At the Annual Meeting of the National Association of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Educators (NAEMSE), held on August 8, 2012, at the Walt Disney World Coronado Springs Resort in Orland, Florida, Bruce J. Walz, PhD, received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Walz is professor and chair of the Department of Emergency Health Services.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is a special award selected and approved by the NAEMSE Board of Directors to recognize a member who has made a significant long-term contribution to NAEMSE and the larger EMS community.

Dr. Walz is a charter member of NAEMSE and a past president. He has served on various committees and with numerous association projects. Most notably, he represented NAEMSE and EMS educators in general as legislative liaison and as president and a board member of Advocates for EMS. He was involved with the development of the National EMS Education Standards and currently serves on the NAEMSE Governance Committee. He is a contributing author to the association’s principle publication, Foundations of Education: An EMS Approach. He is frequently called upon to represent NAEMSE at federal and national association meetings in the Washington, DC area.

On August 15, The Baltimore Sun‘s free weekly B published a “Baltimore College Guide”, in which students from area universities provided insights into their schools. UMBC student Kate Godwin ’13, media and communications studies, discussed a number of on-campus and off-campus highlights and offered some advice to incoming students to help them navigate the school year successfully.

Godwin recommended Atwater’s for off-campus wi-fi and quality chai tea; Patapsco Valley State Park for a chance to get outside for a weekend or day trip for some hiking and any other physical activity; the annual QuadMania event for students; and the upper floors of the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery for some quiet study time, along with “the best hot chocolate on campus” from the ground-floor cafe.

Godwin recommended that incoling students “[d]evelop a good dialogue with your adviser” and to use on-campus resources like the Shriver Center to obtain rewarding internships. The senior also said that classes she would recommend included those in communications, gender and womens studies and American studies, which she felt had a large degree of personal relevance to her own life.

The full guide can be found here.

Dr. Jeff Leips is an Associate Professor in the Biological Sciences Department and serves as an iCubed Faculty Mentor for students majoring in the Biological Sciences.  His research is focused on understanding how genetics and ecology shape the evolution of traits that influence reproduction and survival, key components of darwinian fitness.

What is your mentoring philosophy?  My mentoring philosophy for the iCubed@UMBC basically involves using whatever means I can to help students navigate their way to academic success in the Biological Sciences.  Different students have different needs, and the key to successful mentoring is to identify and if possible, meet the particular needs of the student.  This can be as simple as just providing students with advice on how to manage their time more effectively, how to interact in the classroom to become better learners or offering advice to students on how to achieve their career goals.  I think that sometimes students also just need to talk to someone who has "walked in their shoes" about the challenges they are facing (academically and personally).  I often find that by just listening to students and asking them questions, they often come up with their own ways to deal with these challenges.   So my philosophy is quite simple.  To be a friendly, supportive (and demanding if necessary) person that students know they can come to for general information, advice and support.

What do you enjoy most about mentoring freshman students?  I really enjoy the opportunity to be able to offer support and help in whatever way possible to maintain the enthusiasm of these students as and to help ensure their success in our major.   Students like those chosen for this program often have to work harder to find their way at UMBC and often do not have the support mechanisms in place compared to those students in other programs. It is exciting for me to be able to provide whatever help that I can to these students so that they will have a successful and rewarding experience here at UMBC which hopefully leads to continued success after they graduate.  

Dr. Zoe Warwick  is an Associate Professor of Psychology and serves as an iCubed Faculty Mentor to freshman students majoring in Psychology.   Dr. Warwick has conducted extensive research aimed at understanding the biobehavioral mechanisms by which high-fat foods promote overeating and weight gain.   She has now shifted her work to focus determining effective pedagogical practices in the teaching of psychology.

What is your mentoring philosophy?  I aim to help students discover what they have a passion for learning and doing, and then guide them towards an educational and career path that they will find attainable and satisfying.

What do you enjoy most about mentoring freshman students?  Their energy, enthusiasm, and optimism are invigorating! 

Public Policy PhD student Cheryl Camillo (Health Policy) was quoted in an Associated Press story about who qualifies for Medicaid.

What’s largely unknown to many Americans is who is left out of the safety net, said Cheryl Camillo, a senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research. “A huge chunk of the populace is not covered, even by Medicaid,” she said.

Cheryl is a senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research.