It is a great privilege to be the guest greeter for this, the fourteenth edition of the newsletter! I’ll explain why I get the honor later! It was an incredible gift to get back to in-person instruction this semester. The faculty, staff, and student vaccination rates were extremely high across the University, keeping the number of COVID-19 cases relatively low. We were able to conduct all of our classes and labs in-person. I think we have mastered teaching with our masks on, although Chris Cappelli (’06) took his Public Health class out to Sunken Gardens in the early afternoons to enjoy the fresh air and have a beautiful change of scenery! Click here to view some photos of our students enjoying fitness testing in Exercise Physiology Lab and some of our Medical Terminology students presenting their posters at the end of the semester.
We welcomed back Stephanie Beaudion (’10), as a Visiting Assistant Professor this semester. Steph continues to do a great job in whatever classes she is tasked to teach! This semester it was Nutrition, coordinating and teaching a section of Anatomy and Physiology II lab, a section of Strength Lab, and coordinating the Internships. Steph continued her work as the point of contact for interns conducting COVID contact tracing for Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Joining us as a Visiting Assistant Professor this semester was Dr. Hannah Dove, DPT. Hannah has worked with us in the past as a part-time instructor, but it was a great treat to have her with us full-time! In addition, Dr. Rob Musci, Ph.D., who just finished time as a post-doc researcher at the University of Utah joined us as a Visiting Assistant Professor. Hannah taught Lower Extremity Evaluation, Anatomy and Physiology II Lab, Healthcare Administration, and Strength and Conditioning Lab. Rob taught a variety of courses, including Kinesiology, Health, and Anatomy and Physiology II Labs. They did a great job – thank you Hannah and Rob! Rob will be back with us in the spring supporting our efforts in Anatomy and Physiology I Labs, Health, and Nutrition.
We’re getting back into our human participant research this semester. Our longitudinal research project with the men’s and women’s cross-country teams came to a halt as a couple of testing cycles were missed during the pandemic. Hawley Almstedt has begun work with several students examining bone mineral density and dietary habits in women athletes in aquatic-based sports, such as water polo and swimming. Todd Shoepe has begun preliminary work on a research project with several students examining blood flow restriction training and its potential impact on bone mineral density. Jen Roper is deep into data collection on a project examining running cadence and foot plant. The lab spaces have become very busy these days!
The reason I get to be the guest greeter this edition is I have decided to retire at the end of the spring semester. Todd is leading the search committee, and is joined by Jen and Yong Woo An, to identify my replacement. It has been a true pleasure to work with such an incredible group of faculty and staff in the Department the past eight years. It was fun working and doing research with a very talented group of students. Hopefully, I was able to help the Department grow and provide some mentoring to a few students over the years.
We hope this newsletter finds everyone safe and ready for the Christmas season. We want to thank all our alumni, who continue to battle this pandemic, for their 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.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
