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Megan S. Stratton (M.S.O.T.’07/AHP) works at Children’s Hospital in Richmond, Va., and proudly began supervising VCU fieldwork students last year!
Elizabeth Brown Snyder (M.S.’91/AHP) lives in Beaufort, S.C., and is working in home health occupational therapy.
Cynthia Normandia (O.T.D./AHP) returned to the Ukraine this summer to organize the Third International Conference for Children with Disabilities in Kiev. Her travels also included developing collaborative teams of OTs, PTs, speech therapists and special education teacher to assist with conference development and to provide direct training to caregivers at orphanages in Znamenka and Romanov.
Jessica Lynn’s (M.S.O.T.’11/AHP) career as a pediatrics OT was featured in the March 1, 2013, Medical Careers supplement to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Jessica talked about the creativity and need for adaptability inherent in OT as a career choice and noted that one of the most rewarding aspects of her job was “being able to see kids with difficulties in a particular area complete tasks that they never thought they’d be able to do, with smiles on their faces. Another great aspect of the job is being able to work with many other disciplines…to help the child achieve their personal goals.”
Jane Ford (Cert.’46/RPI) remains incredibly busy volunteering in a number of capacities at Lakewood Manor in Richmond, VA. On June 20, 2014, several faculty were treated to a resident production of Beach Haven, an original effort of the Manor Players, for which Jane used her artistic talents for Set Design and Artwork.
Meg Cook (O.T.D.’10/AHP) is currently the assistant dean of the OTA Program at Northern Virginia Community College which entered its first class of 15 students earlier this year. In February, 2013 they co-sponsored the AOTA Fieldwork Educators Certificate Program with Fairfax County Public Schools, a course taught by Lauren Carter-Smith of Sheltering Arms and VCU’s Jayne Shepherd.
Emily Belyea (M.S.’13/AHP) and Fiona Bessey-Bushnell (M.S.O.T.’01/AHP) both appeared in the Spring, 2013 edition of the VCU Allied Health Alumni Magazine. Fiona was quoted as appreciating many aspects of being an occupational therapies, including “the diversity of practice areas, the many opportunities in this expanding market and the main tenets of the profsesion”.
Shawn Utsey, Ph.D., professor of counseling psychology in the Department of Psychology, received a Fulbright Scholar grant which he will use to travel to South Africa in the spring to conduct an oral history project.
Jeff South, associate professor in the School of Mass Communications and director of Capital News Service, received a Fulbright Scholar grant, which he will use to travel to China in the spring to teach journalism and mass communications.
Puru Jena, Ph.D., distinguished professor in the Department of Physics, working with an international research team, discovered a theoretical 3-D form of carbon that is metallic under ambient temperature and pressure. The findings, which may significantly advance carbon science, were published online in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
