Archive for August, 2007

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Why diversity matters

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

I fended off a really strong desire last night to go home, and instead spent a while at the spirituality session planned as part of Diversity Week. The topic was prayer and meditation, and the panelists were Cara Geary, Helen Appelberg and Ahmed Ahmed. Each brought a slightly different spiritual perspective and faith tradition to the table, but the more they spoke, the more one realized that what counted, what was inside and what was most meaningful, was the same. I think a big part of being successful at embracing diversity is the act of discovery, of getting to know and understand another person and what they love and fear, cherish and hold dear. Someone recently told me that it’s hard to hate someone when you know their story. I think there’s a lot of truth in that.

Our world, our nation and state are changing in dramatic ways. That change isn’t good or bad, it just is. It’s not going to be stopped: baby boomers will continue to age, the world will continue to get more interconnected, and a wider variation of hues, languages and traditions will continue to flavor our communities. These changes bring both challenges and opportunities, and  how we respond personally and as an institution will determine how successful we will be in the future. That’s why diversity matters. Understanding others is the first step.  

There’s another Diversity Week event tonight, the second part  of the documentary “When the Levees Broke.” I caught the first half of the film earlier this week and it still has me thinking about it. Tonight’s session will be followed by a discussion. Tomorrow I hope to bring my family and maybe a few neighborhood kids to experience Moodafaruka, a world groove band that will be performing in Levin Hall at 7 p.m.. I think it’s going to be a great show, a mix of flamenco, Middle Eastern, Spanish and western motifs. The show is free, part of the classical concert series and will be a great way to wrap up diversity week events and kick off a three-day weekend (Yea!). Details on both events and a link to listen to the band are online…    

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Doing our part to help with the nursing shortage

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

We welcomed a new class of nursing students to campus this week. It’s our largest nursing class ever, 160 students. A number is a simple thing to state, but the hard work and long hours it represents is considerable. Faculty and staff in the SON will be putting in a lot of extra effort to see this group of women and men realize their dreams. Ultimately, society benefits, when our high-caliber UTMB trained nurses enter the workforce and help you, me and a generation of baby boomers who’ll be putting record-setting pressure on the U.S. health care delivery system.   

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Laying a legend to rest

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

I met Jeanette Winfree once, 15 or 16 years ago, before I knew much about UTMB and less about the SAHS. I still remember her. She was nice. Smart and sharp. Down-to-earth and caring. I’d come to learn much later that she was also a trailblazer and leader far beyond the watery boundaries of Galveston Island. Jeanette Winfree was a 1961 UTMB grad and remarkable in many ways. She had a bustling Galveston physical therapy practice, and was one of the first women in the nation to open such a private practice. She recently passed away at age 69, leaving behind some big shoes to fill.  Read more about her life in the Houston Chronicle.

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Bugs in space

Friday, August 24th, 2007

spegis.jpg

No, it’s not the title of a new Muppets movie. And the image above isn’t the name of a space ship. It’s a scan of sticker that made its way to me from Dr. Dave Niesel. “SPEGIS” stands for Streptococcus pneumoniae Expression of Genes in Space. It was/is a project to grow the bacteria in orbit and bring them back home frozen in “zero-g mode” for study. Niesel and his colleagues want to know exactly how Streptococcus pneumoniae changes in microgravity and whether those changes could pose a threat to crew members on a mission with no chance of a quick return to Earth, say on a journey to Mars and back. They’ve been working on this since 1999; it’s one of the first studies of this kind, ever. They celebrated a major milestone last Tuesday when the Endeavor touched down with their project onboard. I watched on C-SPAN; Niesel was at the cape. Read the whole story…

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Good news about Dean

Friday, August 24th, 2007

Along with substantial relief, I always carry a bit of guilt around whenever a hurricane that was a potential threat to us, heads off in another direction and slams someone else. Often the bullseye of these tropical threats gets painted on folks in Mexico. I feared for them in many ways when I heard that Dean struck them as a Cat 5 storm, one of only three to make landfall and the first since Andrew. I read today that—given the potential for death and mayhem—the death toll was fortunately quite low, under 10. The credit for that result was given to good planing and evacuation. (Granted, if you or a loved one was one of those 10, or if you lost your home, that statistic might not mean much.)

I’ve become a believer in a good plan. It helps me sleep better at night. I was impressed by what the state pulled together on Dean, how they managed this, and what they were prepared to do for us at UTMB. I’m keeping my fingers crossed we won’t need to make use of their resources any time soon.

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It may be better to watch this in November

Friday, August 24th, 2007

I understand that come the end of the work day, most of us are ready to head home. But, Monday there’s a good reason to stick around:

As the world watched in horror, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Like many who watched the unfolding drama on television news, director Spike Lee was shocked not only by the scale of the disaster, but by the slow, inept and disorganized response of the emergency and recovery effort. Lee was moved to document this modern American tragedy, a morality play witnessed by people all around the world. The result is WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS. The film is structured in four acts, each dealing with a different aspect of the events that preceded and followed Katrina’s catastrophic passage through New Orleans. 

The film is being shown as part of the Diversity Week 2007. Parts 1 & 2  play Monday in the Levin Hall Dining room from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.; parts 3 & 4 play Thursday at the same time and place. The film is supposed to be pretty powerful and explores some thorny issues. It’ll also remind us that nature’s fury can be pretty harsh.       

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A quick note about comments

Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

The spam finally got the better of me. If I had a penny for every email message offering me a prescription drug to do everything from leveling my moods to elevating my libido (and associated body parts), I’d be able to buy my own pharmaceutical company. I filter and run tools to manage spam, but the dam burst last week and I received a string of about 50 junk messages in a two minute period. I turned off commenting until I can fix whatever happened. I still welcome your questions, comments and feedback. Please send to pvaldes”at”utmb.edu.     

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Friends in high (if not dry) places

Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

I feel bad having moved on (mentally) so quickly from the threat posed by Hurricane Dean. As I write this, the storm is still pounding folks living on the Bay of Campeche, and our biggest “complaint” locally is a lot of sunshine and humidity. Fare thee well, my friends down south. I hope you have a sturdy place to ride this out.  

One of the interesting things that came across my desk during the rush to get ready for Dean was a message from Austin, coordinated through the benefits offices here and at System. They have a long list of people—several hundred names—who have offered to shelter storm evacuees from their sister UT institutions in coastal areas. Opening one’s home to strangers in need is a pretty remarkable act. Maybe next time there’s flooding in the Hill Country, we can offer to return the favor… 

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Dean, Dean, go away

Friday, August 17th, 2007

I’ve thought a lot about hurricanes over the years. I grew up near the coast in Florida so they’ve always been a part of my life. We used to give them women’s names and I can understand how women might not have been thrilled with that. Now guys get their fair share of the credit for catastrophe and calamity. Giving a name to a storm embues it with a personality, and ultimately helps us villify them. 

But storms are just big engines, fueled by the heat they help dissipate. They bring  rain which sometimes is sorely needed, cool things off, scrub the air.  I thought about this as I came over the causeway this morning, and peered out at distant coasts usually obscured by haze and pollution.

Unfortunately, the scrubbing done by a hurricane often takes out more than haze; it takes a few rooftops or worse, and that’s why they’re a threat to us and why many of us along the coast consider them “bad guys.” The hurricane doesn’t care; it’s as indifferent to us as we might be to unseen ants getting hosed off a driveway. 

A few folks have asked me if I know anything special about the storm, if I have any inside information. No one knows what this storm is going to do; I think forecasters will start to get a much better idea this weekend as the steering currents are better established and understood. Then we’ll likely see that cone narrow a bit. Hopefully we’ll be outside it, and stay there.

So Dean, spin your fury but spare us little ants.

See today’s alert messages…

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Happy Employee Service Day!

Wednesday, August 15th, 2007

Thursday is Employee Service Day. I had a chance to sit  in on a rehearsal today and I think folks are going to like it. As usual, there are some great stories of great people, and back for another fantastic command performance as emcees are Trish Wooten and Bob Scott. If you are celebrating a service anniversary, I may have the pleasure of serving you breakfast in the morning; I’ll be the guy juggling hard boiled eggs. Otherwise, I hope to see folks at the Employee Service Day celebration in Levin Hall at 2 p.m. If you can’t make it to Levin Hall but have a conference room nearby with access to campus TV channel 53 or the EHN, tune in that way. (Special thanks to Veronica Pleasant and the AV and video teams for always working so hard behind the scences to make the technology for this possible).

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