Author Archives: Eddie

CASA Health and Wellness Week

The College of Applied Sciences and Arts (CASA) held its first annual, campus-wide, Health and Wellness Week, Nov. 13-17, 2017. “Health and Wellness week was designed to spread and increase awareness to not only CASA students but students, staff and administration across the university,” says Dr.  Mary Schutten, Dean, CASA.

Last year, the eleven chairs and directors wrote a white paper on how the CASA departments and schools were interconnected and the idea for the CASA Health and Wellness Week was born. Chaired by Alice Hines, Associate Dean, CASA’s Health and Wellness Week provided numerous health activities for faculty, staff and administrators. “We provided something for everyone,” says Dr. Hines.

“This week would not have been possible without all the planning and executing from our Committee,” says Dr. Hines. “Not to mention the expert planning by Eddie Jimenez of the CASA Dean’s Office.”

The Health and Wellness Committee included: B.J. Grosvenor, Joshua Baur, and Monica Allen, all From the Department of Health Science & Recreation; Halima Kazem, School of Journalism and Mass Communications; Jessica Chin, Department of Kinesiology; Jamie Kubota, Department of Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging; Deepika Goyal, The Valley Foundation School of Nursing; Gigi Smith, Occupational Therapy; and Laurie Morgan, Student Wellness Center.

The promotions and public relations activities were led by students from the Dwight Bentel & Hall Communications Agency which included Aubriana Muna, Allison Covey, Miquel Flaquer and Kylee Valdez.

“Overall, we are so proud of CASA’s Health and Wellness Committee who coordinated all of the activities,” says Dr. Hines. “It was an excellent opportunity for SJSU students, faculty, and staff to learn more about ways to promote health and wellness, individually and as a community.”

Dr. Ted Butryn Recognized as North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Fellow

Dr. Ted Butryn, Kinesiology, was recognized as a member of the inaugural class of 26 Research Fellows, representing 6 countries, for the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

The NASSS Research Fellow is awarded to those NASSS members that have had a consistently productive record of published scholarship and academic presentations over the balance of their career. Dr. Butryn has published over 20 refereed articles, including four in the Sociology of Sport Journal, which is one of the top journals in the field. Along with numerous published book chapters, he has presented over 50 juried presentations at various academic conferences.

Congratulations Dr. Butryn on this prestigious recognition and accomplishment.

Occupational Therapy Faculty and Students Represent SJSU at the Occupational Therapy Association of California Professional Conference

SJSU OT graduate students and the many lawmakers who attended Advocacy Day at the OTAC conference. The OT graduates wore blue and gold flowers so lawmakers would know they are students.

SJSU Occupational Therapy (OT) faculty and graduate students attended the Occupational Therapy Association of California (OTAC) state professional conference in October, 2017. 26 graduate OT students had research projects accepted for either poster or podium presentations where all proposals are peer-reviewed. The conference had more than 1,000 attendees and SJSU had the largest group of students attending the conference.

The SJSU OT faculty are leaders in OTAC with Associate Professor Gigi Smith serving as the Secretary of OTAC, Lecturer Alison George serving as the Co-Chair of the Student Leadership Committee, and Lecturer Brittney Weinerth serving as Region 3 Director. Additionally, at the OTAC conference the California Foundation of Occupational Therapy (CFOT) held the annual luncheon to award scholarships and grants. 4 SJSU graduate OT students received scholarships from CFOT. Professor Winifred Schultz-Krohn was recognized for her pro bono work for the past 18 years at a homeless shelter and received the CFOT Humanitarian Award.

Over 60 current graduate OT students attended the Advocacy Day held during the OTAC conference where they met with state legislators and discussed issues of access for all Californians to Occupational Therapy services and the benefits in developing or restoring functional abilities for those persons who have various conditions ranging from physical disabilities, mental health issues, or developmental delays. There were several poster sessions and three podium presentations provided by SJSU OT faculty.

At this conference, SJSU’s OT students reached the Silver Level of membership in the OTAC. Many private schools require students to join the association but SJSU does not require students to be a member of the state professional association. However, they are encouraged to join and SJSU’s OT program has over 90% of graduate students as members of OTAC.

The SJSU OT faculty is very proud of the accomplishments of both students and faculty, particularly with the collaborative research projects that have been accepted at peer-reviewed conferences.

Health Science & Recreation Associate Professor Miranda Worthen Speaks at the Fall University Scholar Series

Dr. Miranda Worthen, Associate Professor in the Department of Health Science and Recreation, gave a presentation titled Risk and Protective Factors for Anger and Violent Behavior in U.S. Military Service Members at the Fall University Scholar Series.

Over 2.5 million service members have been deployed since September 11, 2001, and the potential for problems with anger and violence to hamper their reintegration into civilian life has prompted considerable attention in the media. However, the pathways by which war-time experience affects anger and violent behavior of service members is not well understood. In addition, anger issues may differ for the 16% of service members who are women, but this possibility has not been explored in the research literature.

Dr. Worthen’s research used both qualitative and quantitative methods. A qualitative study examined veterans’ perceptions of the causes and consequences of anger on their lives and how those perceptions differed by gender. A quantitative study examined the prevalence of anger problems and violence by gender and other demographics, and the association between anger, violence and various risk and protective factors.

Findings from the qualitative study revealed that veterans felt their anger affected their ability to maintain relationships and employment, and to stay in school. Findings from the quantitative study showed that the high prevalence of anger and low prevalence of violence found in military service members did not differ by most demographics including gender. However, service members were more likely to exhibit anger and violence when they had been deployed multiple times or when they had PTSD, and less likely to exhibit anger and violence when they had social support.

Of particular interest, Dr. Worthen found that the relationship between PTSD severity and anger differed by gender: Men showed a stronger correlation between PTSD and anger when they had been deployed than when they had not, while women showed the opposite – a stronger correlation between PTSD and anger when they had not been deployed over when they had. These findings for women do not support either of the prevalent theories about the cause of the relationship between war time experiences and anger or violence, and indicate the need for more research examining gender differences in studies of veterans, war time experiences, and anger and violence.

You can learn more about Dr. Worthen’s research on her website on ScholarWorks, and see upcoming talks at the series on the University Scholar Series website.

School of Social Work Professor Receives Grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

Professor Laurie Drabble, School of Social Work, recently received a $175,000 grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to explore the positive impact of the legal recognition of same-sex marriage on sexual minority women’s health. Previous research has found strong associations between supportive policies, such as marriage recognition, and improved health outcomes among sexual minorities, however, gaps in understanding specific psycho-social factors remain.

In collaboration with Dr. Karen Trocki, Alcohol Research Group, the research team expects that their study will substantially move forward the fields of women’s health and substance use, specifically adding to the knowledge of how individual, interpersonal, and societal factors contribute to health disparities among women, including differences by race/ethnicity and sexual identity.

Such knowledge will support the development of culturally appropriate prevention and intervention strategies, as well as policies to reduce health disparities among women.

The team will draw on minority stress, intersectionality, and social-ecological frameworks and a mixed-methods research design to identify and assess factors that underlie the effect of marriage recognition on health and to examine relationships between these factors and hazardous drinking, depression, and poor general health. The project runs from September 2017 to May 2019.