"School of Medicine" Archive

Updates from HR: COVID-19 vaccines, ResilientWake, TEDxWake, Fit for Business 5K

COVID-19 update

Beginning today, anyone 16 years or older is now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccination in North Carolina. You must be at least 18-years-old to receive the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccines and at least 16-years-old to receive the Pfizer vaccine. The setting sun lights up a cherry tree outside the library and a student sits studying at a picnic table

Mass vaccination clinic April 10: A mass vaccination clinic will be held at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds on April 10, offering Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen single-dose vaccine. The University will provide shuttles to the Fairgrounds every 30 minutes starting at 8:30 a.m. and running until 5 p.m. Shuttles will pick up and drop off in front of the ZSR Library. Faculty, staff and students who have not been vaccinated are encouraged to register.

Second dose clinics: Throughout April, the University will be offering second dose clinics for those who received their first vaccine dose at an on-campus clinic in March. If you are scheduled to receive your second dose at an on-campus clinic but are unsure of your appointment date or time, please contact the Faculty and Staff Clinic at 743.223.4217.

ResilientWake: Thursdays in April

Join the Office of Wellbeing for their faculty and staff ResilientWake Workshop, a four-part series to learn how to develop and implement resilience skills into everyday life.

Register » pdc.wfu.edu

TEDxWake: April 10

The 2021 TEDxWake theme is “Spill The Tea,” which asks the audience to lean in, open their ears and find inspiration wherever it may land. This hybrid event is open to the general public virtually and to WFU students, faculty, and staff on Manchester plaza and free of charge.

Register » go.wfu.edu/spillthetea

Fit for Business 5K: April 12-18 

The annual Fit for Business 5K will be held virtually this year and benefit the Chaplain’s Emergency Fund. Faculty and staff are encouraged to register as your gift of any amount counts toward your race registration.

Register » crowdfund.wfu.edu

New Staff Orientation: April 13

Newly hired University staff are invited to register for New Staff Orientation, which provides important information as you join the Wake Forest community.

Register » pdc.wfu.edu

School of Medicine in Charlotte

ICYMI: Leaders from Atrium Health, Wake Forest Baptist Health and Wake Forest University announced a 20-acre site in midtown Charlotte has been chosen for WFU’s second School of Medicine campus.

Read more » news.wfu.edu.

Christina Soriano appointed inaugural Administrative Fellow

This is a guest post from the Office of the Provost:

Christina Soriano

Christina Soriano, director of dance and associate professor of dance, has been appointed as the inaugural Administrative Fellow in the Office of the Provost.

As Administrative Fellow, Soriano will work with colleagues across the university to enhance visibility of the arts at and beyond Wake Forest, and help forge interdisciplinary connections across the arts and other Wake Forest schools and departments.  “Professor Soriano is an ideal choice as our first Administrative Fellow,” said Provost Rogan Kersh, “given her laudable work with faculty and staff across Wake Forest, as well as her extensive following among students.  She has also originated pathbreaking programs integrating dance and health in the Winston-Salem community, epitomizing our expanding engagement with our surrounding communities.”

“I am looking forward to working with the Provost’s team to help boost the profile of the arts at Wake Forest,” Soriano notes, “as well as on projects to enhance intellectual culture at the university more generally.  I am also eager to serve as a liaison for faculty colleagues with the Provost’s Office.”

Soriano’s interdisciplinary work includes collaborations with faculty across arts departments, biochemistry, and the School of Medicine. She is co-organizing a third university-wide conference on “Aging Re-Imagined,” and last month was awarded a substantial NIH grant for research carried out jointly with Dr. Christina Hugenschmidt of the Wake Forest School of Medicine.

Additional Administrative Fellows, drawn from across Wake Forest’s faculty, are expected to be appointed in future years, both in the Provost’s Office and those of other administrative leaders.  Much as our decade-old Wake Forest Fellows program brings the perspective and dedication of outstanding recent graduates to university administration, the Administrative Fellows program will engage faculty members for a year in leadership councils, new and existing academic initiatives, and other core aspects of advancing our mission and priorities.

Faculty Senate adopts resolution opposing House Bill 2

The Faculty Senate of Wake Forest has recently voted to adopt the following resolution relating to House Bill 2 (HB2):

“The Faculty Senate of Wake Forest University opposes North Carolina House Bill 2, enacted on March 23, 2016, which is contrary to our University-wide commitment to diversity and inclusion. The law specifically prevents cities from legally protecting sexual and gender minorities from discrimination, while also preventing transgender people from accessing public restrooms safely. The Senate believes that the bill will negatively affect our current LGBTQ faculty, administrators, staff and students and their friends and family and may negatively affect recruitment of faculty, administrators, staff and students. In addition, as the law prohibits K-12 public schools and publicly-funded universities and colleges in North Carolina from having multi-stall, multi-sex bathrooms, it could jeopardize federal funding for the schools attended by many of our family members, friends and neighbors. Thus, we urge our local government officials to take an active stand against the law, and we urge the North Carolina General Assembly and the Governor to repeal House Bill 2.”

The Faculty Senate represents faculty from the entire University: the undergraduate College, the School of Business, the School of Law, the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Divinity and the Z. Smith Reynolds Library.

The resolution is one of many efforts, including a similar resolution passed by faculty in the undergraduate College last month, to underscore inclusive values at Wake Forest.

Campus can support DonorsChoose.org #BestSchoolDay

This is a guest post from the University’s Leadership Project:

Too many students in K-12 classrooms don’t have the resources they need. Students can’t dream big when classrooms lack books, microscopes and tablets — or even paper, pencils and paste.

Now you can make a difference through Wake Forest’s #BestSchoolDay.

On March 29 faculty, staff and students can support a K-12 classroom by picking up a free $25 DonorsChoose.org gift card in one of several locations around campus and redeeming it toward a project of their choice. Participants are only able to redeem one gift card. Our goal is to have all 1,000 gift cards picked up on March 29 and redeemed on the same day. Gift cards will be available for pick up at most locations from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.:

  • Outside the main entrance of the Fresh Food Company (The Pit),
  • At the Spirit Walk in between Tribble Hall and Benson Center,
  • At Wake Forest University Law Commons,
  • In the faculty lounge in the School of Divinity (11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. only),
  • In the Founders Day Living Room at the School of Business
  • At the Luter Hall Block Party for First-year Students (5 p.m. – 7 p.m. only)

You can choose from among hundreds of projects nationwide, although you are encouraged to support a local teacher in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. Donate to one project or split your $25 among several projects.

#BestSchoolDay at Wake Forest is being held in conjunction with the University’s Leadership Project, which is hosting Charles Best, CEO of DonorsChoose.org on Tuesday, April 5, at 6 p.m. in Broyhill Auditorium in Farrell Hall.

DonorsChoose.org provides a simple way to address educational inequity. In Forsyth County so far this academic year, 174 projects, including hands-on science labs, vocabulary enrichment tools and playground improvements for children with special needs, have been funded — supporting more than 13,500 students. In the local school system, nearly 450 teachers have raised funds for more than 1,000 projects since 2003.

Please help make Wake Forest’s #BestSchoolDay a community success by picking up and redeeming a $25 gift card on March 29.

For questions or more information on gift card distribution, contact Matt Williams at williamj@wfu.edu.

Categories: Guest Post

Ebola symposium sheds light, shares faculty expertise

pat

The symposium, Ebola: At Home and Abroad, held Feb. 12-13 demonstrated the importance of a liberal arts education. Even though Ebola is a virus, attendees learned that to effectively respond to the outbreak requires knowledge of history, economics, law, bioethics, as well as biology, medicine and other disciplines. Prior to the symposium, associate teaching professor Pat Lord’s virology students studied the Ebola virus to prepare background knowledge and a quiz made available online.

On the first night of the symposium, with more than 125 undergraduate, graduate, and medical students, professors, staff, and community members present, Assistant Professor of History Nate Plageman began by challenging everyone to stop thinking of Africa as “one-dimensional.” He highlighted assumptions about race that permeated Ebola news coverage.

Read more

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