USU Preventive Medicine & Biostatistics Graduation Promotes Future Leaders

UNITED STATES

06.29.2023

Story by Hadiyah Brendel 

Uniformed Services University

Nearly 40 graduates of the Uniformed Services University’s (USU) Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics (PMB) department Master’s degree programs were honored June 15 at their 2023 graduation ceremony. PMB faculty, staff, alumni, graduates, their families and friends attended the ceremony, held in Sanford Auditorium, which was emceed by Dr. Cara Olsen, vice chair of PMB Graduate Programs.

PMB supports the public health of the uniformed services and the nation through education, research, leadership, and service. The department upholds their mission with nine degree programs, two graduate medical education residency programs, two graduate certificate programs and 128 graduate courses.

The PMB department conferred degrees to 37 graduates – 25 received Master of Public Health degrees, two received Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and seven received Master of Health Administration and Policy degrees. Two degrees conferred for the first time this year were the Master of Science in Public Health, presented to two graduates, and the Master of Science in Vector Biology and Parasitology, presented to one graduate.

The official party included Dr. Eric Elster, professor and dean, USU’s F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, Dr. Saibal Dey, associate dean for Graduation Education, Army Col. (Dr.) James Mancuso, chair of the PMB department, and retired Air Force Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Douglas Robb, medical chair at the National Defense University and a clinical professor in the PMB department. Robb served as the guest speaker for the ceremony.

During his remarks, Mancuso asked the graduates to remember they are now the faculty’s “colleagues and peers in the practice of public health.” He called on them to look out for and support each other. "The public health community is small and many of you will no doubt come across each other again, some in your next assignment, others during a deployment, and I'm sure even some of you will even come back here to USU as faculty," Mancuso said.

While the class faced additional stressors navigating the program during lockdown, Robb noted in his address that pandemic and situations like it was their purpose. “So that they will be able to respond to and mitigate the consequences of the next pandemic, the next infectious disease, or the next medical [event] that will envelop this earth. That's why you're here," Robb said.

The community feel of the program was evident during the ceremony. Robb walked from behind the podium, addressing graduates by name and asking the mission of their respective military services, including a student from the Canadian Armed Forces. Graduates laughed as a few helped each other to recall the once often repeated statements.

Robb tied their responses together, saying it was the mission of the faculty to educate and develop health professionals, scientists, researchers, and leaders to “support the mission, whichever mission that may be.”

He added some advice, “take care of your people and your patients, and your people and patients will take care of the mission.” Additionally, Robb asked them to remember a repeated saying of his: “mission first, people always.”

Army Sgt. 1st Class Jasmine Walker received the Esprit de Corps award. This award, presented by the faculty, recognizes Walker as an outstanding student who demonstrated exceptional leadership abilities in the public health profession. Public Health Service Lt. Cmdr. Andrew O’Carroll received the CAPT Richard R. Hooper Memorial Award. The award, named after a former PMB professor, recognizes outstanding public health research by a graduate fellow.

Additionally, Mancuso presented graduates and faculty with their inductions into the Psi Chapter of Delta Omega, the Honorary Society in Public Health. Student recipients of the honor included Public Health Service Cmdr. (Dr.) Jane Baumblatt, Air Force Lt. Col. (Dr.) Keith Beam, and Air Force Lt. Col. (Dr.) Nicole Hsu, while faculty members inducted included School of Medicine Chief of Staff Dr. Kevin Jackson, and teaching fellows Dr. Jose Ortiz, and Dr. Teshome Tafes.

The Master of Health Administration and Policy (MHAP) Student Award recipients were Navy Ltjg. Erick Monda, for the Barbour/Mittelman Award, and Army Capt. Robert Cockerham, who received the Larry Lewin Leadership Award.

After the graduates’ degrees were conferred, Dr. David Cruess presented an award named in his honor. Cruess was a long time faculty member and graduate program director who received the Outstanding Educator seven times before his retirement in 2021. He presented the David F. Cruess Outstanding Educator Award to Dr. Anwar Ahmed.

Also acknowledged were faculty members who have left or are leaving the department. Olsen, on behalf of the department, thanked them for their service to the USU community and wished Drs. Bradley Boetig, Danny Ellis, Pamela Krahl, Stephen Lewandowski, Robert Lipsitz, Michael Stevens, and Mancuso well in their future endeavors.

USU Brigade Chaplain Navy Lt. Cmdr. Antony Kaniaru noted how the ceremony was one of the “happiest and most relaxed” that he’s been to. At the end of the ceremony, Kaniaru charged the graduates not to “shrink back” when the next pandemic and health crises emerges, but to instead “rise to enhance protection, prevention, and readiness.”

With the conclusion of the 2023 ceremony, PMB graduated a total of 898 Master of Public Health, 80 Master of Science in Public Health, 67 Master of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, 108 Master of Health Administration Policy, 26 Doctor of Philosophy, 33 Doctor of Public Health students, and the first two Master of Public Health & Tropical Medicine students and first Master of Science in Vector Biology & Parasitology student.

(For more information of USU’s Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics graduate programs, visit medschool.usuhs.edu/pmb)

• Date Taken: 06.29.2023
• Date Posted: 07.12.2023 12:01
• Story ID: 448996
• Location: US