April 2021
A newsletter for students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends
A defining moment in history
Photo: Executive Office of the Governor
Photo: Executive Office of the Governor
Gov. Larry Hogan signs into law a $577 million pledge to Maryland’s HBCUs In what University of Maryland Eastern Shore President Heidi M. Anderson called “a defining moment” in school history, she witnessed Gov. Larry Hogan sign a law March 24 to resolve a 15-year federal lawsuit that challenged the fundamental history of how the state supports its public institutions of higher education. The new law pledges $577 million in supplemental funding to Maryland’s four historically black institutions - UMES, Bowie State, Coppin State and Morgan State - over a 10-year period beginning July 1, 2022. UMES’ estimated annual allocation is $9.6 million. The money is state government’s answer to what plaintiffs claimed was an inequitable policy of financial support for its public colleges dating back decades. Lawsuit proponents pointed to the duplication of degree programs - especially in the Baltimore area, where schools like Morgan and Coppin compete intensely for students with the
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Honors Convocation
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Student Choice for Teaching Excellence
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Vaccination at UMES
University of Maryland Baltimore County and Towson University. A federal judge sided with alumni and friends of Maryland’s HBCUs who signed on as plaintiffs and directed the state to work out a resolution. The same $577 million settlement was included in a 2020 legislative package just as the COVID19 pandemic began casting a dark cloud over the economy. Hogan vetoed the measure, citing worries that making such a long-term commitment could be catastrophic for Maryland’s economy. At a ceremony on the Bowie State campus, Hogan, a Republican, said the outlook is brighter and “We’re here today to enact an historic, bipartisan measure that will be an unprecedented step forward in addressing inequities in our higher education system by making substantial investments in Maryland’s historically black colleges and universities.” Hogan said his administration, over the
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Award for Research on Poultry emissions
past seven years, had shown a willingness to address complaints about funding inequities. “This legislation … will provide even more critical investments for all of these institutions,” Hogan said. “It brings to an end a more than 15-year- long legal battle that we inherited and spent years working hard to resolve in a fair and equitable manner.” Anderson and her advisers are still sorting through ideas on how the supplemental funding will be spent over the next 10-plus years, guided by wording in the law that stipulates it must be used for academic purposes, support for faculty and marketing the institutions to boost enrollment. “It’s a defining day for us, and for the citizens of the state,” Anderson said after the bill signing. “We are going to be able to bring new programming that will help the citizens - things like healthcare disparities and food insecurity. And we will remember this day forever.”
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Dr. Truong as Featured Presenter
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Remembering Dr. Karl V. Binns Sr.
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Alumni News
2021 Convocation
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68th Annual Spring Honors Convocation ~ via Zoom
Hadiyah Mujhid was the keynote speaker for the virtual 2021 Honors Convocation Ceremony. She earned her bachelor of science in computer science at UMES in 2001. Mujhid is the Founder and CEO of HBCUvc, a nonprofit organization that teaches technology entrepreneurship and venture capital to Black and Latinx innovators to create racially equitable innovation ecosystems.
Anu Akil
After a year’s hiatus triggered by the COVID19 pandemic, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore resumed holding a realtime spring honors convocation with a socially distanced, virtual ceremony earlier this month. Dr. Michael Lane, the Richard A. Henson Honors Program director who served as emcee, said the event celebrated “774 undergraduates – current freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors and recent graduates, now alumni – whose demonstrated scholastic acumen earned them a place on the University’s Deans’ List during the past calendar year.” Deans’ List honorees are full-time students who earned a grade point average of 3.5 or higher during the spring 2020 or fall 2020 semesters. Four women received Awards of Excellence, the top honor for each of UMES’ schools under which undergraduate programs are clustered. The winners were: Anul Akil (Business & Technology), Gabrielle Pinto (Agriculture and Natural Sciences), Marina Pereira Cruz (Pharmacy & Health Professions) and Ciani Wells (Education, Social Sciences & The Arts). “When I saw my photo appear on my computer screen as a recipient of the Award of Excellence, I was … overwhelmed with joy and gratitude. This past school year has been an extremely demanding one and has stretched me beyond my comfort zone, both academically and in my leadership endeavors,” Wells said. “I strive to be outstanding in all that I do and inspire others to do the same, so, although I don’t do it for accolades, it is so gratifying to know that my effort is not in vain. I’m very grateful to be honored, and I’m encouraged by it,” Wells said. Pereira Cruz is an international student-athlete who overcame a language barrier to attend college in the United States. “I cannot even describe what I felt when I saw that I won the Award of Excellence,” she said. ‘With a lot of effort, everything is possible. I’m very happy and proud of myself for overcoming all the obstacles that I had in these past two years at UMES. Being recognized just showed me that tough moments made me stronger. I’m really
Ciani Wells
Gabrielle Pinto
Marina Pereira Cruz
thankful for everything UMES did for me. I can say that I finished my four years in college with a bang.” Pinto earned her bachelor’s degree from UMES in the spring 2020 and is now a graduate student pursing a master’s degree in counseling education. “There are no words to describe how grateful I am for the opportunity to be a recipient of this award and to represent my department in such a wonderful light,” Pinto said. “Being in this department has shown me a lot about myself and my view of the world. It has given me the chance to shine in lights I could have never imagined and the opportunity to make life long relationships,” she said. Each undergraduate department or academic program identified a student to receive “Departmental Honors” as the single most meritorious student in calendar year 2020 as determined by the unit’s faculty. They are: School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences • Gaibrielle Bressler, Agriculture, Food & Resource Sciences • D’nasia Jones, Human Ecology • Teemer Barry, Natural Sciences School of Business and Technology • Anu Akil, Business, Management and Accounting • Samuel Lebarty, Engineering and Aviation Sciences • Hannah Haught, Hospitality and Tourism Management • Isabel Hughes, Mathematics and Computer Science • Elwaleed Abu Eldahab, Technology – now the Built Environment • Joshua Sacker, PGA Professional Golf Management School of Education, Social Sciences and the Arts • Aaliyah Douglas, Criminal Justice • Erica Lewis, Education • Ciani Wells, English and Modern Languages • Rajan Bethea, Fine Arts • Ayotomiwa Fashola, Social Sciences • Nicholas Williams, General Studies Program. School of Pharmacy and Health Professions • Nia’ Fisher, Kinesiology • Jordan Kelly, Rehabilitation Services
School News
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UMES faculty’s commitment to students earns badge of distinction during COVID-19 pandemic In pivoting as a result of the COVID-19 or the qualities possessed by the impactful pandemic, University of Maryland Eastern educator, student responses included Shore faculty remain committed to excellence comments on “straight forward” and “helpful” for their students, which was recognized by teaching styles and genuine care for how the Center for Teaching Excellence’s “Student students “were holding up” during this time. Choice for Teaching Excellence” Badge of Dr. Mark Zockoll (Department of English Distinction. Although the campus operations and Modern Languages) and Dr. Patricia Goslee are different regarding remote learning and (Department of Education) demonstrated this additional safety measures, UMES students were care for their students as they received these able to recognize their educators’ unwavering comments: “The professor (Mark Zockoll) commitment to their success. The “Student has been checking in on students all semester Choice for Teaching Excellence” Badge of via email and it’s the first time I’ve really felt Distinction program honors like a professor cared about faculty whose students deemed my wellbeing, even though deserving based on the it’s virtual” and “Dr. Goslee students’ learning experiences actually talks to us how we during the COVID pandemic. are holding up and generally In Fall 2020, students cares. She also tries her best to weighed in using a survey from make sure we are all okay.” September to November. “Being recognized by a The inaugural cohort – ”We were thrilled to read student for teaching excellence Fall 2020 Student Choice for Teaching students’ comments about is humbling. Such also Excellence recipients their positive experiences evidences to me that the effort with our talented faculty, made when commenting on Dr. Rexford Abaidoo (Business, Management, and Accounting) especially during the COVID cover letter drafts, answering Ms. Candace Anderson (Agriculture, Food and Resource Sciences) semester of remote teaching,” after 5pm emails quickly, and Dr. Kathryn Barrett-Gaines (Social Science) CTE Director Dr. Cynthia asking students how they are Dr. Tiara Cornelius (Mathematics and Computer Science) Cravens said. “That’s why we doing holistically is not in Dr. Ray Davis (Education) named it the ”student choice” vain,” Zockoll said about the Dr. Patricia Goslee (Education) for teaching excellence. honor and working with his Dr. John Jacob (Human Ecology) We’re very excited to have students. Dr. Robert Johnson (Mathematics and Computer Science) launched this e-badge in 2020 ”It is truly very humbling Dr. Sandra Johnston (English and Modern Languages) and we are looking forward to have been selected. The Dr. Lurline Marsh (Agriculture, Food and Resource Sciences) to maintaining it as a UMES comments coming from my Dr. Michael Patterson (Education) tradition of recognition and students help illuminate the Dr. Deborah Sauder (Natural Science) gratitude for the amazing work value of teaching,” Goslee said Dr. Dinesh Sharma (Business, Management, and Accounting) our instructors do.” about the recognition. Ms. Andrea Taylor (Student Retention and Support Services) Detailing the course that Mr. Mark Zockoll (English and Modern Languages) was most helpful to them
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School News
One down. One to go.
Somerset health department partnered with UMES for vaccination clinic A steady stream of UMES year doctoral student in food students, faculty and staff took and agricultural sciences. advantage of an on-campus “As a student and a mother, COVID vaccine clinic April 8, it is my responsibility to ensure a turnout that left organizers that those around me are safe,” encouraged that headway is the mother of four said. “One being made in the fight against such way of doing so is to get the pandemic. vaccinated.” President Heidi M. UMES faculty members Anderson, who is already fully Lana Sherr, Nancy Rodriquezvaccinated, and Dr. Rondall E. Weller and Hoai-an Truong Allen, dean of UMES’ School were on hand pitching in of Pharmacy and Health and observing their students Professions, were among administer the vaccines to peers campus leaders on hand when and employees. the doors opened in the Student “It’s been going very well,” (L-R) Tiahara Hamilton, Christine Allen, and Services Center’s ballroom. Truong said. “We’re very Julia Guerrero De La Cruz dressed the part as volunteers Waiting inside was a wellencouraged by the turnout.” during the vaccine clinic on campus. oiled machine Truong said of healthcare the pandemic has professionals; afforded pharmacy staffers from the students and Somerset County instructors a rare health department, opportunity to students and join the frontlines faculty from of combatting the the university’s spread of a rare, pharmacy school deadly virus that and counterparts overwhelmed the from Salisbury world in 2020. University. At the Those end of the first, receiving the four-hour clinic, vaccination 102 vaccines were administered. were closely monitored for a minimum of vaccine was Mona Gassama, a junior A county health department 15 minutes to guard against any potential biology major from Lanham, Md. spokeswoman said the agency used the allergic reactions. UMES employee“I decided to do it because my parents same template to deliver the first dose of the volunteers sported “This is my fighting are older, I don’t want to put them at risk,” Moderna vaccine at UMES as it has at the COVID-19 shirt” -- and masks, of course Gassama said. Her mother, she said, is a department’s headquarters in Westover the -- to help guide those who came out through nurse and is vaccinated. past several weeks, including participation the process. Fredrick Adeoye said both his parents of pharmacy students who administer the One of those volunteer was senior also work in the healthcare field and got shots. Tiahara Hamilton of Baltimore who will their vaccines in January, so “it just made Everyone who received a shot on graduate in December with a rehabilitation sense when this (opportunity) came up that campus during the four-hour clinic was psychology degree. She said working as a I should do it, too.” automatically given a May 6 appointment to volunteer made her feel she was making “It was a given for me,” the junior receive the mandatory second dose. UMES’ a contribution toward good public health engineering major from Hyattsville, Md. said. spring commencement is Friday, May 14. practices. Then there was Shellyann Henry, a firstAmong the first students to receive a
School News
Can a test shape the right COVID treatment?
A partnership between UMES and a Dorchester County biotech company has produced promising results for a test to guide treatment options for newly diagnosed COVID19 patients. Pending emergency authorization by the federal government, the test shows potential in helping identify effective treatment protocols while alleviating pressure on resources, including healthcare providers on the frontlines. ”As soon as we get … the rigorous FDA approval and authorization process, we’ll be able to get … this test directly into the hands of labs and clinicians all around the country, and hopefully, the world,” Dr. Rob Figliozzi told WBAL TV. Figliozzi, a 2020 University of Maryland Eastern Shore alumnus, earned his doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences with a specialization in toxicology. He’s been putting human DNA samples from COVID patients through a rigorous analysis of “biomarkers,” looking for indicators that can project potential seriousness of the infection. ”What we found was, that, we’re able to detect the severity of the COVID-19 disease based on these biomarkers,” Figliozzi said in an interview with WBOC TV. A year ago, Figliozzi was working with IES Life Sciences Inc. in Cambridge, Md., which had been focused on developing technology involving its research on lupus and cancer-detection when the pandemic was declared. The team of scientists shifted its attention to taking on the COVID-19 virus. Figliozzi did his doctoral research under Dr. Victor Hsia, who conducts research on the herpes virus, which shares some characteristics with the COVID version. Figliozzi’s familiarity with Hsia’s work helped guide the UMES-IES research partnership in concentrating on biomarkers to gauge how a body’s immune system
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responds to the new disease. “We’re looking at individuals’ ... total immune health, and how they’re responding to this infection,” Dr. Figliozzi said in an interview with WUSA in Washington, D.C. ”And we’re grouping them into little groups. And different groups have different severity levels.” Dr. Ronald Jubin, IES’ cofounder and its chief science officer, said the research efforts have been aimed at developing a roadmap that provides physicians more information about how develop a customized treatment strategy. ”What you’re going to get [is] … maybe two or three levels,” Jubin said in an interview with WUSA. “So, no disease, low disease, high disease.” ”The doctor needs to look at and say ‘if I score – if a patient has a score of 10, or a one or a five,” he said, “they need to easily understand what that means.” IES’s chief executive officer David Spiegel has seen COVID’s impact up close. “My cousin died on a Saturday from COVID,” he said. “My mother died on the Sunday from COVID ... (the) same weekend.” Figliozzi said a challenge has been trying to measure if an infected patient’s immune system reacts favorably and causes little or no life-threatening symptoms – or will the virus cause what is known medically as “cytosine storm.” ”The virus,” he said, “(is) hiding from your immune system. The cytosine – the biomarkers – are being suppressed in ways, and others are being over activated in ways.” “That overreaction and under reaction is what leads to bad symptomology,” Figliozzi told TV reporters. ”We need to catch people as early as we can,” he said in his interview with WBAL. “It’s really exciting.”
UMES alum and private-sector partners think they found one that works
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Social Justice Series
Poems are pockets that hold words… Listening to Joy Harjo is like riding on the winds of history grabbing at pieces of a dream as they swirl around you. It is difficult to describe all of the aspects of the inspiration that drives her “word weaving.” On the evening of April 6, Harjo, the nation’s 23rd poet laureate, was the latest speaker featured in the “We Stand Together” series, a year-long project organized by a consortium of the nation’s universities, including the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Harjo provided much food for thought from a humanistic perspective. Driven by her Native American culture – she’s a member of the Muscogee (Creek) nation – and the spirit of her great grandfather, her poetry speaks to the past, present and future. “Poet Warrior”— a forthcoming memoir — describes how we come into the world with guardians — family ancestors who give guidance. Early in her life Harjo said she needed the words of her greatgrandfather to direct her journey. She questioned why she would have a legacy of storytelling when she was afraid of failing her art because she did not view herself as the best. As a woman, she has endured the oppression her gender has suffered throughout time. Her elder’s words of wisdom, however, allowed her to find a poetic voice where “time means nothing in the place we inhabit” and where “poems are pockets that hold words we cannot speak.” Harjo finds inspiration in questions on how we unravel history, and she reminds us that prior to European colonialism, there were no hierarchies of race and gender in North America. Once greed and materialism set in, native peoples were forced to deal with the present at the expense of their past being erased. Terror became an uncomfortable companion. Still, her words emphasize the need to pray for one’s enemies — prayers of goodwill. A question from UMES posed to Harjo during the virtual event
was on the significance of the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa (Okla.) Massacre, since she was born and lives in Tulsa. She does not necessarily write poems inspired by events, but did for this one. It is titled “Somewhere.” When she looks out of the window of her studio, she can see the neighborhood —“Black Wall Street” – that was destroyed in 1921. “All students (today) should be leaders to the correction of history,” she said. America will not grow, she added, without realizing its diversity, and that diversity of thought and respect in sharing is essential for that growth. When asked about the trend to push the humanities to the background in the shadow of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), she said the humanities create a whole, healthy society. STEM fields, she said, are important, but humanities give rise to “higher thinking.” Art forms represented across the humanities serve as the soul and STEM the body as part of our world’s bio system. Strangely enough, when Harjo attends conferences or is in the company of STEM practitioners, she finds herself gravitating toward the mathematicians. She says she sees poets and math people similar in their ways of thinking about their craft.
U.S. poet laureate shares her unique perspective in social justice event
By Dr. Marshall F. Stevenson Jr. Dean, School of Education, Social Sciences & The Arts
Social Justice Series
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A scholar drawing attention to ‘racial terror’ UMES’ social justice series event highlights the healing still needed Charles L. Chavis Jr. calls himself a “scholar of racial terror” and brought the perspective of a college “professor, historian and peacebuilder” to an installment of UMES’ year-long social justice speaker series. Chavis’ April 8 topic was the “Tulsa Massacre 100 Years Later: the Legacy of Racial Terror in America.” His “virtual” guest lecture began with: “Why is the Tulsa Massacre so relevant” today? “We need to look no further than what is unfolding before our eyes,” he said. Chavis was referring to the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with the May 25, 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, during a routine arrest. The televised trial of Chauvin, who is white, began March 29. “I’ve reached a point where I recognize the saturation with this spectacle we’re watching is not healthy,” he said. In late May / early June 1921, a group of angry white vigilantes stormed a segregated Black section of Tulsa, Okla., burning much of the middle-class community to the ground, an act that left hundreds dead and no one accountable. “We can draw a direct line between … Tulsa to the events we are witnessing today,” Chavis said. An effort to reconcile what happened in Oklahoma during that dark period of American history has attracted the attention of social justice advocates, who see parallels today in the deadly confrontations between police and Blacks. It was that overarching theme Chavis wove into his hour-long presentation.
“Instead of a criminal individual being tried, the black man is tried,” he said. “This same trope and these same words are spewed out of the mouths of (lawyers) throughout the history of anti-blackness in this country.” “Instead of justice working for black people,” Chavis said, “it’s always working against us.” Chavis said he’s concluded there’s a connection between “white domestic terrorism” directed at blacks and economic well-being. “The white mob spirit emerges boldly to stifle black success” in the business and education worlds, he said, with the goal to “control black bodies … and stoke fear.” “These are questions we have to be honest about,” he said. Chavis, an assistant professor of conflict resolution and history at George Mason University, has emerged as an influential voice in the region’s social justice dialogue. Chavis is co-editor of “For the Sake of Peace: Africana Perspectives on Racism, Justice, and Peace in America.” He earned his doctorate in history from Morgan State University in 2018, writing his dissertation on the 1931 lynching of Matthew Williams in nearby Salisbury, which he is working to convert into a book due out in early 2022. Lynchings and other acts directed at terrorizing Blacks, he noted, were and are not confined to the Deep South. Chavis said he doesn’t believe a verdict in the Floyd-Chauvin trial will be transformative. Much more work toward understanding and reconciliation needs to be done. “At what point,” he asked, “is holistic justice going to be part of this conversation?” “I’m done talking about the trauma unless justice is on the table,” he said.
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School News
Hashem named national USDA award winner Research on poultry house ammonia admissions garners attention By Gail Stephens A University of Maryland Eastern Shore researcher and colleagues at East Coast laboratories and as far away as Spain received national recognition from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service early this month for their work aimed at controlling poultry house ammonia emissions. Dr. Fawzy Hashem, an associate professor in UMES’ Department of Agriculture, Food and Resource Sciences, was among team members who received the 2021 Excellence in Technology Transfer National Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer. According to the consortium’s notification letter, Hashem’s team was “one of a select number of recipients, an indication that your nomination was truly of the highest caliber.” Many areas in the country produce more manure nutrients than available cropland can assimilate. The removal and recovery of ammonia, therefore, is a desirable feature for new treatment technology for livestock effluents (liquid wastes that pour into natural bodies of water and subsequently the air). The nutrients instead could be exported off the farm, which could solve the problems of nitrogen surpluses in concentrated livestock production, serve as a substitute for commercial fertilizers and create new businesses. The annual award Hasem and his colleagues received recognizes scientists from among the 300 laboratories supported by the Federal Laboratory Consortium “who have accomplished outstanding work in the process of transferring federally developed technology.” According to the agency, the shared technology can have profound impact on the nation’s economy and everyday life. Hashem and his colleagues accepted the award at a virtual ceremony April 8 as part of the organization’s national meeting. Their research also was selected a year ago for a 2020 USDA Technology Transfer Award for the Southeast region. It focuses on the recovery of ammonia-nitrogen from waste using gas-permeable membranes. The process, Hashem said, includes the passive passage of ammonia through micro-porous hydrophobic membranes and
subsequent concentration in a clear solution. The new technology’s application is the removal and recovery of nitrogen from liquid manures in storage tanks and from the air of poultry and animal barns. “Using a wide variety of technology transfer mechanisms and activities covering the ammonia capture technology for both liquid and air applications, we found that 98 percent of the nitrogen can be recovered using the technology,” Hashem said. “Conservation and recovery of nitrogen from livestock production and wastes from industrial and municipal sources is vital for environmental and economic reasons.” The team worked with industry to improve technology with the goal of marketing a reliable and proven product with competitive advantages for commercialization. The researchers illustrated the technology to university and research center scientists during three on-farm demonstrations. They also presented webinars and training modules to the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Environmental Protection Agency. Their work was featured in high-impact scientific publications and numerous press articles.
UMES’ Chief of Staff Dr. Robert Mock Jr. was selected to participate in Leadership Maryland’s Class of 2021. He will be among the 28th class of 50 individuals completing the eight-month program focusing on the state’s most vital social, economic and environmental issues.
Faculty News
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Pharmacy Profession Must Remain United on Retention of COVID-19 Regulatory Changes Post-Pandemic Editor’s note: UMES’ Dr. Hoai-an Truong was a featured presenter at the American Pharmacists Association’s 2021 Annual Meeting and Exposition, where he discussed the pandemic’s impact on the pharmacy profession. This edited excerpt from the Pharmacy Times is reproduced with the publication’s permission. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted pharmacy practice due to its role in supporting overwhelmed physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals who faced some of the immediate challenges of the crisis, according to Dr. Hoai-An Truong, professor of pharmacy practice and administration at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, a featured speaker during the American Pharmacists Association 2021 Annual Meeting and Exposition in late March. Many states allowed pharmacies to conduct COVID-19 testing and other services to decrease the ongoing burden on physicians during the pandemic, Truong explained. “COVID-19 provided pharmacy practice the opportunity to shine through identifying areas where [it] could offer much needed relief to the overwhelmed health care system,” Truong said. “I like to frame it in the WHO approach, which is not the World Health Organization, but the ‘why, how, and opportunity.’ Why is it a challenge on the health care system; how does it impact pharmacy practice; and what are some opportunities that present for us?” Using this approach, Truong’s research team at UMES was able to identify an opportunity to address a challenge to the healthcare system they observed by applying for funding from the Maryland Department of Health, as made available through the CARES Act, and implementing telehealth as an intervention for nursing home residents. Truong and his team took the opportunity to assess how pharmacy could
support a challenge specific to nursing home facilities by providing access to telehealth. “We know that was a population that was severely impacted by the pandemic due to social isolation. So, we were able to obtain a grant and conduct a project and research how to utilize telehealth to deliver non-pharmacological intervention, including patient education and music therapy for the nursing home residents in the rural area on the Eastern Shore of Maryland,” Truong said. Apart from the pandemic’s extensive impact on healthcare systems, Truong also addressed impacts the pandemic has had on pharmacy practice, from supply chain issues to changes in pharmacist’s services. “COVID-19 will leave a lasting impression on pharmacies, (and) … on the services provided by pharmacists,” Truong said. Shortages that occurred around albuterol and hydroxychloroquine had a significant impact. The practice of providing patients with 90-day
supplies during the pandemic may have contributed to supply chain challenges around medication access for pharmacies. The pandemic also forced pharmacies to quickly adapt their practices to allow for socially distant patient care, causing exponential telehealth growth in the field. Many pharmacies had to learn how to quickly implement—what were for some—new telehealth applications. This required pharmacists to learn how to overcome technology hurdles as they arose during the implementation and use of these applications. “There has been exponential growth in the use of telehealth in patient care, but that also led to audio/ video connection and technological issues,” Truong said. “It also highlights the challenge of inequities in the country for those who do not have the technology means to receive the telehealth care that they need.”
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Faculty News
Remembering Karl V. Binns Sr.
UMES faculty member was a pioneering student-athlete Karl Von Binns Sr., a towering fixture on the faculty in UMES’ Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, passed away Good Friday, April 2. He was 69. His sudden death unleashed an online response of heartfelt condolences and fond memories, including from an institution where he was a pioneering student-athlete as an undergraduate. Binns, who was 6-feet 7-inches tall, played one year of varsity basketball at Georgia Institute of Technology in his hometown, Atlanta. He was the first African-American to suit up for Georgia Tech and a visit he made to the campus in February 2018 celebrated his place in school history. His triumphant return after some 45 years resulted in the university’s athletics department producing a glowing profile chronicling what could best be described as a life well-lived. He played and studied for two years as at what was then a junior college in Georgia when Georgia Tech’s popular basketball coach offered him a chance to play for the Yellow Jackets. While he performed admirably on the court during the 1971-72 season, Binns acknowledged that he struggled in the classroom. The Georgia Tech website quoted Binns as saying he needed to focus on academics “if I was going to stay in the family.” He transferred across town to Morris Brown, a private, historically black college, but did not immediately join its basketball team. “I had to get my academics back on track,” he said, and then
played one more season of college basketball while completing work on a degree in management. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. Binns played two years professionally in German before returning to Atlanta to find work outside the sports arena, and to start a family. When his employer transferred him to Baltimore, he enrolled at Morgan State University, where he earned a Master’s in Business Administration. The Georgia Tech online profile noted he spent a year at Mercer University’s law school in Macon, Ga., and taught at Morris Brown and Florida’s Bethune-Cookman, another HBCU. University of Maryland Eastern Shore personnel records show he joined the faculty in August 1998 and became one of the hospitalitytourism management department’s most popular instructors among students whom he also mentored outside the classroom. Binns also earned his doctorate in organizational leadership in 2011, making him an alumnus at the school where he also was teaching. His 2018 return to Georgia Tech as Dr. Binns also was captured in a 3-minute 33-second video, which showed him touring the locker room and meeting current head coach Josh Pastner at a practice where he playfully tossed in an uncontested hook shot. The visit culminated in a VIP introduction at a home basketball game. The earnest, unassuming smile on his face in the video is how most of those whose lives he touched during his 22½ years at UMES will remember him.
Athletics
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Was that Dr. Anderson I saw on TV?
UMES president’s image among the Final Four cutout crowd A four-member contingent headed by a Hoosier state native represented the University of Maryland Eastern Shore at the 2021 edition of college basketball’s Final Four in Indianapolis. Well, actually, their images were present. As “cutouts.” In the stands. Of Lucas Oil Stadium. The NCAA holds the final two rounds of its annual basketball extravaganza – dubbed March Madness, for some reason – in early April in football arenas. Lotsa seats – 70,000, to be exact. Lotsa tickets to sell. In normal times. These times are not normal. So, this year, the big finale was mostly fanless – except for family members of student-athletes competing, and select personnel from the institutions that participated the final weekend’s games. As the lingering UMES’ line up for Final Four weekend 2021 pandemic has proven, (photos shown on left from top): empty sports venues don’t give off the kind of vibe • President Heidi M. Anderson, native of Gary, Indiana. Dr. that gibes with the excitedAnderson has been president since Sept. 1, 2018 and rarely to-be there atmosphere TV misses home basketball doubleheaders. executives who pay for the • Keith S. Davidson, a Philadelphia, Pa. native. Davidson right to broadcast games has been UMES’ athletics director since 2007. In his 13 years like to project into living heading the department, the university has won 17 MEAC rooms. Championships, five National Championships (in bowling) Enter the and 40 student-athletes have earned All-American honors. entrepreneurs who came • Patricia A. Nativio grew up in Pittsburgh, Pa. She is UMES’ up with the novel idea head athletics trainer and the department’s sentimental (and of fan-image “cutouts” deserving) selection. Bradley said Nativio was picked as a occupying the seats in nod to the unsung work she does to keep student-athletes crucial camera shots. healthy and safe. In this instance, the NCAA extended its member • Andrew T. Revels, a senior finance major from Annapolis, schools like UMES the Md. He’s an infielder on the Hawks’ baseball team and opportunity to submit “enjoys fishing as a hobby outside the field,” according to his pictures of four people at team bio. no charge to a company marketing the “see me on TV” opportunity hoping hoops fan will want their face to catch some screen time during one of the big games. Stan Bradley, UMES’ associate athletics director for external affairs, said he and colleague Shawn Yonker brainstormed on identifying a list of people whose images should be submitted to the company creating the cutouts. Andrew Revels secured the “clean-up” slot in the UMES line-up thanks to a contest cooked up by Bradley and Yonker, who organized a quickie fund-raiser; if someone agreed to make a donation to the athletics program, the donor’s name would put in a pool with a name being drawn randomly. Nicole and Aaron Revels’ name emerged from the contest and they asked that their son’s image in his Hawks’ baseball uniform be submitted. So, there you have it. It is possible to be in two places at the same time.
1972 UMES alumnus McKinley Hayes is being honored as a ”Senior Hometown Hero” in a 2021 calendar produced by the Prince George’s County Parks & Recreation department. The Key / April 2021
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