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.

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.

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.

Even though in existence since the late 1980s, many often ask, “What is the Cal Pro NET Center?” In simplest terms, it is a yearly grant awarded to the Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging (NuFS/PKG) Department. This grant provides training for K-12 school food service directors throughout California. Funded by the California Department of Education (CDE), it is administered by the San José State University Research Foundation (SJSURF).

In 1989, a professional development task force convened to discuss the need for more formalized training for school food service personnel. The task force, headed by Violet Roefs, California Department of Education and Dr. Lucy McProud former Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging Department Chair, outlined drafts of educational competency courses. The program was named The Project Management Center for Child Nutrition. The following year, the first course Managing Effective Accountability Practices was offered.

In 1992, Julie Dutcher, a former Child Nutrition Consultant was hired as the project director. The budget that year was $25,000 and Dutcher implemented a 30-hour, 2-unit course in teaching methodology integrated with nutrition and food service management lessons. The course, Effective Teaching Strategies proved very successful and the Center was launched.

Over the next three years, the yearly budget was in the $100,000 to $200,000 range and the list of courses grew. The flagship course offered by Cal Pro NET, the Child Nutrition Program Administration (CNPA), also known as the New Director’s Course was introduced at this time. The first session was a 10-hour course held at San José State with about 20 directors. This past summer 2017, three sessions of this course were offered, educating 122 food service directors.

Changes in staff occurred in 1994 when Barbara Gordon took over as contract coordinator and Sherry Norwood started in 1997 as the Child Nutrition Education Specialist. Gordon changed the name to the California Professional Nutrition Education Training Center during this time to reflect the work that was being done to train those in child nutrition. Technology was advancing during this period and teleconferences were offered to school nutrition personnel on Food-Based Menu Planning, Food Safety (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points or HACCP), Communicating with School Officials, and Achieving Financial Goals.

In 1998, Joan Giampaoli became Project Coordinator. Giampaoli continued to update and expand CNPA and Effective Teaching Strategies courses. During the 2000 contract year, Giampaoli and Norwood developed and offered 12 one-day courses throughout the state on the new US Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Sandy Queen served as Project Coordinator from 2001 to 2007. Federal regulations pertaining to school meals and the intent to serve meals that were more nutritious called for increased training. Courses developed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption were introduced while continuing to offer CNPA, Food Safety workshops, and Effective Teaching Strategies. In 2006, the USDA required an annual mandatory training of all school districts and Residential Care Facilities offering school meals. Cal Pro NET was charged with this task to monitor training for over 1,300 agencies.

Today, Linda Sweeney is the coordinator for the grant. Much has changed, but the training center at San José State University has stayed committed to providing the best in training to school service directors. The training center currently offers online training yearly for the annual training and the Summer Food Service Program sponsors. The training center’s website features an Outreach Toolkit to help districts market their meals and promote school meals in a positive light. In 2014, a School Nutrition Program Primer was introduced that gives an overview of all of the requirements and regulations needed to run a successful program as well as resources and links to more information. The program also provides a two-day in-person Financial Management course. Still in operation and more popular than ever is the CNPA or New Director’s course. This course uses both the regulatory expertise of the CDE staff and the practical application from experienced food services directors to teach participants. Over the years, we have trained over one thousand new directors.

The grant has been guided by many dedicated personnel over the past 28 years and grown to provide a valuable service for food service directors throughout the state. The Cal Pro NET Center at SJSU is seen as a valuable resource to school districts throughout the state. Nearly $3.9 million dollars have been provided to the SJSURF from the CDE for professional training throughout the years.