ECU Report

Work begins on Intersect East Studying long COVID

ECU announces $500 million campaign, Vidant to rebrand as ECU Health

Chancellor Philip Rogers speaks as trustees Vince Smith and Jason Poole listen during the ECU board meeting Oct. 12.

East Carolina University formally kicked off an historic fundraising campaign at the Nov . 12 board of trustees meeting .

Chancellor Philip Rogers publicly announced the $500 million comprehensive campaign – the largest in school history . It will benefit almost every facet at ECU with a focus on increasing support for ECU’s scholarship opportunities, research, facilities and endowment .

“This campaign will allow us to better serve our region and bring innovative solutions to the most urgent challenges we face at ECU,” Rogers said .

Trustee chair Scott Shook read a resolution formally endorsing the public phase of the campaign . More than $300 million of the $500 million goal has already been raised through all-in efforts such as the annual Pirate Nation Gives initiative as well as gifts, pledges, estate gifts and in-kind contributions .

“We’re now ready to build on this momentum,” Rogers said . “I know Pirate Nation will go above and beyond to propel ECU into the future . ”

Rogers also said the university and Vidant Health have finalized a joint operating agreement that will allow the organizations to streamline services, simplify their operations and reduce redundancies .

Under the agreement, the Brody School of Medicine and Vidant will retain their separate legal entities but will function collaboratively under a new brand, ECU Health . Most Vidant entities and ECU Physicians will operate under the new brand while the medical school’s name will not change .

“This agreement represents an important milestone in the longstanding affiliation between two entities bound by the same mission as we work toward the creation of ECU Health,” Rogers said . “It signals the point where we can begin to move forward together on our journey to launch a clinically integrated academic health system and deliver on the commitment to provide quality health care for all eastern North Carolinians . ”

No changes will occur to the employment status or benefits of employees, and the organizations will not exchange any assets .

ECU and Vidant announced plans to clinically integrate in June when Dr . Michael Waldrum, CEO of Vidant Health and distinguished professor at the Brody School of Medicine, was appointed dean of the medical school . He continues to lead Vidant Health .

“Today’s announcement is about the residents of eastern North Carolina and brings into reality the collective vision our two institutions have shared for nearly 50 years,” Waldrum said . – ECU News Services

$500

MILLION

$360

MILLION*

TOWARD CAMPAIGN ALREADY RAISED, PLEDGED OR COMMITTED

*APPX.

New program helps ECU, Vidant train physicians to better serve rural communities

The Brody School of Medicine and Vidant Health have launched a new rural family medicine residency program that will give recent medical school graduates interested in serving as family doctors in rural communities firsthand experience.

The residents will spend a majority of their first year of training at Vidant Medical Center and ECU’s Family Medicine Center in Greenville. They will then spend the next two years training in either the rural Hertford County community of Ahoskie at the Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center and Vidant Roanoke-Chowan Hospital or in Duplin County at Goshen Medical Center in Beulaville and Vidant Duplin Hospital in Kenansville.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, more than 65% of physicians who completed family medicine residency training between 2010 and 2019 are still practicing in the state where they did their residency training.

“Practicing family medicine in rural settings like this is a bit of a calling; you have to want to do it. It’s not always easy, but it is rewarding, and you feel like you probably make a difference most days,” said Dr. Danny Pate, a site director for the residency program who has been a family doctor in Duplin County for nearly four decades. “So hopefully by providing these residents with training that gives them a true feel for what it’s like, it will entice them to stay in some rural setting here.”

Dr. Amy White-Jones, a native of the Alexander County town of Taylorsville, was one of the four residents chosen for the program’s inaugural group out of nearly 100 applicants.

“When I was growing up, we didn’t really have great access to health care, and so I grew up realizing that the underserved populations are the ones who I want to serve,” said White-Jones, who will complete her residency training in Duplin County. “There are not a lot of people who are fighting for them and saying, ‘Hey, I want to figure out a way that we can make your health a priority.’ That’s why I want to do rural medicine.”

As of 2019, more than half of ECU medical graduates were practicing in North Carolina. More than half of those were in primary care.

Dr. Raza Syed, one of the first residents in ECU and Vidant Health’s new rural family medicine residency program, examines a patient at Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center in Ahoskie.

– Rob Spahr

Four ECU students received North Carolina Space Grant research scholarships for 2021-2022. From left, engineering majors Elliot Paul and Nia Wilson and geology majors Mikayla Dixon and Katherine Foster will each receive $8,000 to continue their studies and research in aerospace and aviation. They are among 11 undergraduate students from across the state to receive the scholarships. N.C. Space Grant is a consortium of academic institutions that promote, develop and support aeronautics and space-related science, engineering and technology education and training.

ECU Report

Work begins on first phase of Intersect East

Developer Elliott Sidewalk Communities joined with university officials, Board of Trustees members, and local and state leaders in breaking ground on the $40 million project to renovate three buildings on the 19-acre tract off 10th Street and within sight of ECU’s new Life Sciences and Biotechnology Building.

The first three buildings to be renovated are called The Prizery (the former Export Leaf tobacco warehouse), The Stemmery (the former PritchardHughes building) and The Hammock Factory (the former American Tobacco warehouse, which later housed Hatteras Hammocks). Tim Elliott, managing partner of Elliott Sidewalk Communities, devised the names from the work that used to take place in the buildings.

The first phase includes 10,000 square feet in The Prizery for the College of Engineering and Technology’s new digital transformation center that will cater to new and existing companies in digital transformation, product prototyping, discoveries and workforce development.

“Intersect East will be a vital connection between businesses, industries, communities and individuals that partner with East Carolina University, with faculty, staff and students finding solutions to tomorrow’s problems,” Merrill Flood, director of ECU’s Millennial Campus planning and local community affairs, said at the Oct. 5 groundbreaking.

Elliott anticipates completion of the first phase in December 2022. He said several companies, including one from Raleigh and another from Brazil, have shown interest in becoming tenants in the development. Potential tenants regularly tour the buildings, Flood added.

The UNC Board of Governors approved the lease agreement between ECU and Elliott Sidewalk Communities in 2020.

The project is an eight-year plan that includes a more than $150 million investment to renovate existing buildings, build new buildings and create green space, office space, dining and residential living. Along with that comes an estimated 1,500 jobs with a financial impact exceeding $141 million annually with $3 million in annual tax revenues, according to the developer.

“In order for ECU to thrive, we have to be a mission-aligned institution, we have to be a future-focused institution and an innovation-driven institution, and I really believe that this captures the essence, that this project captures the epitome of that work in action,” said Chancellor Philip Rogers. – Ken Buday

Above, officials with ECU, Elliott Sidewalk Communities and the city of Greenville break ground on the first phase of Intersect East. Left, Merrill Flood, director of ECU’s Millennial Campus planning and local community affairs, speaks during the groundbreaking ceremony.

Engineering students plant trees to mitigate pollution

As water flows down Town Creek toward the Tar River in Greenville, it suddenly turns an odd brown color . A sheen floats on top .

Of course, not too many people make their way down the steep embankment near ECU’s Willis Building to see the discoloration caused by a problem that dates back decades – except for a team of ECU engineering students .

Alexander Goble, James Riddle, Adam Till and Noah Weaver tackled the problem as part of their senior capstone project . Their work resulted in the planting of 35 willow trees on the embankment near the creek to mitigate the pollution .

“Someone thought they had spilled gasoline in the river,” said Mike O’Driscoll, associate professor in the Department of Coastal Studies and the associate director of the Water Resources Center . “They found out when they put a bunch of these wells in around town that there was a lot of gasoline in the water, so there’s a big plume in the groundwater where the gasoline had migrated, and it all comes into the river here . ”

The gasoline came from leaking underground tanks . “The fact that it’s been continuous since the 1980s says there were pretty big holes in the tanks, and it had been leaking for a long time,” he said . “When you come out on a hot day, you can smell the gasoline . You’re really not supposed to be breathing in those vapors . ”

Looking for ways to solve the problem, the students found studies that showed planting trees can help absorb benzene, an organic chemical compound in gasoline . Willow trees offered the best solution .

Above, Adam Till, left, and Noah Weaver spread mulch around a willow tree they helped plant near Town Creek. Left, student volunteers dig a hole during a tree-planting project along Town Creek.

Senior engineering students Alexander Goble, left, and James Riddle plant a willow tree along Town Creek in Greenville on Oct. 7 as part of their capstone project.

“Mostly it was trying to find tree species that would work for where we were planting them,” Goble said . “It’s close to water, and we needed something to absorb higher levels than normal of benzene . ”

On a warm morning, the students joined with ECU facilities workers and volunteers with ReLeaf, an organization that promotes planting trees and protecting forests in urban areas, to plant the willows . Armed with shovels, pickaxes and wheelbarrows, the team completed the task in about two hours, half the time they had expected .

O’Driscoll said the idea of “green” solutions to such problems is growing .

“Natural solutions, where the main thing is finding solutions where you work with natural materials, it can be more sustainable as far as managing some of these water quality problems,” he said . “There’s a lot of interest in doing more of this . ”

– Ken Buday

ECU Report

Study: Reduce ‘tobacco swamps’ to improve health

A new study co-written by an ECU researcher says public health could be improved by reducing “tobacco swamps” – densely located stores that sell tobacco products .

Similar to “food swamps,” a term used to describe areas with a high density of restaurants or stores selling unhealthy food, the research says living near more tobacco retailers is linked with people being more likely to use tobacco and less likely to quit .

The analysis, published in September in the international journal Tobacco Control, examined the results of 27 studies of tobacco retail density, adult tobacco use and health outcomes from eight countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, New Zealand, Scotland and the United States .

In the U .S ., there are 27 brick-and-mortar tobacco retailers for every one McDonald’s restaurant, equaling 375,000 tobacco retail locations . Retailers are not equally distributed and tend to be clustered in lower-income and minority communities, according to the study .

The researchers, including lead author Joseph G .L . Lee, associate professor of health education and promotion in the College of Health and Human Performance at ECU, found lower tobacco retailer density was associated with a 2 .6% reduction in the risk of tobacco use behaviors . The study also explored differences in results by sex, income level and intensity of tobacco use .

“Broadly speaking, implementing policies that reduce the number and concentration of stores selling tobacco could decrease smoking by between 2% and 3% among adults,” Lee said .

Lee and faculty members from UNC-Chapel Hill, Washington University in St . Louis and Stanford University School of Medicine are members of the ASPiRE Center, a research collaborative funded by the National Institutes of Health . The center is working to build a scientific

Charlotte has 1,032 tobacco retailers, and 43.1% of public schools are within 1,000 feet of a tobacco retailer.

evidence base for effective policies in the retail environment to help reduce tobacco use, tobacco-related disparities and the public health burden of tobacco, including cancer .

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the U .S ., with 480,000 deaths and more than $300 billion in health care spending and productivity losses caused by cigarette smoking each year, according to ASPiRE Center data . (Laura Brossart of the Brown School Center for Public Health Systems Science at Washington University contributed to this story). – Crystal Baity

Faculty explore experiences as Black women in academia

Mikkaka Overstreet, Janeé Avent Harris, Loni Crumb and Christy Howard, faculty members in the ECU College of Education, wrote about their experience holding an inaugural faculty of color writing retreat in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography.

The article follows the rich storytelling history of Black women scholars who have carved out spaces where they can tell their truths and asks how Black women faculty create and navigate spaces to promote their success within academia.

Overstreet, Avent Harris, Crumb and Howard planned to hold their retreat at a waterfront beach home. Their article turns their experience renting a cottage that didn’t match the listing into a metaphor of their experiences working in academia.

“In my opinion, this is how literal or figurative storms should be faced in both personal and professional environments: with solidarity,” Crumb said. “No movement is done alone.

“One of the most beautiful things about Black women is that as the storms come into our lives, we are prepared to weather them. We are equipped to figure it out. The retreat proved to be no different, but this time, we were not ‘one of few’ in the context of academia; we were collectively prepared and united to face the obstacle of claiming our time in the context of our retreat.” They plan to hold future retreats and would like to expand them.

“The question, ‘How do Black women faculty create and navigate spaces to promote their success within academia?’ is a question we all should be asking ourselves and each other in order to improve,” said Allison Crowe, acting chair for the Department of Interdisciplinary Professions in the College of Education.

Their article, “Facing the Storm: Our First Annual Faculty of Color Writing Retreat as a Microcosm for Being a Black Woman in the Academy,” was published in June.

Clockwise from top left: Mikkaka Overstreet, Janeé Avent Harris, Loni Crumb and Christy Howard

– Kristen Martin

Cheyenne Daniel ’20 of Raleigh, a citizen of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe, performs a hoop dance at the Indigenous Space dedication Nov. 9 at the ECU Main Campus Student Center. The space recognizes the history and impact of the eight tribes of North Carolina: the Coharie, Eastern Band of Cherokee, Haliwa-Saponi, Lumbee, Meherrin, Occaneechi Band of Saponi, Sappony and Waccamaw-Siouan. It will also feature artwork by HaliwaSaponi potter Senora Lynch. The East Carolina Native American Organization will hold its 28th annual powwow March 26 at Minges Coliseum.

ECU Report

ECU psychologists receive $3.8 million to research, improve student mental health

Associate professors of psychology Brandon Schultz, right, Christy Walcott, left, and Alexander Schoemann (not pictured) have received a nearly $3.8 million grant to help prevent and address emotional and behavioral problems in elementary schoolchildren.

ECU researchers are working to prevent and address emotional and behavioral problems in elementary schoolchildren with the help of a $3 .8 million federal grant .

ECU associate professors of psychology Brandon Schultz, Christy Walcott and Alexander Schoemann received the four-year grant from the Institute for Education Sciences – the research arm of the U .S . Department of Education . The team will conduct a randomized controlled trial of a school-community partnership focused on improving mental health services in elementary schools known as the Interconnected Systems Framework .

“Schools have long been tasked with teaching students who have underlying emotional and behavioral issues,” said Walcott, co-investigator and psychology graduate program director . “Although schools are attempting various programs to address behavior and mental health, the outcomes for students with emotional and behavioral problems continue to be disheartening . School services tend to be fragmented and more reactionary than preventative . ”

The grant focuses on building effective interdisciplinary teams, improving decision-making and increasing implementation of evidence-based practices, Walcott said .

The team, led by Schultz, will test how well the ISF improves the quality of mental health services within Pitt County Schools and the Rock Hill Schools district in South Carolina .

“Pitt County Schools has made great strides in recent years toward implementing best practices,” said Schultz . “This project will augment those efforts and potentially provide an innovative, next-generation model for other school districts to emulate . ”

The University of South Carolina’s Mark Weist, developer of the ISF and professor of psychology, will coordinate the project with Rock Hill Schools; Orgul Ozturk, USC associate professor of economics, will lead the efforts to calculate cost-benefit ratios for each of the mental health outcomes; and Colleen Halliday of the Medical University of South Carolina will examine whether the ISF reduces disproportionate disciplinary actions for students of color .

The effect of the ISF on teacher teams will be the focus of co-investigator Joni Splett at the University of Florida .

– Lacey Gray

Research looks at bacteria behaviors

Holly Ellis, a microbiologist at the Brody School of Medicine, has received a $525,000 National Science Foundation grant to study the structural and functional properties of bacterial enzyme systems. Understanding how bacteria make metabolic adjustments in order to survive could have implications in drug development.

“Bacteria need basic elements in order to survive,” Ellis said. “The bacteria we are investigating are pathogenic (disease-causing) organisms that utilize clever tactics to avoid the host immune response.”

The enzyme system under investigation, Ellis said, enables bacteria to use alternative sulfur sources to remain viable in their host. The overall goal of the project is to determine how distinct structural properties dictate function so researchers can manipulate the properties to modify activity.

“Many of the enzyme systems we are evaluating have medical relevance and would be excellent targets for drug development,” Ellis said. “Some of the outcomes from the proposed studies will answer important questions about enzyme structure and function that can be applied to other enzyme systems. These questions are new concepts and would change established ideas regarding enzyme structure and function.”

Her project is titled “Coordinated mechanistic approaches to desulfonation in twocomponent FMN monooxygenases.”

Holly Ellis, left, earned a National Science Foundation grant to study bacteria, with implications on future drug development.

– Spaine Stephens

You’re invited to join ECU’s latest social media program, Social Pirates!

By becoming a social ambassador with ECU and Social Toaster, we’ll send you our most exciting news to share with your friends and followers . The best part? The more you share and participate, the more rewards you’ll earn .

Social media has become an essential tool for promoting the many wonderful things that happen at ECU . Over the years, we have developed significant audiences for many of our social media accounts . We reach even more people when we can activate those audiences to share our content through their own individual networks .

This is the idea behind Social Pirates, a new online tool launching in January 2022 . It uses Social Toaster – the leading platform used by universities around the country for developing social media ambassadors . The platform provides tools to build a network of ambassadors, distribute targeted content and incentivize these ambassadors to share this content .

Earn points with Social Pirates to win ECU-themed prizes!

Sound like the perfect fit? Sign up at ecu.socialtoaster.com

ECU Report

ECU, Dartmouth studying chronic COVID

It’s known as “post-acute COVID-19 syndrome,” “long COVID,” “chronic COVID” and sometimes “long-haul COVID.” And a team from ECU’s Brody School of Medicine and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire is working to figure out what it is, what causes it and what to do about it.

Perhaps most of all, they’re assuring patients their symptoms are real.

“Nobody comes to this COVID clinic without crying,” said Dr. Paul Bolin Jr., chair of internal medicine at the Brody School of Medicine. “The reason they cry is because it’s the first time somebody has told them this is real. It’s amazing when I tell people this is real. Invariably, they’ll burst out crying because they’ve been carrying that emotional burden that it’s their fault.”

The CDC refers to the range of aftereffects experienced by some who have had COVID-19 as “post-COVID conditions.”

“By definition, it is persistent symptoms beyond four weeks of onset of symptoms,” said Bolin, who is among those leading the ECU and Vidant Health teams treating COVID-19-infected patients and working to vaccinate community members across the region.

“It spans the whole spectrum. There’s people who have had nothing more than loss of taste to people who were in the ICU for a month,” Bolin added. “We’re seeing persistence of fatigue, shortness of breath, unusual pain syndromes. Some people with loss of smell and taste for prolonged periods of time, a lack of mental clarity – cognitive fog, if you will. There have been studies that have documented significant decreases in cognition after COVID.”

Much remains unknown about COVID-19, including its long-term effects on the body and the brain and why some patients fare worse than others when they become infected by it.

“I think the benefit to collaborating is that we have different demographics. We both have rural populations, but I think we have a very rural, largely Caucasian population in New Hampshire and Vermont,” said Dr. Jeffrey Parsonnet, professor of medicine at Dartmouth. “There are geographic differences and there’s the reality that as you get more numbers you get additional information. Also, having researchers with different histories, different perspectives, different backgrounds help develop a research proposal.”

“We saw something like this after the 1918 pandemic. It was noted that many people after the 1918 flu actually ended up with Parkinson’s,” he said. “The (chronic COVID) research involves cataloging all of these symptoms.”

To make an appointment, contact Caryl Holoman at 252-744-2570 or holomanc@ecu.edu.

Left, Dr. Paul Bolin Jr. has recently begun organizing clinics based around understanding and treating chronic COVID-19. Below, Bolin discusses the latest information about COVID-19 during a recording for the Talk Like a Pirate podcast.

– Natalie Sayewich

LaKesha Forbes, left, associate provost for equity and diversity at ECU; Monica Leach, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Fayetteville State University; and Grant Hayes, interim provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at ECU, sign a memorandum of agreement between the two universities on Oct. 15.

Partnerships to extend ECU’s educational outreach

ECU leaders have signed agreements with Fayetteville State University, Wake Technical Community College, Martin Community College and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in recent weeks that will help students achieve their educational goals .

The agreement with FSU is intended to promote graduate recruitment and education; undergraduate student engagement and collaboration; and research, public service and scholarship . It will develop pipelines linking FSU’s undergraduate students to ECU’s professional and graduate programs .

The agreement with Wake Tech will allow face-toface classes in ECU’s Bachelor of Science in industrial technology program on Wake Tech’s Southern Campus in Raleigh .

ECU opened an office there in the fall, and faculty or adjunct faculty will begin teaching there this spring . Students with qualifying AAS degrees who enter ECU’s BSIT program with concentrations in architectural design or mechanical design will no longer need to commute to Greenville to complete a four-year degree . The courses will be taught at Wake Tech in the evenings to allow working students to attend .

This is the program’s first co-location partnership with a community college and is designed to provide opportunities for employment and career growth to residents in Wake County and the Triangle .

At MCAS Cherry Point near Havelock, ECU will teach face-to-face classes in industrial technology leading toward a bachelor’s degree, as well as distribution and logistics classes .

The classes, offered through ECU’s Department of Technology Systems, will be available to active-duty personnel, reservists, eligible retired military personnel and Department of Defense employees .

In Williamston, MCC students who complete an associate degree in business administration will be able to transfer seamlessly into ECU to complete a bachelor’s degree .

– ECU News Services