US Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez, JD, MPP, gave the keynote address at a special event hosted by The Hilltop Institute on April 29, 2014, at UMBC. The event honored Chuck Milligan, JD, MPH, who recently stepped down from his post as Deputy Secretary for Health Care Financing at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Milligan was Hilltop’s Executive Director from 2004 to 2011 and served the state of Maryland for ten years. Milligan is relocating to New Mexico, where he will be Senior Vice President of Presbyterian Healthcare Services.

The event, consisting of a program titled Striking a Balance in Rebalancing and followed by a reception, was attended by 85 of Milligan’s colleagues, friends, and family. Attendees included such dignitaries as Governor Martin O’Malley; UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski; Secretary Cathy Raggio, Maryland Department of Disabilities; Commissioner Therese Goldsmith, Maryland Insurance Administration; Cindy Mann, Director, Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; John Colmers, Vice President, Health Care Transformation and Strategic Planning, Johns Hopkins University and former Secretary, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; and Ben Steffen, Executive Director, Maryland Health Care Commission.
Perez spoke about how the rights of persons with disabilities to live and receive services in the home and community is a civil rights issue and how the work he has done at the U.S. Departments of Labor and Justice has the same goal as the work Milligan has done in the health field: empowering people. Responses were given by Sara Rosenbaum, JD, Harold and Jane Hirsh, Professor of Health Law and Policy and Founding Chair of the Department of Health Policy, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services; Alan Weil, JD, MPP, Executive Director of the National Academy for State Health Policy; and Milligan himself.

Each year since 1996, The Daily Record takes the time to find and recognize the accomplishments of Maryland’s Top 100 Women. These women are selected based upon their roles as leaders, their involvement in the community and their personal achievements. Receiving this award is an immense honor, one that brings its recipients great satisfaction.

Our alums never cease to amaze us with their successes. UMBC celebrates the fact that three of our alumnae, Kaliope Parthemos ‘93, psychology and Debora Fajer-Smith ’81, political science, were given the Maryland’s Top 100 Women award. Their influential roles as women leaders in their environment has led them to receive this honorable award, and for their contributions to society, we are truly grateful and extremely proud.

Learn more about Maryland’s Top 100 Women.

Hello!

Final exams are quickly approaching.  Enjoy some brain food to fuel a study session ON ME!!  

All iCubed Team Study Group participants in a study group are eligible to enter. Please fill out the study group registration form (attached) and return to me by FRIDAY, May 9th, to be entered into a raffle to win 2 PIZZAS for you and your study group on UMBC Study Day (May 14th).   

For those of you not in a study group yet, it is not too late!  If you need assistance, I can help you find one.  For more information or if you have questions, please feel free to contact me,  stop by during my office hours (this week on Friday and next Monday), or stop in my office in University Center 116.

Thanks!

-- 

Tashauna Felix, M.S., Ph.D.

iCubed Study Group Coordinator

University Center 116

tfelix1@umbc.edu

410.455.3173

Who decides how you wear your hair?

If you happen to be a member of the United States Military, the answer to that question is Uncle Sam. 

Now some people think Sam needs a new coiffure.

Currently, the Army states that: 

“Many hairstyles are acceptable, as long as they are neat and conservative.“

“Neat” and “conservative,” however, are pretty subjective.

The new army regulations specifically ban dreadlocks, twists, and some types of braids. The women of the Congressional Black Caucus took issue with this rule, as well as the language used to express it, in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. In their letter, they state that: 

“African American women have often been required to meet unreasonable norms as it relates to acceptable standards of grooming in the workplace.” 

They go on to posit that the amount of time and even money African American women must contribute to maintaining Army-appropriate hairstyles is unfair.

Several thousand signers of a WhiteHouse.gov petition agree, and the Department of Defense is currently reviewing the issue. 

The issue of appropriate hairstyles and race extends beyond the military, however. Last fall, twelve-year-old Vanessa VanDyke and seven-year-old Tiana Parker were threatened with expulsion from their schools  for wearing an afro and dreadlocks, respectively. Public outcry followed both cases. 

Are the army hair regulations racially biased? Or are people getting themselves in a twist over nothing?