UMDNJ faculty members participated recently in Teacher Connection, a Liberty Science Center professional development program for K-12 teachers in districts across the state. They discussed Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in school settings and what teachers can do in the classroom to educate their students about preventing infections.
President William F. Owen, Jr. and members of the UMDNJ management team attended a meeting with U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie on February 20 at UMDNJ-New Jersey Dental School in Newark. The session provided an opportunity to hear reflections on the conclusion of the Deferred Prosecution Agreement and to discuss plans for accelerating success in a post-Federal Monitor environment.
Christie acknowledged that UMDNJ is in a much different place from when he came here more than two years ago and characterized the change as "extraordinary." He noted the importance of Governor Corzine's expansion of the University Board of Trustees and expressed great confidence in the current leadership of the institution, and in the commitment of Dr. Owen, "someone who came to the job with his eyes wide open to what the challenges are." Also providing observations on the transformation of the University were UMDNJ Board Chairperson Robert Del Tufo, and John Inglesino, representing Federal Monitor Herbert Stern.
President Owen reinforced the findings of the Federal Monitor that UMDNJ "has good, decent, very dedicated people who work to fulfill our mission every day for the people of New Jersey."
New Jersey's Commissioner of Health and Senior Services, Heather Howard, became the newest member of the UMDNJ Board of Trustees at its February 19 meeting in New Brunswick. An attorney, Howard has 15 years of policy experience at the state and federal levels in the areas of children and family issues, women’s health, hospital and physician regulation, health programs for vulnerable populations, and efforts to expand health insurance coverage.
Prior to her nomination as Commissioner, Howard was Governor’s Corzine’s Policy Counsel. She worked closely with the Governor’s Commission on Rationalizing Healthcare Resources, a group studying the state’s financially stressed healthcare delivery system, and played a key role in the successful effort to protect NJ FamilyCare, the state’s health insurance program for low-income children and families, from federal cuts.
Dr. Jason Richardson, assistant professor of environmental and occupational medicine at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, is one of this year’s recipients of the Outstanding New Environmental Sciences (ONES) award granted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS), a component of the National Institutes of Health. The five-year, $2.3 million grant will support Richardson’s research into pesticide exposure as a potential risk factor for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.
According to Richardson, ADHD is rapidly becoming a significant public health issue, with approximately 7 to 12 percent of children in the United States currently affected. Although genetic factors appear to play a role in ADHD, no single gene has been unequivocally linked to the disease. Thus, complex gene-gene or gene-environmental interactions, along with environmental exposures, may underlie a significant number of cases. However, there have been few studies that have focused on environmental factors in ADHD.
