2008 maryland magazine

MARYLANDuniversity of

baltimore

f o r a l u m n i a n d f r i e n d s o f t h e m e d i c a l , l a w , d e n t a l , p h a r m a c y,n u r s i n g , g r a d u a t e , s o c i a l w o r k , a n d p u b l i c h e a l t h s c h o o l s

r e s e a r c h a n d s c h o l a r s h i p | 2 0 0 8

Making An ImpactWorldwide

A t the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), thousands of these momentsoccur every day—in classrooms, clinics, labs, and conference rooms acrosscampus, at sites throughout the state, and in places around the globe.

Improving the world—or “Making An Impact Worldwide,” the theme of ournewly launched $650 million capital campaign—is the promise that drives ourfaculty, students, researchers, and partners to excel.

Our capital campaign is all about accelerating our work in the world: Whetherwe are providing HIV/AIDS care to patients in campus clinics or in Kenya,teaching pharmacy students in Baltimore or Shady Grove, or working for justicein Baltimore or South Africa, the work of UMB faculty, researchers, and studentsgives expression to our highest aspirations.

In this issue of Maryland magazine, you can read about the revolution inreducing infant mortality in India, improving the lives of children in Maryland,and the dramatic advances in recovery for post-stroke patients. Included are fea-tures on the UMB BioPark, which opened its second building last year, and theCenter for Health and Homeland Security, which is now training emergencyresponders around the country. Along with highlighting the groundbreakingresearch done at UMB, we feature six of our top students whose focus is in theinternational arena.

Collaboration is what drives much of the work at UMB, and collaboration inevery sense remains essential to our success. On our professional campus, statefunding covers less than 20 percent of our operating budget. Quite simply, without your help, we would not be able to operate, let alone achieve the excel-lence in education, research, patient care, and community service that has beenour hallmark for the past 200 years.

Your generous contributions to our scholarship funds, endowed chairs, programs, and capital projects ensure that UMB will continue to make an impactworldwide. Tomorrow’s dentists, lawyers, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, andsocial workers all benefit directly from the support of our alumni and friends.

Our capital campaign is about more than raising dollars for student scholar-ships, research funds, and new buildings. A successful capital campaign will position UMB as one of the top research universities in the world, setting thestandard for interdisciplinary collaboration in critical health and social issues.

I invite you to help us continue our work to transform lives with the impactwe make around the world.

Sincerely,

David J. Ramsay, DM, [email protected]

P R E S I DE N T ’S M E S S AG E

“How wonderful it is that nobody needs to wait a

single moment before starting to improve the world.”

—ANNE FRANK

MARYLANDuniversity ofr e s e a rch and scholarship | 2 0 0 8 ba lt i m o r e

2 This (World) Court is in Se s s i o n

7 Be f o re an Em e r g e n c y, CHHS Comes to the Re s c u e

8 An Infant Re volution in In d i a

1 3 Saving Ma ry l a n d’s Childre n

1 7 Dental School Re s e a rchers Lead Ef f o rts to Eradicate No m a

6 LAW BRI G ID RYA N

1 2 M E D I CINE K EV IN LUNNEY

1 6 S OCIAL WO RK RO SA ALVAYE RO

2 1 D E NTAL LA E LAYE SHI M E L E S

3 0 NURS ING AMY HSIE H

3 5 P H A R MACY MASAYO SATO

STUD E NT P RO F IL E S

D E PA RTM E NTS

46 P RO F ILES IN GIVIN G

5 0 FO UND E RS WEEK AWA RD WINNE RS

5 4 UNI V E RS ITY LEA D E RS HIP

5 6 RE S EA RCH & D EV E LO PM E NT

5 7 UM BF ANNUAL RE PO RT

F E A T U R E S

COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY DAN WHIPPSILLUSTRATION THIS PAGE BY EMERY PAJER

2 2 New Hope for St roke Victims

2 6 Training Nurses to Treat HIV Ove r s e a s

3 1 Collaboration is Key for New De a n

3 2 Te a m w o rk is Right Prescription for Thailand and School of Ph a r m a c y

3 6 Treating Trauma Along the Ni l e

4 0 C a r rying a Global To rch at the Dental School

4 2 The UMB Bi o Pa rk: A Fi ve - Year Pe r s p e c t i ve

4 4 Un i versity of Ma ryland, Ba l t i m o re Celebrates 200 Years

47 UMB Launches $650 Million Capital Campaign

The bicentennial edition of Maryland magazine won a national

PR News Platinum PR Award for best external publication

and was recognized as an outstanding public relations effort.

2 U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y L A N D, B A L T I M O R E

This (World) CouWORLDWIDE

ROBIN CLARK

Law Reform Commission

Sydney, Australia

MICHAEL VAN ALSTINE

Associate Dean and Director,

International and Comparative Law Program

University of Maryland School of Law

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

e have a fairly large number of students who are ve ry interested in the world outsideus and want to experience it,” says William Reynolds, JD, professor at the School ofLaw and coordinator of the Law Reform Commission Program.

Tow a rd that end, each year 30 to 40 students live, work, and learn about publici n t e rest law in Costa Rica, England, Ireland, Sw i t zerland, South Africa, and Australia.

They return to the School from their time abroad with a new outlook and a newsense of advo c a c y.

“T h e y’re more confident and more experienced in the world and how the worldoperates,” says Diane Hoffmann, JD, MS, who helps coordinate the World He a l t hOrganization (WHO) externship program as associate dean for academic pro g r a m sand director of the Law and Health Care Program. “T h e y’re viewing things from ad i f f e rent vantage point and learning that the United States is just one WHO memberamong many.”

Students call the experience invaluable and in some cases care e r - c h a n g i n g .Jennifer Ma rtin, who graduated in May 2007 and now works at the Un i versity of

Ma ryland Center for Health and Homeland Security (CHHS), says her work inGe n e va, Sw i t zerland, for the WHO helped solidify her decision to pursue a career inthe health policy field. “It was an excellent opportunity to see international diplomacyand cooperation on important public health issues,” says Ma rtin.

“The main project I worked on was an international public health law databasethat the WHO is putting together for its Web site.” She re s e a rched cases that dealwith the right to health and public health issues.

Also in Ge n e va working for the WHO, Irene Hui saw firsthand how policies aremade on the international level during her summer at the Tobacco Free In i t i a t i ve .

“The best experience was attending a meeting of the Study Group on To b a c c oProduct Regulation in Kobe, Japan,” says Hui, a third - year law student who says shehas always had an interest in health care. “It was incredible to see how the scientistsi n f o r m the ambassadors on policy decisions in tobacco regulation to advance the public health and how the concerns of the different country re p re s e n t a t i ves fuels f u rther re s e a rch in particular areas. It was this exchange of ideas between the scientistsand the regulators that was invaluable for me to see.

“I always thought that problems on the international level we re different fro mthose faced in the U.S.,” Hui adds, “but I re a l i zed that much of what those countrieslearned about tobacco regulation can inform policies in the U.S.”

COURTING EXPA N S I O N

Law school faculty see the expanding borders of public interest law as a logical next step.The increased focus on the public interest aspect of the international program is

“a natural and necessary development for our law school because we are a public lawschool with a public mission,” says Michael Van Alstine, JD, MJu r C o m p, Dr Ju r,

C ou rt is in Sess ion

2008 R E S E A R C H & S C H O L A R S H I P 3PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBERT BURKE

B Y LO R I R O M E R

Donating more than 100,000 hours of legal re s o u rces eve ry ye a r, the Schoolof Law proudly calls itself “Ma ry l a n d’s largest public interest law firm.” Bu tits outreach far exceeds the state’s borders. With a reputation for taking on important legal issues locally, re g i o n a l l y, and nationally, the School isexpanding its take on the world—and its students are better for it.

“WJESSICA GEORGE

Women’s Legal Centre

and Legal Aid Board

Cape Town, South Africa

p rofessor and associate dean for re s e a rch and faculty deve l o p-ment. “We are committed to having our students confro n t ,engage with, and have knowledge of, the public policy issues andthe social problems that are experienced by real people in the re a lworld, at both a national and international leve l . ”

As director of the International and Comparative Law Pro g r a m ,Van Alstine is responsible for the overall curriculum and its policydecisions. He credits Karen Rothenberg, JD, MPA, dean of theSchool, as the impetus for much of the pro g r a m’s pro g ress. “Sh ehas been directly invo l ved in bringing about some of the pro-grams, including the expansion of the Law Reform CommissionProgram,” he says.

Ac c o rding to Van Alstine, the push to expand the public intere s tand public policy component of the international program re a l l ytook off in 2003 when a committee was formed to re v i ew the program.

He noted the law school’s extensive offerings for students tow o rk in public interest law in Ba l t i m o re, Annapolis, andWashington, D.C., and says “the natural pro g ression of that workis that we understand we not only live in a city, a state, and ac o u n t ry, but a world as well.”

Van Alstine adds: “When we started looking at our interna-tional program, top to bottom, there was something that imme-diately rose to the top of the agenda: the expansion of opport u n i t i e sfor our students to engage in public policy issues outside of theUnited St a t e s . ”

In addition to widening the students’ knowledge, it has alsow o rked as a marketing tool.

Ma rtin says the WHO program is a big reason why she cameto the School. She also wanted to see more of the world after her2000-2002 stint in the Peace Corps working as a high schoolteacher in the Republic of Vanuatu in the South Pa c i f i c .


“ I ’ve always been interested in international health, and a collegep rofessor encouraged me to study international public intere s tl a w,” she says. “I knew about the program at the WHO prior tocoming here, and it was one of the things that I thought was re a l l yi n t e resting about the Un i versity of Ma ryland School of Law.”

Van Alstine says the continued growth of the program will behelped substantially thanks to the establishment of the David S.Brown In t e r n a t i o n a l Fe l l ow s h i p, which provides financial supportfor students. Ba l t i m o re real estate developer How a rd Brown setup the program two years ago in memory of his father, Da v i d ,class of 1933.

“ It’s rare among law schools to provide funding for studentp a rticipation in public interest programs outside of the Un i t e dStates,” says Van Alstine. “Thanks to the generosity of How a rdBrown and his family, we are able to provide substantial financials u p p o rt to cover the students’ expenses.”

How important was the financial support for Robin Clark ,who graduated last May and spent a semester at the Law Re f o r mCommission in Australia? “I simply wouldn’t have been able to goif it wasn’t for the fellow s h i p,” she says.

Adds Jessica George, who worked at the Wo m e n’s LegalC e n t re and the Legal Aid Board in South Africa in spring 2006,“ It cove red my airf a re and housing costs for the four months Il i ved in Cape Town. It was certainly a critical factor in my decision to go to South Africa, and I urge any student consider-ing the program to apply.”

IRENE HUI

Tobacco Free Initiative

Geneva, Switzerland,

and Kobe, Japan

JENNIFER MARTIN

World Health Organization

Geneva, Switzerland

Durban, re p resenting the poor and victims of the apartheid systemof government.

Since the mid-1990s when apartheid ended, externs have con-tinued to serve in public interest law organizations, now work i n gto ensure that the promise of democracy, equality, and civil rightsenshrined in South Africa’s new constitution becomes a reality inthe lives of those who continue to suffer the long-term impact ofa p a rt h e i d’s violently enforced system of racial segregation ands u b o rdination. St u d e n t s’ work ranges from assisting with dire c tre p resentation of clients at local legal aid offices to deve l o p i n gimpact litigation and monitoring legislative developments onemerging areas of human rights law.

Ifill says that students who are attracted to the program area l ready mature self-starters with “an intense interest in social justice.”

“This is not for eve ry b o d y,” says Ifill. “It’s not for the weak ofh e a rt. You are going ve ry far away, you are not going to a dorm,and you are not in an academic program where you are in a class-room with a pro f e s s o r. You are in a job, working as a lawyer inSouth Africa.”

For George, a semester in South Africa provided “a uniquep e r s p e c t i ve on a young and struggling democracy.”

“ I ’ve definitely learned to appreciate the laws and re l a t i ve effi-ciency of the U.S. legal system. I’ve also learned to appreciate living in a country where there is such opportunity for adva n c e-ment. In Cape Town, I met many refugees who have fled otherAfrican nations. Many hold advanced degrees but find themselve sselling handmade crafts on the streets. But they are re l i e ved justto be living in a place with a functioning government, wheret h e re is peace,” George says.

“Ab ove all, I learned that change takes time, and it’s impre s s i veh ow much South Africa has accomplished in just 13 years ofbeing a democracy,” she continues. “I learned that the most diffi-cult challenge is not enacting legislation, but in changing attitudesat the ground level in communities across the country, in part i c u l a rwith re g a rd to racial and gender discrimination.”

Even though it’s been several years since her time in So u t hAfrica, Erin Hahn ’02, who worked on the Legal Re s o u rc e sC e n t re’s Refugee Assistance project in Cape Town, has no pro b-lem recalling some of the realities about a country reborn aftera p a rtheid and struggling with a tremendous surge of refugees.

“I would go to the jail once a week to interv i ew any nonre s i-dents who had been picked up to see if they needed assistanceand if they might be refugees,” says Hahn, now associate dire c t o rof CHHS.

“T h e re we re so many people. It became ve ry ove rwhelming todeal with so many refugee cases, with so little in terms of re s o u rc e sand space,” she says.

Hahn calls the semester a life-changing event. “The growth Iexperienced there, intellectually and otherwise, led to my decisionto take on asylum cases here on a p ro bono b a s i s . ”

Van Alstine wants even more students to have such life lessonsby “c a refully picking places around the world” to grow the program.

“We are looking at more opportunities in Australia, and intoNew Zealand, India, Japan, and Tu rk e y. The idea is to have bro a dd i versity in terms of substance, geography, and the experience,”says Van Alstine. “We want students to understand and appre c i a t eh ow law functions in societies outside the United States.”

2008 R E S E A R C H & S C H O L A R S H I P 5PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBERT BURKE

Brown says the company his father founded, David S. Brow nEnterprises, Ltd., has become known in Ba l t i m o re as one thatg i ves back to the community.

“ I ’m gratified to be able to remember my father at the institu-tion where he re c e i ved an outstanding legal education,” saysBrown. “It’s important to support the work of these students asthey learn about public interest law on the international stage.”

Each semester, students are chosen for the fellowship based ontheir academic re c o rd and faculty re f e rences. When they re t u r nhome, they present a re p o rt highlighting their experience. T h ere p o rts are published in the annual re p o rt of the David S. Brow nInternational Fe l l ows Program.

Ma rtin was still in Ge n e va when the inaugural class of Brow nFe l l ows gave their presentation in fall 2006. She made a videothat was shown at the event, in which she thanked the Brow nfamily for its donation to the School and talked about her externship.

“ It was funny to return to Ma ryland in the spring and havef i r s t - year students re c o g n i ze me as the woman from the video,”she says.

LIFE ABROAD

C l a rk says the most surprising thing she learned during hersemester at the Law Reform Commission in Australia is that “t h eworld is watching us.”

Commissions are independent organizations that analyze andmake recommendations on the law. Students work in En g l a n d ,Australia, Ireland, and other countries comparing U.S. law to thatof their host country.

“I think it was about 2 a.m. Sydney time when the U.S.Su p reme Court handed down its decision in Hamdan v. Ru m s f e l d,a landmark in the ongoing debate over the recent use of militarycommissions,” Clark says.

“I stayed up to read the opinion, but only got through theopinion of the court. The next day, my team met with the advisorycommittee, which included several prominent Australian attor-neys. In the reception afterw a rd, I was surprised to learn that theopinion had been read by several of those present. Luckily no oneelse had gotten to the dissents either! We had a wonderful discus-sion about the new s . ”

During her stay in Australia, Clark developed a taste for“watching surfers, working on law reform, and eating fish and chips.”She is currently working as a law fellow for the CHHS. “I amalso looking to return to Australia, after the end of my fellow s h i p,for graduate re s e a rch on comparative anti-terrorism law,” she says.

The most recent area of growth for the School of Law’s publici n t e rest law program is in Costa Rica with a partnership with theInter-American Court of Human Rights. Students work as lawc l e rks in the court that hears human rights cases from theWestern He m i s p h e re. Sandra Goldberg, who plans to graduate inMay and spent last summer in Costa Rica, was the first studentto part i c i p a t e .

Students who want to “be on the ground floor of early consti-tutional interpre t a t i o n” also have that opportunity in So u t hAfrica, says Sherrilyn Ifill, JD, professor and coordinator of thee x t e r n s h i p. Since 1989, “e ven before apartheid ended,” notes If i l l ,students in Ma ry l a n d’s South Africa Externship Program havew o rked in public interest law organizations from Cape Town to

Brigid Ryan’s well-worn passport proudly bears thestamp of the School of Law. That is because this worldtraveller would not be the socially conscious advocateof the less fortunate she is today without her class

work in a School committed to public service.“Over the last year,” she says, “I have become interested

in criminal law because I see the growing prison populationas a human rights issue.” Ryan says the School and its pro f e s-sors have encouraged her work with underserved populations.

Another fundamental reason for Ry a n’s activism and concern for the less fortunate could be the fact that she is thedaughter of civil rights lawyer Ma ry Ann Ryan, who graduatedf rom the School of Law in 1988. “I believe that my motherdangled a spoon over my head when I was a baby and declare dthat I would be an attorney,” says Ryan with a laugh.

A third-year student at the School, Ryan is a recipient ofone of the Maryland Higher Education Commission’s inau-gural William Donald Schaefer Scholarships, which provide

support for state residents at state universities preparing forcareers in public service.

Her journey has taken her a long way from her home-town of Takoma Park, Md., with stops in Spain, Bolivia,Israel, South Africa, and New Orleans.

Ryan, 27, was a key organizer in galvanizing dozens oflaw students to spend part of the January 2007 winter breakworking with the public defenders’ office in New Orleans.She had seen the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina first-hand, having volunteered at the office in the summer of2006.

The students interviewed defendants, many of whom hadbeen in custody for months without access to a lawyer, anddeveloped case files for the public defenders. Hundreds ofstudents from law schools around the country joined the effort .

Helping to rebuild New Orleans’ justice system was anatural follow-up to the years of 2002 through 2004 whenRyan worked on a beekeeping project with the Peace Corpsin Presto, Bolivia.

Ryan’s work and studies also have taken her toMadrid, Spain, for a semester at the University ofAlcala, and a summer working as an archaeologist inCaesarea, Israel. More recently, she spent the springsemester of her second year in law school as a lawclerk at the Legal Aid Board and the Legal ResourcesCentre in Cape Town, South Africa.

“I took an interesting seminar on race and genderin South Africa, which led to my externship the nextyear,” says Ryan. “The course was a welcome depar-ture from the rigid legal interpretations of otherfirst-year courses because we looked at the law incontext, rather than in a bubble.”

Along with her family association with theSchool, Ryan came to Maryland “because of itscommitment to community service and the fact thatit is nearby to national policymaking organizations.”She wants to continue to work on international a n dhuman rights issues after graduation.

“I love learning about how people around theworld interpret and relate to the rule of law,” shesays.

From Bolivian Beehives to New Orleans Prisons, Law Student Builds a Better Wo r l dB Y L O R I R O M E R


S T U DE N T PR OF I L E B R IG I D RYA N S C HO OL OF L AW

PHOTOGRAPH BY TRACY BOYD

2008 R E S E A R C H & S C H O L A R S H I P 7

Facing a catastrophic flood, City of Pacific, Wa s h i n g t o n ,found higher ground with the help of the Un i versity ofMa ryland Center for Health and Homeland Se c u r i t y( C H H S ) .

The training program orchestrated by CHHS arrived justin time. City of Pacific Ma yor Richard Hi l d reth had attended aContinuity of Operations (COOP) planning course taught byJoshua Easton, JD, MA, a law and policy analyst at CHHS, at“ Restoration 2006,” a conference focusing on rebuilding NewOrleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Fo l l owing the conference, Hi l d reth decided to makechanges to the boilerplate emergency plan his city had in place.To unify many separate plans, Hi l d reth completed a physicali n ve n t o ry of all assets, the capacity of staff and re s o u rces, andh ow to acquire any additional capacity needed through part-nerships. Hi l d reth introduced a draft of the new plan to hisCity Council on Nov. 4, 2006. Two days later, City of Pa c i f i cexperienced terrible floods and the COOP plan was activated.

“ If I hadn’t attended the course at Restoration 2006, Iw o u l d n’t have re a l i zed how inadequate the emergency plan wasthat my city had at the time,” Hi l d reth says of the confere n c e ,w h e re CHHS’ Alexandra Po d o l n y, JD, and Catherine Na p j u s ,JD, also served as COOP trainers.

The mayor re p o rts that his city was able to strategicallyplan its response to the flood inside of 15 minutes because ofthe COOP plan. “We knew what we had, where we had it,what else was needed, and where we could go to get it,” Hi l d re t hsays. And because of COOP planning and training, 90 perc e n tof the emergency response came from volunteers.

City of Pacific is just one of the many beneficiaries of theCHHS program. Emergency planners across the country andb e yond have gained direction in recent years from a pro g r a mthat has humble roots. In 2004, CHHS, in cooperation with

the Ma ryland Emergency Management Agency, published aCOOP manual, which details how to maintain essential s e rvices during an emergency. CHHS used it to assist Ma ry l a n dCabinet agencies and the gove r n o r’s office in writing COOPplans.

The pro g r a m’s effectiveness led to the award of a $1.4 milliongrant from the U.S. De p a rtment of Homeland Security (DHS)to CHHS in 2005 to develop a COOP curriculum and to testit in pilot programs. In 2007, the course was certified by DHSand the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who alsog a ve CHHS an additional $650,000 grant.

The purpose of the course is to provide government emer-gency planners with the skills to develop COOP plans for theirjurisdictions and to train other state, local, and tribal personnel.Factors include delegation of authority, accessing vital re c o rd sand databases, utilizing alternative facilities, and communica-tions and training exe rc i s e s .

COOP planning is one of many projects for the 35-plusstaff members of CHHS. They also are working on avian andpandemic flu pre p a redness, mass transit protection, and cybers e c u r i t y. A COOP plan for the Ma ryland court system also isunder way.

“The many requests for COOP training and the growth ofthe center is a tribute to the idea for CHHS, which originatedwith Un i versity President David Ramsay, in the wake of thet e r rorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,” says Michael Gre e n b e r g e r,JD, director of CHHS. On May 15, 2002, Ramsay’s visionbecame a reality with the official launch of CHHS.

“As CHHS marks its fifth annive r s a ry, the staff continues tofoster Dr. Ramsay’s original vision, searching for more opport u-nities to serve both governments and people in pre venting ande f f e c t i vely responding to natural and man-made disasters,”Greenberger says.

Before an Emergency, CHHS Comes to the Rescue

B Y J U D Y H E I G E R

CHHS law and policy analyst Joshua Easton, left, shared updates

on emergency planning with Richard Hildreth when the City of

Pacific mayor passed through BWI Airport last summer.

CE N TE R P R OF I L E

C E N T E R FOR H E A LT H A N DHOM E L A N D S EC U R I T Y

PHOTOGRAPH BY TRACY BOYD

8 U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y L A N D, B A L T I M O R E PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT BURKE

B Y E L I Z A B E T H H E U B E C K In d i aAn In fant Revol u t ion in

Pinaki Panigrahi drew on a world of expertise to form his University of Maryland research team. From left: Hala Azzam

(Lebanon), Gheorghe Braileanu (Romania), Olena Goddard (Ukraine), Dinesh Chandel (India), Hegang Chen (China),

Pinaki Panigrahi (India), Adora Okogbule-Wonodi (Nigeria), and Judith Johnson (United States).

INDIA

a re is the scientist who canthoughtfully approach a puzzle, solve it, and successfully applythe solution in a way that improves an entire population’shealth. Rarer still is the scientist who does this in a communitywithout a strong public health infrastru c t u re and modernamenities. Pinaki Panigrahi, MD, PhD, associate professor ofpediatrics at the Un i versity of Ma ryland School of Me d i c i n e’sDivision of Ne o n a t o l o g y, is one of those scientists.

In 10 years, Panigrahi has addressed the high infant mor-tality rate (as measured in the first year of life) in India as a


major public health problem, identified its primarycause, and developed a practical solution that hasreduced the infant death rate by 36 percent in tar-geted areas. Along the way, he has developed stro n gscientific collaborations in India. And it all start e dwith a ve ry modest grant.

When Pa n i g r a h i’s collaborative pediatricre s e a rch with Indian scientists began in 1997, itwas almost as an afterthought. The John E. Fo g a rt yIn t e r n a t i o n a l Center for Ad vanced Studies in theHealth Sciences, part of the National Institutes ofHealth (NIH), invited recipients of major grants toapply for much smaller, secondary grants of up to$30,000 for three years. The grants support e dAmerican re s e a rc h e r s’ efforts to establish collabora-tions with developing countries.

As a native of India who had re c e i ved his medical training there, Panigrahi decided to makeIndia the target of his grant request. He re c e i ve dthe secondary grant, and the relationship betwe e nPa n i g r a h i’s re s e a rch team and the All India In s t i t u t eof Medical Sciences, the premier medical schoolof India, was under way. “The grant was tiny, butthat is really what started the whole thing,”Panigrahi says.

Panigrahi then secured a second, much largergrant from the Global Ne t w o rk for Wo m e n’s andC h i l d re n’s Health Re s e a rch, a public/private part-nership supported by the National Institute ofChild Health and Human De velopment (NICHD),a division of the NIH, and the Bill & Me l i n d aGates Foundation. These organizations allocatedm o re than $3 million to the Un i versity of Ma ry l a n d ,Ba l t i m o re, while providing similar grants to seve nother re s e a rch teams in the United States.

The overall re s e a rch objective was rather general:to conduct re s e a rch that would improve maternal

and childre n’s health in the developing world. But the grant didcontain one ve ry specific caveat: Each of the eight re s e a rc hteams must be led by two investigators—one from an Americaninstitution and the other from an institution in a deve l o p i n gc o u n t ry. “T h e re was intense competition. Vi rtually eve ry majorre s e a rch group in the U.S. applied,” Panigrahi says.

ZEROING IN ON THE CAUSE

In vestigators already knew of the devastatingly high infant m o rtality rate in India. Sixty out of eve ry thousand infants diein India, compared to about seven per thousand in the U.S.They also knew that a large percentage of these deaths occur inthe neonatal period, within the first 28 days of life. Just ove rhalf the neonatal deaths in India are due to sepsis, an infectionp roduced by bacteria that, once in the bloodstream, can be fatal.

Even though the statistics indicated a long-standing public

R

health problem, little has been done over the last 20 years toa d d ress it. “India has a ve ry weak, or nonexistent, public healthi n f r a s t ru c t u re,” Panigrahi says. Despite a glut of medicalschools in In d i a — m o re than 200, compared to about 115 inthe U.S.—the country doesn’t have a single school of publichealth. The NICHD/Gates project allowed Pa n i g r a h i’s In d i a nre s e a rch counterparts to see just how effective a we l l - c o n s t ru c t e dpublic health intervention can be.

The first portion of the study relied on community-baseds u rveillance, grassroots education, and the use of modern l a b o r a t o ry services to identify whether late or early sepsis wasresponsible for the high mortality rate among newborns. “T h ecause of early versus late sepsis infection is quite different, andunless we know when the babies are contracting infection anddying, there is no way we can propose a logical interve n t i o n , ”Panigrahi says.

Panigrahi chose the eastern Indian state of Orissa, where heselected 223 separate villages as the site of the community s u rveillance work. The painstakingly detailed job of re c o rdkeeping began. Eve ry infant born in these 223 villages—about20 eve ry year—was followed for the first 60 days of life.

“ In i t i a l l y, I asked myself, ‘Who is going to tell me about thedeath rate?’ For eve ry 10 to 25 villages, there is only one doctorwho may not even stay in the rural area all the time. The gov-ernment tries to keep track of infant deaths, but not in a pre-cise way,” Panigrahi says.

GRASSROOTS APPROACH TO EDUCATION

To track infants affected by sepsis, the investigators chose ag r a s s roots-style approach. Panigrahi re c ruited trusted local villagers, known as a n g a n w a d i w o rkers, to collect data.

Ty p i c a l l y, anganwadi workers educate women during pre g-nancy on the importance of appropriate nutrition, administernutrients like folic acid, and provide education and nutritiousmeals for preschool children in their assigned villages. Of f e r i n g

the anganwadi workers a small payment for their surve i l l a n c ee f f o rts, the re s e a rchers trained them to look for signs andsymptoms of sepsis in infants.

In vestigators also encouraged the anganwadi workers toeducate the village women to identify signs and symptoms ofsepsis in their children. “You really have to educate the masses,”says Panigrahi. He explains that in circumstances such as these,when working primarily with women with little formal educa-tion who may not trust outsiders, finding the right people toc o n vey the message becomes as important as the message itself.

Judith Johnson, PhD, associate professor in the School ofMe d i c i n e’s De p a rtment of Pa t h o l o g y, whose primary role wasto set up and oversee the operation of U.S.-standard laborato-ries in several Orissa sites, says the anganwadi workers prove dimmensely helpful. “They used a combination of song anddance, sort of a cross between opera and a musical, to teachpeople about neonatal sepsis. It was ve ry effective in gettingmothers interested,” Johnson says.

For the surveillance portion of their work, the anganwadiw o rkers we re given a booklet describing signs and symptoms of sepsis and a newborn follow-up card to track the pro g ress ofthe infants. If sepsis was detected, the anganwadi work e r snoted the symptoms and re f e r red the infant to a pediatrician,p roviding another pivotal piece of the re s e a rch project.

SOLVING THE SEPSIS PUZZLE

Prior to Pa n i g r a h i’s project, Or i s s a’s medical institutions did noth a ve BACTEC blood culturing systems, which automaticallyand accurately detect and identify microorganisms present inthe blood. “He re in the U.S., the tiniest hospital will haveaccess to a standard pathology laboratory. In India, there are nosuch laboratories. It’s not part of the protocol to determinewhich bacteria are the root of the problem,” Panigrahi says, sothe cause of an illness goes undetected or is treated inaccurately.

Fo rt u n a t e l y, the re s e a rch team was able to supply the equip-

10 U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y L A N D, B A L T I M O R E PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF PINAKI PANIGRAHI

From left, a baby’s heart rate is checked in one of the 223 villages in Dr. Panigrahi’s

study. Dr. Panigrahi checks records with an anganwadi worker. A pregnant mother,

holding her older child, shows her 60-day follow-up card, which charts the nutrition

and other data during her pregnancy.


ment to culture the blood samples. “For the first time in In d i a ,this community-based study on sepsis was backed by we l l -equipped laboratory services. Not only did it help us identifysepsis earlier, it helped us provide a guideline for treating sepsisusing proper antibiotics,” says Pa n i g r a h i’s counterpart ,Sailajanandan Parida, MD, FIAP, associate professor and headof the Division of Ne o n a t o l o g y, De p a rtment of Pediatrics, atSriram Chandra Bhanja Medical College.

The combination of grassroots surveillance and modern l a b o r a t o ry equipment helped Panigrahi and his re s e a rch teamconclude that late sepsis constitutes the bulk of neonatal sepsiscases in Orissa, about 94 percent. Unlike early sepsis, whichd e velops within the first three days of life and is contractedeither from the mother during birth or from someone assistingthe delive ry process, late sepsis results from an enviro n m e n t -borne infection that travels via the infant’s colon through thei m m a t u re stomach and into the bloodstre a m .

“The results we re extremely surprising. Eve rybody assumedthat they we re n’t using proper hygiene during delive r i e s , ”Panigrahi says. Mo re impre s s i ve than pinpointing the cause ofinfection we re the lives saved because of it.

“ Due to Dr. Pa n i g r a h i’s study method of early identificationand referral through the existing infrastru c t u re of anganwadiw o rkers, more than 80 percent of neonatal deaths due to sepsish a ve been pre vented in the study area. That same perc e n t a g ewould be reflected countrywide if implemented in a largerscale,” Parida says.

After conducting the community study at two major sites ind i f f e rent parts of India and arriving at the same conclusion,Panigrahi and colleagues are confident that the results can beg e n e r a l i zed to the entire country.

MOVING BEYOND SURVEILLANCE

After determining that infants we re being infected primarilywith late sepsis, the team investigated low-cost, effective ways of

p re vention. The group proved that by using probiotics, naturalstrains of ‘g o o d’ bacteria like that of Lactobacillus acidophilusfound in yo g u rt, the spread of sepsis could be pre ve n t e d .

“ Probiotics trap bad bacteria, like a shield,” Panigrahi says.This way, the sepsis-causing bacteria cannot move beyond theintestine into the bloodstream, the point at which it becomes adeath threat. Probiotics also help strengthen the gut wall andinduce pro t e c t i ve immunity. During the re s e a rch team’s hospital-based study of more than 300 infants, subjects given pro b i o t i c shad better weight gain and showed signs of reduced infection.

But Pa n i g r a h i’s work isn’t finished; it is just reaching deeperinto the community.

“We will continue to nurt u re these activities and expand ourfriendship and collaboration to more formal endeavors, such asbuilding schools and centers of child health and public healthin India,” Panigrahi says.

Those who have worked with Panigrahi have no doubt thathe has the vision to launch such collaborations. They have alre a d ywitnessed how he forms relationships to reach re s e a rch goals.

“That he was successfully able to set up this multisite studycannot be ove re m p h a s i zed. He got buy-in from all the playe r s .The federal and local governments, administrators at each hospital—they we re all on board,” Johnson says.

Ga l vanizing support from Indian government officials and keyp rofessionals in the medical community will continue to be essen-tial to Pa n i g r a h i’s goal of making public health a priority in In d i a .Cu r re n t l y, he is engaged in discussions with high-ranking In d i a nofficials about establishing an institute of public health in In d i a .

“As a re s o u rce-poor country, India needs more public healthi n t e rve ntions,” Panigrahi says emphatically. If Pa n i g r a h i’s goal ofb u i l d i n g a public health school in India is re a l i zed, life-savingpublic health interventions such as those he and his In d i a nre s e a rch partners are undertaking will become increasingly common, there by improving the health of all of India—not justits youngest residents.

From left: on the street, an educational session

about neonatal sepsis. Dr. Panigrahi examines a

premature infant. Modern equipment was a

welcome addition to this Indian lab.

Although he is now back in Ba l t i m o re, Kevin Lunney isstill haunted by memories of the two years he spentdoing re s e a rch in Zi m b a bwe. He sees the faces of HIV-p o s i t i ve mothers for whom there was no antire t rov i r a l

therapy available. He remembers colleagues doggedly pursuingre s e a rch, despite Zi m b a bwe’s political turmoil and soaringi n f l a t i o n .

Lunney is the Un i versity of Ma ry l a n d’s first MD/PhD candidate to conduct dissertation work in Zi m b a bwe. T h et h i rd - year School of Medicine student, who completed sum-mer rotations in Bangkok and Cairo, prefers to work ove r s e a s .“T h e re are many medical issues that need to be addressed inre s o u rce-poor environments that are not being investigated inthe U.S.,” Lunney says.

For his dissertation, “Pre venting Mother to Child

Transmission of HIV T h rough Breastfeeding: Exc l u s i veBreastfeeding, Mastitis, Viral Load and Early Cessation,” hea n a l y zed blood and breast milk samples to examine HIV t r a n s m i s s i o n .

Re s o u rcefulness in overseas re s e a rch is crucial, Lunney says.For instance, the only way he could measure levels of sodiumand potassium in breast milk was to unearth a broken flamep h o t o m e t e r, cobble together parts to repair the machine(nobody else in the lab knew how), and run the tests himself.From 2005 to 2007, Lunney conducted re s e a rch in Ha r a re andin rural areas of Zi m b a bwe .

That re s o u rcefulness also came in handy in the clinic. Onhis first day at the Un i versity of Zi m b a bwe’s medical clinic inHa r a re in 2006, recalls Lu n n e y, “We saw around 30 patients int h ree hours. About 80 percent we re HIV- p o s i t i ve and themajority we re in the end stages of AIDS.”

He quickly learned to examine patients and perform basicmedical pro c e d u res under the guidance of residents, as well asdiagnose HIV and AIDS without the aid of lab tests.

Besides conducting re s e a rch and practicing his medical skillsat the university clinic, Lunney—a former Mi d - Atlantic Ul t r aDistance champion—also was able to continue his athletictraining. As a result, he placed third in the 2007 Zi m b a bweNational Triathlon Championships.

“Zimbabwe is a great place to live while doing yourre s e a rch,” says Lu n n e y. He celebrated his marriage to his wife,Je n n i f e r, in Zi m b a bwe, and their two daughters we re born there .

Now back on campus, Lunney is concentrating on clinical studies before applying for re s i d e n c y. He completed hisPhD work in 2007 and plans to pursue a fellowship in infec-tious diseases and a career in internal or pediatric medicinewhen he finishes his MD in 2009.

Whether abroad or at home, Lunney says School ofMedicine faculty provided tremendous encouragement. “T h es u p p o rt I re c e i ved during my academic pursuits speaks vo l u m e sabout the flexibility of the MD/PhD program,” he says.

He also would like to return to active duty as an officer inthe U.S. Public Health Se rvice, possibly through the Centersfor Disease Control and Pre vention Epidemic In t e l l i g e n c eSe rvice. The results of his dissertation, which seem to indicatethat HIV- p o s i t i ve mothers should breast-feed, are alre a d yamong several studies shaping the World Health Or g a n i z a t i o n’spolicy concerning the importance of breast-feeding, even forH I V- p o s i t i ve mothers.

Te r ry Rogers, PhD, School of Medicine professor and dire c-tor of the MD/PhD program, says Lu n n e y’s route was unusualbut necessary for someone who wants to solve internationalhealth pro b l e m s .

“A mission of our MD/PhD program is to serve the com-m u n i t y,” says Rogers. “For Kevin Lu n n e y, the community isthe whole world.”

The Whole World Is His CommunityB Y LY D I A L E V I S B LO C H


S T U DE N T PR OF I L E K E V I N LU N N EY S C HO OL OF M E DI C I N E


hen the Ma ryland De p a rtment of Human Re s o u rces (DHR) was mandated bystate and federal legislation to devise a system to improve child we l f a re services, it knew right where to turn.

The Un i versity of Ma ryland School of Social Wo rk, which has a 30-year relationship with DHR, was only too happy to help with several projects toi m p rove services to children and families.

“These projects will increase the safety, permanency, and well-being of c h i l d ren and families served by child we l f a re agencies throughout the state ofMa ryland,” says Diane De Panfilis, PhD, MSW, associate professor and associatedean for re s e a rch at the School.

WB Y S O N I A E L A B D

Saving Mary l an d ’s

C h i l d r en

T h e re was little doubt such an overall program was needed. Two years ago, a toddler in Randallstown suffered seve re

brain injuries after being violently shaken by his foster mother’steenage daughter. Months later, a 15-year-old Ba l t i m o re girlwas found starved to death in her home, imprisoned in anempty room by her court-appointed guardian. When the childwe l f a re system fails children such as these, the consequences ared e va s t a t i n g .

Their experiences in the child we l f a re system unknow i n g l ybecame a testimony for change in Ma ry l a n d’s foster care system.In 2005, more than 6,000 children we re abused or neglected inMa ryland, and nearly 11,000 children lived apart from theirfamilies in out-of-home care .

In 2006, the Ma ryland General Assembly passed the ChildWe l f a re Accountability Act, a bill designed to improve thequality of services provided to Ma ry l a n d’s children. When thebill became law, DHR was re q u i red to develop a system ofaccountability to measure the efficiency and effectiveness ofchild we l f a re services, improve the re c ruitment and retention of child we l f a re workers, and develop a training and educationacademy to better pre p a re new and existing child we l f a re work e r sto handle the difficult job.

With the support of Dean Richard P. Ba rth, PhD, MSW,faculty and staff from the School of Social Wo rk are work i n gwith DHR to address the re q u i re m e n t s .

IMPROVING OUTCOMES

The partnership is a natural fit.“ Under the leadership of Dean Ba rth, who has an extensive

b a c k g round in child we l f a re, it is clear that there is a commit-ment to working with DHR as we focus our efforts on improv i n goutcomes for families and childre nin the child we l f a re system,” saysCathy Mols, exe c u t i ve director of DHR’s Social Se rvices Ad m i n -i s t r a t i o n .

De Panfilis is director of theRuth H. Young Center for Fa m i l i e sand Children, an organized re s e a rc hcenter under which the School’schild we l f a re - related projects arehoused. She also is a nationally re c o g n i zed leader in the field ofchild we l f a re, and manages the pro j e c tthat is developing a quality assur-ance system for measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of child

we l f a re services. Initially funded under a Ma ryland Hi g h e rEducation grant of $433,000 for the first ye a r, De Pa n f i l i s’ p roject is evaluating and providing technical assistance re l a t e dto DHR’s process for implementing a multitier, ongoing e valuation of its child we l f a re services.

“We’re helping DHR understand the degree to which theya re meeting their goals, achieving their outcomes, and prov i d i n gthe services needed. By helping them efficiently collect anda n a l y ze administrative data, we are also helping them answe rquestions that will be key to the implementation of child we l f a rereforms,” says De Pa n f i l i s .

“Turning the child we l f a re administrative data into infor-mation that can be used to manage and monitor child we l f a rep rograms is a daunting task,” adds Catherine Born, Ph D ,M S W, re s e a rch associate professor and director of the Fa m i l yWe l f a re Re s e a rch and Training Gro u p, which is collaboratingwith De Panfilis and is nationally re c o g n i zed for its work withsuch data. “But it is a task for which our many years of similarw o rk on we l f a re reform has well pre p a red us.”

KEEPING GOOD WORKERS

Ap p roximately 90,000 children and families are serviced byMa ry l a n d’s Social Se rvices Administration eve ry ye a r. A 2003U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) re p o rt stated thathigh caseloads, exc e s s i ve administrative responsibilities, andinadequate training contribute to poor quality of services, case-w o rker burnout, and high casew o rker turnove r. The dire situationis compounded by low salaries and poor benefits, which hindera g e n c i e s’ ability to hire new workers and fill va c a n c i e s .

But helping DHR meet its goals re q u i res employe e s .K a ren Hopkins, PhD, MSW, associate pro f e s s o r, is the

principal investigator on a compre-h e n s i ve study looking at re t e n t i o nand re c ruitment issues for the entirechild we l f a re work force inMa ryland.

“T h e re is a double-edgeds w o rd. Because child we l f a re is sucha challenging and difficult field tow o rk in, we have to find specialpeople who are really committed tothis kind of work. Finding thosepeople is more challenging than inother areas of human service,” saysHopkins. “Because the work is sodifficult, people feel that they canonly do it for so long, so there


“ ”These projects will increase the safety, perm an en c y, an dw e l l - b eing of children and families served by child welfar ea g encies throughout the state of Mary l and. —Diane DePanfilis


remains a high vacancy rate.Agencies can never hire enoughpeople to fill the vacancies whenpeople leave, even if they continu-ally hire new people and traint h e m . ”

With a $475,000, one-ye a rgrant from DHR, Hopkins s u rve yed child we l f a re employe e s ,including managers and superv i-sors, to collect their opinions andp e r s p e c t i ves about their work tolearn why people leave their jobs.

Hopkins found several surpris-ing results from the re s e a rch, whichwas presented in a re p o rt to DHRin May 2007. “Most peopleassume Ba l t i m o re City has the most problems re c ruiting andretaining workers, but we found that some of the more ru r a la reas of the state actually have the highest turnover and va c a n c yrates,” says Ho p k i n s .

Although low salaries and high caseloads, as mentioned inthe GAO re p o rt, are often cited as reasons why workers do notstay in the child we l f a re field, Hopkins found that wasn’t neces-sarily true. “A lot of data indicates that if salary level is incre a s e dand caseloads are decreased, it doesn’t necessarily translate tohigher retention. Organizational issues are important. Pe o p l eneed to feel like they’re satisfied in their jobs and that they havethe support of their superv i s o r s . ”

Hopkins has proposed that the next phase of this pro j e c tfocus on implementing interventions based on the results of hers u rve y.

TRAINING BETTER WORKERS

C a roline Long Bu r ry, PhD, MSW, associate pro f e s s o r, andDebra Linsenmeye r, MSW, have been working together tod e velop the Ma ryland Child We l f a re Ac a d e m y. Graduate andundergraduate students in social work and new and curre n tchild we l f a re workers develop their knowledge and skills to p rovide better care for children.

The academy, a partnership between DHR and the Schoolof Social Wo rk, is funded by an 18-month, $2.4 million grantf rom DHR.

“ Prior to developing the Child We l f a re Ac a d e m y, the Schoolwas already invo l ved in training child we l f a re workers for DHR.De veloping the academy allowed us to elaborate on the trainingcontinuum by expanding the amount of information that

trainees and students re c e i ve upfront,” saysBu r ry.

Now, along with teaching child we l f a rew o rkers new practices, the trainers showw o rkers how to apply that knowledge beforethey are assigned cases.

“ Many child we l f a re workers do not haved e g rees in social work, so they may not havethe same level of knowledge and skills that

individuals with social work degrees may have. So we appre c i a t ethe opportunity to support DHR’s commitment to trainingm o re people before they start work,” says Linsenmeye r, educa-tional director for the academy.

The School also developed in-service instruction for curre n tchild we l f a re workers to support struggling parents. For the firsttime, the School conducted in-service training for approved f o s t e r, kinship, and adoptive pare n t s .

“The safety of the children that DHR is responsible forrelies in large part on the folks who are taking care of them,”says Linsenmeye r. “We want to make sure the foster, kinship,and adoptive families have the knowledge, skills, and attitudesthey need to care for the childre n . ”

In addition, under a special project called Excellence inChild We l f a re Su p e rvision, the School is training child we l f a rew o rkers with many years of experience who want to move intos u p e rv i s o ry and administrative roles. A $350,000 grant fro mthe U.S. De p a rtment of Health and Human Se rvices prov i d e stuition for these workers to earn their master’s degrees and takespecial courses in supervision and management.

All faculty and staff at the School, working through theRuth H. Young Center for Families and Children, are sharinginformation to improve their individual projects, which wille ventually help them better assist DHR in meeting its goals.The ultimate goal—providing better care for Ma ry l a n d’s c h i l d ren and families in the child we l f a re system—will be we l lw o rth the effort.

“This continued collaboration with DHR is ve ry exc i t i n gand will improve outcomes for Ma ry l a n d’s children and families,” says De Panfilis.

“We want to make sure the foster, kinship,and adoptive families have the knowledge,skills, and attitudes th ey need to care forthe children .” —Debra Linsenmeyer

Rosa Alva ye ro came to New Yo rk City from El Sa l va d o r18 years ago with a goal: to attend college to learn howto help other immigrants. Although just a teenager atthe time, she understood that immigrants who move to

this country “need a great deal of support to live a dignified lifein the U.S.”

A l va ye ro’s dream of college had to wait while she, liket h ree of her 11 siblings who came to this country before her,w o rked to support her family in El Sa l va d o r, where wagesa verage $5 a day.

“When I came to New Yo rk, my main focus was work, andhelping my parents,” she says. “After that, I was able to continuewith my education.”

The social work student was awarded the University’sPresidential Scholarship ( c reated in 2004 to honor Un i ve r s i t yPresident David J. Ramsay’s 10-year annive r s a ry), along withthe Maternal and Child Health Leadership Pro g r a mS c h o l a r s h i p, and the William Donald Schaefer Scholarship.

A l va ye ro, who works full time, plans to graduate with anMSW from the School of Social Wo rk in 2009. She hasa l ready done much tow a rd her mission of assisting fellowLatino immigrants.

While obtaining an associate’s degree in mental health fro mMo n t g o m e ry College in Takoma Pa rk, Md., and a bachelor’s inp s ychology and a graduate certificate in women’s studies fro mthe Un i versity of Ma ryland, College Pa rk, Alva ye ro prov i d e di n t e r p retation for Spanish-speaking patients and their healthc a re providers at La Clinica del Pueblo in Washington, D.C.Pre s e n t l y, she works as a case manager at Ma ryland Mu l t i c u l t u r a lYouth Centers, where she has created a tutoring program forstudents who do not speak En g l i s h .

A l va ye ro says her studies and her real-world experiences go

hand-in-hand in her effort to help immigrants adjust to life intheir new country.

“ If I’m working with families, the human-behavior theoriesthat I studied have helped me understand the dynamics thatthe families are experiencing and some of the difficulties thatmay stem from them,” she says. Alva ye ro says her social workeducation is helping her learn “how to go about finding grantsand re s o u rces that can support our pro g r a m s . ”

Although many American Indians and Latino immigrantss h a re the same problems—such as pove rty and lack of healthi n s u r a n c e — A l va ye ro says the added complications of a languagebarrier and undocumented status often block immigrants’access to services that could help them.

“The health care clinics are ove rwhelmed,” Alva ye ro says.Although children might re c e i ve care more quickly, adults oftenwait “t h ree months for ve ry, ve ry acute problems.” Re c e n t l y,A l va ye ro helped a woman obtain treatment for a swollen anklet h rough the Gove r n o r’s Wellmobile Program, which is admin-i s t e red by the School of Nursing. A victim of domestic violence, the woman had gone without treatment for months.

Although Alva ye ro says she will never become accustomedto Ma ry l a n d’s winter we a t h e r, she says she likes living here andplans to remain after graduation to help Sp a n i s h - s p e a k i n gimmigrants.

And she is ve ry pleased with how well the Un i versity hasp re p a red her to perform that work .

“ In the School of Social Wo rk, I have met wonderful andcommitted faculty members who have shared their know l e d g eand commitment to social work practice. And the Ma t e r n a land Child Health Leadership Program Scholarship that I wasa w a rded has provided me with the opportunity to deve l o pleadership skills to better work with the community.”

On a Mission to Serv eLatino CommunityB Y R O N A L D H U B E


S T U DE N T PR OF I L E R O S A A LVAY E R O S C HOOL OF S OC I A L W OR K

PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT BURKE


o the Hausa ethnic group in Nigeria, the devastating afflictionthat eats away at the faces of so many children in its villages isk n own as ciwon iska—the wind disease.

To re s e a rchers at the Un i versity of Ma ryland Dental School, the condition is known as noma—or c a n c rum oris—and has been called the“face of pove rt y.” When one sees how this dreaded scourge devours thefaces of its young victims, it is an image that does not quickly fade.

Noma typically attacks seve rely malnourished children under the ageof 6. They suffer from the rapid spread of a gangrenous lesion, pro m o t e dby a common childhood infection such as measles, that starts inside themouth and quickly destroys the soft and hard tissues of their cheeks, lips,gums, and jaw. If treated early with oral antiseptics and antibiotics, it iseasily re versed. Without prompt medical intervention, howe ve r, seve nout of 10 children afflicted die just a few weeks after the first symptomsa p p e a r.

“When you see these kids—unless you don’t have a soul—it sticks inyour mind,” says Cyril Enwonwu, ScD, PhD, MDS, a professor in theDe p a rtment of Biomedical Sciences in the Dental School and adjunctp rofessor in the De p a rtment of Bi o c h e m i s t ry and Molecular Biology atthe School of Medicine. He has spent much of his professional care e rre s e a rching the etiology and pre vention of noma.

A culminating honor for Enwonwu is an invitation to deliver theopening plenary lecture at the first world “Noma Da y” to be held inGe n e va on May 22, 2008. The event is under the patronage of Ko f iAnnan, former secre t a ry-general of the United Nations, in association

B Y M A R Y S P I R O

Dental School ResearchersLead Efforts to Eradicate Noma

TNIGERIA

with the World Health Organization (WHO), the FDI Wo r l dDental Federation, and the Winds of Hope Fo u n d a t i o n .

An expert in the field of nutritional sciences re s e a rc h ,Enwonwu also has been honored by both Nigerian andAmerican humanitarian groups. He works with nongove r n-mental organizations to develop measures to fight the globals p read of noma.

Since July 2006, Enwonwu has been a consultant to a priva t emedical mission organization called the MAMA Project, In c . ,based in Pennsburg, Pa. MAMA stands for Mu j e res Amigas(Women Friends) Miles Ap a rt. The organization has been putting volunteer teams of physicians and civilians together form o re than 20 years to address the issues of seve rely malnour-ished childre n .

The organization’s goal is to provide the training and toolsto empower local health care workers to meet urgent medicalneeds. The MAMA Project began in 1987 working in poora reas of Honduras and has expanded its programs to Ha i t i .Wo rk in Nigeria is slated to begin in the fall of 2008.

ETIOLOGY OF NOMA

Noma is endemic to rural Nigeria, but also can be foundamong extremely impoverished people in other parts of Su b -Saharan Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean.Hi s t o r i c a l l y, noma was observed in Nazi concentration campsand more recently has been re p o rted among some AIDSpatients.

“ My invo l vement with noma came about because of myi n t e rest in nutritional biochemistry and the consequences ofmalnutrition with re g a rd to oral and general health,” saysEnwonwu, a former director of the Nigerian Institute ofMedical Re s e a rch. “Noma is an end result of the complexinteractions between infections, immunity, and malnutrition,”he says, “but there are many other va r i a b l e s . ”

Enwonwu first encountered noma in 1965 while doinggraduate re s e a rch in rural Western Nigeria. Although born and

raised in Nigeria, he grew up in an urban area far from areas ofe x t reme pove rt y. He studied at the Un i versity of Bristol inEngland, where his textbooks defined noma as a rare, almostnonexistent, disease caused by poor diet and infections.

En w o n w u’s re s e a rch in nutrition and biochemistry has takenhim in many directions during the last four decades. But withthose unforgettable images of miserable and disfigured childre nf i xed in his mind, he says, “At eve ry opport u n i t y, I returned tothe study of noma.”

In 1993, Enwonwu came to the Un i versity of Ma ry l a n dDental School and proposed to study noma in a “m o re system-atic way.” Funding initially came from the Nestlé Fo u n d a t i o nin Lausanne, Sw i t zerland, and subsequently from the John E.Fo g a rty International Center for the Ad vanced Study of theHealth Sciences, a center of the National Institutes of He a l t h .William Falkler Jr., PhD, MS, professor emeritus of micro -biology in the Dental School’s De p a rtment of Bi o m e d i c a lSciences, also has been actively invo l ved in the study of noma.Falkler and Enwonwu provided expert testimony to a congre s-sional hearing on the disease in 2002.

Some of En w o n w u’s earliest re s e a rch focused on the basicb i o c h e m i s t ry of malnutrition and its effects on physical deve l-opment and metabolic parameters using animal models. Hethen began looking at the link between malnutrition and thes e verity of infection. He also studied how prior infection withmalaria and measles impacted a child’s metabolism and his orher ability to fight subsequent infections.

With Fa l k l e r, Enwonwu studied the microorganisms grow-ing in the mouths of children from the villages where nomawas found. Unlike in the mouths of normal children, anaero b i cbacteria, such as Fusobacterium necro p h o ru m and Pre vo t e l l ai n t e rm e d i a, we re prolific in the mouths of young children withnoma. In vestigators subsequently determined that the bacterialcontamination resulted from the practice of housing animals inthe same living quarters as humans and through fecal contami-nation of water supplies.

18 U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y L A N D, B A L T I M O R E PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF CYRIL ENWONWU

Dr. William Falkler, pictured (left) in Nigeria, has collaborated with

Dr. Enwonwu in microbiological research into the causes of noma.

In its earliest stage, noma starts as a lesion promoted by a

common childhood infection such as measles.

Within a matter of days, what begins as a small lesion

becomes a galloping infection that destroys the soft and hard

tissues of the cheeks, lips, gums, and jaw, causing severe

disfigurement. If treated early enough, it is easily reversed.

Without medical intervention, seven out of 10 children die

within a few weeks after symptoms appear.

2008 R E S E A R C H & S C H O L A R S H I P 19ILLUSTRATION BY ANNE ERICKSON; PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT BURKE

After investigating the disease from a variety of angles,Enwonwu acknowledged that although seve re malnutrition,often starting pre n a t a l l y, is a major risk factor to noma, it is justone piece of the puzzle. The etiology of noma is complex andalso includes poor oral hygiene, absence of exc l u s i ve bre a s t -feeding in the first few months of life, unsanitary food pre p a r a-tion methods, living in close proximity to livestock, and priorinfection with a childhood disease—all unfortunate facts of lifefor the poorest and most vulnerable residents of economicallyd e p ressed regions of the world.

Location, poor public sanitation, shame, and myth also perpetuate the spread of noma, Enwonwu explains. The re m o t elocation of the villages where noma occurs hampers access toearly medical interventions. Clean water is scarce in theseregions. St a t i s t i c a l l y, little is known about the incidence ofnoma, and the general belief is that less than 10 percent ofpatients with the disease seek medical care, notes En w o n w u .Unable to explain the disease, villagers hold fast to a belief thatnoma strikes children because the mother has done somethingspiritually wrong. Thus noma victims are often hidden awayand cases of infanticide are sometimes suspected.

“We have come to a point in our re s e a rch where we knowenough about the causation of noma,” Enwonwu says. “Now,we must turn available scientific evidence into action by con-centrating on pre vention of the disease.” In order for pre ve n t i o nto be e f f e c t i ve, he emphasizes that each cause and eve ry hurd l emust be addressed simultaneously.

PREVENTION AND REHABILITATION

Enwonwu has been instrumental in increasing awareness andinitiating action to address the noma problem. With officials ofthe AWD Foundation in Ha n ove r, Ge r m a n y, Enwonwu madesustained appeals to the government of Nigeria that resulted inthe establishment of the 70-bed Noma Children Hospital inSokoto, Nigeria, in 1999. Enwonwu served for four years ash o n o r a ry founding chairman of the hospital board.

The hospital is re c o g n i zed by the WHO as a re f e rence centerw h e re children who surv i ve active noma may come for plasticand re c o n s t ru c t i ve surgery performed by volunteer physicians.Hospital staff members also treat children who are sufferingf rom other serious oral health pro b l e m s .

Noma is a “neglected disease,” says Enwonwu. “My teamand I view its continued occurrence as a violation of the rightsof the poor, particularly the innocent children who constitutethe major victims. If noma is to be eliminated, national, interna-tional, governmental, and nongovernmental agencies will have toapply available re s e a rch findings in more pro a c t i ve ways.” That isw h e re the expertise of the MAMA Project comes in.

“They already have the stru c t u re on the ground, now theya re trying to transport it to countries in Su b - Saharan Africaw h e re conditions are not that different from Haiti or Ho n d u r a s , ”Enwonwu says.

Priscilla Be n n e r, MD, director of the MAMA Project, visitedthe Dental School in December 2006. “Eradication of noma islong ove rdue,” Benner says. “We envision radical change, and

“

”

If noma is to be eliminated,national, international, g o v ern m en tal, and non-g o v ern m en tal agencies will have to apply availabler e s earch findings in moreproactive ways.

—Cyril Enwonwu

to do that we will have to apply most of Dr. En w o n w u’s find-ings together, like a chain, in which there can be no weak link.”

The MAMA Project strategies include training seminars forcommunity health workers to re c o g n i ze children at risk. T h etrainers also will pre p a re the public health workers to teach thevillage mothers how to care for their children and when to seekurgent help. Health workers will attempt to track confirmedcases of noma, as well as other oral lesions considered potentialp recursors of noma.

Along with training, methods to improve nutrition are ap r i o r i t y, Benner says. En w o n w u’s re s e a rch indicates that pro p e rnutrition must begin with appropriate prenatal care so thatc h i l d ren are not born immunologically predisposed to deve l o p i n gnoma. “Malnutrition in many poor rural African communitiess t a rts in the womb,” Enwonwu says, “and that can compro m i s ethe early development of the immune system.”

One of the biggest achievements of the MAMA Project todate has been the development of the “Super Cookie.” T h i shighly nutritious and appealing treat can be baked using mostlyindigenous ingredients. The Super Cookie has worked well inother locations, but Benner says applying the same strategy inNigeria, which has poor sanitation in rural villages, may pre s e n tunique challenges.

Another alternative being considered is a nutrient-enricheddrink, she says. But this idea “might backfire” if it discouragesb reast-feeding or becomes contaminated by local water sourc e s .“We are still working on it,” Benner adds.

In the meantime, there are other interventions that can beused to improve nutrition. These include encouraging mothersto breast-feed infants for longer periods, providing nutrientsupplements such as vitamins A and C to adults and childre n ,and incorporating micronutrients—trace elements such as selenium, zinc, and iodine—into the diet.

To improve oral hygiene, the MAMA Project has created asimple baking powder-based dentifrice. The powder also containsthe trace elements zinc, fluoride, iodine, and other essentialm i c ronutrients needed to boost immunity. Benner says trainersalso will encourage the traditional practice of using chew i n gsticks to promote good oral hygiene.

Infestation with intestinal parasites compromises the nutri-tional status of adults and children alike. So the MAMA

Project workers will administer a mass deworming pro g r a m .And since getting to a doctor quickly is a problem, a villagemedicine chest, stocked with inexpensive and easy-to-obtainantibiotics, will be made available to trained community healthc a re workers through the MAMA Project.

Along with these direct interventions, Benner says, thee n t i re community will need education in better hygiene prac-tices such as boiling drinking water and washing hands. Ti m e l yimmunizations against endemic childhood diseases, e.g.measles, also will be emphasized. Villagers will have to beencouraged to keep livestock away from the childre n’s sleepinga reas and water supplies.

The MAMA Project workers also will advocate for publichealth initiatives such as improved access to potable water inremote areas. But these are concerns that only can be dealt withby local authorities.

W h a t e ver measures are applied, Enwonwu and Benner concur that respect for the culture and traditions of the localpeople will have to be demonstrated at all times. “All of this hasto be done carefully and gently and with cultural sensitivity, ”Benner adds.

WIPING OUT THE FACE OF POVERTY

As Enwonwu continues his work to guarantee the humanrights of children through the elimination of pre ventable butneglected diseases associated with pove rty and malnutrition,noma remains at the top of his list.

“All the re s e a rch papers we have published are really mean-ingless until the day when we can get the mothers to understandand implement lifestyle measures needed to pre vent occurre n c eof noma in their children,” says En w o n w u .

And change is under way. “People are now much more con-scious of the noma problem in Nigeria and in other deve l o p i n gcountries. Oral health personnel in many of these countries arebecoming ve ry active members of the primary health careteam,” Enwonwu says.

Benner adds that En w o n w u’s dogged dedication has been adriving force behind the winds of change for “the wind disease.”

“ It takes real passion to keep at it for as long as Dr. En w o n w uhas,” Benner says. “When the day comes that noma is finallyeradicated, he will be one of the main reasons.”



La e l a ye Shimeles is one of the few students at the De n t a lSchool to wear a full set of braces on his teeth. But it wasa friend’s mouth, not his own, that was the catalyst forSh i m e l e s’ interest in the field of dentistry. As a young boy,

Shimeles was an avid soccer player in Ethiopia when he and ateammate collided—his forehead into the jaw of a classmate.

“I was a kid. I didn’t treat it as a big deal at the time, but itwas serious,” says Shimeles, 27. “My injury caused an infectionthat re q u i red two minor head surgeries. I re c ove red within sixmonths. My friend, howe ve r, ended up having his bro k e ntooth re m oved and was unable to have it replaced due to a lackof dental expertise in our country. ”

Both the appearance and the eating habits of his childhoodfriend we re drastically affected by his broken tooth. He alsoe n c o u n t e red frequent taunting. “My friend was left with a per-manent deformity,” says Shimeles, a third - year dental student.“The fact that he couldn’t do anything about it made it all thew o r s e .

“ It instilled in me the desire to educate myself in dentalmedicine, with the belief that I would be able to make a differ-ence for those in need of dental care.”

His inspirational beliefs have only been enhanced by hisyears at the Dental School.

“ My experience at the Un i versity of Ma ryland has beene xceptional,” says Shimeles, who was attracted by the Un i ve r s i t y’sp roximity to his home in Washington, D.C., its large andd i verse student population, and we l l - respected Dental School.

“The curriculum during the first two years provided mewith a strong base in the biological sciences and an outstanding

clinical education. The new Dental School building offershigh-tech clinical simulation units and facilities that gre a t l yenhance the learning experience.

“ In addition, I have had the opportunity to care for ad i verse patient population—pediatric, emergency, and medicallyc o m p romised patients. Without a doubt, I encourage studentswith the desire to pursue dentistry to choose the Un i versity ofMa ryland Dental School.”

Sh i m e l e s’ parents, who are both health care pro f e s s i o n a l s ,immigrated to Washington, D.C., in 1995 with their four c h i l d ren. Shimeles graduated from Card o zo High School in1998 and re c e i ved his undergraduate degree, majoring inchemical engineering, from the Un i versity of Ma ry l a n d ,College Pa rk in 2003.

“The fact that I went to an underprivileged high school didnot limit my potential,” says Shimeles. “I re a l i zed I would haveto work harder than the average high school student. And Ib e l i e ve that being less fortunate is not an excuse for failure . ”

Since his move to the United States, Shimeles has re c o n-nected with his long-lost soccer teammate who now lives inCanada. “When we talked, the first thing he said was, ‘Gu e s swhat? I got the tooth fixe d .’ ”

Shimeles, who anticipates the re m oval of his own bracesjust prior to graduation, is now married with a 1-ye a r - o l dd a u g h t e r. He has many dreams—to pursue a specialty, giveback to his profession, and return to Et h i o p i a .

“I want to help people where I came from and have somep o s i t i ve influence and impact in dentistry. T h e re are so manythings you can do in dentistry,” says Shimeles. “It is amazing.”

S T U DE N T PR OF I L E L A E L AY E S H I M E L E S DE N TA L S C HO OL

PHOTOGRAPH BY SOFIA SILVA

Inspired to Make a Difference B Y G W E N N E W M A N


New Hope for SNew Hope for SF R O M B A L T I M O R E

ITALY

r St roke Vi c t i m sr St roke Vi c t i m sB Y BR U C E G O L D FA R B

T O T U S C A N Y

-

ith the help of 200 people walkingin Tu s c a n y, It a l y, Richard Ma c k o ,

MD, is working tow a rd a bre a k t h rough fors t roke victims in Ba l t i m o re .

Macko is a professor of neurology andg e rontology at the School of Medicine andd i rector of the Rehabilitation Re s e a rch a n dDe velopment Center of Excellence in Exe rc i s eand Ro b o t i c s at the Ba l t i m o re Veterans AffairsMedical Center. He is challenging a unive r s a l l yaccepted tenet of medicine that function ispermanently lost when areas of the brain ared e s t royed by stro k e .

Re s e a rch conducted by Macko and his col-leagues, including Francesco Be n venuti, MD,in Tu s c a n y, shows that a novel program ofre p e t i t i ve, aerobic, task-oriented exe rcises cannot only improve physical functioning, butalso help reduce cardiometabolic health risksthat dispose patients to a second deva s t a t i n ge ve n t .

“What you see with stroke is an acutee vent followed by a brief period of re h a b i l i t a-tion,” says Macko, who is also academic dire c t o rof the School of Me d i c i n e’s Division ofRehabilitation Medicine. The duration of p o s t - s t roke physical therapy is typically aboutone to three months. It is widely believed thatre c ove ry of physical function peaks around 11or 12 weeks after a stroke, according to Ma c k o.Once reaching a plateau in motor and sensoryfunction, patients usually remain the same ors l owly deteriorate over time.

Each ye a r, about 750,000 Americans suffera stroke, which results when blood to the brainis disrupted by bleeding or a clot. St a rved ofoxygenated blood, brain tissue dies. The func-t i o n of the affected area of the brain—memory,cognition, sensation, and move m e n t — n olonger works. About thre e - q u a rters of peoplewho suffer a stroke are left with a neuro l o g i c a ldeficit often involving paralysis or weakness ofone side of the body.

C o n ventional rehabilitation after a stro k e

W

PHOTOGRAPH BY© SERGIO PITAMITZ/ZEFA/CORBIS 2008 R E S E A R C H & S C H O L A R S H I P 23

concentrates on re c overing activities of daily living that makepatients as independent as possible. Physical and occupationaltherapists work with post-stroke patients to relearn walking,getting out of bed or a chair, and activities such as eating,d ressing, and grooming.

C o n ventional rehabilitation is important, Macko says, butfails to address the underlying physical deconditioning and car-diometabolic risks that leave patients prone to another stro k e .

THE ‘P L A S T IC’ BRAIN

Re s e a rch done in recent years demonstrates that the brain ismuch more adaptable and “p l a s t i c” than once believed. Re -p e a t e d stimulation of limbs crippled by a stroke can help thebrain re o r g a n i ze and establish new paths of sensation andmotor function. These insights we re gleaned from experimentsin which animals with paralyzed rear legs we re taught to walkby using a treadmill.

“ Many of the advances in our understanding of brain plas-ticity have come about in the last 10 years,” Macko says. “T h enotion of a short window of re c ove ry after a stroke is gone. T h ec o n t rol of the sensory and motor system is not fixed thre emonths after a stroke. We are not hard - w i red like a telephone.With the right kind of exe rcise therapy, you can improve func-tion years after a stro k e . ”

Since the mid-1990s, Macko and a team of about 20 inve s-tigators at the Un i versity of Ma ryland and the Ba l t i m o re VAMedical Center have collaborated with re s e a rchers at eight academic medical centers in the United States and Eu rope. T h eg roup conducted a series of studies in Tuscany leading to a newmodel of re h a b i l i t a t i o n — Ad a p t i ve Physical Activity (APA ) —

that combines re p e t i t i ve task-oriented activities with the inten-sity of aerobic exe rcise to improve fitness.

A PA invo l ves a series of mobility, balance, and stre t c h i n ge xe rcises designed to be done in small groups led by an exe rc i s ei n s t ru c t o r. Sessions include walking a course marked on thef l o o r, going from sitting in a chair to standing, shifting we i g h tf rom leg to leg, half-squats, and other flexion and extensione xe rcises.

“ Because many people are walking around, it creates c o n s t ru c t i ve interf e rence,” Macko says. “It re q u i res exe c u t i vefunction, because they’re multitasking. T h e y’re watching otherpeople walk at the same time. It creates social re i n f o rc e m e n t .T h a t’s the key to sustaining behavior—getting people out oftheir homes and into a gro u p. ”

In the October 2005 issue of the journal St ro k e, Macko andcolleagues re p o rted a study of treadmill exe rcise in people whoh a ve difficulty walking because of paralysis on one side of theirb o d y. Re s e a rchers sought out people well into the chro n i cphase of stroke re c ove ry, at least six months after its onset.Fo rt y - f i ve men and women with an average of three years p o s t - s t roke completed the study.

Twe n t y - f i ve participants we re randomly assigned to a p rogram of 40-minute treadmill sessions three times a we e k .The sessions increased in intensity and duration eve ry twoweeks, as much as could be tolerated by participants. For com-parison, 20 participants we re randomized to re c e i ve more c o n ventional therapy, consisting of 35 minutes of stre t c h i n ge xe rcises and five-minute treadmill sessions that remained at aconsistent low intensity for the length of the study period.

After six months of therapy, significant differences we renoted between the groups. Those who undertook the experi-mental training improved their functional mobility and alsoi n c reased their aerobic fitness by six times more than those whore c e i ved less intensive therapy.

Ma c k o’s group (including Larry Fo r re s t e r, PhD, in theSchool of Me d i c i n e’s De p a rtment of Physical Therapy andRehabilitation Science) also collaborates with robotics engineersat the Massachusetts Institute of Te c h n o l o g y. They are eva l u a t i n gan “A n k l e b o t” to test the combination of robotics and exe rc i s etraining. The robotics “impedance control system” allows foradjustments according to individual patient needs, says Ma c k o.“A PA is the ‘low - t e c h’ approach more easily applied in commu-nity settings. Robotics is the ‘high-tech’ promise that couldenhance benefits to all patients and also help more seve rely disabled individuals,” he adds.

TESTING THERAPY IN ITA LY

Ef f o rts to translate the discoveries from the laboratory areunder way in the Tuscany region of It a l y, and the benefits of thed i s c overies are now becoming a vailable to stroke patients inMa ryland. With the support of the National Institutes ofHealth and its counterpart in It a l y, A PA is being tested in a pilotp rogram developed with Be n ve n u t i , a rehabilitation specialist forthe health district that includes Tu s c a n y.


Dr. Richard Macko’s

research group at

UMB is collaborating

with engineers at

MIT in evaluating

the “Anklebot.”


Tuscany was chosen because APA was re l a t i vely easy toimplement under It a l y’s nationalized health system, and becauseof the interest of Be n venuti, with whom Macko has collaboratedsince 2003.

“They took the principles of the training program andadapted them to a community program,” says Ma c k o. APA wasexpanded to 200 participants in 20 community centers inTu s c a n y.

Next on the agenda is to make exe rcise programs such asA PA available to stroke patients closer to home.

The need for effective therapy for stroke will become moreacute as baby boomers age. By 2040, the number of peoplehaving strokes will double to 1.5 million annually. “T h a t’sgoing to leave us with a city the size of Ba l t i m o re filled withpeople with disabilities from stroke each ye a r,” says Ma c k o. “ It’s a huge problem.”

DEALING WITH DIABETES

Another huge problem in the treatment of stroke is diabetes, ad i s o rder caused by the body’s inability to properly pro d u c einsulin to metabolize glucose for energy. Diabetes is considere da card i ovascular risk equivalent. That means a person with diabetes is as likely to have a stroke or heart attack as someonewithout the disease who already had one.

O ver a period of months, muscle on the side of the bodyweakened by a stroke undergoes changes that affect glucosemetabolism. “T h e re is a profound deconditioning that hindersre c ove ry and contributes to disability,” Macko explains. T h emuscle soon becomes atrophied and infiltrated with fat. Mu s c l ebundles, normally composed of a mix of different fiber types,become dominated by “f a s t - t w i t c h” fibers that are less sensitiveto insulin.

Me a s u res of fitness in stroke patients tend to deteriorateq u i c k l y. “St roke patients are half as fit as able-bodied but inac-t i ve individuals,” says Ma c k o.

High levels of glucose in the blood are harmful to bloodvessels over the long term, contributing to athero s c l e rosis, orh a rdening of the arteries. Di s o rd e red insulin and glucosemetabolism eventually make arteries thicker, stiffer, andinflamed, and blood more likely to form clots.

A person with diabetes has nearly three times the risk of are c u r rent stroke than someone with normal blood glucosemetabolism. Im p a i red glucose tolerance—an intermediate pre-diabetic state—doubles the risk of a repeat stroke. High bloodglucose levels likely contribute to repeated strokes, as about at h i rd of all stroke patients have another stroke within five ye a r s .In 2004, Macko and his colleagues conducted a study to deter-mine the pre valence of abnormal glucose metabolism amongs t roke patients who we re screened for exe rcise rehabilitation atthe Ba l t i m o re VA Medical Center.

The group of re s e a rchers includes his wife, Charlene Ha f e r -Macko, MD, associate professor and neuromuscular diseasere s e a rcher in the School of Medicine, and Fred Ive y, PhD, ane xe rcise physiologist who is, along with the Mackos, a member

of the Ba l t i m o re VA Geriatric Re s e a rch, Education, andClinical Center. In vestigators re c ruited 216 stroke patients withh e m i p a resis, weakness of one side of the body. All had completedc o n ventional inpatient and outpatient therapy, with an ave r a g eof more than three years since the stro k e .

The re s e a rchers discove red that 77 percent of the patientshad abnormal glucose metabolism. Mo re than a third we reidentified as diabetic, and more than a third we re found to havediabetes or impaired glucose tolerance after a blood test. T h ere s e a rc h e r s’ findings we re published in August 2006 by thejournal Cerebrovascular Diseases.

Fu rther study shows that aerobic exe rcise improves glucosemetabolism as well as physical functioning. After six months oft h e r a p y, blood tests show that treadmill exe rcise can dramaticallyi m p rove the body’s control of glucose. People in the pro g r a mhad significantly better glucose tolerance test results, while noi m p rovement in glucuse tolerance was seen among contro l s .Glucose metabolism returned to normal for seven of 12 part i c i-pants in the treadmill training group who had been diagnosedwith diabetes or prediabetes during enrollment, compared toonly one of 11 in the control gro u p.

The findings we re re p o rted in the October 2007 St ro k e a n da re being considered by the National Academy of Sciences as anevidence-based approach to improve health and function withe xe rcise after a stroke. The U.S. De p a rtment of Health andHuman Se rvices will release new physical activity guidelinesthis ye a r.

“This is re m a rkable. You don’t usually see improve m e n t slike this,” Richard Macko says of his re s e a rch team’s findings.“We need to get these developments from the university hospital lab and into the community.”

IMPLEMENTING COMMUNITY TREAT M E N T

Tow a rd this end, plans are under way to introduce APA incommunity settings in the Ba l t i m o re area. In a partnership withthe How a rd County Office on Aging, APA classes for stro k es u rv i vors began last fall as a pilot study in the Ellicott City andGlenwood senior centers.

This is part of a larger initiative by How a rd County tobring evidence-based exe rcise to its growing population of seniors. Mo re than a dozen locations in How a rd and Ba l t i m o recounties are under consideration, says Ma c k o.

“You don’t need a physical therapist to run these courses,”he says. “It’s an exe rcise class, so you can set it up for a muchl ower cost.”

Macko envisions an evolution in the treatment of stroke inwhich people are treated quickly and aggre s s i vely to minimizedamage to brain tissue. Patients would then re c e i ve effectivephysical therapy to rehabilitate and improve activities of dailyliving and extended therapy with APA to maximize fitness andreduce risks.

“I hope this is the beginning of a model system for stro k e , ”he says. “We want to empower people. This is fighting backagainst the disability.”

26 U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y L A N D, B A L T I M O R E PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF BARBARA SMITH

Barbara Smith

(middle row in

headdress)

is shown with her

colleagues at the

University of

Zambia at Lusaka

in Lusaka, Zambia.

Health care workers

from Mwea Mission

Hospital in Nyeri,

Kenya, make home

visits to promote

patients’ adherence

to HIV medications.

Keeping children free from HIV in Lusaka, Zambia

2003, IHV re c e i ved the largest health care services grant incampus history (see related story on page 29). With federalfunding from the Pre s i d e n t’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Re l i e f,IHV is now in the midst of compre h e n s i ve, long-term effort sto empower health care providers in Africa, Latin America, andthe Caribbean with the skills they need to care for their own.

Long an international leader in AIDS re s e a rch, clinicalc a re, and pre vention efforts, IHV turned to Guberski to pro-vide the depth of real-life experience and expertise needed tospearhead and oversee training efforts directed to accomplishedR N s — a l ready bright, talented, and skilled practitioners whoseown educational experiences simply did not provide a tre a t-ment ove rv i ew of the disease ravaging their communities.

The philosophy had been: Why train nurses in HIV therapywhen the developing countries had neither the financialre s o u rces nor the actual drugs needed for treatment? But whentherapies became available through global funding initiative s ,medical training became a critical component.

As a technical advisor for the project, Guberski now spendsabout five months a year in Uganda and leads the deve l o p-ment of a global nursing curriculum that will help nursesbecome accustomed to providing a continuity of care —t reating sick populations and helping to pre vent illness in thehealthy ones—in addition to learning about the side effects ofHIV drugs and how to monitor those taking them.

“We concentrate a lot on how you run a clinic withpatients now expected to come for a continuum of care, notepisodic care,” she says.

Collaboration is the key to the success of the team’s effort s ,notes Guberski. Anthony Edozien, MD, assistant professor inthe School of Medicine and IHV, is the senior technical advi-sor and team leader. Solomon Agbor, DRPH, specialist h e a l t hc a re provider through IHV, promotes adherence to quality.

“Without these two professionals, I could not do my job, ”says Guberski. “Each colleague brings a different expertise interms of technical assistance.”

Gu b e r s k i’s first visit to Uganda and to a treatment clinicwas eye-opening. “When I saw the number of patients, Ithought, ‘What did I get myself into?’ I had never seen somany patients in one clinic at one time. To me, it looked likethousands. It was probably between 100 and 150.”

Guberski can re c o g n i ze the symptoms of HIV patients suffering from opportunistic infections such as cry p t o c o c c a lmeningitis and quickly recommend the protocols necessary tore s t o re health and vitality to patients. Previously the medical

he faculty members of the Un i versity of Ma ryland Schoolof Nursing have different specialties, areas of expert i s e ,and professional interests. But seve ral have united aro u n d

a single goal—to empower nurses in developing countries with theskills they need to treat HIV- p o s i t i ve patients.

Training nurses around the world to diagnose and tre a tpatients living with the virus that causes AIDS takes time, energy,and personal commitment. The instructors bring unique va n t a g epoints from which they view the global epidemic and the nursingp rofession, and they have re t u rned home after experiencingi n c redible events that have changed their perspectives fore ve r.

NURSE EDUCATORS INTEGRAL TO UGANDA

Thomasine Guberski, PhD, RN, CRNP, was a re g i s t e re dnurse long before the discove ry of AIDS, but like many nurses,she found herself face to face with the disease. She pro a c t i ve l ye n rolled in continuing education courses in an effort to stayc u r rent with the latest trends in care and treatment. To d a y, shee m p owers other nurses to do the same.

An associate professor at the School of Nursing, Gu b e r s k iis a member of a multidisciplinary team immersed in globalp a rtnerships. T h rough international collaboration, School ofNursing faculty a re helping to pre p a re the next generation ofhealth care professionals in a critical arena of clinical carew h e re the number of patients far surpasses the number ofpractitioners able to treat them.

Guberski was tapped by the Institute of Human Vi ro l o g y( I H V) in the School of Medicine for her expertise when, in


T

AFRICA

their patients and the aggre s s i ve treatment plan.Malnutrition and the lack of food are some of the bigger

obstacles to providing HIV care in a country ravaged by thedisease, Smith observes, adding that medical teams in Africarefer to food as the “f o u rth ARV,” joining the three classes ofa n t i re t rov i r a l d rugs used to treat HIV. Food is so import a n tbecause HIV drugs are ineffective and cause undesirable sideeffects when taken on an empty stomach; many residents ofAfrica consider treatment options futile without access to regular meals, notes Smith.

It’s just one of the many barriers Smith has observed work-ing with medical teams also confronted with staffing short a g e s ,lack of equipment, and ove rwhelming patient loads. But Sm i t his encouraged by the pro g ress she sees each time she re t u r n s ,including the opening of new clinics and increased numbers ofhealth care professionals undergoing intensive training effort s .

Smith says she is quick to share with her pupils and pro f e s-sional colleagues that, though she might be considered “t h ee x p e rt,” she, too, once walked in their shoes in her pro f e s s i o n a ld e ve l o p m e n t .

“I bring a certain amount of knowledge,” Smith says to thestudent nurses she mentors, “but I also need your know l e d g eand expertise with how we apply that in Africa. We can thenput our knowledge together and create something that work sfor Kenya. In doing so, yo u’ll become the experts, and we’l lbecome the spectators.”

Smith encourages her students to adjust their tre a t m e n tp rotocols based on evidence by scientifically gathering infor-mation from observing their patients, settings, and results. T h eimpact can be profound. She recalls an older woman diag-nosed and hospitalized with both HIV and tuberculosis. To oweak to sit upright, the patient had to be propped up by

teams did not have the training, re s o u rces or experience todiagnose the condition or provide a life-saving re m e d y.

In addition to training the local health care prov i d e r s ,Gu b e r s k i’s team leaves behind textbooks and printed copies ofthe curriculum for re f e rence. “We go to places with no elec-t r i c i t y,” Guberski explains. “They don’t have access to theInternet or to online re s o u rces. Paper is ve ry expensive, andtextbooks are a re s o u rce that most don’t have. We leave whatwe can.”

Guberski has encountered many patients whose lives havebeen re s t o red—patients who are feeling well and worry onlyabout more commonplace illnesses.

P H Y S I O LOGIST SEES RECOVERIES IN KENYA

On a recent visit to Kenya, Barbara Smith, PhD, RN, FA A N ,associate dean of re s e a rch at the School of Nursing, carried asnack bar inside one of her travel bags. Packed almost as ana f t e rthought, the small amount of food proved comforting toa teen who had lost both her mother and aunt to AIDS.Living in isolation, the girl had gone several days without ameal and practically inhaled the tre a t .

“I pulled it out, and it just disappeared,” Smith recalls ofthe exchange. The girl, estimated to be 15 years old, was “ahead shorter than what she should have been” due to malnutrition.

Smith, an exe rcise physiologist, has long advocated thatphysical activity and proper nutrition can help to pre vent andm i n i m i ze the risk and severity of disease. She also has deve l-oped a professional niche, working with special populationssuch as the Amish, African-American children, and HIV patients.

For the last 12 years, Smith, a veteran nurse with expert i s ein AIDS treatment, has closely watched how food and exe rc i s ecan affect the quality of life for persons living with HIV. In2006 and 2007, Smith traveled to Kenya, where she was askedto help train nurses who for the first time have access to anti-re t roviral drugs (ARVs) to treat the disease. “Our motto hasbeen, ‘Vital signs are vital,’” Smith explains. These speciallytrained nurses are now embracing both the day-to-day care of

28 U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y L A N D, B A L T I M O R E BOTTOM PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THOMASINE GUBERSKI

At the University of Zambia at Lusaka,

health care workers enjoy the expansion of

their facilities to protect nurses from occupa-

tional exposure to blood-borne pathogens.

New mothers visit an IHV-supported

clinic in Uganda.


nurses, Smith remembers, only to see her quickly slump to thes i d e .

A few months later, Smith encountered the patient again;her condition had improved dramatically, thanks to tre a t m e n tfor her tuberculosis and HIV.

“ Her daughter called to her and this woman came ru n n i n gd own the lane. I was envisioning the woman so weak she hadto be propped up in bed, and here she was running. She hadenough energy to run, to literally run.”

RESEARCHER REACHES OUT IN TANZANIA

Se veral years ago, Keith Pl owden, PhD, RN, ACRN, re s p o n d e dto a professional request for services and says his life waschanged fore ve r.

Pl owden, an associate professor and assistant dean for bac-c a l a u reate studies in the School of Nursing who also teaches inthe School of Medicine, specializes in urban health issues. Hepractices on a medical unit at the Un i versity of Ma ry l a n dMedical Center and works on health care issues related tominority men, as well as factors such as drug use that put themat higher risk for HIV infection. The re s e a rcher/clinician alsohas extensive experience working with hard - t o - reach popula-tions and in developing culturally appropriate interventions toeducate, promote consensus, raise awareness, effect change,and improve outcomes.

Pl owd e n’s work is funded through the National In s t i t u t e sof Health, the U.S. De p a rtment of Defense, and the Su b s t a n c eAbuse and Mental Health Se rvices Administration. He trave l e dto Tanzania to share his insight into the AIDS epidemic and tofind ways to reach that particular community with its own cul-tural sensitivities and specific needs. For three weeks, Pl owd e nvisited community-based organizations and nongove r n m e n t a lassociations to assess, analyze, and make recommendations onwhat is needed to deliver and administer drugs and incre a s ecompliance and improve treatment outcomes.

He quickly learned that there are huge gaps in how the two

countries approach HIV care and in what the United St a t e scan advise based on the reality of re s o u rc e s .

“We have to be ve ry careful when we make re c o m m e n d a-tions,” Pl owden says, “because they may be doing all they cando with what they have . ”

He says it is not uncommon to walk through a hospitalw a rd where two patients share a single bed or for medical staffto be without critical re s o u rces or the drugs needed for care.

“When I am in a U.S. hospital, I can pick up a phone tore p o rt my assessments and have a drug delive red instanta-n e o u s l y. That may not be the case there,” Pl owden says.

Pl owden anticipated that as an African-American, hewould have a connection with the culture. But he says he wassurprised at the unexpected moments where he, too, learned somuch. For example, despite the fact that almost eve ryone inTanzania personally knows someone who is living with or whohas died from AIDS, many have never bothered to get testedfor the disease.

Pl owden also explained that many people know that HIVd rugs must be taken with food to work effectively and, becausethey can’t guarantee meals on a consistent basis, see no benefitto knowing their HIV status. In some hospitals, the patient’sf a m i l y, and not the health care facility, must provide thep a t i e n t’s meals.

He was profoundly affected by the experience and came tothe quick conclusion that, in addition to his insight as are s e a rc h e r, the country needed the experience of hands-onpractitioners to diagnose and treat patients based on evidence.He is now studying to become a certified nurse practitioner, am ove he believes is crucial before he makes another visit.

Pl owden summarizes the philosophy of all the School ofNursing faculty members who are empowering nurses to workwith AIDS patients in Africa. “They need practitioners tow o rk alongside them in providing care to the patients,” hesays. “I look at my contribution now in terms of responding toa humanitarian need.”

In 2003, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS

Relief (PEPFAR) awarded the University of Maryland

School of Medicine the largest health care services

grant in the history of the University of Maryland,

Baltimore. The $64 million grant for the School of

Medicine’s Institute of Human Virology (IHV) AIDSRelief

Program provides high-quality medical care, treatment,

and counseling to people living with AIDS in Guyana,

Haiti, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania,

Uganda, and Zambia.

Robert Redfield, MD, director of clinical care and

research at IHV and chief of the Division of Infectious

Diseases at the School of Medicine, directs the program,

which benefited nearly 15,000 AIDS patients in its first

year and is expected to reach approximately 140,000

patients within five years.

In July 2007, IHV received an additional $43 million

grant from PEPFAR to be used to further IHV’s AIDS

Care and Treatment in Nigeria project by providing

immediate care and treatment to 48,000 patients and

expanding HIV testing and counseling to an additional

100,000 Nigerians. Nigeria ranks third in the world for

total number of persons infected with HIV.

Presidential Grant Extends IHV Work in Africa

When a faculty member in the School of Nu r s i n g’sPhD program placed several oranges on the desk ofteaching assistant Amy Hsieh, MS, she didn’t touchthem for three days. Hsieh was not sure the oranges

we re for her.Now a second-year doctoral student at the Un i versity of

Ma ryland, Ba l t i m o re (UMB), Hsieh obtained an undergradu-ate degree in nursing and began pursuing her PhD at schoolsin her native Taiwan—schools that she says did not provide as u p p o rt i ve environment for students. So finding a gift of fru i ton her desk was not something she expected.

But Hsieh, 49, says she soon discove red that faculty atUMB are “always concerned about students.” And that smallacts of kindness are not uncommon.

“They always respect, inspire, and help students,” she says.“Their teaching and patient care philosophies are so differe n tthan in my country.”

It is a philosophy that Hsieh—after completing the Schoolof Nu r s i n g’s PhD program in 2009—plans to take back toTaiwan as a teacher of nursing re s e a rch and oncology nursing.

Hsieh developed an interest in oncology while teachingclinical nursing in northern Taiwan. She often encountere dcases of hepatic and gastrointestinal cancer, and began to askh e r s e l f, “Can we do something to pre vent this kind of problem?”

At age 31, Hsieh started attending the Un i versity ofDe l a w a re, where she earned a master’s degree in oncology nurs-ing and nursing education. After graduation, Hsieh returned toTaiwan and worked for 15 years as a lecturer and clinical nurse

specialist and coordinator before enrolling in the PhD pro g r a mat the National Ya n g - Ming Un i versity in Taipei, Taiwan, in2003. But Hsieh was not happy at Ya n g - Mi n g .

Students are not encouraged to express their true thoughtsin Taiwan, Hsieh says. “He re [in the U.S.] it is free for you tospeak,” she says. “And always faculty encourage you to speak. Ithink it is a cultural differe n c e . ”

Hsieh searched the Internet for a U.S. university and wasi m p ressed with the PhD curriculum at the Un i versity ofMa ry l a n d’s School of Nursing. She was also pleased with theUn i ve r s i t y’s support services such as the Writing Center, whichoffers individual instruction on the nuts and bolts of grammar,punctuation, and sentence stru c t u re, as well as on bro a d e rissues such as writing style and critical thinking.

Hsieh transferred to UMB in 2006. Her re s e a rch herefocuses on database analysis related to hematopoietic stem cellt r a n s p l a n t a t i o n .

Among the Un i versity faculty, Hsieh has special praise forMeg Johantgen, PhD, RN, associate professor in the School ofNu r s i n g’s De p a rtment of Organizational Systems and Ad u l tHealth. “Dr. Johantgen always encourages us: ‘You are smart .You can do it.’”

While Hsieh plans to offer a support i ve and caring teachinga p p roach to her students when she returns to Taiwan, shehopes to re c e i ve something from the students as well. Te a c h i n gis a rew a rding experience for both instructor and pupil, she says.

“I feel teaching is learning, learning is teaching,” Hsiehsays.


S T U DE N T PR OF I L E A MY H S I E H S C HO OL OF N UR S I N G

PHOTOGRAPH BY SOFIA SILVA

Finding Support and EncouragementB Y R O N A L D H U B E


In n ovation comes in various sizes for Natalie D. Ed d i n g t o n ,PhD, the new dean of the School of Ph a r m a c y.

By thinking small, really small—as in one billionth of am e t e r, the size of a nano—Eddington helped to create the

S c h o o l’s Center for Nanomedicine and Cellular De l i ve ry (CNCD).Moving from chair of the De p a rtment of Ph a r m a c e u t i c a lSciences to dean of the School in July 2007, Eddington is n ow thinking bigger, as the School expands its education andre s e a rch efforts.

“Collaboration is a hallmark of the center,” Eddington saysof the CNCD, which was designated as the School’s firstOr g a n i zed Re s e a rch Center in Fe b ru a ry 2007. With re s e a rc h e r sboth from a number of departments within the School ofPharmacy and schools at the Un i versity of Ma ryland, Ba l t i m o re(UMB), as well as several universities within the Un i ve r s i t ySystem of Ma ryland, the center’s scientists develop methods tod e l i ver microscopic substances into the body at the cellular leve lto safely transport medical treatments directly to diseased cells.

As an emerging area of study, nanomedicine re q u i res awealth of expertise to devise possible solutions. T h e re arepharmaceutical experts to work on drug systems, engineersto develop the microscopic drug delive ry devices, and doctors to study the impact on patients.

Collaboration, says Eddington, does not always comen a t u r a l l y. Egos have to be contained, she admits, andbuilding trust among colleagues from different specialtiescan also be difficult.

But, she adds, a university is the perfect place to teachpeople how to collaborate effective l y. “A lot of the coopera-t i ve spirit,” she says, “really develops while yo u’re yo u n g . ”

“And, today, to address any type of problem, you haveto engage others who have an expertise that is unlikeyours,” says Eddington, who succeeded former De a nDavid A. Knapp, PhD.

Eddington knows the School of Pharmacy well; sheearned her PhD there in 1989 and joined the faculty in1991. She graduated summa cum laude with a BS in phar-macy from How a rd Un i versity in 1982. She rose to chairof the De p a rtment of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2003,w h e re she pursued her re s e a rch in pharmacokinetics, them ovement of drugs among the cells of the body. She wasnamed dean following a nationwide search.

Eddington wants to see the power of collaborationused more widely. She speaks of “u n l e a s h i n g” the talents ofthe faculty to improve the School’s already high ranking (itholds eighth place in the 2005 U . S . News & Wo rld Re p o rtrankings), and of putting the School into a position whereit can help “transform the pro f e s s i o n” of pharmacy.

Competing more successfully for fundraising is another

of Ed d i n g t o n’s goals, along with solidifying the School’s re p u t a-tion for producing pharmacy industry leaders. Ul t i m a t e l y, then ew dean is convinced that the same emphasis on collabora-tion, in areas from fundraising to instruction, will make UMB“one of the top universities in the country. ”

She takes over the School of Pharmacy as it expands itsPharmD program to the Un i versities at Shady Grove, in theh e a rt of Mo n t g o m e ry County’s biotechnology corridor. Byadding a class of 40 students each year at Shady Grove — acampus shared by eight Ma ryland universities—the School is producing more pharmacists to help meet the industry’s c u r rent shortfall.

“I am delighted to have Dr. Eddington aboard as our newdean,” says Un i versity President David J. Ramsay, DM, DPh i l .“The School of Pharmacy is deepening its commitment toleadership in education and re s e a rch, and Dean Eddington hasp roven herself as a first-rate teacher, re s e a rc h e r, and administrator.”

Collaboration is Key for New DeanB Y J E F F R E Y R A Y M O N D

N EW D E A N NATA L I E D. E DD I NG T ON S C H O OL OF PH A R MAC Y

PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT BURKE

early 14 years ago, alongwith officials from theUn i versity of Ma ry l a n dSchool of Ph a r m a c y,Sumon Sakolchai, Ph D ,

was one of the architects of the internationala g reement that helped re vo l u t i o n i ze the wayThailand trains pharmacists.

In 2007, Sakolchai, who has risen fro mpharmacy dean to become president ofKhon Kaen Un i ve r s i t y, a central hub of education in northeast Thailand, visited theSchool of Ph a r m a c y, one of the institutionshis country used as an educational model.

When he left after a daylong tour of theBa l t i m o re campus in early spring 2007 thatincluded meetings with top administrators,he took along ideas that will help shape thedesign of his unive r s i t y’s first science andindustrial park.

“What we have in Thailand at themoment is individual collaboration, not sys-tematic collaboration between academia andi n d u s t ry,” says Sakolchai. “The Un i versity of Ma ryland, Ba l t i m o re [UMB]—with theBi o Pa rk and, in part i c u l a r, the Center forNanomedicine and Cellular De l i ve ry—is agood model for us.”

As Sakolchai moves forw a rd with plansfor his own re s e a rch park, he wants toengage a consultant from the Un i ve r s i t y.

It is just one example of the type of col-l a b o r a t i ve projects that have emerged sincethe School of Pharmacy and nine other U.S.

pharmacy schools signed a pact withThailand on May 31, 1994, in Ba n g k o k .

K n own as the U.S. Consortium for theDe velopment of Pharmacy Education inThailand, the international pro g r a mSakolchai helped create with the School ofPharmacy has provided numerous opport u n i-ties for students and faculty of both countries.

Facing a pharmacist shortage, T h a i l a n dsigned the agreement to help it move tow a rdthe PharmD model, a four-year doctorate ofpharmacy that—thanks in part to earlya d vocacy from the School—is the standardin the United States.

“Thai officials we re looking to addg reater clinical emphasis to the basic sciencecurriculum,” says Ed w a rd Mo reton, Ph D ,p rofessor in the School’s De p a rtment ofPharmaceutical Sciences and the consort i u mc o o rd i n a t o r. “They needed clinical experi-ence in addition to enhanced basic science—the idea being that pharmacy faculty would,when they’re done, set up re s e a rch or a c l i n i c a l practice back home.”

The program provides avenues for T h a istudents to study in U.S. partner schools toearn a PhD or a PharmD. This has helpedi n c rease the number of pharmacy faculty andpharmacy practitioners in T h a i l a n d’s healthc a re system. Se veral schools that formerlyhad no graduate degree programs or clinicalpharmacy programs are now establishingthem with the returning faculty.

The Thai government selects faculty,


B Y R O B Y N F I E S E R

THAILAND

Team w o rk Is RightPrescription for Thailan dand School of Ph arm a c y

N

Above: Khon Kaen University President

Dr. Sumon Sakolchai

Right: Former student

D r. Supatra Po r a s u p h a t a n a has

continued working with Dr. Gerald Rosen

in her role as assistant professor

in pharmaceutical sciences

at Khon Kaen University.

Dr. Ilene Zuckerman, associate dean for research and

graduate education, and Dr. Edward Moreton, School

of Pharmacy professor and coordinator for the U.S.

Consortium for the Development of Pharmacy

Education in Thailand

Dr. Gary Smith

(left) and Dr.

Edward Moreton

(middle) pose with

faculty members

during their visit to

Ubon Ratchathani

University in

Thailand.

Below: Khon KaenUniversity innortheasternThailand

2008 R E S E A R C H & S C H O L A R S H I P 33TOP LEFT PHOTOGRAPH BY KIRSTEN BECKERMAN; BOTTOM RIGHT PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT BURKE

Dr. Rosen not only benefits me but also other Thai studentswho will become young scientists and contribute to sciences inThailand as well,” she says.

Since returning to Thailand, Porasuphatana has been invitedto lecture at the Khon Kaen School of Medicine and to write atextbook on free radical detection.

In 2004, she won funding to conduct re s e a rch on the useof antioxidants in diabetes patients from the Thailand Re s e a rc hFund, an award she believes she was granted in part because ofher strong re s e a rch background and her publications.

“If I can help a student go back to her country to do productive research and enhance life in that country, I’veaccomplished something,” says Rosen.

But the consortium also is a boon toU.S. students, such as Ma s a yo Sato, aPhD candidate in Ph a r m a c e u t i c a lHealth Se rvices Re s e a rch. She re c e i ve da $1,500 UMB Global Health Tr a ve lFe l l owship Aw a rd to travel to T h a i l a n dlast summer to re s e a rch the quality anda p p ropriateness of drug therapy in elderly adults. (See student profile onpage 35.)

Sato will build on work by PhD candidate Jose Josue He r n a n d ez, RPh ,M PH; Ilene Zuckerman, Ph a r m D ,PhD, associate dean for re s e a rch andgraduate education at the School ofPharmacy; and Vithaya Ku l s o m b o o n ,PhD, MPHM, chairman, social pharmacy department, ChulalongkornUn i versity in Ba n g k o k .

In 2006, Zuckerman andHe r n a n d ez, through the consort i u m ,taught at universities in T h a i l a n d ,i n s t ructed government regulators andb u reaucrats on drug use by the elderly,

among other subjects, and advised graduate students onre s e a rch opportunities.

They also spent time at Chulalongkorn UniversityHospital, a large, urban hospital, compiling data on the use of drugs by the elderly.

Although the re s e a rch is similar to what Zuckerman andHe r n a n d ez would do in the United States, Thailand provides aunique situation. The elderly population is rapidly incre a s i n gand the government recently implemented a national healthplan that will not only increase access to treatment, it also willraise questions about the cost and effectiveness of such pro g r a m s .

When Sato visited Thailand during the summer of 2007,she discussed ways to fund and focus future re s e a rch andexpand on the database.

“The Thai consortium works in multiple ways,”Zuckerman says. “Pa rt of the consort i u m’s work has been totrain the Thai faculty. And now those faculty mentors are intheir schools of pharmacy becoming leaders of re s e a rch. Inaddition, they are providing our students with exciting re s e a rc ho p p o rtunities.”

who compete for scholarships, and pays their tuition and livingcosts in return for a commitment of two years of work inThailand after graduation for each year funded.

U.S. faculty, in turn, travel to Thai host schools to teachpharmacy and graduate students, provide seminars and work-shops, participate in symposia, interact in collaborative re s e a rc hp rojects, and become familiar with pharmacy education andpractice in Thailand.

Since the consort i u m’s inception, the School of Ph a r m a c yhas graduated 13 Thai faculty, and 22 faculty and studentsh a ve completed short-term exchanges of three to four months.Four Thai students are currently enrolled in PhD programs atthe Un i versity of Ma ryland School of Ph a r m a c y, and 16 faculty and 12 students from the School have beenhosted by Thai universities in va r i o u sc a p a c i t i e s .

Re s e a rch has become a key part ofthe part n e r s h i p, one Mo reton and otherswould like to expand as the consort i u ma p p roaches the signing of its secondmemorandum of understanding in Ju l y2 0 0 8 .

“The program was set up to help theThai government educate its faculty—toget them interested in and excited aboutre s e a rch so that when they get back theytake that experience with them, pass iton to their students and make the c o u n t ry more pro d u c t i ve,” says Ge r a l dRosen, PhD, JD, also a professor in theDe p a rtment of Pharmaceutical Sciences.“ But collaboration is always a two-ways t reet.”

For example, Rosen and former student Supatra Porasuphatana, Ph D ,an assistant professor on the pharmaceu-tical sciences faculty at Khon Kaen Un i ve r s i t y, have continuedw o rking together since her 2001 graduation.

As a student in the School of Ph a r m a c y, Po r a s u p h a t a n aw o rked with Rosen to re s e a rch the role free radicals play in b i ological systems, particularly nitric oxide—a compound a s s o c i a t e d with activities that include neurotransmitters andhost immune response.

She returns to Ba l t i m o re regularly to work in Ro s e n’s lab.This past summer, her visit invo l ved re s e a rch on the role ofnitric oxide in fighting blood-borne pathogens, namelyanthrax. This current re s e a rch is supported by a grant from theMiddle Atlantic Regional Center of Excellence for Bi o d e f e n s eand Emerging Infectious Diseases Re s e a rch. Even when they’renot working side-by-side, Rosen and Porasuphatana collaborateon their work via e-mail, publishing papers together. The experience, which exposed her not only to scientific expert i s elike Ro s e n’s but also to state-of-the-art lab equipment, changed her life, says Porasuphatana.

“ I ’m ve ry proud of being able to have a chance to learn andpractice lab work with Dr. Rosen. What I have learned fro m


If I can help a student go back to

h er country to do productive research

and en h ance life in that country,

I’ve accomplished s o m e th i n g .

“

”—Gerald Rosen


Sitting in an academic office high above West Ba l t i m o reon Saratoga St reet, Ma s a yo Sato talks about life as a graduate student at the Un i versity of Ma ryland School of Ph a r m a c y.

But her story begins 7,000 miles away, in Osaka, Ja p a n .With a degree in pharmacy from Osaka Un i ve r s i t y, Sa t o

assumed she was qualified for her job as a hospital pharmacist.But when pharmaceutical sales re p re s e n t a t i ves showed her datathat made the drugs they we re selling look better, she boughtit. Literally.

Eve n t u a l l y, though, she re a l i zed she didn’t fully grasp themeaning of the data and might not be making the best purc h a s-i n g decisions. “So many factors we rei n vo l ved in the numbers,” she says. Sa t ocame to the conclusion that her pharmacy education had left her poorlyequipped to analyze the data.

“ It’s easy for a pharmacist to read ana rticle,” she says. “But without pro p e rtraining, that pharmacist might notk n ow the study design or basic epidemi-o l o g y. ”

After four years at Toyo n a k aMunicipal Hospital in Osaka, Sato re a l i zed she wanted to know more aboutpublic health, wanted to work moreclosely with patients, and wanted toescape the confines of her job. “I saw alimitation on what I did, and I thoughtthat had to change.”

She came to the United States andearned a master’s degree in epidemiologyat the Ha rva rd School of Public He a l t h ,then re a l i zed she wanted to learn moreabout pharmacoepidemiology—the studyof drugs and their effects on large populations. With ab oyfriend in Ma ryland, she already was familiar with theBa l t i m o re area and was attracted to the School of Ph a r m a c ybecause of its strong multidisciplinary component in the phar-maceutical health services re s e a rch program. She is now in thet h i rd year of the four- to six-year PhD pro g r a m .

She was able to afford to pursue her doctorate by landing a

job as a re s e a rch assistant to Ilene Zuckerman, PharmD, Ph D ,associate dean for re s e a rch and graduate education. And whenSato traveled to Thailand during the summer of 2007 to studythe treatment of hypertension in that country’s elderly popula-tion, she did so with the help of a $1,500 Un i versity ofMa ryland, Ba l t i m o re Global Health Tr a vel Fe l l owship Aw a rdand a matching grant from the School of Ph a r m a c y.

Sato calls her global health class “g reat,” adding, “Pe o p l ewho are interested in international health are ve ry enthusiastic.”But she also has interests in the care of aging people, in publics e rvice, in the pharmacy industry, and in teaching.

Japan is re vamping its pharmacy education system, and inMa rch 2007 Sato returned to Osaka Un i versity to present al e c t u re on the School of Ph a r m a c y’s program. “I wanted to bei n vo l ved in those educational projects,” she says.

Mo s t l y, Sato says, she wants Osaka Un i versity to emulatethe School ’s emphasis on practical experience. Not only does

S T U DE N T PR OF I L E M A S AYO S AT O S C H O OL OF PH A RM AC Y

PHOTOGRAPH BY KIRSTEN BECKERMAN

Using the University of Mary l a n dModel to Advance PharmacyEducation OverseasB Y J E F F R E Y R A Y M O N D

the School get its students into clinical environments, but thosestudents actually do much of the work of the licensed pro f e s-sionals. By contrast, she says, Japanese pharmacy schools leavetheir students with little practical experience after four ye a r s .

“I think this School has a great system,” she says. By thetime School of Pharmacy students graduate, she continues,“They know how to consult with patients.”

36 U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y L A N D, B A L T I M O R E ILLUSTRATIONS BY OLIVIER KUGLER

Tr eating Trauma A

EGYPT

Along the Ni l e2008 R E S E A R C H & S C H O L A R S H I P 37

ccidents and injuries related to trafficand industry, or that happen in the home, are commonplace inAmerica. With world-class trauma care at facilities like theUn i versity of Ma ryland R Adams Cowley Shock Tr a u m aCenter close at hand, patients expect to surv i ve an accidentali n j u ry and return to normal life.

Howe ve r, in other parts of the world, rates of injury, espe-cially from motor vehicle accidents, are spiking dramatically.Trauma care in these countries is not up to U.S. standard s .

“ Human trauma and injury is one of the world’s leadingcauses of death and disability,” says Jon Ma rk Hirshon, MD,M PH, associate professor of emergency and pre ve n t i ve medi-cine at the Un i versity of Ma ryland School of Me d i c i n e .“ C h i l d ren and young adults are dispro p o rtionately affected,especially young men. Road traffic accidents worldwide disableb e t ween 20 million and 50 million individuals and kill another1 million people annually. ”

Statistics from the World Health Organization (W H O )confirm this and note that these injuries occur in nations withd e veloping or emerging economies. Those who surv i ve oftensuffer lifelong health limitations.

Because of these grim statistics, Hirshon says, many nationsfocus on re s e a rch in the area of injury pre vention, increase their

k n owledge, build an infrastru c t u re better able to cope withtrauma, and upgrade their emergency response. Eg y p t i a nre s e a rchers have a similar focus.

“Vehicular and work - related accidents are at epidemic leve l sin Egypt,” says Thomas Strickland, MD, PhD, director of theUn i versity of Ma ryland, Ba l t i m o re (UMB) International He a l t hProgram and professor of epidemiology and pre ve n t i ve medi-cine at the School of Me d i c i n e .

Wo rking with public health officials in Egypt is not new toUMB clinicians and re s e a rchers, who have had a collaborativerelationship with that nation for more than two decades. Its t a rted when Strickland and others began working in Cairo onan infectious disease re s e a rch program in the 1980s. Their focusthen was schistosomiasis. Once rampant in Egypt along theNile Rive r, the debilitating disease is caused by a freshwater parasitic worm that bores into the skin, enters the bloodstre a m ,and damages the liver or other organs.

By the 1990s, Strickland and other UMB scientists andEgyptian collaborators had shifted their focus to hepatitis C,which had become Eg y p t’s leading cause of chronic liver disease.

TACKLING INJURY PREVENTION

In May 2005, the UMB-Egyptian collaborative turned itse f f o rts tow a rd injury pre vention re s e a rch. A project headed bymembers of the Charles McC. Mathias Jr. National St u d yCenter for Trauma and Emergency Medical Systems (NSC) atthe School of Medicine teaches injury pre vention re s e a rch tohealth professionals in Egypt.

Named in honor of the former U.S. senator from Ma ry l a n dand established by Congress in 1986, the NSC conductsre s e a rch related to trauma, emergency medicine, and emer-gency medical systems. It also acts as the re s e a rch arm of theShock Trauma Center and the Ma ryland Institute for

B Y R A N D O L P H F I L L M O R E

WHEN UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF MEDICINE TRAUMA RESEARCHERS ESTABLISHED

A P RO G R A M TO H E L P T H E EG Y P T I A N MI N I S T RY O F HE A LT H A N D PO P U LAT I O N B E TT E R C O PE W I T H

R I S I N G AC C I D E N TA L D E AT H A N D I N J U RY TO L L S, T H EY N EV E R E X PE C T E D T H E I R P RO G R A M WO U L D

A L S O A D D R E S S A N AC U T E N E E D I N A N A R E A O F T H E WO R L D TO R N A PA RT B Y C O N F L I C T.

A


Emergency Medical Services Systems.“ Our desire to help colleagues in Eg y p t

became a reality with a grant from the Jo h nE. Fo g a rty International Center of theNational Institutes of Health,” re c a l l sHirshon, who is board - c e rtified in bothemergency medicine and pre ve n t i ve medi-cine. “The NSC has carried out re s e a rch formany years and is known for its expert i s e .The Fo g a rty Center offered us the opport u n i t yto take that expertise overseas to help our colleagues in Egypt conduct injury pre ve n t i o nre s e a rc h . ”

In 2005, the Fo g a rty Center’s program forInternational Collaborative Trauma and In j u ryRe s e a rch Training provided Hirshon and hiscolleagues with a five - ye a r, $850,000 grant.

“ Our program was designed to help theEgyptian Mi n i s t ry of Health and Po p u l a t i o nand other Egyptian health pro f e s s i o n a l si n c rease their knowledge and understandingof human trauma and injury pre ve n t i o n , ”explains Patricia Di s c h i n g e r, PhD, pro f e s s o rof epidemiology and pre ve n t i ve medicine atthe School of Medicine, an epidemiologistwith the NSC, and co-principal inve s t i g a t o ron the Fo g a rty grant. “Students completingthe program apply this know ledge to helpd e c rease the significant morbidity and mort a l i t ycaused by injuries.”

The grant, says Di s c h i n g e r, has three aims:• to teach basic and advanced epidemiological

skills to medical professionals in Eg y p t• to help develop the capacities and

e x p e rtise for pre-hospital and emergency p re p a redness in the target nations

• to train a c a d re of emergency physicians and surgeons in state-of-the-art trauma c a re methods

SHIFTING GEARS

Plans for teaching the courses had beendrawn up, but their implementation wouldsuddenly be interrupted when world eve n t si n t ruded. Overnight, emergency trainingneeds we re re q u i red to address trauma ofanother variety—the injuries caused by conflict.

In fact, as Hirshon puts it, “the ink wasnot yet dry on the grant paperw o rk,” when e-mails from a physician in northern Ir a qmade their way to faculty in the School ofMedicine. “The e-mails asked for help incoping with the human toll caused by a t e r rorist bomb in Erbil, Iraq.”

On May 4, 2005, a suicide bomber blewhimself up among a group of 300 peopleg a t h e red to apply for police jobs in theKu rdish city 200 miles north of Ba g h d a d .Sixty people we re killed and 150 we rew o u n d e d .

While the original grant was aimed attraining professionals in injury pre ve n t i o nre s e a rch methods, it was suddenly appare n tthat the need had become broader and moreacute.

“We immediately applied for and re c e i ve df rom the Fo g a rty Center a supplementalgrant to help train Iraqis in emergency pre-p a redness and trauma response,” Di s c h i n g e re x p l a i n s .

Thus, the need for better trauma re s p o n s eand emergency care, in an area of the worldthat Hirshon describes as a “tough neighbor-hood,” took a fast and different track.

The Middle East has had its share of violence, mostly in terms of improv i s e dbombs and the devastating injuries theycause. UMB re s e a rchers knew that theire f f o rts in the area needed redefining. T h a n k s

Jon Mark Hirshon (far left)

with some of his summer

trainees and colleagues. From

left: Amira Moshen, Marwa

Rashad, Mohamed El Shinawi,

Mohammed Farouk Taha,

Maged El-Setouhy, Waleed

Salah El Din, Alfred Bowles,

and Maureen McCunn.

to the Fo g a rty grant, the project could takeon new pro p o rt i o n s .

The grant helped re s e a rchers to deve l o pt h ree education programs. The In t e r n a t i o n a lEmergency Pre p a redness and Re s p o n s e(IEPR) program helps health pro f e s s i o n a l sp re p a re for and respond to disasters.

The Sequential Trauma EducationPrograms (STEPS), developed by anesthesi-ologist Ma u reen Mc Cunn, MD, MIPP, associate professor at the School of Me d i c i n e ,i n t roduces trainees to the basics of injury caremanagement with an emphasis on diagnosticand treatment sequences. The program isdesigned to be open to a variety of acutehealth care professionals.

A third education course on injury epi-demiology has been developed in collabora-tion with colleagues in Eg y p t .

“ Egypt is still our base of operations,”explains Hirshon. “The courses have beencarried out along with the National Tr a i n i n gInstitute of the Egyptian Mi n i s t ry of He a l t hand Population and Ain Shams Un i ve r s i t y. ”

The program is open to those with anMD or PhD and offers core training in epi-demiology and biostatistics, basic know l e d g eof the biological and psychosocial aspects oftrauma and injury pre vention, injury contro land trauma response, and mentor-guidedre s e a rch into an area in injury pre ve n t i o n .

COMING TO JORDAN, CAIRO

The effort already has an extensive trackre c o rd, starting with an inaugural IEPR trainingcourse in Amman, Jo rdan, presented to 23Iraqis in October 2005. Both the IEPR andSTEPS programs we re presented in Egypt inMay 2006 to approximately 65 Eg y p t i a ne n rollees. In August 2006, 22 Iraqi physiciansf rom the Iraqi Mi n i s t ry of Health usingWorld Bank funds attended an IEPR pro g r a min Cairo.

Although the logistics of running a train-ing program abroad occasionally caused tem-p o r a ry concern (visa mix-ups and canceledflights notwithstanding), Hirshon was pleasedat the initial effort s .

“The National Training Institute of theEgyptian Mi n i s t ry of Health and Po p u l a t i o nwas an excellent location for training activity, ”re p o rts Hirshon. “The right equipment wasa vailable, and personnel at the institute we rere s p o n s i ve . ”

Issues such as incident command, scenemanagement, and triage we re addre s s e d .Specific requests from those receiving training

included instruction in stress management,communication and security, media re l a t i o n s ,and re c o rd keeping.

The trainees—physicians identified by t h eIraqi Mi n i s t ry of Health—and the trainershad significant expertise in emergency pre-p a redness, emergency medical services man-agement, emergency medical and surgicalc a re, and the management of mass casualties,especially in bomb injuries and weapons ofmass destruction.

“We found that Baghdad, because of itsexperience and infrastru c t u re, was better p re p a red and equipped to deal with disastersthan was northern Iraq,” explains Hi r s h o n .“We also learned from some of the hurd l e s .The English language skills and technicalk n owledge varied in the students. We learnedto work within the political stru c t u re andquickly found value in being flexible and culturally sensitive . ”

In Fe b ru a ry and May of 2007, the IEPRand STEPS courses we re repeated forEgyptian health professionals. Hi r s h o n’sEgyptian colleague, Maged El - Se t o u h y, MD,PhD, a professor in the De p a rtment ofC o m m u n i t y, En v i ronmental, and Oc c u -pational Medicine at Ain Shams Un i versity inC a i ro, and a WHO consultant, was instru-mental in the implementation of the program.

In May 2007, six physicians came toUMB for a two-month training program inthe epidemiology of injury. After weeks ofw o rk in epidemiology and shock trauma,they designed a re s e a rch project and we n thome to implement it. Results of this effortwill be presented in May at a Middle Eastregional conference being organized byHirshon and El - Setouhy in collaborationwith the WHO regional office. All re s e a rc hp resented in this conference will be publishedin a special edition of the Ea s t e rn Me d i t e r ra n e a nHealth Journal.

“ Having foreign students here at UMBstudying such an important topic was quitee xciting,” says Hirshon. “Watching the stu-dents work through the various problems andcome up with cre a t i ve re s e a rch projects forimplementation upon their return was ve ryg r a t i f y i n g .

“UMB is fortunate to have the NSC andthe opportunity—thanks to the Fo g a rt yCenter and the Shock Trauma Center—toh a ve an international fellowship to trainmedical professionals in injury pre ve n t i o nand response,” adds Hirshon.


UMB is f o rtunate to have an i n t ern a t i o n a lfellowship totrain medicalprofessionals in injury p r ev ention and response.

—Jon Mark Hirshon

“

”

WORLDWIDE n a world of diminishing borders, cro s s - c u l t u r a le n d e a vors are bringing needed oral health careinformation to almost eve ry part of the globe.Maintaining professional ties, advancing collabo-r a t i ve re s e a rch internationally, and adding a globaldimension to the educational process are keys tothe future of dental schools that will be “w o r l dclass,” says Michael Be l e n k y, DDS, MPH, an

associate professor and director of global outreach for theUn i versity of Ma ryland Dental School.

Belenky coordinates ties with foreign dental schools,arranges faculty and student exchanges, and promotes collabo-r a t i ve efforts in re s e a rch, teaching, and continuing educationt h rough the Dental School’s Global Ma ryland program. He alsois a member of the School’s De p a rtment of Health Pro m o t i o nand Po l i c y, where he teaches principles of ergonomics for occu-pational health and serves as a general practice manager, s u p e r-vising students as they treat patients in the undergraduate clinics.

“Wearing two hats of responsibility allows me to maintainthe professional credential of a dental educator as I enable students and faculty to carry the message of Ma ryland and c o n t e m p o r a ry dentistry around the globe,” Belenky says.

The Dental School has relationships with 13 dental schoolsin 11 countries, including Ko rea, Japan, Vietnam, T h a i l a n d ,Australia, Canada, Mexico, Pe ru, India, Poland, and Ire l a n d .For more than two decades, a number of Dental School students have participated in an annual dental mission to rural areas of the Dominican Re p u b l i c .

“ Our dental students shouldn’t be limited in their p e r s p e c t i ve. They should have global opportunities for p rofessional and cultural enrichment if they are to be

leaders in meeting the 21st-century oral health needs ofthe community of nations. This is the reason we estab-lished the Global Ma ryland pro g r a m , ” Belenky says.

The Global Ma ryland program is just one facetof the Global Ou t reach initiative that allowe dDental School students to serve two-week extern-ships in Vietnam, India, Poland, Canada, andAustralia in 2006-2007.

“The emphasis here is learning about dental education, dental practice, and oral health in

another country, and, where possible, prov i d i n gessential dental care to the underserved in

public health settings,” Belenky says.Each ye a r, approximately 25 perc e n t

of the senior dental class elects to

PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL MCALLEN

B Y M Y R A A . T H O M A S IDr. Michael Belenky

directs global outreach

at the Dental School.

C arrying a GlobalTorch at the Den tal Sc h o o l

At left, Dental School students

visiting Kyung Hee University in

Seoul, South Korea, and teach-

ing village children how to brush

their teeth in Vietnam. Below,

students outside a small clinic

in Peru, treating patients in

Mexico City, the architecturally

impressive Medical University of

Lodz in Poland and, bottom, a

mobile dental clinic in Vietnam. p a rticipate in a foreign dental externship. Postgraduate re s i d e n t s ,f a c u l t y, and area practitioners often accompany the studentsa b ro a d .

“We’ve been doing this informally since 1994, but then wef o r m a l i zed and expanded the program,” Belenky says. “T h i sg i ves the student a tremendous chance to see dentistry from ad i f f e rent perspective and from a different part of the world—f rom programs that are quite advanced in developed countriesto those emerging in developing countries.”

Relationships also extend the other way, with the De n t a lSchool playing host to foreign faculty and students. A collegialrelationship with the Faculty of Dentistry of the MedicalUn i versity of Lodz, Poland, dates back to the beginning of thep rogram in 1994.

About 25 percent of the Lodz professors have come to theDental School to study the Ma ryland model of dental educationand contemporary dental practice, conduct long- and short -term re s e a rch, and attend postgraduate educational programs.

Faculty members from many of the 13 partner institutionsalso have opted to come to Ma ryland for collaborative re s e a rc he n d e a vors. Ad d i t i o n a l l y, dental students from the Un i t e dKingdom, France, Ge r m a n y, Poland, Ireland, Israel, Me x i c o ,and other nations have visited the Dental School to fulfill overseas externship re q u i rements.

As with the Ma ryland students on foreign externship, theiro b j e c t i ve is to study dental education and dental practice inother lands in preparation for their professional futures in aglobal community.

“This broad exchange of ideas, technology, and science thatis forging essential bonds between the Dental School and anumber of institutions across the globe supports the School’smission that global outreach efforts of faculty, students, andstaff be mutually rew a rding,” says Christian S. St o h l e r, DMD,Dr Me d Dent, dean of the Dental School. “Dr. Belenky is thep e rfect person to head up such an endeavo r. ”

Be f o re coming to the Dental School in 1982, Be l e n k ys e rved more than 20 years with the U.S. Army Dental Corpsb e f o re he re t i red as a colonel. One of his first projects at theSchool was the establishment of the Center for the Study ofHuman Pe rformance in De n t i s t ry, a unique facility dedicatedto the investigation, teaching, and practice of human-centere de r g o n o m i c s .

“ In the past, I traveled extensively with the Army, sawmuch of the world and its diverse cultures, and this expandedmy horizons. In my Dental School career of 25 years, I wasprivileged to continue to travel the globe and apprise colleagues

2008 R E S E A R C H & S C H O L A R S H I P 41PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF MICHAEL BELENKY

of advances in dentistry and dental education,” Belenky says.Programs such as Global Ma ryland are just one way the

w o r l d’s first degree-granting dental school has taken the lead indental education.

“Thanks to Dr. Belenky and the Global Ma ryland pro g r a m , ”says St o h l e r, “Dental School students are better pre p a red tos h a re their observations and knowledge with colleagues, toengage professionally within and beyond national boundaries,and to contribute to the advancements in dentistry in the globala rena.”


s faculty, staff, students, polit-ical leaders, and friends com-memorated the bicentennialof the Un i versity of Ma ry l a n d ,

Ba l t i m o re (UMB) in 2007, the Un i ve r s i t y’sn ewest ve n t u re, the UMB Bi o Pa rk, alsoreached a milestone. The biomedicalre s e a rch park is now in its fifth ye a r.

“When UMB launched the Bi o Pa rki n i t i a t i ve on the west side of Ba l t i m o re in2003, it seemed to many an unlikely p roject,” says James Hughes, MBA, UMBvice president for re s e a rch and deve l o p-ment and president of the UMB He a l t hSciences Re s e a rch Pa rk Corp. (RPC), then o n p rofit organization set up to managethe development of the Bi o Pa rk .

The creation of the UMB Bi o Pa rk wasa first for the Un i versity as it expandedthe campus we s t w a rd across the wide,busy thoro u g h f a re of Ma rtin Luther KingJ r. Bouleva rd into the neighborhood ofPoppleton. Most of the land that theBi o Pa rk now encompasses had been

vacant for years or was occupied by va c a n tc o m m e rcial pro p e rties.

Despite this, in the past five ye a r sUMB and RPC, working with the com-munity and developers Townsend C a p i t a land We x f o rd Science + Te c h n o l o g y, have :• Built and maintained strong

community support

• Ac q u i red nine acres of land• C o n s t ructed two re s e a rch buildings

totaling 358,000 square feet and one p a rking garage with 638 spaces

• Created 200 jobs• Generated $129 million in

capital inve s t m e n t

The BioPark serves as a launching point for companies that have graduated from area

incubators and/or have spun out of local universities such as Alba Therapeutics

Corp., which came out of UMB, and FASgen, Inc., a Johns Hopkins startup. Two

other companies maintain small lab facilities in the BioPark. IRAZU BioDiscovery,

LLC is the discovery arm of its Baltimore-based affiliate, Paragon Bioservices.

Acidophil, LLC is an intellectual property development company founded by Red

Abbey Venture Partners director Philip Goelet, PhD, and Nobel Prize-winning

scientist Sydney Brenner, MD, PhD.

In Building Two, a BioAccelerator has been created that will offer pre-built wet

lab and office space for additional emerging companies. A no-interest, $1 million loan

from the Maryland Technology Development Corp. (TEDCO) was secured to help

finance this initiative.

T E N A N T H I G H L I G H T S

AThe UMB BioPark

A five-year perspective

D r. Claire Fr a s e r-Liggett (second from left) directs the University’s new Institute for Genome Sciences, which will move to Building Two of the BioPark in summer

2008. Here she poses with (from left) Dr. Bruce Jarrell, vice dean for research and academic affairs at the School of Medicine; Jane Shaab, UMB’s assistant vice

president for economic development; and James Hughes, UMB’s vice president for research and development.

BY J U L I E E VA N S

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Promoting development in the s u r rounding community is an

i m p o rtant goal as the Bi o Pa rk grow s .The RPC created a dedicated commu-nity fund supported by a small port i o nof tenant rent payments and has disbursed $58,000 in the first two ye a r sto support job training at the Po p p l e t o nVillage Center and to equip science labsat the city’s newly created health sciencesmagnet high school near the Bi o Pa rk ,the Vivien T. Thomas Medical Art sAc a d e m y.

Other initiatives include paid summerinternships for Vivien Thomas studentswith Bi o Pa rk tenants and sponsorshipof qualified Poppleton residents tobecome lab technicians through theBi o Technical Institute of Ma ry l a n d’si n t e n s i ve lab training program.

Capitalizing on the success of theBi o Pa rk’s rapid growth and other nearbyre d e velopment projects, the City ofBa l t i m o re launched a project for 14 acres of residential re d e ve l o p m e n timmediately north of the Bi o Pa rk inp a rtnership with developer La Cité. Asmany as 1,600 housing units could bebuilt for rental and purchase.

MASTER PLAN

Within the next two years, twom o re buildings—a new

Ma ryland Fo rensic Center and a thirdc o m m e rcial multitenant building—willbring this impre s s i ve undertaking to658,000 square feet, $229 million in

capital investment, and the creation of600 jobs. Additional buildings will opena p p roximately eve ry 24 months accord i n gto market demand. At full build-out, theBi o Pa rk will consist of 10 re s e a rch buildings totaling 1.2 million square feetand $500 million of capital inve s t m e n tconcentrated in 10 acres. Ap p rox i m a t e l y2,500 people will work in the Bi o Pa rk.

As the master plan for the Bi o Pa rk hasexpanded from its initial conception, sotoo has the importance of creating avibrant urban center that not onlya d vances the life sciences industry, but also encourages connections among visitors,e m p l oyees, the Un i versity campus, andthe surrounding residential community.This goal can be accomplished thro u g hgood urban design, buildings that invitecuriosity about the work within, smallretail spaces that provide indoor and outdoor social interactivity, and visuallyappealing open space that can be enjoye dby all. The focus of the next five years willbe to bring this vision into re a l i t y.

“The entre p reneurial spirit at UMBhas escalated—our re s e a rch base hasg rown from $138 million in 1997 to$411 million in 2007. Patenting andc o m m e rcialization efforts have led to thec reation of startup companies and theBi o Pa rk has provided a perfect home inwhich they can pro s p e r,” says David J.R a m s a y, DM, DPhil, president of UMB.“I am tremendously pleased with thep ro g ress of the Bi o Pa rk in its first fiveyears.”


D E V E L O P M E N T M I L E S T O N E S

2 0 0 3

• Research park feasibility study completed

• UMB Health Sciences Research Park Corp.

incorporated as a not-for- p r o f i t

• Townsend Capital selected to develop

Building One

• $4 million state Sunny Day Fund subsidy

approved for lab fit-out

2 0 0 4

• Initial 4.7 acres donated by City of Baltimore

• Building One and Garage One

construction started

• Two private parcels acquired

2 0 0 5

• UMB public safety substation opened

with 16 police officers

• Building One Opened: 120,000 square

feet, $36 million capital investment; earned

Silver Level LEED certification for environ-

mental friendliness and achieved 35 percent

Minority Business Enterprise participation,

exceeding city goals

• Garage One Opened: 638 parking spaces,

$13 million capital investment

• Wexford Science + Technology proposed

development of Building Two on land it

owns (801 W. Baltimore St.)

2 0 0 6

• Building One 100 percent leased

and occupied

• Building Two construction started

• New Maryland Forensic Center project

awarded to BioPa r k

• Additional acre of land in 900 block of

Baltimore Street donated by City of

Baltimore and private parcels acquired

by BioPa r k

2 0 0 7

• $1 million TEDCO loan approved for

Building Two BioAccelerator

• New Institute for Genome Sciences created

• Building Two shell construction completed:

238,000 square feet, $80 million capital

investment

• Building Three development awarded to

Wexford Science + Te c h n o l o g y

• UMB BioPark received first-ever “Emerging

Park of the Ye a r” award from the

Association of University Research Pa r k s

MEET SOME OF THE TENANTS

• SNBL Clinical Pharmacology Center, Inc. is the largest new Japanese

investment in Maryland in 20 years.

• Alba Therapeutics Corp. is the biotech company with the largest Series A

venture capital round ever conducted in Baltimore.

• The Center of Vascular and Inflammatory Diseases, formerly the American

Red Cross Holland Labs and the largest faculty recruitment in UMB history,

occupies two floors of Building One.

• Harbor Bank, the first new bank branch in the neighborhood in two decades,

provides a full range of banking services to tenants and community residents.

• Miles and Stockbridge P.C., a leading national law firm, located its life sciences

practice in the BioPark.

n 2007, the Un i versity of Ma ry l a n d ,Ba l t i m o re (UMB) commemorated itsbicentennial by highlighting its extraord i-n a ry accomplishments and its impact onlocal, national, and international c o m m u n i-ties. UMB was founded in 1807 by the

School of Medicine and is the founding institutionof the Un i versity System of Ma ry l a n d .

The bicentennial’s kickoff event was held atDavidge Hall in November 2006 with School ofMedicine Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA,vice president for medical affairs at the Un i versity ofMa ryland and John Z. and Akiko K. BowersDistinguished Professor. It featured a “visit” fromJohn Beale Davidge.

Bicentennial events we re held throughout theyear and included lectures, community outre a c hp rojects, and the School of Me d i c i n e’s sponsorshipof the public radio program A Prairie HomeCompanion, with Garrison Ke i l l o r, at the Hi p p o d ro m eT h e a t re. Patti LaBelle, Cal Ripken Jr., and formerU.S. Attorney General Janet Reno we re among thespeakers at the thre e - p a rt “Enduring Power ofL e a d e r s h i p” series for the public, which was alsoheld at the Hi p p o d ro m e .

In April, more than 600 School of Medicine s t u d e n t s m a rked the bicentennial by vo l u n t e e r i n gfor a Student Se rvice Da y, where they worked withc h i l d ren and parents to promote science and goodhealth and helped build a house for Habitat forHu m a n i t y. Ad d i t i o n a l l y, the School of Me d i c i n econducted a Mi n i - Med School for Adults to helpBa l t i m o re - a rea residents improve their health andwell-being.

To further promote the bicentennial, theUn i versity hung banners throughout the campusand surrounding city streets. A bicentennial exhibit,including a video and timeline, was displayed in the Miller Senate Office Building in Annapolist h roughout 2007. The exhibit showcased theUn i ve r s i t y’s re m a rkable pro g ress and many pioneering “f i r s t s” achieved since 1807. T h eUn i ve r s i t y’s history of excellence in education,re s e a rch, and service is the catalyst for growth that will transform lives in the next 200 years.


From left: President David J. Ramsay, School of Medicine Dean Emeritus

Donald E. Wilson, actor Alan Wade (portraying medical school founder John

Beale Davidge), and Dean E. Albert Reece sliced a cake replica of Davidge Hall

at the launch of the School of Medicine’s 200th anniversary, Nov. 29, 2006, on

the tented lawn of Davidge Hall. Photo: Bill Wood

University of Maryland, Ba l t i m o re C

I

Cal Ripken Jr. was a speaker at the April 26

bicentennial lecture on “The Enduring Power

of Leadership” at the Hippodrome Theatre.

He spoke about average people accomplishing

above-average goals. Photo: Don Wright

The founding medical school building,

Davidge Hall, was draped with swags

modeled after the University’s centennial

bunting. Photo: Tracy Boyd

B Y C L A R E B A N K S

re Ce l e b rates 200 Ye a r s

Legislators and visitors learned of the University’s 200-year history and accomplishments with

an exhibit (below) and video in the Miller Senate Office Building in Annapolis. Photo: Tracy Boyd

Entertainer Patti LaBelle was among

the speakers at the Feb. 26 launch

of the bicentennial lecture series

at the Hippodrome Theatre. More

than 900 people attended to hear

scientists from the School of Medicine

and other institutions talk about

diabetes research and LaBelle

speak about living with the disease.

Photo: Bill Wo o d

Dr. Bob Arnot, medical correspondent for

NBC and CBS, moderated the three-part

bicentennial lecture series, which was

free and open to the public at the

Hippodrome Theatre. He also spoke

at the April lecture on “The Enduring

Power of Leadership.” Photo: Don Wright

The Honorable Francis X.

Kelly Jr., member of the USM

Board of Regents and chair of

U M B’s bicentennial committee,

gave the keynote address at

UMB’s bicentennial-year

commencement. Photo:

Danielle Peterson

Conducting a Mini-Med School

at the Maryland Science Center

(above) and at Sollers Point

Technical High School (right) in

April was part of the School of

Medicine’s Student Service Day,

where 600 medical students

volunteered by teaching, clean-

ing, and painting schools and

building a house for Habitat

for Humanity. Photo above: Tom

Jemski; Photo right: Don Wright

Bicentennial

banners ringed

the campus.

46 U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y L A N D, B A L T I M O R E PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL MCALLEN

Hamish S. Osborne, JD, was a senior policy analyst at the So c i a lSecurity Administration, where heanticipated a lengthy care e r, when

he discove red a passion for the law thatwould change his life.

He was seated on a jury hearing avehicular homicide case, and, as Os b o r n eimagined himself presenting testimonyand making arguments, he re a l i zed thathe wanted to practice law.

That was 1982. One year later he wase n rolled as a full-time student at theUn i versity of Ma ryland School of Law.Although he was 35 years old and had ayoung family, he and his wife, Christy,had enough money saved so that he couldd e vote his full attention to law school,t reating it like a full-time job.

His experience was the impetus behindthe Os b o r n e s’ major gift to the law school,consisting of a $1 million lifetime gift anda $5 million bequest. The Os b o r n eScholarship Fund endowment will prov i d etuition assistance and stipends to studentswith significant professional experience,who for financial reasons might not o t h e rwise be able to attend the School of

Law full time. “I’m hoping that eve n t u a l l your scholarship fund will grow largeenough to entice more world-class students to come to the Un i versity ofMa ryland,” he says, “and there by continueto improve our outstanding student body. ”

Scholarship recipients are expected top a rticipate in law school activities such asMoot Court and student law journals,fulfill leadership roles in at least oneextracurricular activity, and maintain highacademic standards. Bryan Saxton, a s e c o n d - year law student, was selected asthe first Osborne Scholar in Se p t e m b e r2006. He is invo l ved with five studentorganizations, including the Moot CourtB o a rd, and works as an admissionsambassador and peer advisor. The newe s tOsborne Scholar, Max To n d ro, has a Ph Df rom Cambridge Un i versity and work e dmost recently as a college art historyp ro f e s s o r.

Osborne says that being able to attendlaw school full time gave him manyo p p o rtunities he would not have had a san evening student. “I re a l l y think Ire c e i ved a complete legal education byhaving the time to attend classes, part i c i-

pate in extracurricular activities, andw o rk for a federal judge as an AsperFe l l ow. I was fortunate enough to writeon the law re v i ew, and I think I got asmuch out of that as anything else I did inlaw school. My experience with theUn i versity of Ma ryland was that it was ag reat place to go to law school, and I hadw o n d e rful professors,” he says.

After graduating in 1986, Os b o r n epracticed corporate, tax, and real estatel a w, and quickly became active in then o n p rofit community, eventually chairingthe boards of Leadership How a rd County,Inc. and the School Solutions Fo u n d a t i o n ,Inc. He also has served on, or is serv i n gon, multiple not-for-profit boards, includingthose of the Columbia Fo u n d a t i o n ,Mc Donogh School, the Mi d - Sh o reCommunity Foundation, the AmericanMi l i t a ry Spouse Education Fo u n d a t i o n ,and the School of Law’s Board of Vi s i t o r s .“ It’s the most rew a rding thing that I coulde ver do, I think, to be able to work withw o rthy nonprofit organizations,” he says.

He re t i red from his Columbia, Md . ,law practice in 1999 to enjoy life in Ve roBeach, Fla., and Easton, Md., with hiswife, three children, and 10 grandchildre n .Their son Matt is also a graduate of theSchool of Law.

The Osbornes have contributed to thelaw school eve ry year since 1986. “A m i d s tthe generosity of so many of our graduatesand friends, Hamish and Christy havet ruly distinguished themselves as leadersin support of the law school,” says De a nK a ren H. Rothenberg, JD, MPA. “T h e i rscholarship is assisting future leaders oflaw and society whose accomplishmentswill serve as an enduring legacy for theOsbornes.”

“I think the Un i versity of Ma ry l a n dlaw school has come so far, even since Iwas in school,” Hamish says, “and De a nRothenberg has just done a fabulous jobin leading this effort, as is evidenced bythe School of Law’s national re c o g n i t i o n .If we want to continue that improve m e n tand level of recognition, then the lawschool needs the help of its alumni andf r i e n d s . ”

P R OF I LE S I N G I V I N G H A M I S H A N D C H R I S T Y O S B O R N E S C H O OL OF L AW

Creating a Legacy in LawB Y C H R I S T I N E S T U T Z


unique (adj.) having no like or equal: unparalleled

The Un i versity of Ma ryland, Ba l t i m o re (UMB) is unlike any other university in the world. No other campus has our precise mix of professional schools—Me d i c i n e ,

L a w, Dental, Ph a r m a c y, Nursing, Graduate, Social Wo rk, and Public He a l t h .T h rough the power of eight schools working as one, there is virtually no complex

p roblem we cannot solve. Whether we are effecting change on the west side ofBa l t i m o re or the Western Coast of Africa, our collaborative approach makes

an exponential difference in the lives of people around the world.

Making an Impact Worldwide

COLLABORATEFrom the bench to the bedside, UMB’s faculty and scientists are invigorated

by an optimism that is changing the world. New advances bring the promise

of preventing and curing intractable diseases in this generation.

INNOVATEOur urban setting creates many opportunities for model partner-

ships, analysis of the critical problems confronting cities, and the

design and testing of new approaches to urban revitalization,

patient care, and other human and health services. Community

involvement in all its multifaceted forms has become the hallmark

of UMB’s faculty and students.

UMB LAUNCHES$650 MILLION

CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

“One of the most important challenges over the next two decades will be integrating new insights from the past 10 years of genomics studies into theclinical environment to impact human health. I am extremely excited about the opportunity for multidisciplinary collaboration.”

Claire Fraser-Liggett, PhDDirector, Institute for Genome Sciences, School of Medicine

“Di verse, innova t i ve appro a c h e sto complex oral health issues inre s e a rch, education, and patientc a re will ultimately changehuman lives. The most-needed,w o rthwhile scientific discove r i e scan never be fully re a l i zed with-out genuine commitment anddeep financial support .”Christian S. St o h l e r, DMD, Dr Me d De n tDean, Dental School


EDUCATEOur 5,600 students are an integral part of an educational culture

built on the notion of solving complex societal problems. At UMB,

education extends beyond the boundaries of the classroom into

our surrounding community, our nation, and our world.

“We are deeply indebted to the Brodys for their leader-ship in establishing a student scholarship as the Schoolseeks to extend support to attract and retain the manye xcellent and financially hard - p ressed students seekingto attend the Un i versity of Ma ryland School of So c i a lWo rk.”

Richard P. Barth, PhD, MSWDean, School of Social Work

ACCELERATEThe depth of UMB’s scientific knowledge base

is broadened by significant increases in research

funding, which has doubled in seven years.

Commercializing breakthrough therapies,

diagnostics, and devices, UMB is fueling the

creation of startup companies and attracting

industry leaders and entrepreneurs.

“The UMB Bi o Pa rk is a grow-ing community of high-grow t hlife science companies and s p e c i a l i zed re s e a rch centers ofthe Un i versity of Ma ry l a n d ,Ba l t i m o re .”David J. Ra m s a y, DM, DPh i lPresident Un i versity of Ma ryland, Ba l t i m o re

ADVOCATEThe commitment and creativity of our faculty take

shape through lifetimes devoted to improving every

aspect of the human condition—both physical and

social. From facilitating the release of the wrongly

imprisoned to advocating against genetic discrimination

in Washington, D.C., our faculty and students strive to

establish policies to improve lives.

“We strive to instill a sense of re s p o n s i b i l i t yand commitment in our students to do so many things—to interact with their communities, to engage in advocacy andpublic service, and to be skilled and re s p o n s i ve policymakers.”Ka ren H. Rothenberg, JD, MPADean and Marjorie Cook Pro f e s s o r, School of Law

Campus CenterThe five-story, 146,000-

square-foot Campus Center

will bring together faculty,

students, and visitors in a

collaborative, shared space

with conference and meeting

rooms, a fitness and wellness

center, swimming pool and

running track, dining options,

and lounge spaces.

“Di s c overing new know l e d g e — t h a tis our role—whether we apply iti n n ova t i vely to the education of pharmacists, to the development ofn ew drug delive ry systems thro u g hre s e a rch, or to partnership in dire c tpatient care programs. Pr i vate dollars are needed to support those initiative s .”

Natalie D. Eddington, Ph DDean, School of Ph a rm a c y

DONATE

“UMB offers an outstanding array of re s o u rces for bothundergraduate and graduate students, and the excellence of its many schools offers students the opportunity to takecourses across the campus and to gain the real-world experi-ence they need to deliver quality, compassionate patient care .”Patricia Gonce Mo rton, PhD ’89, MS ’79, RN, CRNP, FA A NAssociate Dean for Academic Affairs, School of Nu r s i n g

“The new Campus Center will foster a greater sense of community byp roviding much-needed space and opportunities to synergize the gre a tminds from UMB’s many schools. The center will bring together individuals from different academic and cultural backgrounds toa c h i e ve common goals for the greater good.”Jessica O’Kane, President, Un i versity Student Gove rnment Association, 2007-2008Doctoral Student, School of Ph a rm a c y


Leading the way in the capital campaign, clockwise from top left: Stewart Greenebaum, Richard Barth, Natalie Eddington, University President

David Ramsay, Campaign Chair Francis Kelly Jr., Christian Stohler, Janet Allan, Karen Rothenberg, E. Albert Reece, Joanne Pollak, Henry Hopkins,

John Patterson, John Gregory, Barbara Brody, and Edward Brody.

w w w. g i v i n g . u m a ry l a n d . e d u

The generous contributions of people who understand our mission have made

the University and its schools a world leader. As our achievements grow, so

does our need to support students and faculty. New philanthropic investments w i l l

support the following initiatives:

Scholarship funds for students pursuing advanced degrees in health, social work,

and law who might otherwise not have access to these programs for financial

r e a s o n s

Endowed chairs and professorships to recruit and support top faculty in

their roles as teachers, leaders, and scientists

Capital funds to support the construction and maintenance of new facilities

designed to enrich and expand the experience of UMB students, faculty, staff,

patients, and patrons—the new Campus Center, the third and most advanced

Health Sciences Facility, School of Pharmacy renovations, and the development

of a new School of Public Health

Current use or endowed funds to allow truly creative faculty and graduate

students to pursue new and promising ideas, as we continue our tradition

of innovation and outreach around the world

No matter how you choose to support the University, venture philanthropy at

UMB promises extraordinary satisfaction and results. In our third century of

excellence, we will continue to offer outstanding students a dazzling array of

experiences and opportunities. We hope you will partner with us as we empower

them to change the world.

What You Can Do to Make an Impact

PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL MCALLEN

School CampaignChairs & Goals

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Stewart GreenebaumGoal:

$500 million

SCHOOL OF LAW

Henry Hopkins, LLB, and Joanne Pollak, JD

Goal:$50 million

DENTAL SCHOOL

John Patterson, DDS, MBAGoal:

$30 million

SCHOOL OF PHARMACY

John Gregory, DPS (Honorary)John Balch, RPh

Goal: $30 million

SCHOOL OF NURSING

Goal: $30 million

SCHOOL OF

SOCIAL WORK

Edward Brody and Barbara Bro d y, MSW

Goal: $10 million


Te acher of the Ye a r

Robert V. Pe r c i v a l

En v i ronmental lawyer and School ofLaw Professor Ro b e rt V. Pe rc i val, JD,

MA, has an enthusiasm for his pro f e s-sion—and for teaching—that inspires hisstudents. “He has an unbridled joie dev i v re that infects his students and exc i t e sthem about the study and practice ofl a w,” says Lewis Ta y l o r, a student in theS c h o o l’s En v i ronmental Law Program andPe rc i va l’s former re s e a rch assistant.

Pe rc i val, who directs the En v i ro n m e n t a lLaw Program, says many factors haveshaped him as an educator, factors thatled to him being named Teacher of theYe a r. One influence was his own pro f e s s o r sat St a n f o rd Law School—both in w h a tthey taught him, and what they didn’t.

“They taught me that there is no onec o r rect teaching style and that there aremany successful approaches,” he says.

At St a n f o rd, Pe rc i val also learned thevalue of a clinical law education, becauseSt a n f o rd—like most law schools in the1 9 7 0 s — d i d n’t provide any.

“When I established the En v i ro n m e n t a lLaw Program in 1987, I made it a priorityto create the En v i ronmental Law Clinic,”Pe rc i val says. “It would teach future lawye r sall the skills I had to learn by doing.”

Pe rc i val, the School’sRo b e rt F. Stanton Professor of Law, also is we l l - k n own for employing nontraditionalteaching methods to get students thinking about thelaw in different ways.

In one course his studentscan create a short documentaryfilm about an enviro n m e n t a llaw issue that is important tothem. Recent documentariesh a ve explored lead paint, thedisappearance of the Easternoy s t e r, and the degradation ofthe Shenandoah Rive r.

K a ren Rothenberg, JD,M PA, dean of the School ofLaw and Marjorie CookProfessor of Law, says theassignment is challenging. “Itf o rces students to confront t h edifficulty of translating and policy issues into a form the ave r a g eaudience can understand,” she says. “Italso yields some ve ry powe rful films.”

To showcase the students’ work ,Pe rc i val created the En v i ronmental LawFilm Fe s t i val, where the best films re c e i veOscar-type awards. “Not only is the filmf e s t i val an anticipated annual event, the

c reativity it helps unleash has long-lastingbenefits for students in their legal care e r s , ”Rothenberg notes.

Pe rc i val believes most of his School ofLaw students are as talented as those inother prominent law schools where he hastaught, such as Ha rva rd and Ge o r g e t own.

“They just don’t know how good theya re,” he says. “So I need to challenge them

FOU N DE R S W E E K AWA R D W IN N E R S 2 0 0 7

President David Ramsay and his wife, Anne, hostFounders Week each year in October to celebrate the

Un i versity of Ma ryland, Ba l t i m o re’s (UMB) history andhonor the achievements of its faculty, staff, students, alumni,and friends.

The 2007 celebration began with a black-tie gala at thehistoric Hi p p o d rome T h e a t re that served as the backdro pfor the launch of UMB’s $650 million capital campaign.

A re s e a rch lecture, a breakfast honoring two entre p re n e u r sof the ye a r, a student cookout, and a staff luncheon we realso part of the weeklong festivities. UMB was part i c u l a r l yp roud to announce its Te a c h e r, Re s e a rch Lecture r, Pu b l i cSe rvant, and En t re p reneurs of the Ye a r.

B Y D A N I E L L E S W E E N E Y

W I N N E R P H O T O G R A P H S B Y R O B E R T B U R K E

Robert V. Percival

Photo: Jay Ba k e r

complicated legal

R esearch Lecturerof the Ye a r

J. Marc Simard

St roke, or “brain attack,” is one of theleading causes of death and disability

among Americans. A stroke occurs when ablood clot blocks the flow of blood in avessel or art e ry in the brain (ischemics t roke), or when a blood vessel in thebrain bursts (hemorrhagic stroke) re s u l t i n gin the death of brain cells. While stro k e sa re somewhat pre ventable, few effectivet reatment options exist once a stro k eoccurs.

“The only approved therapy, the clotbuster tPA [tissue plasminogen activa t o r ] ,is given only to 10 percent of patients and

helps only some of them,”says J. Ma rc Si m a rd, MD,PhD, a pro f e ssor of neuro-s u r g e ry, pathology, and physi-ology in the School ofMedicine and Re s e a rc hL e c t u rer of the Ye a r. He ,along with his re s e a rch team,is studying a potential newt reatment—a diabetes dru gcalled glyburide, which mayreduce the death of braincells, and the swelling andhemorrhaging caused bys t ro k e s .

Si m a rd and his colleaguescame to this conclusion afterd i s c overing a new ion channel—a kind of va l ve onthe cell membrane—about six years ago.

“The channel is expre s s e din the central nervous systemonly during injury or whenblood flow to the brain iss e ve rely re s t r i c t e d , such as during ischemics t roke,” Si m a rd says.

When the channel is open, due tos e ve rely reduced levels of adenosinetriphosphate energy inside the cell, thecells swell, burst, and die. Howe ve r,Si m a rd and his team have found that gly-buride is highly effective in blocking theion channel. “Treating rats with glyburidef o l l owing stroke results in a dramatici m p rovement in outcome,” he says.

The drug seems to work the same way in humans. “In patients with diabeteswho take these drugs and have stro k e s ,the use of the drugs before and duringhospitalization has been associated withfar better outcomes,” says How a rdEisenberg, MD, the R.K. T h o m p s o nProfessor and chair of the Departmentof Neurosurgery in the School ofMedicine.

Si m a rd is designing a clinical trial of glyburide in stroke patients and is cautiously optimistic. “The long historyof searching for drugs to treat stroke hasbeen marred by drug after drug thatseemed beneficial in animal models, but


to reach their full potential.”Taylor says that being Pe rc i va l’s

re s e a rch assistant exposed him to manyo p p o rtunities—including revising a seminal environmental law textbook and c o o rdinating an international law confer-ence—and credits the experience withhelping him land key internships at theDe p a rtment of Justice, the U.S. Se n a t e ,and the chambers of a federal courtj u d g e .

Taylor is quick to stress, howe ve r, thatPe rc i val also has been a role model.

“T h e re are two things I will never forgetabout Bob. One is his support of his students—I have never heard him criticizea student for anything, and his door is,h o n e s t l y, always open for us,” Taylor says.“Another is Bob’s incredible work ethic. I think it is a function of his love for hisw o rk, and this inspires me to make sure I find work that I love, too. ”

Pe rc i val enjoys watching his studentsm ove on to satisfying law care e r s .“ Oc c a s i o n a l l y, an excited student willbound into my office to tell me what ag reat job offer they just accepted—thatthey would never have pursued but formy inspiration,” Pe rc i val says. “This isp a rt of what makes teaching so rew a rd i n gfor me.”

we re found to be ineffective in humans,”says Si m a rd. “Glyburide seems to be thee xception in that we already know itw o rks in h u m a n s . ”

Si m a rd and his re s e a rch team also havestudied the dru g’s effects on spinal cordand traumatic brain injuries in rats andh a ve found similar highly beneficialresults.

If glyburide’s effect is the same inhumans with spinal cord or traumaticbrain injuries, Si m a rd and his team hopeto one day explore its use pro p h y l a c t i c a l l yfor those at high risk of brain injury —such as football players who may experi-ence chronic head injury, or soldiers,among whom traumatic brain injuries areve ry common. “At this time, there is nouseful pharmacological treatment forthese injuries,” Si m a rd says.

He emphasizes that this re s e a rch is stillve ry much in its early stages.

“These are ideas projected into thef u t u re—a lot of experimental work needsto be done to show efficacy in these appli-cations,” he says. “From what we know,h owe ve r, ideas such as these are plausible.”

J. Marc Simard

Entrepreneur of the Ye a r

G a ry David Hack

Ga ry David Hack, DDS, an associatep rofessor in the De p a rtment of

Endodontics, Prosthodontics andOp e r a t i ve De n t i s t ry, has shown his entre-p reneurial spirit since he arrived at theDental School in 1986.

Hack, who is the director of ClinicalSimulation Re s e a rch, developed his firsti n vention, a tooth desensitize r, in the late1980s. By 1995, he recalls, “It was the firstpatent awarded to the Dental School andhas generated more than $650,000 inworldwide sales.”

Hack is probably best known for hisw o rk with Leonard Litkowski, DDS, MS,and fellow En t re p reneur of the Ye a r.

Many successful partnerships deve l o pby chance rather than design, and this onewas no exception. While Hack was work-ing on his tooth desensitizers, Litkow s k iwas re s e a rching Bioglass, a bioactive materi-a l i n vented in 1969 to repair bone defects.

Hack introduced Litkowski to his colleague, former Un i versity of Ma ry l a n dSchool of Medicine neurosurgeon Wa l k e rRobinson, MD. “They both had an i n t e rest in bone re g e n e r a t i o n — Ro b i n s o nin skull defects and Len in jaw defects—and I thought they would be interested inhearing about each other’s work,” Ha c kre c a l l s .

But as a result of that meeting,L i t k owski and Hack began work i n gtogether instead. “I wondered if Bi o g l a s swould have an impact on tooth sensitivity, ”Hack says.

Hack and Litkowski re c o n f i g u red asample of Bioglass to make the part i c l es i ze small enough to cover the open chan-nels between the nerve and the enamel ins e n s i t i ve teeth. “We we re n’t certain thatthe modified material would still be bioac-t i ve,” Hack says.

With further modifications and testing,


Trauma Center and dire c t o rof the Program in Trauma atthe School of Medicine, saysBa r i s h’s influence is evidentnot just on campus, but alsoas it lives on with his gradu-ates. “The residency pro g r a mthat Bob established is consid-e red one of the premier train-ing programs in the country, ”Scalea says. “Its graduates p rovide c a re in a wide range of settings. It is no ove re s t i m a-tion to say that thousands ofpatients are alive today becauseof Bob Ba r i s h . ”

Barish reached a differe n tkind of milestone in 2005when he was named com-mander of the Ma ry l a n dDefense Fo rce, 10th Me d i c a lRegiment, a volunteer unit ins u p p o rt of the Ma ry l a n d

National Gu a rd. After Hurricane Katrina, the state

asked the unit to deploy several hundre dmedical volunteers, including many fro mthe Un i versity of Ma ryland, Ba l t i m o recampus. “Mo re than 6,000 people we ret reated under harsh, almost primitive ,conditions,” says Brig. Gen. Frederic N.Smalkin, who chose Barish to lead the unit.

Barish does not see his medical vo l u n-teerism as a personal sacrifice, but rather abenefit. “In some ways, you get more outof it personally than the people you help, ”he says. “The bonds you form with yo u rcolleagues working together in the middleof now h e re are hard to find elsew h e re . ”

In addition, Barish is invo l ved withB oy Scouts of America. He has raisednearly $1 million for scouts in Ba l t i m o reCity and has advocated for programs forhigh-risk and special needs scouts. “T h e s escouts get to experience things theyw o u l d n’t otherwise,” says Barish, himselfan eagle scout. “They hike, canoe, learnskills, and build confidence.”

When asked if he encourages his medicalstudents to become public servants, Ba r i s hsays yes. But he doesn’t need to try ve ryh a rd. The students are more than willing.“ It’s natural for doctors to want to vo l u n t e e r.

FOU N DE R S W E E K AWA R D W IN N E R S 2 0 0 7

Medicine is, after all, a service industry, ”Barish explains. “T h a t’s why a lot of uspursue the profession in the first place.”

Pu b l ic Se rvant of the Ye a r

Robert A. Barish

The stack of letters nominating Ro b e rtA. Barish, MD, MBA, for Pu b l i c

Se rvant of the Year measures half an inchthick; his many colleagues—leaders in thecampus, military, nonprofit, and healthc a re communities—agree he should bere c o g n i zed for his many contributions toBa l t i m o re, the United States, and theworld.

Barish, vice dean for clinical affairs inthe School of Medicine, has been invo l ve din public service most of his life. His p a rents, activists themselves, instilled it inhim early. “We we re inculcated with theidea of public service—of somethingg reater than ourselves,” Barish says.

One of Ba r i s h’s early public serv i c emilestones was establishing the De p a rt m e n tof Emergency Medicine at the Un i ve r s i t yof Ma ryland Medical Center in 1985.“Within five years, the program was re c o g n i zed as one of the leading sites foremergency care in the nation,” saysMo rton Rapoport, MD, former CEO ofthe Un i versity of Ma ryland Medical System.

Thomas Scalea, MD, FACS, physician-in-chief at the R Adams Cowley Sh o c k

Robert A. Barish

De p a rtment of Periodontics at Vi r g i n i aC o m m o n wealth Un i ve r s i t y.

L i t k owski is probably best known forc o - i n venting Nova Min, a bioactive glasshe created with his fellow En t re p reneur ofthe Year Ga ry David Hack, DDS.

L i t k owski and Hack bro u g h t the innova-t i ve, multifaceted tooth-repair technologyto the marketplace in fall 2003. “Ga ry didmost of the lab-related work—he is a whizwith the electron micro s c o p e —and I didmost of the clinical trials,” Litkowski says.

“ Once the technology was to a stagew h e re there was a pool of data worth p resenting, I went on the road to pre s e n tto most of the major dental corporations—Procter & Gamble, Un i l e ve r, Colgate,Gl a xo SmithKline, etc.,” says Litkow s k i ,who gave more than 20 presentations toscientific and corporate boards in a two-year period.

At that time, few re s o u rces we re inplace to help UMB faculty/entre p re n e u r sbring their technology to the mark e t p l a c e .“ Most inventors we re on their own toidentify potential companies and gro u p sto support and develop new technolog i e s , ”Gunsolley says. “Dr. Litkow s k i’s determi-nation through this time was outstanding.”

So too has been Nova Mi n’s pro d u c te volution. Not only does it reduce tooths e n s i t i v i t y, it helps strengthen teeth bycombining minerals in their ionic formwith human saliva to form new tooths t ru c t u re. W h a t’s more, recent re s e a rc hs h ows that toothpastes that containNova Min inhibit the development of cavities, especially cavities found in toothroots, as effectively as fluoride.

Nova Min Inc. is now negotiating withcompanies around the world—includingm a n u f a c t u rers of most major consumerbrands of toothpaste—to bring the ingre-dient to the $30 billion oral care mark e t-place. Litkowski and Hack share at least30 U.S. and international patents forNova Min, which has produced seve r a lh u n d red thousand dollars for theUn i versity and is likely to produce a sub-stantial re venue stream for the fore s e e a b l ef u t u re .

L i t k owski re t i red from the De n t a lSchool in November 2007.

a new technology and a ve ry successfulcollaboration we re born.

As a result of their work, a licensinga g reement was executed between theUn i versity of Ma ryland, Ba l t i m o re (UMB)and USBiomaterials, the company thatowns Bioglass, in 1996. A n ew companywas created to market the valuable newtechnology under the name Nova Mi n .

The initial patent has led to doze n sm o re—29 of which have been issued in24 foreign countries. Mo re ove r, Nova Mi n -containing products have now generatedm o re than $3 million in worldwide sales.

Hack also has been instrumental inother discoveries. His work with Ro b i n s o nhas led to the discove ry of two pre v i o u s l yu n a p p reciated anatomic stru c t u res in the human body. The upcoming 150tha n n i ve r s a ry edition of the textbook Gra y’sAn a t o m y will include their finding of aphysical connection between the deep-neck musculature and the covering of theb r a i n .

Re c e n t l y, Hack submitted an inve n t i o nd i s c l o s u re to UMB’s Office of Re s e a rc hand De velopment for a cleft palate simulator he co-developed with Wi l l i a mDavidson, DMD, PhD, and former chair


Entrepreneur of the Ye a r

Leonard J. Litkowski

In eve ry sense of the word, Leonard J.L i t k owski, DDS, MS, is an entre p re-

n e u r. The former associate professor in theDe n t a l School and co-director of its

Center for Clinical Studies hasc o n d u c t e d re s e a rch in seve r a la renas at the Un i versity ofMa ryland, Ba l t i m o re (UMB),including basic science, clini-cal studies for the efficacy andm a rketing of dental carep roducts, and Phase I-IV clin-ical drug studies for the Fo o dand Drug Ad m i n i s t r a t i o n .L i t k owski also has adviseds e veral startup and establishedcompanies on the re g u l a t o ryp rocess to gain approval ford rugs and devices.

“ He has consistently beensought after by industry tocome up with new and i n n o-va t i ve protocols to establish thee f f i c a c y of materials anddevices outside of the tradi-tional paths for re g u l a t o rya p p roval,” says John Gu n s o l l e y,DDS, MS, a professor in the

of the Dental School’s De p a rtment ofOrthodontics.

The cleft palate simulator aids inteaching dentists how to construct obtura-tors—devices that cover the defect in thepalate so patients can eat normally—andfeeding plates, which enable infants withcleft palates to nurse.

The cleft palate simulators we re usedfor the first time in June 2007 during col-laboration between the Dental School andOperation Smile—a nonprofit that helpspeople with cleft palate disorders.

Cleft palates are rare in the Un i t e dStates but more common in T h i rd Wo r l dcountries. “When Operation Smile goeson missions, parents and children are linedup for blocks begging for treatment,” saysHack. “These can be life-saving devices.”

Gary David Hack and Leonard J. Litkowski

B OARDS OF VISITORS

Dental School

William H. Schneider, DDSChair

Guy D. Alexander, DDSPatricia L. Bell-McDuffie, DDSStanley E. Block, DDSDon-N. Brotman, DDSRobert BuchananAllan M. Dworkin, DDSRichard GoldsteinLawrence F. Halpert, DDSAnn B. Kirk, DDSMelvin F. Kushner, DDSMary Littleton, RDHCharles P. MooreW. Gregory Wims

School of Law

Paul D. BekmanChair

Alison L. AstiThe Hon. Lynne A. BattagliaThe Hon. Robert M. BellThe Hon. Richard D. BennettLaura B. BlackThe Hon. Benjamin L. CardinHarriet E. CoopermanThe Hon. Andre M. DavisChristine A. EdwardsMiriam L. Fisher

54 U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y L A N D, B A L T I M O R E PHOTOGRAPH BY J. BROUGH SCHAMP

A D M I N I S T R ATIVE OFFICERS

David J. Ramsay, DM, DPhilPresident

T. Sue Gladhill, MSWVice President, External Affairs

James T. Hill, MPAVice President, Administration and Finance

James L. Hughes, MBAVice President, Re s e a rch and De ve l o p m e n t

Peter J. Murray, PhDVice President, Information Technology,and Chief Information Officer

Malinda B. Orlin, PhDVice President, Academic Affairs

E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBAVice President, Medical Affairs

ACADEMIC DEANS

Janet D. Allan, PhD, RN, CS, FAANSchool of Nursing

Richard P. Barth, PhD, MSWSchool of Social Work

Natalie D. Eddington, PhDSchool of Pharmacy

Malinda B. Orlin, PhDGraduate School

E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBASchool of Medicine

Karen H. Rothenberg, JD, MPASchool of Law

Christian S. St o h l e r, DMD, Dr Me d De n t

Dental School

FAC U LT Y, STAFF &

STUDENT LEADERS

Marcelo G. Cardarelli, MDPresident, Faculty Senate

Kenneth E. Fahnestock, MAChair, Staff Senate

Jessica O’KanePresident, University Student Government Association

U N I V E R S IT Y L E ADE R S H I P 2 0 0 8

James J. Hanks Jr.The Hon. Ellen M. HellerThe Hon. Marcella A. HollandHenry H. HopkinsAlan D. HornsteinEdward F. HouffThe Hon. Barbara Kerr HoweJohn B. IsbisterRobert J. KimRaymond G. LaPlacaLewis LeibowitzThomas B. LewisAva E. Lias-BookerBruce S. MendelsohnWilliam “Hassan” Murphy IIIHamish S. OsborneGeorge F. PappasJoanne E. PollakPhillip A. ProgerStuart M. SalsburyMary Katherine ScheelerEdward Manno ShumskyHanan Y. SibelArnold M. Weiner

Ex-officio MembersFrancis B. Burch Jr. and Joseph R.

Hardiman, Chairmen EmeritiKaren H. Rothenberg, DeanTeresa K. LaMaster, Assistant Dean

School of Medicine

Melvin Sharoky, MDChair

Peter G. Angelos, Esq.Morton D. Bogdonoff, MDThomas S. BozzutoFrank P. Bramble Sr.Jocelyn Cheryl BrambleFrank C. Carlucci IIIMichael E. CryorWilliam M. Davidow Jr., Esq.Sylvan Frieman, MDRonald GeeseyGary N. GeiselStewart GreenebaumWillard HackermanCarolyn McGuire-FrenkilEdward Magruder Passano Jr.David S. PennChristine D. SarbanesDaniel E. Wagner

Ex-officio MembersAlice B. Heisler, MDDavid Sigman, MD

School of Nursing

Steven S. Cohen, FACHEChair

Eric R. Baugh, MDScott CorbettDebra B. Doyle, RN, MS, MBAMartha A. DugganAntonella Favit-Van Pelt, MD,PhDJack GildenSonya Gershowitz Goodman, MSFran Lessans, MSVictoria C. McAndrewsKatherine McCullough, RN, MSDavid S. OrosMarian Osterweis, PhDBeth A. Peters, MBAJudy Akila Reitz, ScDCaleb Rogovin, CRNA, MS,

CCRN, CENAlan SilverstoneJulie Ann SmithDeborah Tillett, MBAWilliam A. Zellmer, MPH(Pharm)

School of Pharmacy

Richard P. Penna, PharmDChair

John H. Balch, RPhDavid A. Blake, PhDCapt. James L. Bresette, PharmDHarold E. Chappelear, DSC, RPh,

LLD (Hon.)Paul T. Cuzmanes, RPh, JDJoseph DeMino, BSPRussell B. Fair, RPhJohn M. Gregory, RPh, DPS(Hon.)Mark A. Levi, PDGina McKnight-Smith, PharmD,

MBA, CGP, BCPSDavid G. Miller, RPhMilton H. Miller Sr.Robert G. Pinco, BSP, JDAlex Taylor, BSPDavid R. TeckmanSally Van Doren, PharmDGeorge C. Voxakis, PharmDClayton L. Warrington, BSPEllen H. Yankellow, PharmD


School of Social Work

Stanley E. Weinstein, PhDChair

Jane S. BaumThe Hon. James W. CampbellWilliam T. Carpenter Jr., MDPamela F. CorckranErica Fry CryorAnne P. Hahn, PhDDorothy V. HarrisBarbara L. HimmelrichThe Hon. Verna L. JonesRazi F. KosiAnne H. LewisJean Tucker MannJames W. MotsayMary G. PiperAlison L. RichmanHoward L. SollinsHector L. TorresMeadow Lark WashingtonSusan A. Wolman

UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF MARY L A N D

William E. Kirwan, PhDChancellor

Board of Regents

The Un i versity System of Ma ryland is g ove r n e d by a Board of Regents appointed bythe gove r n o r.

Clifford M. Kendall, Chairman

Orlan M. Johnson, Vice Chairman

Patricia S. Florestano, Assistant Treasurer

R. Michael Gill, Assistant Secretary

Barry P. Gossett

Alicia Coro Hoffman

The Hon. Francis X. Kelly Jr.

The Hon. Marvin Mandel

The Hon. C. Thomas McMillen

Robert L. Mitchell

David H. Nevins

A. Dwight Pettit, Esq.

Robert L. Pevenstein, Treasurer

James L. Shea, Secretary

Thomas G. Slater, Esq.

The Hon. Roger L. Richardson, Ex-officio

Richard Scott, Student Regent

56 U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y L A N D, B A L T I M O R E CHART ILLUSTRATIONS BY EMERY PAJER

Fiscal Year 2007 was a landmark year fortechnology commercialization at the

Un i versity of Ma ryland, Ba l t i m o re (UMB). • New invention disclosures reached

an all-time high of 114.• U M B ’s patent portfolio currently

includes 450 issued patents and more than 650 active patent applications.

• New business agreements signed in FY07e xceeded those in any pre v i o u s ye a r —adding 19 licenses and 11 option a g reements to an active portfolio that n ow boasts 90 agre e m e n t s .

• U M B ’s income from license agre e m e n t stopped the $1 million mark .

In addition, UMB is leading Ma ry l a n dinstitutions with the launch of a new We bpage, w w w. i n ve n i o i p . o r g, which provides aone-stop location for industry in i d e n t i f y-ing licensing and sponsored re s e a rc h o p p o r-tunities. It provides access to more than1,500 technologies from leading acad e m i cinstitutions in and around Ma ry l a n d .

Highlights of UMB’s FY07 new licensea g reements include:

C O U N T E R VAIL CORP.

UMB entered into an exc l u s i ve licensea g reement with Countervail Corp. for thed e velopment and commercialization of asafe treatment for protection againstorganophosphates. Edson Albuquerq u e ,MD, PhD, and Edna Pe reira, PhD, of theSchool of Medicine, and Michael Ad l e r,PhD, of the U.S. Army Medical Re s e a rc hInstitute of Chemical Defense, discove re dthat galantamine, a chemical approved bythe Food and Drug Administration for thet reatment of Alzheimer’s disease, pro t e c t sagainst short-term and long-term effects oforganophosphates.

Organophosphates are a class of chemi-cals commonly used in the production ofagricultural pesticides. Since these com-pounds cause serious damage to the brainand nervous system, they may also be usedas biological warf a re agents.

I N F R AT R AC, INC.

In f r a Trac, a startup company located in theUMB Bi o Pa rk, and the Un i versity signedan exc l u s i ve license agreement for UMB’sd rug authentication technology. The inve n-tion utilizes near-infrared spectroscopy tod e velop “f i n g e r p r i n t s” for drugs and othermaterials. The technology is being com-m e rc i a l i zed by In f r a Trac to address the saleand distribution of counterfeit drugs. Ja m e sPolli, PhD, and Stephen Hoag, PhD, of theSchool of Pharmacy are co-inventors of thet e c h n o l o g y.

ENCORE PAT H, INC.

Jill Whitall, PhD, and Sandra Mc C o m b e -Wa l l e r, PhD, MS, PT, NCS, faculty members in the School of Medicine, d e veloped a unique device for re h a b i l i t a t i o nof stroke patients. The device takes adva n-tage of re p e t i t i ve bilateral arm motion toenhance and reinvigorate brain activityassociated with these movements. En c o rePath, a startup company in Ma ry l a n d ,signed a license agreement with UMB fore xc l u s i ve rights to the technology.

LIGOCYTE PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.

L i g o Cyte Pharmaceuticals, a Montana cor-poration, entered into an exc l u s i ve, world-wide license agreement with UMB toobtain rights to UMB patent applicationsrelated to CD103 therapeutics. CD103 isthe unique alphaE-beta7 integrin that hasbeen implicated in the activation, homing,and retention of lymphocytes that mediatei n f l a m m a t o ry diseases affecting mucosalregions of the intestine, skin, and lungs.Patients suffering from seve re inflammatorydiseases such as re s p i r a t o ry inflammation,i n f l a m m a t o ry bowel disease, Gr a f t - ve r s u s -host disease (GVHD), and organ transplantrejections may benefit from the deve l o p-ment of a treatment based upon the use ofCD103 as a therapeutic target. The patentrights are directed to the use of CD103 forthe treatment of GVHD and solid organtransplant rejection.

R E S E A R C H & DEV E L OP M E NT

Ex t r amural Fu n d i n g Making Great Strides in Te c h n o l o gy Commer c i a l i z a t i o nRe s e a rchers at the Un i versity of Ma ry l a n d ,

Ba l t i m o re (UMB) attracted $411 million ins p o n s o red project awards during Fiscal Ye a r2007—the largest dollar volume in UMB’s history.The National Institutes of Health tightened itsbudget again in FY07. Howe ve r, impre s s i veg rowth was re a l i zed from other federal sourc e s ,including the Centers for Disease Contro l ,organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Ga t e sFoundation, and 150 corporations. Pro j e c t sa d d ressing global issues (HIV, bio- and nucleart e r rorism and the pre vention of disease) andregional issues (health policy, child we l f a re, andcancer caused by cigarettes) head the list of morethan 1,400 awards. Overall, UMB’s re s e a rc henterprise has doubled since Fiscal Year 2000.

15M 20M 350M10M5M

Un i v ersity of Mary l and Ba ltimore Foundation, In c .Annual Report 2007

The University of Maryland Baltimore Foundation, Inc. (UMBF)

Board of Trustees is comprised of influential and committed leaders

who are dedicated to advancing the goals of the University of

Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). This Board provides valuable advice to

UMB President David J. Ramsay on matters affecting UMB’s campus,

its programs, and the community it serves. The Board promotes

UMB through advocacy and by enlisting the financial support of

alumni, faculty, staff, and friends. The Foundation manages and

invests gifts and property for the benefit of UMB.

UMB fundraising in Fiscal Year 2007 exceeded previous records

for the campus. The year-end fundraising total was $65.3 million,

ahead of the $62 million goal, and nearly 8 percent ahead of last

y e a r’s total. Through fundraising and investment returns, the UMB

Foundation increased current use and endowment assets (including

pledges) from $115 million in FY 2006 to $143 million in FY 2007.

Philanthropic support is vital to ensure the University’s continued

advancement as one of the nation’s top academic health, law, and

human services institutions. UMBF provides opportunities for alumni,

friends, foundations, corporations, and others to support the strategic

mission and goals of the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Through your gifts, you can shape the future with the support

that enables the University to excel in its mission of providing

excellence in education, research, public service, and patient care.

(For an example of how donor dollars support the UMB mission, see

page 46.) To contribute to this effort, please use the return

envelope enclosed in this issue of M a r y l a n d magazine or visit

h t t p : / / g i v i n g . u m a r y l a n d . e d u.

Your contributions are greatly appreciated.

Richard J. Himelfarb, Chairman

Un i v ersity of Mary l and Ba ltimore Foundation, In c .

ARTWORK AND CHART ILLUSTRATIONS BY EMERY PAJER

Annual Report 2007

To obtain a copy of the UMBF, Inc., audited financial statements, please contact Judith Blackburn, University of Maryland Baltimore Foundation,Inc., 660 West Redwood Street, Room 021, Baltimore, MD 21201. Phone 410-706-3912 or e-mail [email protected].

SUMMARY STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITIONJune 30, 2007 and 2006

ASSETS 2007 2006

Investments

Endowment $ 76,947,969 $ 52,477,238Operating 46,229,578 40,653,301

Total investments 123,177,547 93,130,539

Other assets

Contributions receivable 13,882,166 14,786,804Assets held under split-interest agreements 3,156,335 3,036,282Assets due from other foundations, etc. 2,745,475 3,718,187

Total other assets 19,783,976 21,541,273

TOTAL ASSETS $142,961,523 $114,671,812

LIABILITIES & NET ASSETS

Liabilities

Payable under split-interest agreements $ 1,604,048 $ 1,565,533Other liabilities 1,622,534 2,820,959

Total liabilities 3,226,582 4,386,492

Net assets

Unrestricted 19,048,629 14,704,811Temporarily restricted 56,450,160 43,742,347Permanently restricted 64,236,152 51,838,162

Total net assets 139,734,941 110,285,320

TOTAL LIABILITIES & NET ASSETS $142,961,523 $114,671,812

Richard J. Himelfarb, ChairmanExecutive Vice PresidentStifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.

Edward J. BrodyCEO, Brody Transportation Co., Inc.

Don-N. Brotman, DDSGeneral Dentist

Francis B. Burch, Jr.Joint CEODLA Piper

Daryl A. ChambleePartner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP

Harold E. ChappelearRetired Vice ChairmanUPM Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Charles W. Cole, Jr.Chairman, Legg Mason InvestmentCounsel & Trust Co.

Anna M. DopkinCo-Director of U.S. Equity Research andPortfolio ManagerT. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.

James A. D’Orta, MDChairman, Consumer Health Services, Inc.

James A. Earl, PhDPresident, Helena Foundation

Morton P. Fisher, Jr.Partner, Baltimore OfficeBallard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP

Sylvan Frieman, MDRetired Physician andVolunteer Associate Professor

Joseph R. HardimanRetired President and CEO, NationalAssociation of Securities Dealers Inc.

David HillmanCEO, Southern Management Corp.

Wallace J. HoffRetired Vice President and GeneralManager, Northrop GrummanAerospace Systems Division

Kempton M. IngersolManaging Director andSenior Portfolio ManagerBrown Capital Management, Inc.

Donald M. KirsonRetired President and CEOKirson Medical Equipment Co.

Kyle P. Legg, CFACEO, Legg Mason Capital Management

Sally MichelBaltimore City Activist and Founderof SuperKids Camp

Milton H. Miller, Sr.Retired Founder, Miller CorporateReal Estate

Joseph A. OddisVice President EmeritusAmerican Society of Health-System Pharmacists

Thomas P. O’NeillManaging DirectorRSM McGladrey, Inc.

David S. OrosManaging Partner, Global DomainPartners, LLP

Janet S. OwensCommunity Activist and former Anne Arundel County Executive

Theo C. RodgersPresident, A & R Development Corp.

Donald E. RolandRetired Chairman, Vertis

Robert G. SabelhausSenior Executive Vice President andDivision Director, Smith Barney

Pauline Schneider, JDPartner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Alan SilverstoneConsultant

Frederick G. Smith, DDSVice PresidentSinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.

C. William StrueverPartner, CEO, and PresidentStruever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, Inc.

John C. Weiss, III, MBAChairman, BioTechnical Institute of Maryland, Inc.Co-Chair, EntrepreneurshipBoard, University of BaltimoreMerrick School of Business

Garland O. WilliamsonCEO and President, Information ControlSystems Corp.

EX- O F F I CIO MEMBE RS

David J. Ramsay, DM, DPhil (nonvoting)President, University of Maryland, Baltimore

T. Sue Gladhill, MSWPresident and CEO, UMBF, Inc.

Judith S. Blackburn, PhD, MBATreasurer and CFO, UMBF, Inc.

STA F F

Mary A. NicholsDirector, UMB Foundation Relations

Un i v ersity of Mary l and Ba ltimore Foundation, In c .

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

E D I T O R I A L B O A R DJeanette Balotin, MA, MPARobert A. Barish, MD, MBADiane DePanfilis, PhD, MSWGail Doerr, MSRonald Dubner, DDS, PhDJames L. Hughes, MBATeresa K. LaMaster, JDJennifer Litchman, MACharlene Quinn, PhD, RNNorman Tinanoff, DDS, MSCarolyn Waltz, PhD, RN, FAANIlene Zuckerman, PharmD, PhD

E X E C U T I V E E D I T O RT. Sue Gladhill, MSW

M A N A G I N G E D I T O RPaul Drehoff, MSM

E D I T O RSusie Flaherty

A S S I S T A N T E D I T O R SClare BanksRonald HubeChristian Zang

A R T D I R E C T O RTracy Boyd

P R O D U C T I O NJulie BowerKeven Waters

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND MAGAZINE

University of Maryland magazine is publishedby the Office of External Affairs for alumniand friends of the medical, law, dental, phar-macy, nursing, graduate, social work, andpublic health schools.

Send reprint requests, address corrections,and letters to: University of Maryland MagazineOffice of External Affairs University of Maryland 660 West Redwood Street, Room 021 Baltimore, MD 21201 410-706-7820 Fax: 410-706-6330E-mail: [email protected]

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BALTIMORE, MD

New Administration Building | West Lexington StreetThis six-story building in the 600 block of West Lexington Street is rapidlytaking shape. Scheduled for completion this fall, the 108,000-square-footbuilding will house many of the University offices formerly located in theLombard and 111 S. Greene St. buildings. Those buildings were demolished

to make way for a new University of Maryland Medical System facility. TheGraduate School and the offices of Academic Affairs, Administration andFinance, External Affairs, and Research and Development will be among theadministration building’s occupants.

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

660 West Redwood StreetRoom 021Baltimore, Maryland 21201-1541

2008 maryland magazine

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