Students, alumni honored at KDHS Annual Awards Ceremony

 

The Idaho State University Kasiska Division of Health Sciences is pleased to announce its annual awards. A ceremony was held on Friday, May 6 at the L.E. and Thelma Stephens Performing Arts Center Barbara Marshall Rotunda.

 

“Every award recipient is outstanding in their field,” said Rex Force, vice president for health sciences and senior vice provost. “We are proud to have received so many nominations of fantastic and hard-working students, staff and alumni within our health sciences.”

This year’s Idaho State University Outstanding Student Achievement Award recipients are Caden Alder from the College of Pharmacy and Kate Lynn Allen from the College of Health. 

Alder, originally from Boise, is described as “mature, capable, and highly motivated,” as evidenced by his work as the Rho Chi Alpha Upsilon Pharmacy Honor Society president, among many other organizations he volunteers with. He is an “ambitious, dependable, hardworking, and conscientious” go-getter who helped organize tutoring for over 100 students as the president of Rho Chi. His nominator states, “There is no doubt in my mind that Caden will move the pharmacy profession forward in this era of practice transformation.”

Allen, also from Boise, is preparing to enter graduate school, where she will work to obtain her doctorate in Audiology. She plans to be an Audiologist giving support to students who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing in school systems. She has completed and presented research on somatic movement and American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters, and has participated in the ASL club throughout her undergraduate career. 

This year’s Kasiska Division of Health Sciences Outstanding Leader is from the College of Pharmacy. James Parrish has worked on multiple research projects and has presented his work in poster sessions and in publications that are in various stages of review at this time. James has served his peer colleagues in professional organization leadership roles and served as a student representative on the College of Pharmacy Curricular Affairs and Student Affairs Standing Committees. James will graduate from the Doctor of Pharmacy program with cum laude honors.

The KDHS Outstanding Researcher is Olivia Morzenti, a master’s student in dental hygiene. Her research was recently accepted for presentation at the International Symposium on Dental Hygiene, in Dublin, Ireland in August. She has four articles in professional dental hygiene publications on various applicable topic areas. She has organized and implemented several community oral health events in her area, served as the lead dental hygienist in her practice, and currently serves as the Wisconsin Dental Hygienists’ Association, Education Director. 

Samantha Will is the Outstanding clinician award winner. Currently a doctor of audiology student, Will’s dedication to her academic coursework was rewarded by earning two scholarships, George F. and Betty T. Brockett Memorial and Doris Burnett, as well as the sought-after Online Instructional Teaching Assistant position offered in the audiology program. She is proficient at auditory evoked potentials, otoacoustic emissions, and pediatric assessment. She has already been offered a full-time position at Hearts for Hearing, a non-profit comprehensive audiology clinic in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

ISU’s Professional Achievement Award will be presented to Steve White in the College of Pharmacy, and Darlene Travis in the College of Health. 

White, currently the chair of the pharmacy department at the Washington School of Pharmacy, graduated from Idaho State University with a bachelor’s in pharmacy and master’s in pharmacology and was pivotal in identifying novel anticonvulsant drugs using established animal seizure and epilepsy models. 

Travis received her bachelor of radiographic technology and bachelor of zoology from Idaho State University. She enjoyed an almost 30-year career at Boise State University in the radiologic sciences department, where the radiology program credentialing scores were always in the top 5% on a national level, before retiring. 

This year’s Distinguished Teacher recipient is Dr. Nancy Devine, associate professor of physical therapy. Dr. Devine has clinical experience in acute care, inpatient/outpatient neurologic rehabilitation, and hospice. She has been a faculty member at ISU since 1990 and currently teaches multisystem management.

The nominees for this year’s Outstanding Service Awards are Dr. Ryan Lindsay, community and public health, Dr. Renee Robinson, pharmacy in Anchorage, AK, and David Martin in physician assistant studies. Martin is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award.

Lindsay’s research has highlighted the plight of homeless, addicted, immigrant, and sex worker populations, and he is currently working on a state-level evaluation of sexual violence and community health worker training programs. 

Robinson’s research over the past ten years has been focused and/or driven by the unique and diverse health, healthcare, and social needs (e.g., tobacco misuse and abuse, mental health, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, SDOH, shared decision making, etc.) of the Alaska Native and American Indian community she served during her time in the public health service.

Martin, currently the clinical associate professor & academic coordinator for physician assistant studies, has served in various capacities within the Idaho Academy of Physician Assistants and several terms on the Idaho Board of Medicine, as well as an advocate for PAs in the political arena.

Mary Nies and Dr. Ellen Rogo are being awarded the ISU Outstanding Research award in nursing and dental hygiene, respectively. Dr. Nies is project director on the Idaho Senior Refugee Interprofessional Holistic Health Project and co-author of the textbook Community/Public Health Nursing: Promoting the Health of Populations, which is now in its 6th edition. Dr. Rogo is a 2015 distinguished teacher award nominee specializing in leadership, advocacy, curriculum review, teaching and learning, literature searches and tooth morphology, whose research interests include online learning communities, legislative advocacy and autism spectrum disorder.

Finally, the recipient of the Vice President for Health Sciences award is going to Maggie Mann, district director for  Southeastern Idaho Public Health. Mann is the author of several refereed publications, book chapters, and numerous health education curricula. She has presented on a national, regional, and local level, and is active on several local boards and statewide and national work and advisory groups.