We are very busy in the Department these days and it is hard to believe another academic year has come and gone. The return to human subjects research has kept many faculty busy in addition to their teaching, advising and service work. The Department welcomed a large group of first-year students in 2021 and increased the number of faculty in the Department. We have an incredible group of faculty and extremely talented and hard-working group of students. It is with great joy that I can announce two faculty members who have been promoted to Full Professor – Congratulations to Heather Tarleton and Todd Shoepe for their promotions! Well-deserved for two extremely hard-working people.
We also reluctantly congratulate Bill McCormack on his retirement from LMU. We wish the entire McCormack family all the best in the next phase of their lives living in Florida. As I said at the Seaver College spring meeting at the end of April, retirement may be the first endeavor that Bill pursues which he is not very good at. For those that know him, it won’t be a surprise for him to get involved in something to keep him busy and rumor has it he has already been asked to teach part-time by his alma mater, University of Central Florida. The good news is that we were able to hire two new faculty members to start in the upcoming academic year. Dr. Robert Musci, who has been with HHSC this past year as a visiting Assistant Professor will join us as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the fall, along with Dr. Caio Sousa. They bring incredible backgrounds in research and teaching, and we look forward to them joining the HHSC and LMU family. You will get to know more about them and their expertise in future newsletters.May 7th was an outstanding day to graduate the class of 2022 and it was great to be back in Sunken Garden for the ceremony. There were 48 HHSC seniors who graduated from the class of 2022. The top scholar in the major was Kayla Stuckenberg and we awarded two graduates, Riley Brown and Shailee Wazana, with outstanding scholar awards for their research with Dr. Cappelli. Jessica Knapick and Ethan Trunfio were also recognized for their outstanding leadership and service in the health sciences. View some photos from our gathering here.
This month Todd Shoepe will be taking over as Department Chair. It has been a true pleasure serving as Chair with such a great group of students, faculty, and staff. This fall I will be teaching within the Department as well as serving as the Research Advisor within the Honors Program at LMU and I am looking forward to the new challenge.
We hope this newsletter finds everyone safe and ready for the summer ahead. We continue our gratitude for all our alumni who carry on in battling the pandemic – thank you for your hard work and dedication! We would love to hear from you about any personal or professional milestones we can include in future newsletters. Should you be interested to learn of ways to collaborate with or support the Department of Health and Human Sciences, please contact Danielle Good, our Senior Administrative Assistant (danielle.good@lmu.edu; 310 338-7885). If you have any questions or want further information about the department, please do not hesitate to reach out at (310) 338-7885 or via email at hhsc@lmu.edu.
Warm Regards,
Hawley Almstedt, Ph.D., R.D.N.
Professor and Interim Department Chair
Department of Health and Human Sciences
