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SHS Wins Major Health Insurance Subcontract
Nominations Due for 2007 SHS Awards
Jette Retires From SHS
Millicent Gorham ‘76 Selected as 2006-07 Dotson Scholar
SHS Honors Colloquium
SHS Wins Major Health Insurance Subcontract
The Center for Health Policy Research at the School for Health Studies recently won a subcontract to help evaluate state efforts to expand coverage to uninsured populations.
According to Robert Coulam, PhD, JD, research professor and director of the center, “the challenge is to evaluate the Health Insurance Flexibility and Accountability (HIFA) initiative.” HIFA allows states to adjust their Medicaid programs to cover uninsured populations. The SHS subcontract is the primary federal effort to measure the state initiatives, to determine if they have reduced the rate or number of uninsured.
Simmons will work with The University of Minnesota and the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University on the project. The research is being funded by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency that administers the Medicare and Medicaid programs. A final report is due to Congress in August 2008.
For the latest project updates, click here.
Nominations Due for 2007 SHS Awards
The School for Health Studies is currently accepting nominations for the following awards. All nomination materials should be submitted by December 31, 2006 to Sandra Northrup, Administrative Manager, School for Health Studies, Simmons College, 300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115. You also may e-mail nominations to sandra.northrup@simmons.edu. All materials submitted will be treated confidentially.
Click here for award descriptions
Jette Retires From SHS
By Sarah Zengo
A lot has changed since Associate Dean Diane Jette ’72 was an undergraduate student at Simmons. She remembers curfews and dress codes, and a publicly radical student body that protested on campus against the Kent State shootings and the Vietnam War.
Retiring from her 25-year tenure at the College this year, Jette reflected on her time at Simmons, the physical therapy department which she led, and the many students she taught.
“It’s really been my interaction with students that has inspired me the most over the years,” said Jette. “I’ve been lucky to have the most spectacular, cool bunch of students that a faculty member could ask for.”
According to colleagues, Jette’s energetic and adaptable nature has been one of the hallmarks of her Simmons career. Her ability to recognize new opportunities and to innovate helped the physical therapy curriculum evolve into a modern program that fits the needs of the ever-changing health care world.
Jette’s forward thinking brought many triumphs to Simmons. Thanks to her vision, the physical therapy department launched the doctorate of physical therapy (DPT) program in 2000. The program was one of the first 20 in the country. She also worked closely with Lynn Foord-May, director of SHS Online Learning, to develop the DPT Bridge Program, an online post-professional doctoral program.
“Diane’s intelligence, willingness to listen, and sense of vision was always extremely valuable,” said Foord-May. Jette and her family moved to Vermont this summer where Jette will begin a new position at the University of Vermont.
Millicent Gorham '76 Selected as 2006-07 Dotson Scholar
No stranger to Simmons, Millicent Gorham '76, the executive director of the National Black Nurses Association, Inc., has been selected as the 2006-07 Dotson Visiting Scholar at the School for Health Studies. Gorham, who was on campus this June to accept the 2006 Simmons College Alumnae Achievement Award, will visit the College in October to deliver a talk entitled “Can Quality Nursing Practice Reduce Health Care Disparities?”
SHS Dean Gerry Koocher told us, “I first met Millicent during Black Alumnae Weekend two years ago. Given her articulate advocacy for the profession, her impressive rise to the leadership of the NBNA did not surprise me. She has an infectious enthusiasm and, offered to waive registration fees to help some of our students attend the NBNA annual conference.”
Gorham has more than 25 years of government relations experience, working as the health legislative assistant to U.S. Representative Louis Stokes, (D-OH), the coordinator of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Brain Trust, the assistant director of government relations for the American Optometric Association, and as director of government relations for the National Rural Health Association. In 1995, she was awarded the State Offices of Rural Health Award.
Gorham has served on numerous professional boards and committees. She served on the advisory board of the Capital Area Rural Health Roundtable from 1996 - 2001. She was a member of the AIDS Action Board of Directors from 1997-2004, and was treasurer of the AIDS Action Council from 2001-2003. She was elected to the board of directors of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition in 2004, and was appointed to the Balm in Gilead Cervical Cancer Advisory Board in 2004. In 2005, she was elected to the Board of Governors of the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health Washington, D.C.
Gorham currently serves on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Nominating Group, and on the National Kidney Disease Education Program Coordinating Panel of the National Institutes of Health. She is a member of the editorial board of Nursing Spectrum, a national nursing magazine, is as an advisory member of the National Minority AIDS Education and Training Center at Howard University, and is a member of the National Coalition of Black Meeting Planners and the National Black MBA Association.
Gorham received her MBA from Howard University in 1986, and a B.A. in Business Management and Communications from Simmons in 1976.
The Dotson Visiting Scholar Program began in 2004 with generous funding from Phyllis Nickerson Dotson, a graduate of the undergraduate nursing department, class of 1962. The program allows the Nursing Department to bring scholars to campus to assist faculty and students in achieving its goal of increasing diversity within the department and curricula.
SHS Honors Colloquium
The School for Health Studies will sponsor its annual Honors Colloquium Wednesday, Sept. 27 from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. in the Kotzen Meeting Center. A reception will follow.
Dr. Bette Ann Harris, ’72HS, who will be honored as the 2006 recipient of the School for Health Studies Distinguished Alumna Award, will deliver the keynote address.
The School for Health Studies also will honor Dr. Diane Jette '72UG, former associate dean and professor of physical therapy, with its 2006 Scholarly Excellence Award; and Ms. Terry Davies '99HS, clinical assistant professor of nursing, will receive the 2006 Outstanding Teacher Award.
Anyone interested in attending the colloquium should RSVP to Sandra Northrup at ext. 2653 or at Sandra.Northrup@simmons.edu.