Department News

Messages for our alumni, from the department chairs

Athletic Training (AT) Chair: Vicci Hill-Lombardi, EdD, ATC

The Department of Athletic Training has experienced several challenges during the past year. The COVID-19 shutdown occurred suddenly in March, and we found ourselves rapidly transitioning our courses from live delivery to remote. Always technically savvy, the MSAT faculty, core and adjunct alike rose to the challenge and completed the transition seamlessly. Our preceptors also responded unanimously by providing exceptional telemedicine/telehealth opportunities to our students. Remote education included both synchronous and asynchronous sessions, and assessments using remote practical examinations and remote proctoring software, all of which required additional planning and training. Due to the diligence of the faculty and preceptors, all students remained on track for their respective graduation dates. We graduated 22 new AT practitioners in May while advancing our (Elite) eight to the second year of study. And despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, we welcomed a new class of 17 students in July.

The entire faculty remains committed to pursuing scholarship. Professor Maffucci became Dr. Maffucci in December 2019. Professor Rippon continues to aggressively pursue her terminal degree. While the 2020 NATA meeting was a virtual event, several of our faculty and students had their abstracts accepted for presentation.

Interprofessional Health Sciences and Health Administration (IHSA) Acting Chair: Anne Hewitt, PhD

The Interprofessional Health Sciences and Health Administration Department (IHSA) faculty and staff would like to recognize our own fabulous student Health Heroes who have served with unrelenting commitment and expertise during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite their enormous work burdens and health security concerns, our students have maintained their graduate commitment to excellence, participation and completion of many assignments, reports and dissertations. We applaud their academic achievements and are incredibly proud of their Pirate spirit!

Both the PhD and MHA programs began developing new strategic program plans with goals to enhance and improve curriculum offerings, consider new technology additions and meet the needs of future students to better prepare them for the challenging changes in today’s healthcare sector. Alumni will be surveyed to ensure their important input informs these important academic decisions for both programs.

This year began with transitions in leadership as Dr. Zipp and Dr. Johri were appointed to fill new or vacant acting program director positions for the PhD and MHA programs, respectively. Dr. Hewitt transitioned from MHA program director to her new role as acting chair for IHSA.

PhD in Health Sciences, Acting Program Director: Genevieve Pinto Zipp,

PT, EdD The PhD in Health Sciences program has been busy during the 2019-20 academic year with 11 students completing their doctoral studies, bringing our alumni to 127! In response to today’s health challenges the program’s core faculty transitioned all components of the PhD in Health Sciences program to an online synchronous mode of delivery. Our learning community has embraced this modification, recognizing that the synchronous online delivery mode enables them to fully capitalize on all facets of the program with consistency and quality improvement.

The program continues our innovative monthly Research Forums where doctoral students present and defend their research proposals and research findings to the entire learning community fostering scholarly, collegial dialogue and discussion. We invite all alumni to join us for these virtual sessions, which will be shared via our alumni email blasts.

Master of Healthcare Administration,

Acting Program Director: Nalin Johri, PhD,

MPH The MHA program graduated 48 students from across the online and on-campus formats and was also pleased to continue with an above 90 percent completion rate and placement rate for our students. Graduates found most of their positions in regional health systems, hospitals, physician practices, pharmaceutical/ biotech companies and consulting. The MHA faculty continue to produce scholarly contributions via publications, panel presentations at national conferences and award-winning poster presentations.

On November 7, 2020, the MHA program partnered with the Healthcare Planning and Marketing Society of NJ to hold the second annual virtual Case Study Challenge. Hackensack Meridian Health was the premier sponsor for this event, which attracted 12 teams from regional graduate schools. After an intense day of concurrent and plenary presentations to an independent slate of judges, the teams from Rutgers, Penn State and Pittsburgh earned the first, second and third positions, respectively.

Occupational Therapy (OT) Chair: Ruth Segal, PhD, OTR

The Department of Occupational Therapy has been active in promoting health and civic participation during the COVID-19 pandemic. In spring 2020, Dr. Picard and recent graduate Etana Edelman, MS ’20, were featured on WNYC’s “Brian Lehrer Show,” where they discussed how older adults can employ remote alternatives for in-person activities. Together, the pair presented strategies to assist this vulnerable population with online shopping for necessities to avoid crowded shopping centers during the pandemic. In addition to the radio appearance, their article was published to The Star-Ledger/NJ.com and The Indian Panorama.

Before the 2020 general election, Dr. Guthrie and Dr. Picard published two articles on elitehealthcare.com aimed at helping people with disabilities vote. In the articles, Professors Guthrie and Picard addressed challenges people with disabilities can encounter when performing the task of voting and provided resources for other occupational therapists (OTs). While

making important scholarly contributions, our faculty remains dedicated to providing consistent and quality education to our students.

With the suspension of Level II Fieldwork in the spring of 2020, Professor Alicia MacGregor, Director of Clinical Education (DCE), developed alternative fieldwork experiences that ensured students were able to meet graduation requirements and focused on developing students’ knowledge of telehealth and the development of electronic resources for their clinical sites. We worked with the IHS Center for Clinical Simulation and incorporated additional remote options to replace Level I Fieldwork focusing on the development of evaluation skills, clinical reasoning and professionalism. Finally, the program ranked 79 on the latest U.S. News and World Report, making it the only program in New Jersey ranked within the Top 100.

Physical Therapy (PT) Chair: Doreen Stiskal, PT, PhD ’03

Seton Hall is known for developing servant leaders by providing diverse and collaborative environments that focus on academic and ethical development. During times of ongoing change, such as those over this past year, effective leadership addresses the needs of communities to which we belong. This outstanding DPT faculty displayed its leadership as it pivoted learning experiences virtually to provide the essential knowledge and skills for students to become great physical therapists.

But how do you teach about a hands-on profession in a virtual environment? The answer is by using innovation! As Steve Jobs says, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Faculty exhibited its true leadership at the drop of a hat. Virtual labs became activities where critical thinking and reasoning skills were highlighted. Creating virtual simulations fostered important communication skills. Through redesigned patient cases addressing movement system dysfunction, faculty created unique ways to teach students assessments, evaluations and treatments. By adopting concepts of telehealth, adjunct faculty and clinical partners staged online laboratories for enhanced engagement in the practice of physical therapy. Clinical instructors note how well-equipped our DPT students are by virtue of these alternate academic experiences.

And yes, the Seton Hall DPTs are super prepared. A shout-out to the Class of 2020 for achieving the highest mean scores on the National Physical Therapy Examination, exceeding national averages in eight of nine categories. Employers and co-workers state that our DPT graduates’ professionalism is undeniable. Each works diligently to ensure they deliver the best care possible, even as COVID challenges us as to do what we do best.

Be proud of our collective achievements! Recognize faculty members as they stand tall as exemplary role models. Together our shared leadership and willingness to innovate benefit so many. Be safe and be proud to call yourself a PT alum! Reach out to consider helping us to be more innovative.

Physician Assistant (PA) Chair: Christopher Hanifin, EdD ’20, MS ’99, PA-C

Hello PA alumni! I hope this issue of INS!GHTS finds you healthy and safe as we continue to work through a year unlike any other. We know that many of you were on the front lines of battling the pandemic and we are so proud of your skill, strength and courage. We also heard from many alumni who were adversely impacted by having shifts reduced, being furloughed and being laid off. We hope that as this issue is delivered, life has started to return to normal and you are all back to doing what you love.

Everything was running full steam ahead when operations suddenly ceased in mid-March as all class sessions and clinical rotations were suspended. The faculty did a great job of making a rapid transition to delivering the curriculum totally online, and we were able to work with some software platforms to ensure that students on rotation were able to continue to meet rotation objectives. Heartfelt congratulations to the Class of 2020; they did an exceptional job of finishing strong and entering practice in a very difficult job market.

The start of this academic year has seen us return to somewhat normal operations. Many lectures that previously would have taken place in a classroom setting are now online, but labs for anatomy and any hands-on skills we need to teach were up and running well since the beginning of the fall semester. Our current students are dealing with a great deal of adversity as both school and their home life has been disrupted, but they have been doing a great job in keeping up with everything. No one knows what to expect, but we will get through it together and come out stronger on the other side. Hazard Zet Forward!

Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) Chair: Vikram Dayalu, PhD, CCC-SLP

Let’s talk data: The SpeechLanguage Pathology program successfully graduated its largest cohort of 50 students in the spring of 2020; the entire second-year cohort resumed clinical rotations, and we welcomed a cohort of 45 students in the fall of 2020. While impressive and indicative of a well-designed and executed program, these data points exemplify much more considering the short- and mid-term impact of the pandemic on academic and clinical training. We experienced significant disruptions in the form of canceled clinical practica, a pivot to remote instruction in less than two weeks and the adoption of telepractice for service delivery.

I am thrilled to note that the faculty in the department saw the pandemic-related issues as an opportunity rather than a hurdle and developed a range of innovative programming to ensure high-quality academic and clinical training. The program transitioned in-person standardized patient simulation activity to a fully virtual event. Department faculty developed a multipart simulation program to support clinical skills. Just before the start of the pandemic, the program and its faculty earned its elevation in U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 Best Graduate Schools ranking with the program, once again, being ranked No. 1 in New Jersey and among the Top 100 programs in the country. The availability of advanced teaching and research resources combined with unparalleled opportunities for interprofessional collaboration are being continually leveraged to advance the delivery and restructuring of SLP curriculum.

The department’s and students’ continued success is attributed to the hard-working faculty members who excel in all domains of their work. Department faculty continually strived to advance the mission and vision of the department. Please consider joining the department’s Facebook group to stay abreast of the innovative programming and celebrate student, faculty and alumni accomplishments. As a program, we are always on the lookout for highly trained and accomplished clinicians to work as adjunct faculty. Wishing you all the very best and looking forward to hearing from you. ■

School of Health and Medical Sciences Seton Hall University Interprofessional Health Sciences (IHS) Campus 123 Metro Boulevard, Nutley, NJ 07110

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