Elizabeth moved to Vermont in October from Amherst, Massachusetts. She is originally from the Philadelphia area. Elizabeth completed her undergraduate degree at Haverford College, majoring in comparative literature with a minor in French. Following college, she spent a year in France teaching English to third, fourth, and fifth graders in a small town near Limoges, where she was one of two Americans in town. After returning home, Elizabeth completed a master’s degree in intercultural communication at the University of Pennsylvania, while also working at the Tutoring Center there, training student tutors. In 2006, she moved to Amherst to pursue a PhD in the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Elizabeth’s dissertation, which she completed in 2011, was an ethnography of the communication practices of a community of Quakers, examining in particular the use of silence in worship and in meetings for business.

As the new Web Content Editor, Elizabeth is looking forward to working with graduate students at Dartmouth in spreading the word about the important events and research occurring in their departments. In this position, she will draw on her recent experience as a graduate student at two different universities. Elizabeth is excited to get to know the Hanover area and join the Dartmouth College community. Also, she has always felt an affinity for Dartmouth, as it’s where her parents met as medical students in 1973!

If you know of a department or graduate event that should receive coverage or if you have an idea for an article, please contact Elizabeth at: Elizabeth.Molina-Markham [at] Dartmouth.edu

From left to right: TDI’s Greg Kotzbauer, Project Manager, Health Policy & ACO; Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP; TDI’s Jessica Johnson, M.Ed; and Holly Russo, TDI MS’96

For the past few months, faculty and staff from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice (TDI) have been kindling a relationship with Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, and the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. The collaboration reflects an effort to pursue mutual learning experiences. Capitalizing on a special TDI alumni connection, Alumni Relations Manager Jessica Johnson facilitated a learning exchange that may benefit both organizations, and should have positive ramifications on the larger communities of associated with each program.

In early October, and again in early November, TDI faculty and staff traveled to El Paso, Texas, the site of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and the Paul S. Foster School of Medicine. Participating in conferences, panel discussions, and small meetings with faculty and staff from the medical school there, the group brought the collective knowledge of TDI to bear on the particular difficulties confronting the border region.

“We used a unique alumni connection to get involved down there,” Johnson said. “That connection created a new channel to a place that could use TDI’s help. The area around El Paso is confronting some major issues, but a lot of these are population health and access problems – that’s something TDI excels at.”   Noting that the region shows high rates of diabetes and obesity, Johnson pointed to a large population of uninsured Americans and the growth of Fort Bliss, a major U.S. Army base, as key hurdles that both sets of faculty have been focusing on.

Back in October, TDI participated in the first annual Mano y Corazón (Hand & Heart) Binational Conference of Multicultural Health Care Solutions.  The highlight of the conference was a Special Roundtable Session held by State Senator José R. Rodriguez, that focused on the impact of the Affordable Care Act on border health. The keynote speaker at the conference was Dr. Donald Berwick, former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. TDI has a special relationship with the Affordable Care Act – the Institute introduced the idea of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) – which placed TDI faculty in a unique position to offer insight to their colleagues in Texas.

ACOs have become a major issue in modern medical practice. Forbes Magazine recently published an article, detailing the results of an Oliver Wyman report, which claims that the ACO model is now a reality for up to ten percent of the U.S. population. This means that between 25 and 31 million patients each year are receiving care from health care providers who have been rewarded for their efforts to improve care quality and reign in costs.

“TDI’s contribution of ACOs to the Affordable Care Act legislation yet another way TDI has put itself on the map as a leader.” Johnson said. “By way of sharing knowledge with more educational and medical organizations in various regions, we can market TDI and Dartmouth, while simultaneously creating an exchange with these regions that will help them prepare for policies that will be affecting them. This allows them to be leaders themselves.”

A month later, during the first week of November, TDI faculty returned to El Paso for the Border Healthcare Dialogue, a conference that allowed for multiple collaborative learning sessions with faculty from the Foster School of Medicine.

“The two schools deal with equally diverse, if very different populations,” Johnson noted. “This collaboration afforded us an opportunity to expand our thinking here at Dartmouth, and allowed us to pass on some of the conclusions we’ve drawn from the work we’re doing with ACO implementation.

TDI staff and faculty were afforded an opportunity to meet with faculty and students from the Foster School, to discuss the benefits of a new curriculum model that pairs classroom learning with clinical work. “The Foster School is a new medical school,” Johnson continued, “but they’re experimenting with a truly integrated curriculum that’s showing some really positive results.” The Foster School is also teaching all of its students medical Spanish, in an effort to provide better care for the border region’s bilingual population, in addition to a summer regional public health immersion class prior to beginning the program.

The Dartmouth Institute’s systemic approaches to public health, and its close relationship with the Affordable Care Act, continue to be valuable assets as the school’s influence and prestige grows. For alumni affairs professionals like Johnson, these are valuable tools in the pursuit of diverse opportunities for TDI’s faculty, students, and alumni, and for marketing the TDI value chain.

As the term winds to a close, and winter begins to set in, I wanted to take a minute to address the graduate community. I’ve been settling in to my new position here at Graduate Studies, and I’m enjoying all of the opportunities to interact with and on behalf of our students and programs. To see the work that our students are doing, across the wide spectrum that is Graduate Arts and Sciences, is nothing but inspiring.

Here in the Graduate Office, we are working hard to develop new ways to support and strengthen our community. As the Dartmouth faculty expands, and the Geisel School follows suit, we know that there will be more opportunities for graduate students on campus. More faculty will create opportunities for new graduate research, and we will find ways to leverage those opportunities to improve our support networks for research and funding. We are also working to create a graduate student space on campus, to help attach the wonderful sense of community we have built to a physical location we can call our own. I am excited about the future of Graduate Studies, and our students should be as well.

On a personal note, I encourage everyone to get outside and enjoy the winter here in Hanover. As an undergraduate, I was a member of the Dartmouth Outing Club. We used to snowshoe up Gile Mountain, downhill and cross-country ski at the college facilities, and ice skate out on Occom Pond. Dartmouth provides lots of opportunities to take advantage of the endless recreational activities in the Hanover area. And though it might be cold, Hanover tends to be pretty sunny all winter long. So grab a good jacket and enjoy the sun and the snow!

We hope you can join us next week for Cupcake Wars – I’m looking forward to judging the event. For more information, and to stay up to date on all the goings-on at Graduate Studies, please visit the Graduate Studies website and connect with us through our Facebook page.

I hope you all enjoy the remainder of fall term, and have a wonderful holiday season!

Sincerely,

F. Jon Kull, Dean of Graduate Studies

Jessica Johnson (L) and Donna Hay (R)

The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, known on campus as TDI, has hired a new specialist to help students pursue their professional goals – the Graduate Forum would like to welcome Donna Hay to campus.

Hay comes to Dartmouth by way of New York Law School and Berkley College, where she directed programs in employer relations and career services, respectively. After years in the New York metro area, she’s moved north to bring her skill set to the students at TDI.

“TDI presents a unique challenge because of our demographics,” she says. “A third of our students have medical degrees; another third have medical experience – they’re RNs or health care administrators who want to develop a systemic understanding of health care practices. And then some of our students have come to the program right after finishing their undergraduate degrees. So, there are a lot of different types of students to work with.”

We met jointly with Hay and Jessica Johnson, TDI’s Alumni Relations Manager, and the two quickly noted that theirs is a coordinated effort.  The two meet with students jointly, to provide to each not only the counseling of a career advisor, but also avenues to potential connections with TDI alums that had similar goals and aspirations. Together, they are working on teasing out the passions and interests of their students – what brought them to the program and what their hopes are for the future – and leveraging alumni relationships to provide the best support possible.

Hay also expressed excitement about being part of the professional Dartmouth community. “Tuck, Arts and Sciences, Thayer – they all do such a good job with their career programs. I think our students can learn a lot from some of their programming, and I know I can borrow the best practices from their departments. I hope that they can utilize the programming we’ll do here and the support models we’re using.”

The Dartmouth Institute officially began in 1995. Since then, the program has graduated 930 students, many of whom have gone on to exciting careers in medicine and health care delivery. TDI was a testing tank for many of the policies that made their way into the Affordable Care Act, and the Institute continues to be a center of research and applicable scholarship.

Hoping to build on these foundations, Hay is thrilled to be at Dartmouth. “I have a degree in law, and extensive experience in finance and accounting recruiting – marketing is an integral part of my education. I’m excited to bring that knowledge to TDI and to help our students move forward.”

Hay invites students and staff from TDI and the larger Dartmouth community to connect with her on LinkedIn, and to be on the lookout for professional programming in the coming months.

by Zach Williams 

Landers’ presentation cover a wide range of topics, from the writing and organization of a good curriculum vitae to the appropriate steps for negotiating the terms of a job offer. Focusing on clarity, professionalism, and staying “on” throughout the application process, she helped to guide the students through the cascading steps of academic career searching. Throughout the presentation, Dean Kull offered his personal insight – willing and wanting to be honest and truthful with students about the challenges of the application process. The back and forth discussion that resulted from his participation was engaging and personal.

Functions like this one are a large part of Landers’ position with Graduate Studies. Focused on preparing graduate students to realize their professional aspirations, she specializes in counseling from job search through job offer. Throughout the presentation, Landers pointed to the multitude of resources Dartmouth students have available to them in the job search. Her panels have proven to be enlightening for many students who have come through the programs. The Three Minute Thesis events, she notes, helps students to learn how to explain their research in a succinct and clear manner. And this winter she’ll be putting on the “Becoming Faculty” symposium, which will expand on many of the topics touched on in this presentation.

The next Three Minute Thesis event, which will be co-hosted by the Graduate Women in Science organization, will be tomorrow, October 17^th, at noon in 031 Haldeman. And watch for emails from the Graduate Studies office for more information about the Becoming Faculty Symposium.

President Folt speaks with Graduate Student Council Vice President Justin Richardson and President Julia Bradley-Cook

On Tuesday, September 18^th, President Carol Folt held a reception for the incoming class of graduate students, welcoming them to Dartmouth in the beautifully renovated Hanover Inn. President Folt chatted with new students from all disciplines, emphasizing her excitement about the growing strength of graduate studies.

The reception was held in the beautiful Hayward Ballroom at the Hanover Inn – the first student event in the space. New Dean of Graduate Studies F. Jon Kull introduced President Folt, reminiscing about their first meeting, when then-Professor Folt was teaching ecology to undergraduates. Then President Folt assumed the podium with a smile, reflecting on her own experiences with graduate students at her undergraduate alma mater, the University of California at Santa Barbara. It was her experience with graduate students, she explained, that opened her eyes to the power of scientific research and experimentation early in her college career. The president encouraged the new graduate students to look for those opportunities to inspire others around them.

After their official greetings, President Folt, Dean Kull, and other members of the Graduate Studies staff mingled with the new students, sharing laughs about their own experiences pursuing advanced degrees and highlighting how much the administration understands the pressures and rewards of graduate studies. The president posed for pictures with students from many of the graduate programs, smiling alongside students who are just exploring Hanover for the first time (and overwhelming this photographer with requests for his email address!).

As Dartmouth’s newest graduate students filtered out of the reception hall, it was clear that the warm welcome was greatly appreciated.

Please visit the Graduate Studies Flickr page for more photos of the Presidential Reception, and stay tuned for an article highlighting the incoming members of the new graduate class.

Article and Photos by Zach Williams

Zach Williams with F. Jon Kull

This week, Michael Mastanduno, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Dartmouth, announced that Professor of Chemistry F. Jon Kull ’88 has been chosen as the new of dean of Graduate Studies.

I sat down with Dean Kull in his new office this week, to talk about his new position and the graduate programs at Dartmouth:

The Grad Forum (TGF): You run a lab here on campus, in the Chemistry Department, that has exposed you to some graduate students already. What’s the role of graduate students across the Arts and Sciences?

Dean Kull (DK): First and foremost, our students are here getting a great education. But graduate students are also critical to every professor they work with – they help drive faculty research and they keep us moving forward while we manage our other responsibilities. And graduate students across the disciplines help to mentor our undergraduate students. They TA for a wide variety of undergraduate courses and they run review sessions for our students. For undergraduates who might be thinking about an advanced degree, graduate students offer a valuable perspective, which is something that we can build on going forward.

TGF: Graduate students across this campus are getting more and more involved, and are trying to help people understand the importance of the work we do. What are your thoughts on the state of Graduate Studies at Dartmouth?

DK: As Dartmouth grows, the existing graduate programs will grow along with it, and the visibility of our programs will increase too.  Of course, if our faculty are interested in establishing new programs, we can consider those too. But we’ll keep the intimate nature of graduate studies here at Dartmouth – we’re going to find the perfect medium. Having strong graduate programs benefits the entire Dartmouth community – undergrads and graduate students alike. Strengthening our graduate programs is in everyone’s best interest.

I want to make sure graduate students are getting the support they need. I want to continue Dean Pogue’s initiatives, and I want to increase interactivity between our different graduate programs, because they have so much to gain from working with each other. 

TGF: What would you say to undergraduate students out there who are thinking about applying to one of our graduate programs?

DK: Well, the fact that you’ve got world-class research going on inside this fairly small footprint – it’s rare and it’s impressive. There’s a closeness here, both inside individual programs and between programs, and that doesn’t happen everywhere. We have outstanding faculty at Dartmouth and they’re providing our graduate students with great opportunities.

TGF: I know a lot of students are excited to have you as our Dean. Anything you’d like to say to our readers?

DK: I’m really looking forward to getting to know the Dartmouth graduate community better. I’m excited to talk and listen and see what ideas come up. I think it’s a great time to be a graduate student at Dartmouth.

—

We do too. The Graduate Forum extends a warm welcome to Dean Kull. We’re looking forward to his leadership over the next few years! For more information about our new dean, check out Dartmouth Now’s biography that accompanied the official announcement.

by Zach Williams
photo by Kerry Landers

For the official announcement, please visit the Dartmouth Now page. Congratulations Dean Kull and welcome!

Dan grew up in Durham, England, a small city outside of Newcastle. After high school, he studied at Hull University, in eastern England, majoring in Political Science. Dan spent a year as a research assistant, working for a member of the British Parliament on issues for the Treasury Committee. In March of 2011, he came to the States for the first time, landing in Boston on Saint Patrick’s Day.

That same month, he started in the MALS program, deciding to pursue the program’s Globalization track. Dan is interested in researching countries in transition, and he’s currently writing his thesis on the Arab Spring. Dan told me that the democratic uprisings in the Middle East “represent probably the most significant political event since the end of the Cold War.”

As the new GSAC, Dan hopes to design and execute student events that embrace the multiple dimensions of Dartmouth’s graduate community. With the Olympics on the horizon, he sees a unique opportunity to celebrate a variety of world traditions and friendly competition. Dan recognizes the successes of recent student events, and hopes to build on that momentum as he starts his work with the Graduate Studies office. “I hope continue Dartmouth traditions while making new ones.”

Dan welcomes any ideas for interesting and engaging graduate events. He can be reached at Daniel.J.Durcan.GR@dartmouth.edu .

Photo and article by Zach Williams 

Video by Zach Williams and Dan Durcan