Telling our stories

More than 300 line up for good health, good food

(Aug. 25, 2008) Sixty students from Anschutz Medical Campus, including doctors, receptionists and cooks, hosted the inaugural health fair, community barbecue and voter registration drive at the North Aurora Family Health Service clinic Saturday, Aug. 23. The UC Denver students co-hosted the health fair with the Metro Community Provider Network. Five private practice physicians also donated their time to more than 300 patients, some patients showing up as early as 6 a.m. to get in line.

PhotoL Darrius Gaw, 8, is checked over by Andrew Brookens, MS, a asecond year medical student.

Convocation not exactly a walk in the park, but Event Center will do

 (Aug. 21, 2008) The torrential downpour only served to whet the appetite of more than 160 new UC Denver students at the fourth annual New Student Convocation.  The freshmen and transfer students were treated to barbecue and all the fixings as they got to know student government and student services folks and, most importantly, each other.

“It went very well considering we had to switch to Plan B at 7 in the morning,” explains Tom Sheridan, assistant director for student life, student activities. Convocation was initially scheduled at 9th Street Park, and although the rain eliminated that option, it did not dampen the resolve of the Office of Student Life officials who hosted the event.

“It’s important to have this event in the first week to make the students feel like a part of a community; to build community,” Sheridan stressed.

Samantha Ortiz-Shriver, dean of students, emceed the event. Speakers included Sheridan, John Bryant, Student Government Association president, and Assistant Vice Chancellor John Lanning.

Photo: John Bryant, SGA president and a senior in business marketing, introduces himself to more than 160 new students at convocation.

Classes begin at Colorado’s only School of Public Health

(Aug. 22, 2008) The first day of classes at the new Colorado School of Public Health launched Monday, Aug. 25, at Anschutz Medical Campus. Ninety-five 95 new students joined approximately 130 returning students who were already enrolled in programs that were a part of the former Department of Preventive Medicine & Biometrics in the UC Denver School of Medicine.

Residency programs began July 1 and include four Preventive Medicine residents and three Occupational Medicine residents. Student numbers include: 53 new Masters of Public Health (MPH) students; 35 Public Health Certificate students; two PhD-Biostatistics Program students; two MS-Biostatistics Program students; and three PhD-Epidemiology Program students.

The Colorado School of Public Health is a collaboration of three of Colorado’s public universities: the University of Colorado Denver (lead institution), Colorado State University and the University of Northern Colorado.

As the first classes commence, the Colorado School of Public Health will enable more students to receive public health training, speed interdisciplinary research development and provide access to training and research funds only available to accredited schools of public health.     

Check out the CSPH website at http://publichealth.ucdenver.edu to find out more. Photo: The first class of the Colorado School of Public Health get to know each other at an Aug. 21 orientation.

Impact of Democrats' pending arrival already being seen

(Aug. 18, 2008) The Democratic National Convention (DNC) begins next week at Denver's Pepsi Center but activites, including security precautions, related to this mega event already are obvious throughout the Denver Metro Area. In recent days, U.S. Postal Service drop boxes have been removed from the Auraria Campus and near the entrance to UC Denver's Lawrence Street Center. We expect the boxes will be reinstalled after the convention.

Denver area residents also have been notified of plans to shutdown I-25 between I-70 and 6th Avenue on Thursday evening at 5:30 p.m. in preparation for Barak Obama's anticipated nomination acceptance speech at Invesco Field. As these and other details are available, we are posting the information and many helpful links to the details about the DNC on the UC Denver website to help you stay informed.

With the convention just days off, it is important for our employees who anticipate working in our downtown facilities to review the online information. It is essential that all employees who will be working downtown have a current University ID. Uniformed police and security personnel will require you to display your current valid ID. Remember, you only have until Friday, Aug. 22 to obtain the proper ID.

UC Denver faculty and staff at all of our locations also must have current IDs. Please see more in the DNC security plan for Anschutz Medical Campus and 9th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard (or scroll to Q-10).

Staff who normally work at our Downtown Campus but who will be at different locations and downtown faculty who will be away during the week are encouraged to consider recording an out-of-office message. Here's a draft to consider:

This is the office of (your name). Classes are not in session at the University of Colorado Denver Downtown Campus Aug. 23-29, 2008, due to the Democratic National Convention. However, business functions and other UC Denver locations are operating on normal schedules. If you are trying to reach a UC Denver administrative office, please call 720-848-0000 to ask for the office or individual you are trying to reach. Otherwise, please leave a message so that I can return your call. Thank you.

A cold, creamy wonderful way to celebrate a partnership

(Aug. 18, 2008) Montview and Paris elementary school students celebrated a newly formed partnership between the Aurora Public Schools, University of Colorado Hospital, Children’s Hospital and the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority on Sunday, Aug. 10.

Chancellor M. Roy Wilson spoke at the event as dozens of students and parents received school supplies from the hosts and designed their own treats at General’s Park on the Anschutz Medical Campus.

Open to all, Mini Med School begins Sept. 17

The course begins Wednesday Sept. 17, 2008, and continues through Nov. 12, each Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. in the Phipps IMAX Theatre at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd., Denver. There will be no class on Oct. 8. For those outside of the Denver area, the course will be telecast live to many sites around Colorado, including Aurora and Boulder. Registration is free, but required. Seating is limited. To register for classes, or for more information, go online to http://www.uchsc.edu/minimed/ or call 303-493-8312.

Starz Green Room to feature Liban films

(Aug. 18, 2008) Two films by UC Denver Assistant Professor David Liban of the College of Arts & Media are on the Starz FilmCenter Green Room program during the Democratic National Convention beginning next week. The Starz Film Center is located in the Tivoli on the Auraria Campus. Screenings of Carhenge and The Ghosts of Elitch Theatre are set for

• Saturday, Aug. 23 at 11 a.m.
• Sunday, Aug. 24 at 4 p.m.
• Monday, Aug. 25 at 2:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, Aug. 27 at 5:30 p.m.
• Thursday, Aug. 28 at 5:30 p.m.

Check the Event Guide section at http://www.starzgreenroom.com./ for details of these and the other featured films.

'Origin'-al art work introduced at Anschutz

(Aug. 11, 2008) Origin by Kendra Fleishman was the first piece of artwork installed at Anschutz Medical Center. The featured artists were picked by team on campus for Art in Public Places, part of Colorado Council for the Arts. The next kinetic sculpture piece, by Tim Prentice, will be installed this Thursday and Friday.

Anschutz students to host inaugural health fair

(Aug. 5, 2008) Students of the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus will host a health fair and community barbecue at the North Aurora Family Health Service (NAFHS) clinic on Saturday, Aug. 23. NAFHS is part of the Metro Community Provider Network (MCPN) system and is located at 3292 N. Peoria St. in Aurora. The health fair is open to the public from 8 a.m.-noon. MCPN providers and university students of various UC Denver health profession schools will staff the clinic. 

The health fair will offer a vaccination clinic, sports physical services, a dental clinic, Medicaid enrollment clinic, a student-run health kit distribution and a voter registration drive. The community barbecue follows at 11:30 a.m.

Students in the Colorado Medical Society Medical Student Component (CMS-MSC) hope to increase student awareness of health access and advocacy issues and to engage the build closer ties with the new campus community in Aurora.  The conference website is http://cms-mss.org/hac2008.html.  

Anne Warhover, president and CEO of The Colorado Health Foundation, will deliver the keynote address on this year’s theme of “Advocacy, Service and the Healthcare Professional's Role,” at 1 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22, in the Education 2 North Building, Room 2104 (second floor, near the bridge) on the Anschutz Medical Campus. The Colorado Health Foundation, with assets totaling $1 billion, serves the community through grants and initiatives, medical education programs and health policy work. 

College of Arts & Media students enliven ‘Celebrate 1908’ DNC centennial

(July 31, 2008) Associate professor Laura Cuetara and UC Denver’s Department of Theatre, Film and Video Production in the College of Arts and Media performed Mayor Speer’s 1908 Convention Saturday, July 26, as part of "Celebrate 1908."

Auraria Casa Mayan Heritage (ACMH), a nonprofit organization, presented the multi-media event that highlighted the 100th anniversary of the Democratic National Convention that was held in Denver in 1908. El Centro Su Teatro and 9NEWS are the event sponsors.

Viewed as a kick-off to this summer’s Democratic National Convention, Celebrate 1908 offered the unique opportunity to compare and contrast this year’s convention with the one held in Denver 100 years ago. In addition to the play, the extravaganza featured exhibits, lectures, walking tours, music and much more.

Photo: CAM students Maggie Blumer, Terry Burnsed (faculty), Casandra Corrales and Jerrell Evans perform Mayor Speer’s 1908 Convention.

UC Denver team soars at Dragon Races

(July 28, 2008) UC Denver's student Dragon Boat Festival team -- Powered by Chopstixs -- zoomed across Sloan's Lake on July 27 only missing a medal by a mere .15 of a second. The team was sponsored by the Asian American Equal Opportunity Program.

Anschutz honors its best and most dedicated employees

(July 21, 2008) Anschutz Medical Center celebrated the year’s top employees and honored staff who have dedicated many years of service to the university.

Chancellor M. Roy Wilson gave introductions and addressed the honorees at the annual awards ceremony, held Friday, July 18, at the Doubletree Hotel in Denver.

Assistant Vice Chancellor of Human Resources Kevin Jacobs recognized about 150 employees for five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 years of service, as well as the retirees.

Jacobs and Lisa Province, staff council president, then recognized the “Employees of the Month” for 2007.

Photo: Ron Washington, right, who has been with facilities operations for 15 years, hugs his boss, Dave Turnquist, at the awards ceremony.

DPS teachers gain hands-on experience in medical research

(July 21, 2008) The University of Colorado Denver’s research faculty on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora recently hosted a six-week summer internship for eight Denver Public School science teachers. Working with graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, teachers designed and carried out a science research project in which they learned about cancer cells, drug therapies and brain function in sensory reactions.

The projects helped increase the scientific knowledge base of the participating teachers while providing hands-on experience in inquiry-based research. Teachers learned about the host-pathogen interactions of viruses, signals that control normal development but also the growth of cancer cells, drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease, and how taste and smell information from the tongue and nose are processed by the brain.

Funding for the 30-hour a week internship was provided by a Colorado Department of Education grant that partners Denver Public Schools with the UC Denver School of Education and Human Development in Denver and the UC Denver Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.

Photo: Victoria Brown, 7th grade science and biology teacher at the Denver School of the Arts, is shown here with the poster presentation of her project.

Jacobs chosen assistant vice chancellor of HR

(July 18, 2008) Kevin Jacobs has been chosen as assistant vice chancellor for Human Resources. Jacobs, who has been serving as interim AVC, was previously director of human resources and leads a staff of 24.

Jacobs worked on the Boulder campus for seven years before moving to the health sciences campus prior to consolidation. He’s been with UC Denver eight years. Before coming to the University of Colorado, he worked at the state Department of Personnel and was the HR director at the state Department of Education.

In the coming year as AVC, Jacobs plans to further establish the university as an employer of choice for prospective talent through improved recruitment, outreach and the inaugural search fair this fall.

Other goals include:

• Reducing steps and paper required for job description and performance management documentation processes.
• Assisting departments with staffing, recruitment and succession planning to meet their specific needs