Making the Rounds

News Briefs for Faculty of CMSRU

February 2014

In This Issue

Faculty in the Media

Faculty & Student News

How to Submit Story Ideas

March LCME Visit

Director of Faculty Affairs Named

Students Empower Local Women through Language Classes

Focus on Faculty: Dr. Thomas Ferraro

Summer Research Projects Sought

CMSRU Breaking News!

Call for PULSE Summer Research Projects

CMSRU's Office of Diversity and Community Affairs is preparing for its annual Pre-Medical Urban Leaders Summer Enrichment (PULSE) program. This 6-week enrichment course, scheduled to run from June 9th to July 25th, offers college students the opportunity to gain academic, clinical, research, and service experiences that encourage interests in careers and education in medicine and science. In the past, faculty and clinicians have been a great help with mentoring students in the area of research, and volunteers are needed again with this year's program.

If you are able to serve as a research mentor during this summer's PULSE program, and have a particular research project or area you would like to focus on, please email Octavia Nash, Program Coordinator at nash@rowan.edu.

Faculty In the Media

Perry J. Weinstock, MD, FACC, FNLA, Associate Professor of Medicine, was among the experts interviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer for a recent article highlighting a wide range of developments and innovations in the treatment of heart disease. Click HERE to read the article.

Steven W. Trzeciak, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine and Emergency Medicine, was featured in a radio interview with WHYY-FM for a story about how Camden's high tech and medical institutions are leading the way for the city's revitalization. Click HERE to read or listen to the story.

NJ Spotlight interviewed Lori Feldman-Winter, MD, MPH, Professor of Pediatrics, about the new legislation which will require hospitals with obstetric services to develop plans to improve breastfeeding practices and remove obstacles to breastfeeding among other initiatives. Click HERE to read the article.

The Courier-Post recently interviewed Saifuddin T. Mama, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology, about urinary incontinence and other pelvic floor issues in women. Click HERE to read the article.

Faculty & Student News

Kathy Williams, a second year student at CMSRU, was recently awarded a scholarship from National Medical Fellowships, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the number of underrepresented minority physicians and other professionals in the healthcare workforce in order to improve access to quality healthcare in medically underserved communities. The scholarship was made possible by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.

Michael E. DiSanto, PhD,

Associate Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Sciences, was the Co-Scientific Chair for the 19th Annual Fall Scientific Meeting of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America held this past November. In addition, as Chairman of the Basic Science Committee, he co-coordinated and co-moderated and presented at the CME session "Basic Science Evidence for the Link between Erectile Dysfunction and Cardiometabolic Syndrome." In addition, Dr. DiSanto also moderated the Basic Science Poster Session at this important academic conference.

Meredith Crisp, MD, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, recently provided the keynote address at the Moorestown Liberty Bell Bank's Ovarian Cancer Awareness Event.

Jeffrey Brenner, MD, Instructor of Medicine, will provide the keynote address at the NJ Spotlight Conference: Accountable Care Organizations and Healthcare Delivery System Reform. This February 28th event at the RWJ Hamilton Center for Health & Wellness in Mercerville, NJ, will explore the ways that primary healthcare providers, hospitals, and clinics are rising to meet the challenges of a costly and possibly outmoded healthcare delivery system through accountable care organizations (ACO). Click HERE for attendance information.

We Want Your News!

If you have news related to your position at CMSRU that you would like to share with your fellow clinical and basic science faculty members, please submit it to coopermednews@rowan.edu

and someone from our marketing team will contact you.

LCME to Visit in March

The LCME site visit for CMSRU's provisional accreditation is scheduled for March 9-12, 2014. During this milestone event for our medical school, three site visitors will be attending meetings at CMSRU with dozens of our faculty, students, administrative leadership and staff, and will also be touring the school and Cooper's clinical teaching sites, including the hospital, the MDAnderson Cooper Cancer Center, and Three Cooper Plaza.

The process for this visit has been a couple years in the making. In December, Vice Dean Annette Reboli, MD, officially submitted approximately 3000 pages of documents to the LCME, including a database, an Independent Student Analysis, a Planning Self-study, and a variety of supporting documents. The database included detailed answers to questions in five areas: Institutional Setting, Educational Program, Medical Students Policies and Procedures, Faculty Policies and Procedures, and Educational Resources. The self-study is a more reflective document in which we discussed our strengths, weaknesses, and quality improvement.

"This site visit is the second of three major steps toward our accreditation," explains Dr. Reboli. "I believe we have done an excellent job with our preparation to date, and I'm confident that our team will help us highlight the exceptional education we are providing to our students."

CMSRU Welcomes Director of Faculty Affairs & Educational Operations

Rachael Berget has joined CMSRU as Director of Faculty Affairs and Educational Operations. In her new role, she will serve as liaison between the medical school and its nearly 500 clinical and biomedical science faculty members, providing operational oversight for the Office of Faculty Affairs.

Ms. Berget joins CMSRU from Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was Associate Director of Faculty Professional Development. There, she was responsible for the planning and delivery of all faculty professional development activities; designed special programming for the Association of Senior and Emeritus Faculty; and created and co-administered the school's Minority Faculty Development Program. Ms. Berget also brings many years of experience from her work at the medical schools of University of Houston, Texas and University of Pittsburgh.

"One of my goals at CMSRU is to ensure that faculty members are fully aware of CMSRU's policies and procedures for promotion," explains Ms. Berget. "I am more than happy to meet face-to-face with new and current faculty members to help them plan the best way to achieve their academic career goals."

Ms. Berget holds a Masters in Education degree, specializing in Higher Education Administration, from the University of Pittsburgh. She has also completed coursework for her Ed.D. requirements in Higher Education Management at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at 856-956-2781 or berget@rowan.edu.

Impacting the Community: Med Students Teach English to Local Residents

Every Thursday, three first-year medical students from CMSRU walk a block to the Center for Family Services' Promise Neighborhood Family Success Center, where they teach five Spanish-only speaking women the basics of conversational English.

The students, Cameron Roth, Christopher Perez and Jefferson Benites, teach English as a Second Language (ESL) classes as their service learning project - 40 hours per academic year of non-medical related volunteer work in the City of Camden that is required of every CMSRU student. The class was initiated by the students, who believed there were many Camden residents who would benefit. It is free of charge and anyone interested in learning English is welcome, regardless of their experience with the language. All of the current participants are mothers, and they are all beginner English speakers.

"Learning English will really help these women navigate life in the United States, and help them feel more empowered in English-only situations, such as talking to their children's teachers or their families' doctors," explained Mr. Roth.

Click HERE to read more about this special service learning program and the first-year CMSRU students who developed it.

Focus on Faculty: Thomas N. Ferraro, PhD

Thomas N. Ferraro, PhD, joined CMSRU in May 2013 as Professor of Biomedical Sciences. He is actively engaged in many facets of the school's educational, research and service missions. He teaches pharmacology, neuroscience and genetics to first and second year medical students, including lecture, laboratory and practical sessions. He is also an Active Learning Group facilitator for CMSRU medical students and is a member of CMSRU's Phase 1 Curriculum Subcommittee. In addition, Dr. Ferraro serves on the medical school admissions committee

Dr. Ferraro earned his PhD in Pharmacology from Thomas Jefferson University and served as a member of its faculty, eventually as Associate Professor. In 1997, Dr. Ferraro moved his laboratory to the University of Pennsylvania where he became a member of the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior in the Department of Psychiatry and served as Assistant Dean for Animal Research until his appointment at CMSRU.

Dr. Ferraro is recognized internationally as an expert in pharmacology, neuroscience and genetics. His teaching resume includes many years as lecturer, laboratory instructor and small-group leader for medical students, graduate students and medical residents, both at Jefferson Medical School and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. A prolific researcher, Dr. Ferraro's laboratory has been funded continually since 1994 by the National Institutes of Health, with grant awards totaling over $10 million for projects that focus on neurological and psychiatric illnesses. In addition, he has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific research papers. Current projects involve genetic mouse models of epilepsy, opioid addiction and neurodevelopmental disorders such as Rett Syndrome. As part of a collaborative research team that includes investigators from the University of Pennsylvania and other institutions, two NIH grants were awarded to Dr. Ferraro in 2013, one to study somatic DNA alterations in the brain of individuals with schizophrenia and another to study similar genetic alterations in individuals with cocaine addiction.

Dr. Ferraro is a past-president and current member of the council of the Philadelphia Area Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience. His volunteer work includes presentations at local elementary high schools about careers in biomedical science. Dr. Ferraro serves as the chairperson of an NIH advisory panel on Research Training and Career Development and is a research consultant to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Coatesville, Pa.

Mentor a CMSRU Student this Summer

It's that time of year again, when we begin looking for summer scholarly development opportunities for our students, and rewarding mentoring opportunities for our faculty.

Last year, two thirds of CSMRU's current M2 students took part in research projects on the health sciences campus - at CMSRU, Cooper, Coriell, and elsewhere. The projects ranged from basic and clinical research, to education research, performance improvement, and population health projects.

As was the case last year, many of our first year students are interested in pursuing a scholarly project during their 2014 summer break. If you were a mentor in the past and/or are interested in being a mentor for 2014, please click HERE to complete the survey as soon as possible. Descriptions of research opportunities will be made available to the students by the end of February. For questions, contact Harry Mazurek, PhD, Associate Dean for Research, at Mazurek-harry@cooperhealth.edu

About Cooper Medical School of Rowan University

CMSRU is committed to providing humanistic education in the art and science of medicine within a scientific and scholarly community in which inclusivity, excellence in patient care, innovative teaching, research and service to our community are valued.

Core values include a commitment to diversity, personal mentorship, professionalism, collaboration and mutual respect, civic responsibility, patient advocacy and lifelong learning.

Cooper Medical School of Rowan University

401 S. Broadway

Camden, New Jersey 08103

856-361-2800