Congratulations to Dr. Loretta Dillon who is the recipient of the Library Information Literacy Course Enhancement Grant on April 23!

During the Summer Semester 2014, Dr. Dillon will teach the DPT Course, Evidence Based Practice in which the students ask clinically relevant background and foreground questions related to diagnosis, prognosis, intervention, outcomes, and clinical predication rules. Dr. Dillon states that her goal for the course is "to improve the students' search strategies to be more efficient, and retrieve and evaluate the studies so that they can apply their findings appropriately."

Dr. Dillon will partner with UTEP Librarian, Angela Lucero who will provide hands-on guidance and coaching for the students in how to use scholarly databases like PubMed, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library databases, and possibly other resources to supplement their searches, such as DynaMed. Ms. Lucero will be in the class on several occasions and hold office hours in the Campbell Building. Ms. Lucero will review the anatomy of a research article as well as provide in-person instruction sessions and coordinated activities to prepare the students for the course's assignments.

Because of this partnership, the students will learn to formulate clinically relevant questions, conduct an efficient literature search, retrieve and read the articles, interpret the evidence with an understanding of research methodology, and incorporate the evidence into practice. It is expected that once the DPT students graduate and become physical therapists that they will continue to hone their information literacy skills to effectively engage in EBP and to improve upon their clinical decision making. This ability to continue to learn from continues consumption of research literature will keep these new practitioners effective and knowledgeable throughout their careers.

Congratulations to Dr. Loretta Dillon and Ms. Angela Lucero for excellent work, rewarded! .

Lori Torres, CLS Program Director, received the 2014 Texas Omicron Sigma award from the Texas Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (TACLS) on March 22, 2014. Omicron Sigma is the Honor Roll for Outstanding Service and provides lasting recognition of those dedicated members who volunteer their personal resources, time and energy to TASCLS..

The UTEP CLS Program is proud to announce that the CLS student bowl team has once again placed in the top 3 teams in Texas. The CLS program has been competing since 2007 and each year has been recognized as one of the top 3 teams in Texas. This year the CLS students attended the Texas Association for Clinical Laboratory Science (TACLS) state meeting in Corpus Christi and competed against other Texas CLS programs. Competitions were held from March 19 - 21, 2014 and this year the students placed 3rd. The team members were Eduardo Avila, Angie Betancourt, Ivonne Carranza, Renee Enriquez and Paula Moncayo. Congratulations to these talented students!

2014 UTEP CLS Student Bowl Team from left to right: Eduardo Avila (team Captain), Paula Moncayo, Ivonne Carranza, Angie Betancourt and Rene Enriquez.

The Consulate General of Mexico in El Paso and the University of Texas of El Paso College of Health Sciences recognized organizations and members of the Ciudad Juarez - El Paso community who had assisted the Consulate in the outreach efforts of the Ventanilla de Salud Project. Dr. Eva Moya and Dr. Silvia Chavez of UTEP's Social Work Department direct the Ventanilla de Salud. The El Paso Ventanilla de Salud is one of 50 Ventanillas in the United States, launched to provide health and related information to Mexican citizens and other visitors to the Consulate's office on San Antonio Street in downtown El Paso. Services include monthly clinic days,health screenings like diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, BMI, EKG, and HIV testing. Information about health insurance coverage, nutrition, mental health, infectious and chronic disease, intimate partner violence, family finance, and related topics. Close to 150 members of the El Paso community and 50 agencies were recognized, including staff from University medical Center of El Paso, City of El Paso Department of Health, Aliviane, Las Americas Immigration Advocacy Center, the Lion's Club of El Paso, Paso de Norte Civil Rights Project, and the faculty, staff and students of the UTEP College of Health Sciences. Consul General Jacob Prado and UTEP College of Health Sciences Dean Kathleen Curtis presided over the awards ceremony.

On April 11, 2014 The College of Health Sciences celebrated the Centennial with 100 Minutes of Dancing and a Healthy Living Expo. Dance lessons and healthy snacks were provided to over 100 guests who enjoyed dancing and music from the past 10 decades. Guests also participated in a self-guided tour through the College of Health Sciences (CHS) building, which included a Healthy Living Expo involving the expertise of CHS Academic Programs.

CHS Academic Program participation included:

• Kinesiology students providing body composition analysis
• Clinical Laboratory Sciences providing a display of microscopes and interactive lab activities
• Master of Rehabilitation Counseling providing information and video on how people with disabilities can stay active with wheelchair aerobics
• Occupational Therapy students provided hand strength testing and adaptive equipment demonstrations
• Physical Therapy students presented on incorporating physical activity into daily living using the "Texercise" Texas publication
• Public Health Sciences partnered with student organization, Eta Sigma Gamma to provide a tour through the experimental food laboratory and information on healthy eating
• Social Work students provided information on Substance Abuse
• Speech Language Pathology and Cooperative Pharmacy Program provided program information

The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health has awarded the UTEP Department of Social Work a grant in the amount of $172,142 to advance the education of bi-lingual social workers in mental health. The project director is Professor Mark Lusk and the co-director is Dr. Sam Terrazas.

The social work department has been funded in the past by the Hogg Foundation to train MSW students who speak fluent Spanish and who intend to practice mental health work in Texas. This two year grant cycle emphasizes technical assistance to Texas schools of social work to improve b-lingual mental health education. The project emphasizes the teaching of clinical mental health intervention in the Spanish language and the replication of a course taught at UTEP by social work faculty Dr. Mark Lusk and Dr. Silvia Chavez. This class uses native speaker standardized patients to work with students as they rehearse clinical skills with Hispanic clients.

The project will also develop training modules on mental health practice with Hispanics in conjunction with Dr. Sergio Aguilar Gaxiola, professor of medicine at the University of California at Davis.

Professor Lusk observes, "There is an acute shortage of licensed mental health providers in Texas and the United States who are trained to provide clinical services in Spanish. In addition, too few clinicians a have been trained in culturally competent social work with Hispanic clients."

The award is for two years and also includes student stipends for Master of Social Work students

The Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA) held their annual convention in Houston from Feb. 27-Mar. 1. Suzanne Crow, SLP Lecturer, presented on supervision and mentorship and 4 graduate SLP students (Alexandrea Burciaga, Christopher Roosmalen, Caroline Esparza and Jesica Guerrero) presented their research in poster sessions.

Nadia Arriazola-Flores, graduate student in the speech-language pathology program, received the 2014 Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA) Young Leadership Award at the TSHA Annual Convention in Houston. This award is intended to recognize current students or young professionals in speech-language pathology or audiology who have demonstrated leadership abilities and show potential to become leaders of the TSHA.

Members of the MHIRT Advisory Council met at UTEP during April 9-13, 2014. Representing MHIRT international partners were Dr. J.K Rao (Panama), Dr. Juan M. Pascale (Panama), Dr. Edmundo Estevez (Ecuador), Dr. Octavio Miranda, (Ecuador) and Dr. Fernando Morales (Costa Rica). Also in attendance were UTEP representatives on the Council including Dr. Maria Duarte- Gardea, Dr. Delfina Dominguez, Dr. Igor Almeida, and Dr. Christina Sobin. During the 3- day meeting, some of the topics discussed were dissemination, international mentor involvement and development, and program re-design based on the 2013 evaluation report. Each of the international partners made a presentation on the work and research agenda of their respective institutions. International partners were also hosted during a UTEP campus tour and numerous on-campus visits based on individual interests of each international partner. Special thanks to all UTEP faculty and leadership staff who assisted with the visit including, Mr. Beto Lopez, Dr. Bess, Sirmon-Taylor, Dr. Elizabeth Walsh, Dr. Igor Almeida, Ms. Claudia Rivers, Dr. Rodrigo Armijos, Dr. Meg Weigel, Blanca Carrasco, David Vizcaino, Rosa Megurian-Faria, Malu Picard-Ami and Dr. Joao Ferreira-Pinto.

From left to right: Dr. Edmundo Estevez (Ecuador), Dr. Kathleen A. Curtis (UTEP), Dr. Octavio Miranda (Ecuador), Dr. Delfina Dominguez (UTEP), Ms. Letty Paez (UTEP), Dr. Juan Pascale (Panama), Dr. J.K. Rao (Panama), Dr. Igor Almeida (UTEP), Dr. Maria Duarte (UTEP), Dr. Fernando Morales (Costa Rica).

MHIRT 2013 students presented the research projects in which they participated during Summer 2013 at the 4th Annual Campus Office of Undergraduate Research Initiatives (COURI) Research Symposium held on April 25-26, 2014 at the UTEP Undergraduate Learning Center. Presenting their research projects were Ms. Jasmine Guerra (Costa Rica), Elizabeth Preza (Costa Rica), Viridiana Sigala (Costa Rica), Ricardo Parra ( Costa Rica), Angie Betancourt (Panama), and Esmirna Corona, Areli Guardo, Alexandra Hernandez (Ecuador). MHIRT Students receiving recognition for their poster presentations were Jasmine Guerra and Elizabeth Preza. Congratulations to them and all of the students who submitted their research project posters.