Experts from the College of Education and Human Development will join colleagues from five other colleges across the University to help developing countries better respond to emerging animal diseases that pose a threat to human health.
The University of Minnesota is part of a multidisciplinary team that will implement a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) cooperative agreement with funding up to $185 million.
The project, called RESPOND, is one of five that will work together to pre-empt or combat the first stages of emerging zoonotic pandemics--diseases that can spread between animals and humans.
]]>
Faculty and graduate students from CEHD will provide monitoring and evaluation of training activities, provided by University experts and partners, with animal and health care workers in potential hot spots (likely located in Southeast Asia, the Congo Basin, and the Amazon Basin).
"We are honored to be part of the University of Minnesota partnership with USAID," says professor David W. Chapman from the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development, who is the primary college liaison on the partnership. "The project is an important piece of the United States' effort to help combat animal-born diseases that could lead to pandemics."
Faculty from the College of Veterinary Medicine, the School of Public Health, the School of Nursing, the Medical School, the College of Education and Human Development, and College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resources Sciences, will be tasked with improving the ability of countries to recognize and respond to new epidemics in areas where ecological relationships - between humans, animals, and the environment - are unstable. Over the course of the five-year project, the RESPOND team will work to improve the training and response capacity for zoonotic disease outbreak identification, investigation, analysis, and control within countries and regions; strive to improve the coordination among public and private interests involved in an outbreak; support in-country outbreak response activities; and introduce new technologies to help improve a country's response to an outbreak.
The College of Veterinary Medicine's new Ecosystem Health program, National Center for Food Protection and Defense, and Center for Animal Health and Food Safety were instrumental in obtaining funds to join RESPOND.
"We are increasingly aware that our health depends on the health of livestock, wildlife, and the environment." said Katey Pelican, head of the Ecosystem Health program, who championed the University's proposal to join the RESPOND team. "Nowhere is this clearer than in the increasing number of diseases that are emerging from animal populations as environmental degradation forces more interactions between wildlife, livestock, and humans. The RESPOND program will provide the University of Minnesota the opportunity to use its unique ability to work across animal and human health disciplines to improve global response to these life threatening outbreaks."
Although members of the RESPOND team will be dealing with diseases that don't yet exist, examples of similar diseases they might try to prevent include SARS, Ebola, and avian influenza.
"As the founder of the Congressional Global Health Caucus, I applaud USAID for recognizing the critical need to address emerging illnesses from a global perspective and to better understand the intersection of human and animal health," said Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum. "The University of Minnesota uniquely brings together the multiple disciplines and experience needed to meet this challenge.
John Deen, associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, will be the director of the project at the University of Minnesota.
]]>
James Reinardy, Ph.D., director of the School of Social Work, has been selected as one of 10 deans/directors to represent the National Association of Deans and Directors at the April 2010 Social Work Congress in Washington D.C. Congress participants represent major professional and educational social work organizations as well as constituent organizations. About 400 participants are selected for the congress, which has the goal of advancing the profession of social work and setting an agenda of imperatives for the future.]]>
Dr. Stacy Ingraham, lecturer in Kinesiology, was interviewed on WCCO-TV on November 4 on the nature of runners' second wind. For runners, it may be the most important part of a long-distance race. For everyday exercisers, it's the boost that comes right after overexertion. To view the full story, go to: http://wcco.com/sports/second.wind.exercise.2.1292513.html]]>
Assistant Professor Charles Miller (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Learning Technologies) was awarded Best Paper at the 2009 AACE E-Learn international conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, on October 28 for his research titled "Role-Based Design: Rethinking Creativity and Innovation in Instructional Design." Along with presenting an improvement to current practice in the field, the goal of the paper and presentation was to stimulate discussion about the contemporary role of designers and the nature of the instructional design process. Dr. Miller's co-authors included Brad Hokanson (University of Minnesota School of Design) and Simon Hooper (Penn State Instructional Systems).]]>
Tucker Center Associate Director, Nicole LaVoi, and affiliated Tucker Center scholar Heather Maxwell are both presenting at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Conference in Ottawa, Canada on November 4-7, 2009.
Juergen Konczak, Ph.D., professor in Kinesiology, will give a talk Wednesday, November 4, on "Lesion-symptom mapping of the human cerebellum." His presentation, part of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience Colloquium Series, will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in Room 2-101, Hasselmo Hall.
Provost Thomas Sullivan today named professor Jean K. Quam as dean of the College of Education and Human Development, subject to approval by the University's Board of Regents at its November meeting. She has served as interim dean of CEHD since October 2008.
Patricia Shannon, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Social Work, was interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio about her work on the mental health of Minnesota refugees. She and Family Social Science Associate Professor Liz Wieling collaborated on the study, which shows that Minnesota refugees want mental health care but can't get it. You can listen to or read the interview on the MPR Web site.]]>
Karen Seashore (Louis) has been named the inaugural holder of the Robert Holmes Beck Chair of Ideas in Education. The first endowed chair of its kind in the United States, the Beck Chair encourages scholarly activity that promotes a better understanding of the conceptual foundations underlying critical issues in education.]]>
Cornelia Ooms Beck established the chair in memory of her husband, Robert Holmes Beck (1918-1991), who was a faculty member at the college from 1947 until his retirement in 1989. He published extensively, writing or editing more than 50 monographs and articles, as well as several books that included Curriculum in the Modern Elementary School; The Three R's Plus; and Beyond Pedagogy, which recounted the history of the College of Education on the occasion of its 75th anniversary in 1980. Beck's scholarship included extensive study of educational systems in other countries. In 1976 he was named a Regents' Professor, the University's highest honor for excellence in teaching, research, and service.
