It is hard to believe the semester has already come and gone! It has been a very active semester for the Department, with a lot of students doing some incredible work! We recently graduated 40 great students from the Class of 2019. I am convinced they will go out and do incredible things following graduation. As usual we have a number of students headed off to pursue graduate training in Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Medical School, Masters Programs in Physician Assistant, Public Health, and Nutrition Science, and a few pursuing Nursing careers. In addition, we have students headed out to perform service prior to continuing their education.
What are the odds of two members of a small Department having twins in the same semester? Well it happened! Both Sarah Strand and Stephanie Beaudion had twins this semester, Sarah in February and Stephanie in April. We are so excited to welcome Annika Dwight Strand-Dunham and Evelyn Dean Strand-Dunham as well as Knox Beaudion and Crew Beaudion to our roster!
It is a great pleasure to announce that we hired a new faculty member who will start this fall. Christopher Cappelli, Ph.D., will join us in August. We are very excited to have Chris joining the HHSC Team. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience with him. He is a graduate of LMU, class of 2006, earned his Masters of Public Health from USC, and completed his doctoral work at Claremont Graduate University in Health Promotion Science with a concentration in Neurocognitive Sciences. His research interests include neurocognitive and neurobiological systems and brain structures associated with implicit and control processes in various health behaviors. A full biography will be included in the fall newsletter.
A number of our students worked hard at research projects over the year and were able to showcase their work at the LMU Undergraduate Research Symposium again this semester. We had 12 students present their research at this year’s Symposium. Topics ranged from assessing quadriceps/hamstring ratios to wearable fitness trackers to body fat composition in college-aged students. It is truly amazing to see the level of research the students are involved in. And a big thank you to their faculty mentors.
We have been a little short-handed this semester! Todd Shoepe taught in Bonn, Germany this semester and Hawley Almstedt is on sabbatical. Add in Sarah and Stephanie being out and it is kind of quiet in the halls of the first floor of the Life Sciences Building! We were able to hire Dr. Gregg Mallett, DC for the semester teaching Nutrition, Health, and Anatomy and Physiology Lab courses. Additionally, we were able to bring in Suchandra Ghosh to fill-in for Stephanie as lab associate until Stephanie returns this summer. Suchandra has come in and done a great job supporting our lab classes.
Well, I can’t believe it has been three years since I accepted the position of Department Chair. It is time to turn the reigns over and Sarah Strand will be taking over as Department Chair in mid-May. It has been a great three years, we have grown in number in both faculty and students within the Department and are looking at continued growth in the upcoming years. The Department is very strong and a popular major for LMU students. I want to thank the faculty and staff for their support over these three years and give an extra Thank You to Danielle Good for her tireless work in keeping the Department rolling on a daily basis!
Keep sending us your updates on what is happening in your lives. Should you be interested to learn of ways to financially support the Department of Health and Human Sciences, please contact Lynn Witherspoon, Director of Development (lynn.witherspoon@lmu.edu; 310 338-7856). If you have any questions or want further information about the department, please do not hesitate to contact us at (310) 338-7885 or via email at hhsc@lmu.edu.
