Tammy Cupit has been named the director of nursing research and will facilitate research within the UTMB Health System by providing research education and study coordination.
Dr. James S. Goodwin has been appointed vice president and chief research officer at UTMB. Goodwin, who holds the George and Cynthia Mitchell Distinguished Chair in Geriatric Medicine, joined UTMB in 1992.
“Dr. Goodwin will work with the research community to develop and implement a strategic plan for research and to develop new programs of excellence in translational research,” said Dr. Danny O. Jacobs, provost and senior vice president. “He is uniquely experienced and qualified to guide our research programs.”
During the past 15 years the UTMB Sealy Center on Aging, which Goodwin directs, increased its external research funding from approximately $1 million to more than $13 million yearly. He will step down as the center’s director to assume his new role on Feb. 1.
Seventy Kingwood High School juniors and seniors – part of the school’s Advanced Placement Biology program – recently visited the Galveston National Lab. The students heard from scientists, engineering, veterinary and biosafety teams as part of their study of emerging diseases. This was one of the largest school groups to visit the GNL and they are already planning to make this visit an annual activity.
An engineer and a scientist from the Institute of Medical Biology in Kunming, China trained with the GNL’s National Biocontainment Training Center last month.
Dr. Longding Liu and Qing Dai travelled to the GNL to review practices in place as a part of a two week NBTC biocontainment engineering fellowship. They worked alongside GNL biocontainment engineer Miguel Grimaldo to review various aspects of facility operation and management before returning home to their new biocontainment laboratory under construction at the Institute in Kunming. We are honored to have these distinguished guests join the GNL team and look forward to the collaborative opportunities these associations bring.
Each year, UTMB has been fortunate to deliver the very first baby for Galveston County. As mothers come and begin their labor here on 12/31, the department becomes excited with the anticipation of who will have the first baby. For the past eight years, the Nurseries Staff have hosted a baby shower for not just the first baby, but for all babies born on January 1-2. Jolene Leblanc, as well as her colleagues, has taken the lead in putting out donation boxes, creating gift bags and coordinating gifts for boys and girls.
This year, we once again had the first baby of the county; Baby Daniel came into the world just 25 minutes after midnight. Thanks to the generosity of our UTMB family, we were able to provide families with homemade quilts, blankets and hats in addition to many other necessities. In addition, The March of Dimes Foundation provided a car seat for one of our first babies. We appreciate all who donated to help us get our first families of 2014 off to a great start!
Congratulations to the newly-elected Employee Advisory Council (EAC) members:
Frank Valiulis, representing Institutional Support staff
Kevin Moore, representing Correctional Managed Care employees
Susanne Johnston, representing the Academic Enterprise
Souby George, representing Hospital and Clinic staff