A family medicine physician who recently recovered from Ebola contracted during medical mission work in Liberia, a neonatal pediatric specialist with a focus on improving the health of mothers and babies in Pakistan, and an orthopedic surgeon working to correct spinal defects for people in Africa are members of the 14th class to be inducted into The University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences’ Medical Mission Hall of Fame.

The induction ceremony recognizing Dr. Richard Sacra, Dr. Zulfiqar A. Bhutta and Dr. Oheneba Boachie-Adjei will be held 7 p.m. Saturday, March 19 in Collier Building Room 1000 on UT’s Health Science Campus. 

For more than two decades, Dr. Richard Sacra has worked with Serving in Mission, an international Christian organization, as a medical missionary in Liberia, West Africa. He is a family medicine faculty physician at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and divides his time between Massachusetts and Liberia.

In September 2014, he contracted Ebola virus disease in Liberia, even though he was not treating known Ebola patients. He was evacuated by air ambulance to the University of Nebraska’s Biocontainment Unit in Omaha. Along with ICU-level care, he was given an experimental drug and blood serum from a colleague who was infected first. Sacra was released after 20 days when his blood tested negative for the virus and full recovery took several months. He returned to his work in Liberia in January 2015.

He began his career in Liberia in 1995 in the midst of the civil war. After he and his family evacuated during an outbreak of fighting in Monrovia in 1996, he returned in 1997 to help re-open Eternal Love Winning Africa Hospital, which had been looted and vandalized. From 1998 to 2010, Sacra lived and worked in Liberia full time with his wife and three sons, directed the medical staff at the hospital, and taught medical students at the University of Liberia Medical School. When they began to see patients with HIV and AIDS, he initiated a program at the hospital to provide treatment, education and support to those who were living with HIV.

When Dr. Zulfiqar A. Bhutta launched his career, neonatal pediatrics was barely a concept in his home country of Pakistan. Today, he is credited as a major force in putting the health of mothers and their babies on the development agenda not just in Pakistan, but around the world.

He is founding director of the Centre of Excellence in Women & Child Health at the Aga Khan University, with campuses in South-Central Asia, East Africa and the United Kingdom; the Robert Harding Chair in Global Child Health and Policy; co-director of SickKids Centre for Global Child Health; senior scientist at the Research Institute at the Hospital for Sick Children; and professor in the departments of Pediatrics, Nutritional Sciences and Public Health at the University of Toronto.

He is a leading researcher in newborn and child survival, maternal and child under-nutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies. In Pakistan, he has been a driving force in improving maternal and child health through his efforts with the Lady Health Workers program and in advocating for changes to national and provincial health and nutrition policies.

Dr. Oheneba Boachie-Adjei has dedicated his life to correcting incidents of pervasive spinal defects found among many of his African countrymen. As founder and president of the Foundation of Orthopedics and Complex Spine, he has helped provide orthopedic medical care to underserved populations in West Africa and other developing nations since 1998. 

Born in Kumasi, Ghana, one of the poorest areas of Africa, Boachie-Adjei and his family immigrated to the United States in 1972. His career has included serving as assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Minnesota; clinical assistant professor at the University of Southern California and assistant clinical professor at the University of California College of Medicine in Irvine; and associate medical director at the Southern California Complex Spine and Scoliosis Center.

In 2014, Boachie-Adjei said he left the Hospital for Spinal Surgery in New York to devote his time and talents on one of the most debilitating medical conditions in Ghana. He holds several patents for devices used in spine surgery.

In addition to inducting these hall of fame members, Dr. Daniel M. Johnson, UT president emeritus, will receive the Lawrence V. Conway Distinguished Lifetime Service Award, and the UT College of Medicine and Life Sciences Alumni Community Award will be given to Dr. Pamela J. Oatis.

Johnson became president of UT in 2001 and in 2006 helped lead the merger with the Medical University of Ohio. While serving in higher education leadership positions for more than 30 years, he developed collaborations and partnerships among public universities, government entities, industrial corporations and international organizations. Johnson has been an ardent promoter of the Global Medical Missions Hall of Fame Foundation.

A 1981 graduate of the Medical College of Ohio, Oatis is a pediatrician who has worked with children and families at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center Family Care Center in Toledo for almost 35 years. She heads the Mercy Family Care Team, which connects families to a medical provider to care for them and their child, palliative care for children who are chronically ill, and family counseling. Oatis also is a clinical faculty member at UT’s College of Medicine and Life Sciences. 

The Medical Mission Hall of Fame was founded in 2004 by Dr. Lawrence V. Conway, UT professor emeritus of finance, to honor individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to advancing the medical well-being of people around the world. In 2006, the Medical Mission Hall of Fame became affiliated with the UT College of Medicine and Life Sciences. The hall of fame can be seen in the lobby of the Jacobs Interprofessional Immersive Simulation Center.

RSVPs are requested for the free, public event: Call 419.530.2586 or 1.800.235.6766, or email medmissionhof@utoledo.edu.

Click here to download photographs of the individuals being honored.

Media Coverage
13 ABC (March 21, 2016)
The Blade (March 16, 2016)

BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETINGS
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Driscoll Alumni Center, Board Room
5:30 p.m. Board of Trustees Social Dinner
6:30 p.m. Board of Trustees Special Meeting

The Trustees will enter Executive Session immediately upon convening the meeting to discuss a trade secret under the Ohio Uniform Trade Secret Act contained in Ohio Revised Code Section 1333.61.

Monday, March 21, 2016
Driscoll Alumni Center, Schmakel Room
10:30 a.m. Clinical Affairs Committee Meeting
1:00 p.m. Academic and Student Affairs Committee Meeting
2:00 p.m. Finance and Audit Committee Meeting
3:00 p.m. Trusteeship and Governance Committee Meeting

Any questions may be directed to the University Communications Office by calling (419) 530-2410 or via email at meghan.cunningham@utoledo.edu.

The bikes are back on campus. After being stored out of the elements during the winter, Rocket Wheels is back up and running at The University of Toledo for students to bike across campus.

UT will welcome the spring biking weather with a group bike ride around Main Campus starting at noon Wednesday, March 16 at the bike racks behind Rocket Hall near the horse sculptures. The hour-long ride will take participants around campus to identify the Rocket Wheels stations and bike rack locations.

The ride will end at the Q, located in the Flatlands between Parks Tower and the Academic House, where there will be free food and prizes, including a bike that will be raffled off. Local vendors, including Wersell’s Bike and Ski Shop, Spoke Life Cycles and Jimmy Johns, will help celebrate the return of Rocket Wheels.

The Rocket Wheels bike-sharing program launched in October allowing students to check out bikes on Main Campus at three locations: near the northeast entrance of Rocket Hall, by the south entrance of Palmer Hall and on the northeast side of West Parking Garage.

The program is now also open to UT faculty and staff.

Bikes can be checked out for six-hour intervals and must be returned to the same location from where they were checked out. Students already registered for Rocket Wheels do not need to re-register to continue using the program this spring.

For more information, visit utoledo.edu/rocket-wheels.

In the event of severe weather, the bike ride will be rescheduled for March 23.

Media Coverage
The Blade (March 18, 2016)

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger, a 1977 alumna of The University of Toledo College of Law, will discuss the Ohio Constitution, the Modernization Commission, and possible changes to the constitution Thursday, March 17, at noon in the McQuade Law Auditorium in the Law Center on UT’s Main Campus

The free, public program is called “The Ohio Constitution and the Work of the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission.”

The Ohio Constitution is currently under review. The Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission was established and tasked by the Ohio General Assembly with studying the constitution and recommending amendments. The commission began its work in 2013 and will continue until 2018.

The UT College of Law and the Toledo Bar Association will welcome some of the state’s leading experts on the subject to the University for the two-hour program.

In addition to Lanzinger, participants will include Marc Wagoner, a member of the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission and a partner at Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP; Steven Hollon, executive director of the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission; and Steven Steinglass, senior policy adviser for the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission.

“The commission is performing an incredible service for the people of Ohio as well as for the legal profession, and yet many people remain unaware of this important work,” said Greg Gilchrist, UT associate professor of law and an event organizer.

For more information, go to utole.do/ohioconstitution.

The University of Toledo will welcome former President Bill Clinton to campus Saturday, March 12, as he rallies support for his wife, Hillary, who is campaigning for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

President Clinton will be joined by former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her husband, NASA astronaut Mark Kelly.

The event will be 7:15 p.m. in UT’s Memorial Field House Town Square; doors will open at 6:15 p.m.

“The University of Toledo is pleased to host the former president and take part in the national political conversation as Ohio voters prepare to go to the polls on March 15,” said UT President Sharon L. Gaber.

“The free discussion and debate of ideas is at the very core of our role as a public University, and in the days ahead I hope we have the opportunity to hear from candidates on both sides of the political aisle.”

Media Coverage
The Blade (March 12, 2016)
The Blade (March 12, 2016)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (March 12, 2016)
The Blade (March 13, 2016)
The Independent Collegian (March 16, 2016)

If you want to know childhood obesity rates within a local elementary school district or find the location of every bank in Lucas County or learn how a neighborhood demographic has changed during the past 20 years, a new online database created by the Jack Ford Urban Affairs Center at The University of Toledo has the answers.

ToledoView is a compilation of economic, education, social, health and environmental data for the city of Toledo and surrounding communities that can be analyzed via downloadable maps, spreadsheets, charts, graphs or reports.

“There was a need for a one-stop data repository for economic planning and development, demographic analysis, forecasting and many other applications,” said Dr. Neil Reid, director of the center and professor of geography and planning. “In addition to the database, the ToledoView team also is available to provide advice and assistance for projects ranging from site selection for a new health care facility to an economic impact analysis.”

The public launch of ToledoView will be 3 p.m. Monday, March 14 in the Thomas and Elizabeth Brady Engineering Innovation Center on UT’s Main Campus.

UT President Sharon L. Gaber will give opening remarks followed by a presentation on how to use the new resource by Reid and Dr. Peter S. Lindquist, professor emeritus of geography and planning who is one of the main architects of the database. Local elected officials also will attend the launch event.

The database includes information such as population demographics, home values, public transportation service areas, business locations and types, street and interstate networks, and health and social services.

ToledoView will be available to use as a desktop application with a paid membership for businesses, real estate developers, governmental agencies and other community organizations. The resource also will be available for a fee for individual research projects and reports. The fees will support efforts to maintain and grow the resource.

Media Coverage
The Blade (March 15, 2016)

The fourth annual Ohio Latino Education Summit will bring community members together at The University of Toledo on Friday, March 11 to discuss best practices, challenges and opportunities when it comes to the education of Ohio’s Hispanic students.

“The growth of Latinos in Ohio is incredible,” said Lilly Cavanaugh, executive director for the Ohio Latino Affairs Commission. “And the big equalizer is education, so every effort that can be made to include and increase the opportunities for Latinos is going to be a well-spent effort.”

The summit began in 2013 as an initiative from the Ohio Latino Affairs Commission in an effort to bring together local leaders to discuss education with a different flair.

“Instead of just talking about the disparities and the problems there are, we wanted to know how we could speak about best practices,” Cavanaugh said.

The summit, which will be from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. in the Student Union on UT’s Main Campus, will feature presentations on best practices, workshops, roundtable discussions and a luncheon.

Dr. Lonny Rivera, Ohio interim superintendent of public instruction, will give the keynote address at 1 p.m. Other speakers include Bob Vasquez, president of the Toledo Public Schools Board of Education, and Dr. Sharon L. Gaber, president of The University of Toledo, among others.

“This year’s focus is on education and leveraging education for Latino students,” said Tamika Mitchell, UT dean of students. “It allows for learning and engagement in terms of service and providing resources to the Latino community.”

“When we’re talking education, we need to involve many audiences,” Cavanaugh said. “We have to get together the educators, the administrators, the nonprofit leaders, the parents, the students and, of course, the policymakers as well to ensure all support initiatives result in access and opportunity for our students.”

UT is the host of the 2016 event. In years past, the summit has been held at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio State University in Columbus, and the University of Akron.

For more information about the summit, visit utoledo.edu/studentaffairs/omss/oles.

Media Coverage
WTOL 11 (March 14, 2016)
La Prensa (March 15, 2016)

Children who are abused could be more likely to experience migraines as young adults, according to a study by a University of Toledo neurologist.

The link between migraine and abuse was stronger for emotional abuse than for physical or sexual abuse, said Dr. Gretchen Tietjen, the Clair Martig Endowed Chair in Neurology at UT and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

“Emotional abuse showed the strongest link to increased risk of migraine,” said Tietjen, who will present her research at the American Academy of Neurology’s 68th Annual Meeting April 15-21 in Vancouver, Canada. “Childhood abuse can have long-lasting effects on health and well-being.”

Dr. Tietjen

In the study, emotional abuse was assessed by asking, “How often did a parent or other adult caregiver say things that really hurt your feelings or made you feel like you were not wanted or loved?”

The study included data from 14,484 people age 24 to 32. About 14 percent reported they had been diagnosed with migraines. The participants were asked whether they had experienced emotional, physical or sexual abuse in childhood. Physical abuse was defined as being hit with a fist, kicked, or thrown down on the floor, into a wall, or down stairs. Sexual abuse included forced sexual touching or sexual relations. About 47 percent of the participants answered yes to having been emotionally abused, 18 percent physically abused and 5 percent sexually abused.

Of those diagnosed with migraines, 61 percent said they had been abused as a child. Of those who never had a migraine, 49 percent said they were abused. Those who were abused were 55 percent more likely to experience migraine than those who were never abused after accounting for age, income, race and sex.

Those who were emotionally abused were 52 percent more likely to have migraine than those who were not abused, after accounting for other types of abuse as well as age, income, race and sex. In contrast, those who were sexually or physically abused were not significantly more likely to have migraine than people who were not abused.

The relationship between emotional abuse and migraine remained when researchers adjusted the results to take into account depression and anxiety. In that analysis, people who were emotionally abused were 32 percent more likely to have migraine than people who were not abused.

Tietjen noted that the study shows an association between childhood emotional abuse, a very common occurrence, and migraine. It does not show cause and effect, although the finding that the likelihood of having migraines increases with increasing number of abuse types is suggestive of it.

“More research is needed to better understand this relationship between childhood abuse and migraine,” Tietjen said. “This is also something doctors may want to consider when they treat people with migraine.”

Tietjen’s latest research builds on previous studies that show a connection between maltreatment in childhood and headaches later in life.

A study lead by Tietjen published in the Dec. 24, 2014 issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, showed a higher connection between people who were emotionally or sexually abused with migraine than those who had tension-type headaches.

Her body of research has shown that early life stress is associated with blood markers of inflammation and clotting, as well a number of different medical and psychiatric conditions in adulthood.

Click here to download photo of Dr. Tietjen.

Real Leadership in the 21st Century is the theme of the 2016 KeyBank Global Leaders Forum, which will be presented by The University of Toledo College of Business and Innovation in two weeks on Thursday, March 17 in Savage Arena on Main Campus.

The morning-long program is free, but seating is limited and registration is required.

The keynote speaker will be global engagement authority Jim Haudan, CEO of Root Inc., which is located in Sylvania, Ohio and has been recognized nationally as a Great Place to Work. He will discuss “The Power of Engagement.” Haudan also is the author of the best-selling book, The Art of Engagement: Bridging the Gap Between People and Possibilities.

Also presenting at the event will be Jim Hoffman, president of KeyBank; Dr. Sharon L. Gaber, president of The University of Toledo; Dr. Clint Longenecker, UT Stranahan Distinguished University Professor and director of the Center for Leadership and Organization Excellence; and Marc Lautenbach, president and CEO of Pitney Bowes Inc.

“The KeyBank Global Leaders Forum provides a wonderful opportunity for our regional business owners and leaders to hear from difference-making leaders such as Jim Haudan, Marc Lautenbach, Dr. Longenecker and President Gaber,” Hoffman said. “It is part of our vision at KeyBank to help our community, and our businesses, thrive.”

“The University of Toledo College of Business and Innovation is extremely pleased to again partner with KeyBank to present another Global Leaders Forum,” said Dr. Gary Insch, dean of the College of Business and Innovation. “Holding the event in UT’s Savage Arena assures that hundreds of area professionals, as well as many UT students, will have an outstanding opportunity to learn, network and benefit from the presentations and discussions at this unique event.”

“As leaders are attempting to deal with the challenges of this turbulent economic environment, this event is a great way to discover new ideas for becoming a better leader and creating competitive advantage with people,” Longenecker said. “We invite them to come, be ready to learn, and be in a better position to make 2016 a great year.”

In 2008, KeyBank and the College of Business and Innovation presented the first Global Leaders Forum, which featured John Snow, former secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department, and the second event in 2013.

The Global Leadership Forum was created to provide an environment for regional business leaders to talk about contemporary issues, discuss cutting-edge leadership practices, and explore trends.

Convenient parking is available, and a continental breakfast will be served.

To register for this free forum, go to utoledo.edu/business/keybankforum.

Media Coverage
The Blade (March 4, 2016)
The Blade (March 18, 2016)

The University of Toledo Foundation achieved a 2.3 percent total investment return for the 2015 fiscal year, surpassing the 2.0 percent average for participants of similar asset size, in the NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments.

The UT Foundation also outperformed national averages for the three-, five-, and ten-year returns for its asset class in the industry survey by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and the Commonfund. The Foundation’s five-year-average return was 11.3 percent, compared to a 9.5 percent average for peer institutions.

Investments are overseen by the UT Foundation Board of Trustees and its investment committee.

Broad diversification and a focus on long-term growth are major components of the Foundation’s investment success, noted Russ Mitchell, investment committee chair.

“While we are always mindful of our short-term performance, UT Foundation funds are held in perpetuity. Therefore, we remain focused on long-term results rather than year-to-year returns or attempting to time the market,” he said. “Our investments continue to perform well against our benchmarks.”

The University of Toledo and the UT Foundation’s combined endowment totaled $419.2 million as of June 30, 2015.