Public Health in Action Faculty Spotlight Alumni Spotlight

Public Health in Action: Teaming up with Parkview Community Mission

Michala Geraty and Dr. Julia Inglis

Dr. Julia Inglis, Public & Community Health Department faculty member, initiated a community drive to give to Parkview Community Mission.

Parkview Community Mission is an organization local to Lynchburg, Va., that serves homeless and impoverished families in the community. They provide hot meals and groceries to families on a weekly basis. However, this past spring, they were running low on necessary supplies.

Students, faculty, and staff of the Public & Community Health Department took this as an opportunity to join together in collecting soap, toothpaste, diapers, and other essential items to bring to Parkview.

Missions is at the heart of public health — this is just one example of how the department seeks to be the hands and feet of Jesus, while protecting and promoting public health.

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: SHELBY TODD

Shelby Todd is an accomplished School of Health Sciences alumna. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Todd has served in a variety of roles. Todd previously served as information officer support on the Samaritan’s Purse Incident Management Team, which worked behind-the-scenes on medical responses in Italy, New York, Alaska, and Navajo Nation. Todd’s main responsibilities were to record and analyze data relating to any Samaritan’s Purse employees that had traveled and/or had potential exposure to COVID-19. This data was delivered to senior management each day to provide an upto-date situational context which guided their decision-making regarding overseas staff.

More recently, Todd served as the testing coordinator. Her main responsibility was to ensure Samaritan’s Purse staff in need of pre-screening COVID-19 PCR tests received them and that they got their test results in a timely manner. In her current position in Cambodia as a program development apprentice, Todd is learning how to write proposals, create monitoring and evaluation plans, and develop programs for Samaritan’s Purse.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: DR. GENE SATTLER

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: DR. DARLENE MARTIN

The Department of Biology & Chemistry faculty member Dr. Gene Sattler has been presented with the Provost Award for Excellence in Research Mentorship by Liberty’s Center for Research & Scholarship. The annual award recognizes faculty members who teach undergraduate residential courses and exemplify a commitment to best practices in teaching and mentoring undergraduate research. Dr. Sattler remains one of the most faithful faculty research mentors in the Department of Biology & Chemistry. His research program has continued through his full tenure at LU and has included serving in scientific societies, authoring multiple publications, and mentoring more than 250 students during the past decade. His primary research project has been monitoring saw-whet owl migration, which involves the organization and coordination of a substantial team of student mentees for nightly netting, data collection, and safe release of the owls. Many of Dr. Sattler’s students present during Liberty’s Research Week and at Virginia Academy of Science meetings. Several of his students have been involved as co-authors in manuscript or book chapter preparation. Dr. Sattler is a prime example of long-term faculty mentoring in research, with the goal to provide students the knowledge and skills in field research that will afford them a position to be able to share the Gospel of Christ throughout their careers in science.

Thank you for all your hard work, Dr. Sattler!

Last fall, Dr. Darlene Martin was named as one of the leading health professors in the U.S. by McGraw Hill Publishers. Dr. Martin joined other nominated faculty for a collaboration to identify best practices for teaching in the health field. As a result, she has recently been used as a digital faculty consultant providing support to faculty and creating health content. Regarding this, Dr. Martin said, “It is an incredible opportunity to interact with colleagues in the field across the country and to be able to influence our society on how to teach students to be the healthiest version of themselves.”

Thank you for all you do, Dr. Martin!