Archive for

March, 2023

Dawne Barwin is an administrative assistant in the Department of Education Resources at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Grand Forks. Originally from Hastings, Minn., Dawne attended North Dakota State University (NDSU) and UND. She earned a bachelor’s degree in university studies with concentrations in architecture, sociology, and art history from NDSU. […]

Shanshan Gao is the new grants and contracts financial analyst for the Office of Research Affairs at the UND School of Medicine & Health Science (SMHS). Shanshan’s duties include providing proposal assistance, managing grants and contracts accounting/monitoring/close-out/effort certification, ensuring compliance with regulations, preparing reports, and maintaining the SMHS grants management website, as well as completing […]

UND’s first-of-its-kind Indians Into Medicine program celebrates a half-century of cultivating Indigenous health providers. Collecting her thoughts, Dr. Adriann Begay frowned slightly as she reflected on the challenge of being a health provider for the Navajo Nation in 2020 and 2021. “It was really, really stressful,” she sighed. Recalling the difficulty of those long months, […]

M.D. program grads Allison Clapp and Chris Anderson on how their wedding turned into a scholarship endowment for UND medical students. “I think everyone gave,” reminisced Dr. Allison Clapp of the request that guests make a donation in lieu of gifts for the 2013 wedding in Fargo, N.D., of Clapp and her bridegroom, Dr. Chris […]

Tales from Tioga and Fort Totten about how rural experiences changed the minds of some UND medical students. Medical students are assigned many rotations, or other clinical experiences, throughout their four years of medical school. For those in their first two years, opportunities for short shadowing experiences are available for a glimpse at a community […]

UND’s Emergency Medicine Interest Group takes students to the slopes to learn about emergency care for winter collision injuries. The idea does sound a bit odd for students attending medical school in an astoundingly flat eastern North Dakota city: emergency medical services (EMS) training for downhill skiers suffering injury. But there were second-year UND School […]

The North Dakota Rural Health Value group examines the intricacies of moving from volume-based to value-based care at Critical Access Hospitals. What does the future of healthcare look like? To a group in North Dakota, the future means three things: “better patient care, improved community health, and lower healthcare costs” – otherwise known as the […]

Rural providers look to professional development opportunities to help employees, health facilities, and entire communities. When Corey Ulmer first began working at Ashley Medical Center in 2019, he had high hopes for the future. Although he initially took a position as a Certified Nursing Assistant, Ulmer was ambitious to move quickly up the ranks. “I […]

A collection of Grand Forks agencies partners with the Blue Zones Project to help make Grand Forks one of the healthiest cities in the United States. It does stand out on a list of larger and predominantly coastal communities. But there it is – Grand Forks, North Dakota – alongside Napa, California; Fort Myers, Florida; […]

All faculty, staff, and students are invited to join us virtually for the next Java with Josh on Tuesday, March 21, with their own coffee, tea, or juice! SMHS Dean Dr. Joshua Wynne will answer your questions about SMHS operations, budgets, events, and more. Join us online at 8:30 a.m. on March 21 via Zoom […]

I attended three notable events worth reporting on this past week. The first took place a week ago Saturday when UND hosted the annual Feast of Nations event at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks. Susan and I really enjoy this event, although this was the first time we were able to attend since the […]

Kenneth G. Ruit, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and associate dean for education and faculty affairs, has been named senior associate dean for education, medical accreditation, and faculty affairs at the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS). Among his existing responsibilities, in this new role Ruit will provide leadership, […]

Jonathan Geiger, Ph.D., a Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS), has been named the vice chair (interim) of the SMHS Department of Indigenous Health (IH). Working in coordination and collaboration with Melanie Nadeau, M.P.H., Ph.D., interim chair of the Department of […]

Andrea Guthridge is an instructional designer for Educational Resources at the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences. Andrea is responsible for curriculum and course design, faculty development, teaching and learning best practices, educational research, and the creation and implementation of digital media in the SMHS Recording Studio. Prior to becoming an instructional designer, Andrea […]

Stacey Lanes is an administrative assistant for the American Indian Collaborative Research Network (AICoRN) Practice-based Research Network (PBRN) at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She is responsible for assisting the AICoRN director and co-director, and also helps with the Dakota Community Collaborative on Translational Activity (DaCCoTA). Stacey is from Grand Forks and […]