- All are invited to the 19th annual Medical Student Research Forum, which will take place virtually on Monday, November 23 from 1:00-5:00 p.m. This year features a record number of student presentations — 161 in total. Join in to hear the Dean’s Mentoring Award Lecture and the exciting student presentations. Read more
- All SMPH employees should participate in a campus survey asking about how frequently you have accessed UW–Madison buildings during the fall semester. The information will be used to help plan locations of on-campus COVID-19 testing sites next semester for the university’s expanded testing strategy, which will be known as Badger Shield. Responses are confidential and your individual response will not be connected to your name. Please reply as soon as possible and no later than Monday, November 23. Read more and respond
- Shenikqua Bouges, MD has been named as a UW–Madison Oustanding Woman of Color. Dr. Bouges is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine whose work seeks to address the under-representation of Blacks/African Americans in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias research. Read more
- Associate Dean for Public Health and Community Jonathan Temte, MD, PhD, Engagement shares his thoughts about the coronavirus surveillance program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dean Temte is both a participant, and the architect of the effort. Read more
- Research update: A study by scientists in SMPH, the School of Veterinary Medicine, and the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center used the gene editing technique CRISPR to alter DNA in newly fertilized embryos of cynomolgus macaque monkeys to study a potential treatment for HIV. Read more
- The American Public Health Association is offering a free webinar on November 18 at 4:00 p.m. CST on “COVID-19 Vaccine Update — Development, Approval, Allocation and Distribution in the U.S.” The session will feature a panel of experts and will be moderated by Peggy Hamburg, MD, former FDA commissioner. Learn more and register
- View this week’s Quick Links, with valuable information for all personnel, for researchers, and for clinicians.
Building an Anti-Racist SMPH
A series of Native November campus events on Thursday, November 19 will discuss the impact of COVID-19 and health disparities on Native populations. See the list of events here.
- View upcoming events relating to anti-racism topics at UW–Madison and beyond.
Shout-outs:
Please send kudos about your colleagues. Honor someone at go.wisc.edu/shoutout and we’ll share the stories. Submit your thoughts and we’ll share them in a future issue.
“Eli Lynch just celebrated his 5 year anniversary with UW Pediatric Cardiology. He has been a tremendous asset to our division. Eli is committed to meeting the needs of our patients and referring healthcare providers by seamlessly ensuring cardiac tests (from multiple outreach sites) are accurately and efficiently entered into our system for interpretation and then resulted back to the requesting healthcare provider. In addition, Eli assists in coordinating frequent urgent needs within the clinic, from scheduling add-on studies to ensuring schedules are updated to provide the most outstanding and efficient care for our patients and providers. He is truly a team player. I often find him volunteering to help with a variety of tasks, and he does so selflessly and with enthusiasm. He is clearly a team member who exemplifies why UW is a great place to work!” – Kathleen Maginot, MD, Associate Professor (CHS), Department of Pediatrics
“The Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) team has done unprecedented work to gather data on the impacts of COVID-19 among Wisconsin Residents, in just one month – Amy and Jen led the coordination along with Jonathan, Doug, Ben and Jacquie to organize and implement data collection in 12 sites across the entire state, hiring, training, and recruiting 21 phlebotomists, coordinating with community partners and local health to identify safe spaces for data collection, devising systems for participant payment and reimbursement. Samples were collected in over 1000 state residents in July (a year’s worth of work in normal circumstances) and we are in the midst of this again right now. The entire SHOW team is doing an amazing job. Maria guided the laboratory sciences, compliance and regulatory aspects, Matt led the data science collection in partnership with Al Batemen and his team at the State Laboratory of Hygiene. Many others including Arlene, undergraduate students, Tara, Veronica, Amanda have been instrumental parts of this team. Andy, Jodi, Allison, Yixuan, and Alston have been busy prepping and preparing data so we can quickly disseminate results to our public health partners and those who need to know. This is an amazing team – way to go SHOW.” – Kristen Malecki, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor, Department of Population Health Sciences and Co-Director, SHOW
“Payroll and benefits specialist Tina Petrickhas been an immense help in understanding benefits provided to me by the university. She works with hundreds of staff, but when you meet with her she is a patient listener and always ready to help. I have now taken the benefits crash course with her multiple times and each time I have left with a better understanding of which benefits I should go with. Knowing ins and outs of insurance for the first time is scary, but Tina breaks it down to make even complete newbies feel informed. She also takes time to go off script and give advice on preparing for retirement. She is also personable and makes what could be a dull subject, an enjoyable meeting. She has also assisted student hourlies who have worked with me to understand their payroll and benefits and ensure that they can make informed decisions about their work. Tina also helped with the partners in giving campaign and gives back to the Madison community.” – Martin Brubaker, Research Specialist, Population Health Institute
Telecommuting tip:
November 19 marks IT Policy Forum: Get into the weeds on IT policy on campus and discuss policy impact, directions, and needs by attending DoIT’s IT Policy Forum. It will also introduce key people working on IT policy. Read more