With a goal of enhancing the business of health care in northwest Ohio and beyond, The University ofToledo has established the School of Healthcare Business Innovation and Excellence.

“Tremendous advances in health care have been achieved through a variety of activities, such as newmedications, breakthrough surgical procedures, medical devices, high-tech diagnostic equipment, innovative treatments, and progressive approaches to delivering care,” said Dr. David Dobrzykowski, director of the school. “There are additional opportunities to significantly improve the efficiency, effectiveness and quality of health care by understanding and improving thebusiness aspects of health care. We can further enhance the quality of health care while eliminating waste, increasing productivity and reducing costs.”

The UT College of Business and Innovation (COBI) and the College of Medicine and Life Sciences have taken a leadership role in establishing the new school.

“Utilizing interdisciplinary expertise from a variety of business fields, including finance, management, information technology, operations management, processimprovement, marketing and more, the faculty of the UT College of Business are ready to help you and your medical team enhance your operations and achieveyour business goals,” explained Dr. Thomas Sharkey, interim dean of the College of Business and Innovation.

“Through research, community engagement and educational endeavors, this school serves as a premier resource for directly impacting quality health-care delivery,” he added.

Dr. Jeffrey P. Gold, dean of the College of Medicine and Life Sciences, said the college’s participation in establishing and supporting the School of Healthcare Business Innovation and Excellence is a natural extension of its longstanding mission.

“The UT College of Medicine and Life Sciences is a world-class educational institution for those interested in becoming physicians. We do an excellent job providing students with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to practice medicine in a wide diversity of communities. It is becoming increasingly important that that education must include components of the business of health care,” Gold said. “Working with the UT College of Business and Innovation, we believe we can help prepare tomorrow’s physicians to best serve their patients, not only by providing the best medical care, but by practicing optimal business practices.”

“The School of Healthcare Business Innovation and Excellence is also for administrators, nurses, therapists, professionals working in hospitals, and nonprofit organizations, and others working in the health-care field,” Gold added. “We know that we can play a pivotal role in enhancing care, not just in northwest Ohio, but throughout the United States and beyond.”

Gold also expressed his gratitude to Dr. Tom Gutteridge, senior vice provost and dean of academic administration, for his work on the school’s creation while Gutteridge was dean of COBI.

As the school expands, other UT colleges and programs may become involved; these may include the College of Business and Innovation’s Executive Center for Global Competitiveness, UT Medical Center, Judith Herb College of Education and Health Sciences and Human Service, and the colleges of Engineering, Law, Nursing, and Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

“Establishing the School of Healthcare Business Innovation and Excellence is a timely and relevant step for The University of Toledo,” noted UT President Lloyd Jacobs. “The health-care arena is experiencing tremendous change on many fronts, and it is appropriate that UT brings its information and expertise into the community to benefit all involved. Collaborative efforts with health-care providers, business leaders, government policy makers and others will produce breakthrough enhancements that increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and, ultimately, provide better, more patient-centered care.

“Furthermore, the school will partner with businesses and organizations beyond the University, such as health-care providers, labor unions, governments, business and economic development agencies, and insurance providers, which will provide direction for educational, research and outreach programs,” Jacobs added.

A variety of undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs focused on skill development at the intersection of health care and business are available through the school. Contact Dobrzykowski at 419.530.2342.

The 2012 S. Amjad Hussain Visiting Lecture in the History of Medicine and Surgery will bring to life the legacy of a man who has a rich history of service to his community, the United States and beyond.

The University of Toledo will celebrate the life of Paul Block Jr., former publisher of The Blade, with “A Confluence of Science, Journalism and Civic Leadership” this evening Wednesday, Oct. 31, at 5 p.m. in Health Education Building Room 110 on Health Science Campus.

Dr. Maurice Manning, Distinguished University Professor of Biochemistry and Cancer, will share the story and legacy of Block. He will discuss Block’s accomplishments and the significant role he played in the development of Toledo and northwest Ohio, helping to found the Medical College of Ohio. MCO later became the Medical University of Ohio and went on to merge with The University of Toledo in 2006. An accomplished journalist and chemist, Block was instrumental in shaping perceptions of the region and helping it flourish.

“Through all of his successes, Mr. Block was known to be a modest man,” said Hussain. “It is with great honor that The University of Toledo is able to remember and embrace Mr. Block’s fascinating legacy. The lecture series always touches on an important component of the history of science and medicine, and I couldn’t think of anyone who represents it better than Mr. Block.”

This is part of the fourth annual lecture created in honor of Hussain, professor emeritus of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, member of the UT Board of Trustees, and columnist for The Blade. The series is designed to highlight Hussain’s deep interest in many diverse fields, including the history of medicine.

For more information on the free public event, contact Amelia Acuna at 419.530.5874 or amelia.acuna@utoledo.edu.

Media Coverage
The Blade (Nov. 1, 2012)

Students and faculty soon will get an outside-the-box narrative about the Indian-Pakistani conflict from a respected scholar of both countries’ history.

Dr. Ayesha Jalal, the Mary Richardson Professor of History at Tufts University, will give a talk titled “The Pity of Partition: The Personal and Political Across the India-Pakistan Divide” Friday, Nov. 2, at 7 p.m. in Libby Hall.

The free, public event will last about two hours and be followed by a question-and-answer session.

“The personal life, family history and short stories of renowned Urdu litterateur Saadat Hasan Manto will serve as a prism to explore the human dimension of the partition of India and the post-colonial moment in Pakistan,” Jalal said. “By probing the creative tension between fictional and historical narratives, the lecture will analyze the post-colonial transition, the advent of the Cold War in South Asia, and the impact on Pakistan and its relations with India.”

Jalal is the author of seven major publications and is working on four others, including Battle for Pakistan. She has been a professor at Tufts University since 1999 and holds a joint appointment in the History Department and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

“She is going to discuss the history of Pakistan and whether creating the nation of Pakistan was actually the goal of the founder of Pakistan,” said Dr. Renee Heberle, UT associate professor of political science. “The implications of this historical argument will be discussed at length. She will put on display how she uses the best of both history and political science to get at these difficult questions. We welcome everyone to this important discussion.”

The lecture is sponsored by the Office of the President, and the College of Languages, Literature and Social

Sciences and its School of Interdisciplinary Studies. Jalal’s talk is the inaugural lecture for interdisciplinary studies.

New international, national and state laws impacting Great Lakes water quality and quantity will be the subjects of the 12th annual Great Lakes Water Conference Friday, Nov. 2, at The University of Toledo College of Law.

The free, public conference titled “New Laws Impacting Water Quality and Quantity” will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the recently renovated McQuade Law Center Auditorium.

Three panels of experts will discuss the newly amended Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, mercury pollution and water use legislation spawned by the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact. Tom Henry, award-winning environmental writer for The Blade, will be the keynote speaker.

“The problems facing the Great Lakes are often interdisciplinary in nature,” said Kenneth Kilbert, UT associate dean for academic affairs and director of the College of Law’s Legal Institute of the Great Lakes. “This conference brings together experts from law, science and policy in an effort to solve such important problems.”

The conference is free to the public, and attorneys can earn 4.5 hours of Ohio Continuing Legal Education for $60. The conference is sponsored by the College of Law and its affiliated Legal Institute of the Great Lakes. More information about the conference is available here.

For more information contact Rachel Phipps, assistant to the dean for communications in the UT College of Law, at 419.530.2628 or rachel.phipps@utoledo.edu.

Dr. Clint Longenecker, Stranahan Professor of Leadership and Business Excellence in the College of Business and Innovation at The University of Toledo, has been nominated to win the Economist Intelligence Unit Business Professor of the Year.

Longenecker

The award, presented by The Economist and sponsored by Hult International Business School, was created to find and recognize the best business professor in the world. A group of Longenecker’s former students nominated him, and other current and previous students can vote beginning Tuesday, Oct. 23.

Longenecker, a graduate of UT, has been a faculty member here for more than 30 years. During his career, he has received more than 40 awards for his outstanding leadership, teaching, research and service to the community.

“Not only is he a great teacher, but he really cares about his students,” said Laura Brady, a graduate student at UT and a former student of Longenecker. “He’s always available whenever students have problems in the classroom or in their personal life. He is always there to talk, give advice or help his students find jobs or internships.”

Longenecker has held seminars and lectures all over the world, teaching a variety of pupils. He has given lectures in Russia, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Barbados and Hungary, as well as delivered seminars to members of the United States military.

“What’s unique about Clint is his ability to connect with students,” said Trent Miller, a graduate student at UT and another former student of Longenecker. “In the first class session I had with him last Spring, the class was from 7:30 to 9:50 p.m. As people walked into the room, they introduced themselves, and by nine o’clock he had everyone’s names memorized.”

Current and former students as well as alums can vote for Dr. Longenecker by completing a form online. Once a vote is cast, it must be verified via email before the deadline at 1 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 23.

The 10 professors who receive the most votes will make it on a long list, along with five other professors selected by the judges so professors at larger universities do not have an advantage. From these 15 professors, four will be chosen by the judges to compete in a live teach-off.

For the teach-off, the top four will be flown to London where they will present a short lecture to a live classroom audience and online. The presentation will be on a topic of their choice, and at the end viewers will vote and the winner, who will receive the title of EIU Business Professor of the Year as well as $100,000, will be announced live.

For more information on the award or to vote for Longenecker, visit businessprofessoraward.com.

Media Coverage
The Independent Collegian (Oct. 31, 2012)
The Blade (Dec. 25, 2012)

The Toledo community will have the chance to learn about the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspective of a Jewish-American activist on Sunday, Oct. 21.

Braverman

Dr. Mark Braverman, activist and author, will give a talk titled “The Path to Peace in Israel/Palestine: A Jewish-American’s Journey,” at 6 p.m. Sunday in the Richard & Jane McQuade Law Center Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Braverman’s grandfather, a fifth-generation Palestinian Jew, emigrated from Jerusalem to the United States as a young man. Braverman was raised in the Jewish tradition and devoted himself full time to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after returning to Jerusalem in 2006 and witnessing the occupation of Palestine firsthand.

He is the author of Fatal Embrace: Christians, Jews, and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land (2010).

Braverman also is co-founder and executive director of Friends of Tent of Nations North America and part of such organizations as the Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace and American Jews for a Just Peace.

After the discussion, refreshments will be served and Braverman will sign books.

The talk is co-hosted by UT Students for Justice in Palestine and the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition.

For more information, contact the UT Students for Justice in Palestine at utoledosjp@gmail.com.

Media Coverage
The Blade (Oct. 20, 2012)
The Independent Collegian (Oct. 31, 2012)
The Independent Collegian (Oct. 31, 2012)

How well do you know your pharmacist? The American Pharmacists Association is encouraging you to get to know the folks behind the counter a little bit better, and The University of Toledo College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is helping to drive that message.

During October, the organization is advocating that everyone “know your pharmacist, know your medicine” as part of American Pharmacists Month.

“The most satisfying part of becoming a pharmacist is knowing how much you will help the patient,” said Sarah Milkovich, a fifth-year pharmacy student at The University of Toledo. There couldn’t be anything more rewarding in the world than putting all that difficult schooling you went through to use.”

According to Dr. Christine Hinko, professor and associate dean for student affairs for the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, UT is taking the lead on making sure UT pharmacy students are well- prepared for the ever-changing field.

“Nationally, pharmacists are becoming more involved in comprehensive patient care with a new focus on medication therapy management, or MTM,” said Hinko. “That means that the pharmacist has the ability to assess the patient’s drug therapy and develop a medication action plan to assure compliance, safety and efficacy. Educating the patient is a key component. Our curriculum is designed to develop these MTM skills in our student pharmacists.”

UT offers a residency program that allows pharmacy students real- world experience, giving them the patient- centered experience before they land a job. Opportunities like the Community Pharmacy Residency Program equip residents to provide services to diverse patient populations, collaborate with other healthcare providers as part of an integrated team, and develop and provide high- quality, patient- focused care.

For four consecutive years, the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences has offered a Student Leadership Retreat. This year 40 students participated in an all -day program that included an analysis of their interpersonal communication style and a team building exercise on an outdoor challenge course. “We’re very proud to offer these kinds of unique opportunities to our students who are aspiring to be effective leaders in their profession,” said Hinko. “We are helping to build on their individual strengths and skills, which is vital to their professional development.”

For more information on American Pharmacists Month, visit www.pharmacist.com.

Media Coverage
13 ABC (Oct. 26, 2012)

Toledo area high school students will wade into local streams this week (Wednesday, Oct. 17- Thursday, Oct. 18), taking water samples to test the quality of local aquatic ecosystems.

More than 250 teenagers are expected to participate in The University of Toledo sponsored component of the Student Watershed Watch, which is a Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments program to help students learn about local stream ecosystems.

The students will test the streams for temperature, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and many other parameters to determine the health of the water. The results of the sampling and testing will be presented at the Student Watershed Watch Summit on Nov. 14 at UT when participating schools release and compare their findings.

Through a National Science Foundation Gk-12 grant, the University’s Lake Erie Center sponsors eight schools providing the necessary equipment to high school science teachers and a UT graduate student helps the class with the project.

Schools participating in the UT sponsored portion of the 22nd Annual Student Watershed Watch include: Bowsher High School, Central Catholic High School,Clay High School, Northview High School, Ottawa Hills High School, Start High School and Toledo Early College High School.

The schools testing schedule is as follows:

For additional information, contact Rachel Lohner at the UT Lake Erie Center at 419-530-8364 or Rachel.Lohner@utoledo.edu.

When Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, he concentrated on the carefree lives of two young boys growing up — yet these classics have been banned by schools across the country.

Shortly after Huckleberry Finn was published, the Concord Free Public Library banned it, saying the novel was “inelegant” and “trash of the veriest sort,” according to The New York Herald from March 18, 1885.

“Huckleberry Finn particularly offended people who did not understand Twain’s sharp sense of humor, ear for local dialogue, or clever satire of society,” said Dr. Paulette D. Kilmer, UT professor of communication and coordinator of the University’s Banned Books Week event.

Although more than a century has passed since newspaper and magazine editors sparred about the literary value of Huckleberry Finn, many titles continue to be banned or removed from circulation.

To bring awareness to this censorship and to celebrate the right to read, the American Library Association created Banned Books Week 30 years ago. For the last 15 years, UT has been a part of that event — and it’s that time of year again.

On Thursday, Oct. 18, UT’s 15th Annual Banned Books Week Vigil will kick off the event. The free, public program will take place 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with new presentations every half hour on the third floor of Sullivan Hall with door prizes given away after each talk.

Alan Kitty

UT also will host “Mark Twain Night” Friday, Oct. 19, featuring Twain impersonator Alan Kitty. The actor will present his original monologue, “Mark Twain’s Last Stand,” which contrasts his life as an author, speaker and social critic with his life as a husband and father, at 7 p.m. in Libbey Hall. (Click here to download a photo of Kitty)

Tickets — $7.50 for students, $15 for one, $25 for two, and $100 for a table of eight — are available at utoledo.edu/boxoffice or by calling 419.530.2375.

Topics and speakers for the vigil will be:

• 9 a.m. — “Celebrating Reading: Selections From The Princess Bride” by Joshua Manley, Pearl Grambell and Jasmine Townsend, members of the UT Writer’s Guild;
• 9:30 a.m. — “In the Name of Democracy: Resurgence of Censorship in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe” by Arjun Sabharwal, assistant professor and digital initiatives librarian;
• 10 a.m. — “From ‘Lucy’ to ‘2 Broke Girls’: TV and Its Cultural Impact” by Dr. David Tucker, associate professor of communication;
• 10:30 a.m. — “Google Bombs, SEO and Censorship” by Dr. Paul Many, professor of communication;
• 11 a.m. — “The War on Women … as Old as History” by Warren Woodbury, Toledo author;
• 11:30 a.m. — “Prison Education: What Is the Point?” by Dr. Renee Heberle, associate professor of political science;
• noon — “My Favorite Book” by Dr. William McMillen, assistant to the president;
• 1 p.m. — “Inequality and Democracy” by Dr. Carter Wilson, professor of political science;
• 1:30 p.m. — “Book Burning in Nazi Germany” by Dr. Larry Wilcox, professor of history, and Justin Pfeifer, student;
• 2 p.m. — “Grey Matter” by Dr. Ben Pryor, vice provost for academic program development;
• 2:30 p.m. — “Jeopardy!” by Vincent Scebbi, editor of The Independent Collegian;
• 3 p.m. — “Avoiding the Echo Chamber: The Benefit of Dissenting Opinion” by Sarah Ottney, managing editor of Toledo Free Press;
• 3:30 p.m. — “Thomas Jefferson’s Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth” by Dr. Tom Barden, dean of the Honors College;
• 4 p.m. — “Babes in Pornland: The New Pornography Industry” by Dr. Sharon Barnes, associate professor of women’s and gender studies; and
• 4:30 p.m. — “Debased Ditties and Songs That Suffered Censorship” by Dr. Ed Lingan, assistant professor of theatre.

For more information contact Meghan Cunningham at 419.530.2410 or meghan.cunningham@utoledo.edu.

Media Coverage
The Independent Collegian (Oct. 17, 2012)

The University of Toledo and one of its faculty members is being recognized nationally for critical research and advising in the neurology department.

Dr. Imran Ali, associate dean for medical education, professionalism and diversity, and the chair of the Executive Curriculum Committee, recently received an award from the American Academy of Neurology for his outstanding performance in neurology clerkship.

“Imran is the consummate neurology clerkship director,” said Ralph Jozefowicz, MD, FAAN, who recommended Ali for the award. “He has made the University of Toledo neurology clerkship arguably the best clinical clerkship at the university, and one of the highest rated neurology clerkships in the nation.”

According to the August 2012 AAN News “63 percent of the graduating Toledo medical students rated the neurology clerkship as excellent, compared with the national average of 33 percent, and Toledo medical students have beat the national mean on the shelf exam for the past five years,” as just some of Ali’s accomplishments at UT.

The AAN News also pointed out that Ali has “made numerous improvements to the clerkship program, from incorporating AAN core curriculum to assigning students to outpatient clinics to using technologies for teaching and assessment.”

For more information regarding the AAN’s award, visit http://www.aan.com/science/awards/?fuseaction=home.info&id=61.