by Domino and CHiR data scientist Nishanth Prathap provided preliminary results on the effect of higher daily minimum temperatures on hospitalizations for certain conditions, such as substance use diagnoses.
Preventable hospitalizations and telemedicine use during the COVID-19 pandemic: College of Health Solutions Assistant Professor Chinedum Ojinnaka discussed her study that looks at telemedicine use during the pandemic. Among the conclusions of the study was
that telemedicine has the potential to increase preventive care among those with previous ambulatory-care sensitive hospitalizations (conditions such as congestive heart failure, diabetes and hypertension). However, she discovered that racial and ethnic disparities persist in telemedicine use and must be addressed.
Youth substance-use diagnosis and treatment in Arizona: CHiR data scientist Osi Ikharebha spoke about the center’s collaboration with the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission and the Governor’s Office of Youth, Faith and Family’s Epidemiology Workgroup to support the development of public-facing dashboards on substance use and other risky behaviors among Arizona youth.
Domino said the stakeholder meetings serve a number of purposes.
“We really value the relationships we have with the providers and organizations in Arizona who work hard to provide high quality accessible health care for Arizona,” Domino said. “We meet to learn what they’re interested in and what should be on our radar screen.
“We also value the dialogue between stakeholders. I think one of the benefits our stakeholders see is a chance to meet others in the community. There have been
When it was introduced in 1999, CHiR became Arizona’s first comprehensive health care data analytics repository of local health records. CHiR has served researchers and policymakers by processing big data sets since it was founded in 1999.
successful collaborations and joint projects proposed because of these meetings.”
Nineteen organizations took part in the meeting, including Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), Arizona Criminal Justice Commission, Arizona Medical Board, Barrow Neurological Institute, Maricopa Association of Governments, Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona.
In addition to the College of Health Solutions, the ASU units that participated were The Institute for Future Health, Knowledge Enterprise, Knowledge Exchange for Resilience and Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions.
When it was introduced in 1999, CHiR became Arizona’s first comprehensive health care data
analytics repository of local health records. CHiR has served researchers and policymakers by processing big data sets since it was founded in 1999.
First-ever virtual health, technology and equity summit
The College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University flexed its innovative muscles in its quest for better health and health equity on Sept. 15 when it hosted the Health, Technology and Equity Virtual Summit.
The first-ever professional development event was put together at the request of the college’s faculty and staff. It featured 48 presenters, including 19 College of Health Solutions faculty, demonstrating how emerging technology can have an impact on health outcomes.
“Despite an investment in health that is 25% of the U.S. national budget, the health of the American population is getting worse. Our average lifespan is declining, chronic disease is increasing, and maternal mortality is higher than all other industrialized nations,” College of Health Solutions Dean Deborah Helitzer said.
“At the College of Health Solutions, we are committed to translating discovery into practice and
preparing tomorrow’s leaders to tackle these challenges. To fulfill our mission, we must adapt to new technology and maintain our innovation mindset. That’s why we hosted the College of Health Solutions Health, Technology and Equity Virtual Summit, a first-ever professional development event designed at the request of Health Solutions faculty and staff.”
Helitzer was impressed with the quality of the presentations.
“It was gratifying to see our faculty sharing their substantial expertise as well as deepening their knowledge in other areas through sessions with external presenters,” she said. “Successful gatherings like this summit bolster our dynamic collaboration across disciplines and fuel our drive to create better health outcomes for all.”
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“Successful gatherings like this summit bolster our dynamic collaboration across disciplines and fuel our drive to create better health outcomes for all.”
—Deborah Helitzer, dean
New funding from The Burton Family Foundation
The Summer Health Institute, a partnership between ASU’s College of Health Solutions and Creighton University Health Sciences Campus— Phoenix, can look forward to stability and growth thanks to a new signature sponsor.
Due to generous support from The Burton Family Foundation, the weeklong summer camp (which launched in 2014) for high school students not only has funding for at least the next three years, it will be able to double the number of participants.
The Summer Health Institute is an opportunity for students from across the nation to learn about career options in health care while also being exposed to a college environment. The students (rising high school seniors) spend a week on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus in addition to three hours of daily interactive activities at Creighton University Health Sciences Campus—Phoenix, which partners with the College of Health Solutions to put on the camp. Because of generous support from community partners, the only cost to participants in the Summer Health Institute is travel to and from
the camp. Securing the $690,000 commitment from The Burton Family Foundation has helped make the goal of making sure cost did not stop students from attending easier, said Nate Wade, executive director and assistant research professor for the College of Health Solutions.
“We used to scramble to find funding for the camp,” Wade said. “We’ve always had sponsorship from multiple different donors over the past 10 years, but to find a sustainable sponsor who said, ‘Not only do we want to sustain it, but grow it and double the number of participants for the next three years,’ is tremendous.”
The foundation’s support is committed for three years with the potential for a longer relationship. It will make planning for upcoming camps easier, Wade said. The camps run in two sessions each summer. The 2023 sessions were held June 25–July 1 and July 9–15.
The new funding source will also allow the camp to double enrollment from the 48 students to 96. There were 168 applicants for the 2023 camps. Articles have been reproduced in
Published Arizona PBS, July 25, 2023
‘Blue Zones’ comes to south Phoenix to improve health and quality of life
The largest determinant of people’s health is where they live, and there is a 14-year life expectancy disparity between south Phoenix and north Scottsdale. Tomás León, president of Equality Health Foundation, and Deborah Helitzer, dean of the College of Health Solutions at ASU, joined Arizona Horizon to discuss more.
Equality Health Foundation is a nonprofit working to reduce health disparities, expand access to care and accelerate health education in underserved communities. They summarized and shared the key learnings from the Blue Zones Community Voices Pulse Report. This is the community response and feedback to the initial well-being assessment. They also discussed the support needed as we move toward implementation.
“Blue Zone’s Life Radius Model is based on longevity research of the longest lived cultures in the world,” León said. The founder of the organization identified commonalities among these cultures that contributed to a healthy lifestyle.
Blue Zones Community Voices Pulse Report
Many of the faculty at the ASU College of Health Solutions worked with León’s team to collect accurate information and listen to the community, according to Helitzer. “They developed the surveys and focus groups so that we knew that it was high quality, our collaboration,” Helitzer said.
Tomás León, president of Equality Health Foundation, and Deborah Helitzer, dean of the College of Health Solutions at ASU, joined Arizona Horizon to discuss “Blue Zones.” Articles
“What we did is we partnered with Blue Zones and many other stakeholders to conduct a structured assessment of the state of wellbeing in the greater south Phoenix area,” León said. “That’s where there’s a great deal of life expectancy disparity that exists from someone that lives and grows up in south Phoenix compared to north Scottsdale.”
An assessment was conducted to identify the strengths, needs and areas for change. The ASU College of Health Solutions offered feedback on what is most important to the residents.
“We got feedback in terms of priorities around access to healthy foods, access to health care services, including mental health services. Also, a concern that came up was there’s a lot of organizations working on a number of different initiatives, but are they working together?”
León said.
June 15, 2023
$3M help train community health workers
The College of Health Solutions has launched a community health worker training program (CHWTP) to improve community access to health-promoting services throughout Arizona.
The online program, funded by a $3 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, will be available through Arizona State University Learning Enterprise and is paired with internship and apprenticeship opportunities in various communities throughout Maricopa County and the state. Participants who successfully complete the program will be eligible for voluntary certification through the Arizona Department of Health Services. The grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration will help train community health workers in underserved communities throughout Arizona.
There are multiple benefits to training people who already live and are heavily invested in these areas, according to Mindy McEntee, College of Health Solutions assistant professor and
project director. It develops better engagement with the program and a better understanding of how to best meet the local needs of the community, which contributes to moving the needle toward better health outcomes and improved quality of life.
“Community health workers, community health representatives, promotores de salud and many other related titles grouped under the ‘CHW’ umbrella have a longstanding history of connecting underserved communities and the health care system throughout Arizona,” McEntee said. “By having a close understanding of a community’s culture, language and social dynamics, these frontline public health workers provide education, support and advocacy that contributes to improving health outcomes, reducing disparities and building overall healthier communities.”
The program has buy-in from community partners including Valleywise Health, Valley of the Sun YMCA, Creighton Community Foundation, Mercy Care, Terros Health, Advance Community (formerly Esperança), Unlimited Potential and Phoenix Area Indian Health Service.
Rear Admiral Michael Weahkee of Phoenix Area Indian Health Service said programs that put more trained health workers in communities that need them are invaluable.
“American Indian tribal communities are often located in some of the most rural and remote parts of our country,” Weahkee said. “Recruitment of licensed health care professionals to provide services for tribal communities is a challenge, and we have found one of the best strategies to help confront this challenge to be the investment in training of our own tribal members as community health workers.” Program offers real world training
The internship and apprenticeship opportunities are in connection with the community partners. Learners are matched with on-the-job training to round out their experiences and give them more specialized knowledge, whether that be with a specific population or certain health conditions.
Unique aspects of the online curriculum include use of peer groups for collaborative
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assignments, experiential learning activities and real-time monthly mentorship meetings.
“By working with multiple community partners, we hope to continue to expand the reach of CHWs, help to establish connections that can lead to longterm employment and increased satisfaction among CHWs, and to use our network to facilitate dissemination and implementation strategies,” McEntee said.
“By working with multiple community partners, we hope to continue to expand the reach of community health workers, help to establish connections that can lead to long-term employment and increased satisfaction among community health workers, and to use our network to facilitate dissemination and implementation strategies.”
—Mindy McEntee, College of Health Solutions assistant professor
Denee Bex has been named Outstanding Alumna of the College of Health Solutions for 2022.
Six-time Olympic gold medalist Amy Van Dyken gave the Celebration of Health event keynote address.
Recognizing community health leaders at inaugural Celebration of Health event
College of Health Solutions celebrates 10th anniversary
Denee Bex was looking for a way to combine her love of food with a desire to give back to her community when she decided to study nutrition.
She initially thought about becoming a chef but found the necessary training was “crazy expensive.” A partial scholarship to Arizona State University helped solidify her plans.
“I was like, this (scholarship) is a sign I should go to ASU because I didn’t want to put that financial pressure on my family,” Bex said. “I grew up on the (Navajo) reservation and my parents didn’t make a lot of money, so I didn’t want to put that stress on them.”
Bex earned her bachelor’s degree in nutrition in 2011 and that was just the start of her journey toward becoming a registered dietitian.
Her perseverance paid off. She earned that credential in 2018, currently works as a clinical outpatient dietitian at Fort
Defiance Indian Hospital, and started her own business along the way.
Her company, Tumbleweed Nutrition, is dedicated to providing evidence-based and culturally relevant nutrition education for tribal organizations.
Bex has been named Outstanding Alumna of the College of Health Solutions for 2022 and will be honored at the inaugural Celebration of Health event Oct. 19 at El Chorro in Paradise Valley, Arizona.
Celebrating 10 years of advancing community health
In addition to recognizing individuals and organizations with awards, the Celebration of Health event features what promises to be a dynamic keynote address by six-time Olympic gold medalist and Arizona resident Amy Van Dyken, along with inspiring stories from students and alumni.
“We are living in an age of unprecedented health challenges,” College of Health Solutions Dean Deborah Helitzer said. “As we continue to develop
the health leaders of the future, we are focused on realizing the ASU charter by assuming fundamental responsibility for the health of our communities, preparing and improving the health workforce of the future and building and strengthening strategic partnerships.”
The awards ceremony will recognize health leaders from across the Valley for their impact in the community. An interactive showcase will include exhibits and entertainment, giving guests the opportunity to experience the latest in health research and discovery.
Funds raised through sponsorships and ticket sales will directly support the next generation of health professionals through student scholarships.
Published ASU News, April 15, 2021
ASU, Mayo Clinic celebrate alliance for health care
Nearly 200 people gathered at ASU’s Health Futures Center on Sept. 8 to learn about and celebrate the Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University Alliance for Health Care.
The symposium, Giants Among Us, was a chance to highlight the work of the researchers, entrepreneurs and teams at the Health Futures Center as well as inspire future collaborations with the ultimate goal of improving health and health care in Arizona and beyond.
College of Health Solutions Affinity Networks leaders Dr. Anita Murcko, Michael Donovan and Hassan Ghasemzadeh developed the concept and structure for the symposium along with Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Rafael Fonseca and ASU Knowledge Enterprise’s Nicole Woodrick and Natalia Diaz.
“It was a win-win-win for ASU, Mayo Clinic and the alliance,” Murcko said. “We all had a little knowledge about the amazing work being done behind the glass doors at HFC, but as faculty and students, it was hard to appreciate the many research giants working and teaching among us.
“The Affinity Network for Biomedical Informatics, Biomedical Diagnostics and Data Science is a Health Solutions faculty service organization dedicated to fostering interdisciplinary research and education in informatics and diagnostics, so creating this program with Mayo Clinic was a natural fit.”
The Health Futures Center, which opened in 2020, was also a natural fit to serve as the setting for the symposium.
“The Health Futures Center is the physical representation of the growing relationship between Mayo Clinic and ASU,” Fonseca said.
Nearly 200 people attended the Giants Among Us symposium at ASU’s Health Futures Center on Sept. 8.
Why the symposium was a success
Giants Among Us featured a keynote address, “Artificial Intelligence: The Fourth Industrial Revolution,” by Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Bhavik Patel. Patel leads a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, data specialists and computer science engineers exploring AI models to assist health care providers in decision-making.
Another highlight of the event was “lightning rounds” in which the principal investigators of 10 of Health Futures Center’s 25 resident labs and ventures gave brief presentations introducing their work and teams.
Biomedical informatics master’s student Brittany Phelps said the lightning rounds were her favorite part of the day.
“Learning more about who shares the campus with us and what they’re working on was fascinating,” Phelps said. “The entire day could have been spent on that topic alone. Besides the value of knowing the expertise of the people around us, the stories of how some of the labs came to be were especially valuable. That process can be opaque, so learning how some researchers came to establish their individual labs was not only edifying, but humanizing.”
The stated goal of the symposium was to create opportunities for forging new partnerships and collaborations that will ultimately improve health and health care through innovation.
With nearly 200 participants attending the event in person and more tuning in via Zoom, it proved to be a fertile ground
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for the seeds of cooperation to take root.
“Attendees reported that our goal of new and richer collaborations between clinicians, scientists, faculty, entrepreneurs and students started that day,” Murcko said, “and Dr. Fonseca, Mayo Clinic’s alliance lead, has invited us to partner again for a Giants event next year!”
“It was a win-win-win for ASU, Mayo Clinic and the alliance.”
—Anita Murcko, clinical associate professor
The people who make
Our incredible staff at the College of Health Solutions are a diverse and talented group. They bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to their work, enriching the college environment with their unique insights. Whether they are supporting learning and research or providing student and administrative services, our staff members are committed to fostering an inclusive and dynamic community. They are dedicated to working in concert to advance our mission, help our students succeed and ensure the college provides the best experience to all who walk through our doors.
Each and every one of our staff members provides a valued perspective and true dedication to helping our students, faculty and college reach new heights. Their collaboration and innovative approaches to problemsolving drive our college forward and help us fulfill the ASU charter. We are proud to have such a passionate and committed team dedicated to making a difference in the lives of our students and the broader community.
make it happen
I’m impressed by the college’s unwavering commitment to its employees. This is not just a job; it’s an awesome journey supported by a fantastic team.”
—LeShé Hunter, events manager
Kissa Powell Assistant director, Staff Success
“What I like most about working at the College of Health Solutions is witnessing the dedication our staff display in their daily work. I see them going above and beyond to provide support and guidance to our students, working to ensure that our faculty have the resources and support they need, and then going that extra mile to connect with one another and realize the goals of the Staff Success Council. Seeing them pour so much into the College of Health Solutions along with the commitment they have to their work and to each other is truly inspiring. It fills me with pride to be a part of this team.”
“When I think of what it’s like to work at the College of Health Solutions, I am reminded of this quote by Richard Branson, ‘Create the kind of workplace and company culture that will attract great talent. If you hire brilliant people, they will make work feel more like play.’ I really enjoy the feeling of family and community here!”
Risha Sharma Program manager, Business Services
“What I like most about working at the College of Health Solutions is being able to place our students in internship roles that will give them the skills and knowledge to greatly impact the health care field in their future career. I enjoy helping to create an inclusive environment within my team, hub and across the college by interacting with others through intentional dialogue.”
Larissa Jenkins Senior coordinator, Internship Support
Charles Hale Senior program coordinator, Student Success
“I have been with the College of Health Solutions for almost 10 years where I feel it is more than just a job; it is a second home where colleagues are like family. Together, we create a supportive, inspiring environment where passions meet purpose as where we are stepping towards something greater every day.”
LeShé Hunter Events manager, Strategic Marketing and Events
“I love my experience at the College of Health Solutions. I recently celebrated my one-year anniversary here and what stands out the most is the amazing people I get to work with every day. I’m impressed by the college’s unwavering commitment to its employees. This is not just a job; it’s an awesome journey supported by a fantastic team.”
“My favorite thing about working at the College of Health Solutions is that the hub structure and the removal of schools and departments allows faculty and staff to work more collaboratively across academic disciplines and support functions. It ensures that different perspectives are represented in any decisionmaking processes and promotes more transparency across the college.”
Kate Brown Senior director, Academic Success
“I have liked the people that I have worked with in the College of Health Solutions the most. I have worked with many talented and diligent problem-solvers within the Center for Health Information and Research, human resources, finance, research and staff success who have demonstrated the Health Solutions ethos of being a solution daily. Together, we have solved all sorts of business challenges for our unit and others, creating an environment where we can all thrive.”
Peggie Serros Senior human resources specialist, Business Services
Tameka Sama Manager, Center for Health Information and Research
“The people at the College of Health Solutions are amazing! I am grateful to be surrounded by, interact with and gain knowledge from individuals from a multitude of cultures and countries , all have enriched my life. I see a profound change in diversity of the student population and the advancements occurring are positively impacting people throughout the world. Every day I am here is a gift.”
Cecile Sende Senior academic success advising coordinator, Student Success
“As a leader in the Student Success hub at the College of Health Solutions, working under the leadership of an amazing dean has been both inspiring and incredibly rewarding. Her steadfast leadership fosters collaboration and purpose, while keeping student success at the forefront of everything we do as a college. This drives me to give my best every day in serving the students I advise and engage with.”
“I am inspired by the opportunity to work alongside talented individuals who are passionate about the groundbreaking ideas that directly impact the lives of the communities we serve. I’m excited for a journey filled with transformative projects and innovative partnerships that strengthen the future of the College of Health Solutions and our stakeholders.”
Ben Kaufman Associate director, Business Development
“As the name of the college suggests, I like knowing that my work is helping contribute to the solution. The College of Health Solutions is full of amazing faculty and staff who are dedicated to improving health outcomes in the world and community through education and research.”
Xena Baza Coordinator, Community Placements
Sarah Hoyt Senior instructional designer, Academic Success
“I enjoy working at the College of Health Solutions because I get to work with amazing colleagues who consistently go above and beyond to serve our students and the mission of ASU. They challenge me to be the best version of myself, and I feel supported as I work towards achieving my professional goals.”
Meet Cissy Longmore
A visit to Cissy Longmore’s office makes you feel at home. Her space is decorated with photos and homey touches and also strings of lights during certain times of the year. Longmore said she likes to be comfortable and “plant” herself.
The idea of planting herself seems appropriate for someone who has been with the university for 46 years.
“I’m obviously not one who jumps around,” Longmore said. “I got a job and I stayed with it as my position evolved over time. But what I found is I really developed a loyalty with that group of people.”
Longmore was with the Department of Speech and Hearing Science before it became a part of the College of Health Solutions in 2012. That’s when she made the move to downtown Phoenix.
“My skill set was needed more centrally, than at the department level,” Longmore said.
Longmore’s skillset has been to provide excellent service to the college’s Human Resources department. One of the main reasons she has been so good at her job is a dedication to the people around her.
“As a college, we are on a mission to improve health outcomes in Arizona and beyond, which requires the great effort and collaboration of many faculty, staff, students and community partners,” College of
Health Solutions Dean Deborah Helitzer said. “Bringing so many people together to work effectively requires a hard-working and knowledgeable human resources team. As dean of the College of Health Solutions, I feel so lucky to work with such talented and dedicated staff like Cissy. Without the great work of such HR, business and administrative staff, we would not be able to do what we do.”
When asked what she likes most about working at the College of Health Solutions her response doesn’t come as much of a surprise to those who know her.
“I would have to say it’s the people,” Longmore said. “My fellow team members, the staff I interact with and the faculty. I’ve been able to develop some really good friendships.”
Regarding how much longer she plans to work at the college, Longmore said she had a couple personal goals she was trying to reach.
“They’re getting kind of close,” Longmore said. “But I feel like if I’m still contributing and being a valuable component to the college I’ll stay as long as I’m able. There are some days I wake up and feel like, ‘I don’t know.’ But, for the most part, it’s get back into the routine and the swing of things and I’m OK with it. I’ll just see how far this ride is going to take me.”
Longmore
“I feel so lucky to work with such talented and dedicated staff like Cissy. Without the great work of such HR, business and administrative staff, we would not be able to do what we do.”
—Deborah Helitzer, dean
Thank you, Cissy
The College of Health Solutions would not be what it is today without the incredible dedication and 46 years of service from Cissy Longmore. As the college’s senior human resources specialist, she is known to all as a beacon of knowledge, kindness and support. The College of Health Solutions is honored that Cissy calls our Downtown Phoenix campus her home within ASU.
Cissy is a force of nature. Great at her job. A great human being. And a great presence at the College of Health Solutions. We are so grateful for her YEARS of service to
– Michael Yudell, vice dean
“I have only been working with Cissy for the last few months, but during that short time, I am incredibly grateful that she is on the Human Resources team and supports so many employees. She has such a positive, infectious attitude. She is always willing to share her expertise, has a great dedication to the college and the success of the employees. She is truly inspiring for not only myself, but everyone that comes in contact with Cissy. Thank you Cissy for being such an integral part of our team!”
—Bridgett Cantu, assistant director, Human Resources
“It’s not just that Cissy’s office makes you feel at home—it is that Cissy makes you feel at home. Whether it’s her warm smile, her kind demeanor, or her array of seasonal and holiday attire, she’s a joy to be around and work with.”
—Colleen Clemency Cordes, associate dean, Faculty Success
“Cissy Longmore’s 46 years of service are a testament to her dedication. Her unwavering commitment and loyalty to ASU have been an inspiration from the time that we met over 10 years ago. It’s a pleasure to work alongside someone who consistently goes above and beyond. Cissy’s hard work contributes significantly to the positive work environment we all enjoy, and it is truly appreciated.”
—Shannon Corcoran, director, Fiscal and Business Operations
“Anyone who accepts a role in the College of Health Solutions has the privilege of starting their journey by meeting with Cissy. Cissy shared how she likes to be comfortable and to plant herself someplace. Cissy is a humble person who goes well beyond planting herself. Looking for quotes that fit Cissy and her planting I found this quote: ‘Gardening is a work of a lifetime: You never finish’ from Oscar de la Renta. Cissy is a genuine person who leads with the attitude of yes, how can I help? Seeing as Cissy has been at ASU for over 40 years; she has earned the title of master gardener. Congratulations on being spotlighted as you are a rock here in the College of Health Solutions.”
—Ronald Hicks, executive director, Student Success
“Cissy is not only a dedicated and loyal employee, she has a heart of gold! She truly cares about the people she works with and never hesitates to lend a helping hand. Cissy has so much experience and knowledge and is ALWAYS willing to share it. I can remember when I first started how much I relied on her for that internal knowledge. Cissy knows her job inside and out. I adore Cissy and the contributions she brings to HR and to the College of Health Solutions overall! Cissy is a true and rare GEM and we never want to lose her!”
—Norma Abbl, director, People and Talent
“Cissy has been with ASU for an incredible 45 years—she’s seen it all, adapting to every change with grace and tenacity. Her energy and can-do spirit haven’t just pushed us forward, they’ve been a personal inspiration to me for nearly three decades. She’s more than just a colleague; she’s the kind of joy and resilience we all aspire to, a living reminder of how the people around us are what truly makes ASU great.”
—Henry Barto, executive director, IT
Our future
As we enter the next chapter at the College of Health Solutions , we can’t help but feel immense gratitude for the students, donors, faculty, staff and community partners who have been part of our journey as a college thus far. It is through the incredible passion, dedication and innovation from our network of caring students, professionals and alumni that we have been able to accomplish all we have.
Moving forward, our charter will continue to guide us as we work to find solutions to health care’s most pressing problems. We are excited to see what our next 10 years will bring.
Give ‘em health, Devils!
We are focusing our full energy and innovation on improving Arizona’s health outcomes. We have an opportunity for change. And over the past 20 years, ASU has shown that we
know how to create transformative change, at scale.”
—Michael
M.
Crow,
president, Arizona State University
