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Juneteenth is observed on June 19, 2021, to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S. On this day, enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas, were notified they had actually been freed almost 2.5 years earlier.
Members of the College of Medicine were asked a series of questions on how they honor Juneteenth.
Kaylin BateyClass of 2023
Q: When did you first become aware of Juneteenth?
Em Neiport, MA, is project manager at the College of Medicine and staff co-chair of the LGBTQ* Advisory Committee.
Q: What are your roles at the UK College of Medicine?
A: I’m a project manager in the College of Medicine. The projects I’ve worked on are so varied and have allowed me to see just how expansive academic medicine really is. It’s fascinating! The best part of my role is having a chance to work with so many amazing people in all areas of the college.
Meriem Bensalem-Owen, MD, and Brian Gold, PhD, might not have ever had the chance to work on projects together. Dr. Bensalem-Owen is a physician who spends much of her time at the patients’ bedside, reviewing video-EEG monitoring studies, or in clinic treating patients with epilepsy, and Dr. Gold is a researcher who studies age-related brain and cognitive changes in the lab.
But thanks to the University of Kentucky College of Medicine’s Alliance Research Initiative, they have joined forces to better localize, and ultimately treat, epileptic seizures.
In his 40 years at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Michael T. Piascik, PhD, has mentored hundreds of medical students and graduate students while bringing key funding to the college as a researcher to help produce groundbreaking discoveries in pharmacology.
After a long and distinguished career, Dr. Piascik has announced he will retire, effective July 1.
The University of Kentucky’s Center for Health Equity Transformation (CHET) recently announced the recipients of its inaugural Equity Changemaker Award for Graduate Students, Professional Students and Postdoctoral Scholars and Undergraduate Essay Competition. The two new awards honor UK scholars who are advancing health equity.
The University of Kentucky College of Medicine’s 58th commencement ceremony will take place at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 15, 2021.
This will be a ticketed event and has a strict capacity limit, so guests will be unable to attend in-person. However, you may view the ceremony virtually through our YouTube livestream.
Click here to watch the ceremony on the UK College of Medicine’s YouTube page.
When Abi Recktenwald graduates from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, she will officially start a career she never imagined possible thanks to a combination of hard work, skill, and a strong faculty support system.
Going into her third year, Recktenwald had a wide range of interests across medicine and surgery. However, on her pediatric rotation early that year, she encountered a child who needed a complex plastic surgery procedure to cover a skin defect. It was through the experience she realized plastic surgery was her calling.
I am excited to announce that after an extensive national search by a committee of your peers and broad faculty input, Zaki-Udin Hassan, MBBS, MBA, FASA, has officially accepted the role of chair of the department of anesthesiology. This appointment will take effect July 1.
Kristen Fletcher, MD, is an assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics. Her excellence in medical education was recently recognized with a Distinguished Teacher Award during the latest round of Academic Convocation Awards. In the following Q&A, she shares why she loves teaching medical students and how enriching it is to help mold future physicians.
Q: What is your role at the College of Medicine?
On behalf of the Office of Faculty Affairs and Development, the University of Kentucky College of Medicine is pleased to announce that Sally Mathias, MD, and Sylvia Ofei, MD, MPH, have been selected as fellows for the 2021 Bluegrass Higher Education Consortium Academic Leadership Academy (BHEC-ALA).
Dr. Mathias and Dr. Ofei will join a total of 63 faculty members at the University of Kentucky who have previously participated in this regional academic leadership program.
The spring of a medical student’s fourth year marks the final stretch of the long road toward a medical degree. Excitement looms for the opportunities that lie ahead.
This year, however, the end of medical school has been an experience like no other before it. The COVID-19 pandemic forced academic medical centers to adjust their teaching practices. Fourth-year students adapted to incorporate virtual learning, and they could not go through away rotations that offer educational experiences outside of their medical institution.
The UK College of Medicine is thrilled to celebrate our fourth-year students as they learn where they will spend the next phase of their medical careers! Match Day for the Class of 2021 will take place Friday, March 19, 2021, with letter opening beginning at noon.
As a new course director for MD 828: Gastrointestinal System and Nutrition, April Hatcher, PhD, knew she wanted to put a creative spin on how she taught these subjects to her second-year students.
Capitalizing on the expansion of virtual platforms, she and a team of faculty and staff at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine established a unique opportunity for students to apply the knowledge gained from the course.
The UK College of Medicine chapter of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) is commemorating Black History Month by curating educational information about the Black community's impact in medicine.
This week, SNMA conducted a Q&A with Black physician-leaders who either currently work or have worked at the UK College of Medicine to learn their perspectives on medicine and how we can continue to improve.
The University of Kentucky College of Medicine is committed to enhancing its medical school curriculum and ensuring students are introduced to a variety of important topics as they pursue their medical education. It is with these goals in mind that the UK College of Medicine is excited to announce a new curricular initiative.
The University of Kentucky COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Kroger Field began expanding its Saturday hours and increasing vaccination capacity by about 1,000 people a week thanks to volunteers from the University of Kentucky’s health care colleges.
The UK Kroger Field COVID-19 vaccination clinic operates from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays. Overall, UK HealthCare has vaccinated more than 33,797 people including frontline health care workers, first responders, teachers and school personnel and people over age 70.
The University of Kentucky College of Medicine is thrilled to announce the addition of Brian Hamilton, MEd, as its new director of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In this newly established role, Hamilton works under the direction of Stephanie White, MD, MS, to advance the mission of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and help execute the college’s strategic plan. This includes implementing new initiatives and increasing engagement to build a more welcoming, inclusive campus while focusing on efforts for recruiting and retaining diverse faculty, staff, and learners.
In early 2020, shortly after SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, was first detected in Wuhan, China, the public learned of the virus’s devastating consequences and the dangers of its spread. But much remained unknown regarding how to combat it.
Ten months ago, a team of UK researchers joined forces to learn more about the virus that was causing a global pandemic. Since the team’s creation, it has made record progress in enhanced research, the launch of clinical trials, and the development of clinical care approaches for patients.
Ima Ebong, MD, MS, assistant professor in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine Department of Neurology, was recently named one of “1,000 Inspiring Black Scientists in America” in a list published by Cell Mentor, an online resource for researchers.
The list, compiled by The Community of Scholars, recognizes the significant contributions Black scientists have made in research.