SMHS to celebrate 10 years of public health at UND Homecoming 2022

GRAND FORKS, N.D.--The UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences is celebrating milestone graduates and the 10-year anniversary of its Master of Public Health program during UND's Homecoming 2022 festivities.

Events at the School kick-off with a Continuing Education Symposium from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 30. The multidisciplinary symposium will focus on neurology and feature presentations on stroke, migraine headache, and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, among other topics. The symposium, which is open to all health providers and can be accessed virtually, includes the following presentations:

8:30 a.m. - Welcome/Case presentation
8:35 a.m. - Jau-Shin Lou, M.D. - Interventions in Acute Ischemic Stroke
9 a.m. - Vicki Andvik, M.P.A.S., PA-C - Global Treatment Strategy for Chronic Migraine
9:25 a.m. - Amanda Wilson, P.T. - LSVT BIG Therapy for Neuro Rehab
9:50 a.m. - BREAK
10:05 a.m. - Mandy Meyer, Ph.D. and Jessa Hulteng, Ph.D., M.O.T., O.T.R./L. - Neuroplasticity and Occupational Recovery
10:30 a.m. - Kumi Nagamoto-Combs, Ph.D. - Dissecting the ‘allergy hypothesis’ of neurological disorders:
Does food hypersensitivity affect the brain?
10:55 a.m. - Cindy Janssen, Ph.D., O.T.R./L. and Meridee Danks, D.P.T., N.C.S. - Functional Neurorehabilitation after Stroke: A Case Study
11:20 - Wrap-up

Later that day, between 1 and 3 p.m., the School will host tours of the School of Medicine & Health Sciences building in Grand Forks. Tours will leave from the SMHS lobby every half hour. A virtual 360° building tour is also available online.

Finally, the School will host a Milestone Banquet for SMHS alumni on Friday evening. In addition to honoring alumni, the event provides SMHS faculty and administrators an opportunity to celebrate the tenth birthday of its Master of Public Health (MPH) program, which has grown from a program with only a handful of learners in 2012 to one with more than 80 enrolled students today.

“Our students are involved in everything that we do, and that’s been a priority for us since the beginning,” said Cristina Oancea, Ph.D., an associate professor at the School teaching in the MPH program. “The placements that our students get, oftentimes even before graduation, are incredible and the result of what those organizations see our students doing here. A lot of times we’ll hire students as graduate assistants, and then, before you know it, someone like the North Dakota Department of Health wants them. That story has happened so many times.”

Homecoming 2022 wraps up for the SMHS on Saturday, Oct. 1, when it participates in the annual Homecoming Parade, which begins at 9 a.m. and follows a route along University Ave. between Columbia Rd. and Stanford Rd.

# # #

Brian James Schill
Director, Office of Alumni & Community Relations
UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences
701.777.6048 direct | 701.777.4305 office
brian.schill@UND.edu | www.UND.edu