HUNTINGTON -- Organized rugby has arrived at the high school level in the Tri-State.

Four teams, three of which are from the area, participated in a tournament Sunday on the field behind the St. Mary's Medical Center for Education.

The goal of building rugby into an active sport at the high school level is to develop players for West Virginia college teams. Former Marshall University rugby players started the effort last year with two teams, Spring Valley and Cabell Midland high schools.

This year, there were three tournaments including teams with players from six high schools: Cabell Midland, Spring Valley, Scott, Mid-Ohio Valley (players attend Parkersburg and Parkersburg South) and South Point, Ohio.

Dennis Johnson, one of the founding members of the Marshall rugby team 24 years ago and whose son, Colt, plays for Spring Valley, said the sport is growing at the high school level. That's partly because rugby sevens (seven-on-seven) has been added to the 2016 Olympics.

Rugby is offered as a club sport at Marshall, WVU and Fairmont State and as a varsity sport at Wheeling Jesuit. Building successful high school programs will help feed recruits into those university programs, Johnson said. He expects the sport to continue its growth next season, with 15 high school coaches committed in West Virginia.

Marshall rugby alumni also have committed $5,000, which will be awarded as a scholarship this spring to a high school senior who plays rugby in West Virginia.

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Organized rugby hits Tri-State

PHILADELPHIA University of Pennsylvania alumna Nicole Lurie, MD, MSPH (B.A. 75, M.D.79), Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will deliver the address at the Perelman School of Medicines commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 12, 2013 in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

We are delighted to have Dr. Lurie return to campus to speak before our graduates, said J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine and Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System. As a distinguished alumna of the Perelman School of Medicine, she is an ideal candidate to inspire our students to attain the level of achievement and honor that she has experienced in her own prominent career.

As the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Dr. Lurie serves as the Secretary's principal advisor on matters related to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies. The ASPR also coordinates interagency activities among HHS, other Federal departments, agencies, and offices, and State and local officials responsible for emergency preparedness and the protection of the civilian population from acts of bioterrorism and other public health emergencies. The mission of her office is to lead the nation in preventing, responding to and recovering from the adverse health effects of public health emergencies and disasters.

Prior to that, Lurie was Senior Natural Scientist and the Paul O Neill Alcoa Professor of Health Policy at the RAND Corporation. There she directed RANDs public health and preparedness work as well as RANDs Center for Population Health and Health Disparities. She previously served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; in state government, as Medical Advisor to the Commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Health; and in academia, as Professor in the University of Minnesota Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Lurie has a long history in the health services research field, primarily in the areas of access to and quality of care, mental health, prevention, public health infrastructure, and preparedness and health disparities.

Lurie is an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania and the Perelman School of Medicine, and completed her residency and MSPH at UCLA, where she was also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar. She served as Senior Editor for the journal Health Services Research and as President of the Society of General Internal Medicine, as well as on multiple other national committees. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Perelman School of Medicines Distinguished Alumni Award (2009), and a member of the Institute of Medicine.

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Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4.3 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 16 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $398 million awarded in the 2012 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2012, Penn Medicine provided $827 million to benefit our community.

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Distinguished Penn Alumna and HHS Official Nicole Lurie, MD, MSPH, to Speak at the Perelman School of Medicine ...

Fremont native and Cedar Bluffs High School graduate Jodi Kreiling recently was honored by the University of Nebraska at Omaha Alumni Association.

She was one of nine honored with an Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award. Recipients receive a $1,000 award and a commemorative plaque.

Kreilings teaching expertise is in general chemistry and biochemistry. An associate professor, she joined the UNO faculty as a chemistry department member in 2005. She has designed a new biochemistry course concerning Protein Purification and Characterization. Kreiling also supervises undergraduate researchers concerning projects related to improving the Biochemistry lab curriculum or projects concerning protein-protein interactions/protein structure-function. She has served her department, the university, community and profession in numerous capacities, including membership on the deans advisory committee.

Kreiling also is a courtesy faculty member in the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where she earned a Ph.D. in 2005. Kreiling received a bachelor of science in biochemistry from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1999.

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UNO Alumni honor Kreiling

HUNTINGTON -- The creation of a new advisory board at Marshall University's medical school will aid in strategic development and community engagement, according to Dean Joseph I. Shapiro.

Shapiro announced the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine advisory board on Wednesday, and tied is formation to his relocation to Huntington when he was named dean in March 2012.

"As a newcomer to this community, I thought it would be helpful, in addition to working with active insiders, to get a sense from the community as well as former insiders who have stayed here, on their insights into where they think the med school should be going," Shapiro said.

Although some of the focus of the board will be on fundraising, Shapiro said the group will be integral in terms of finding and utilizing community resources.

"Some of it will be fundraising, obviously. You can't get away from that, but really, more is being asked of these board members, to help give me some guidance in terms of mustering community resources," Shapiro said.

The board members, Shapiro said, are a strategic mix of physicians and community partners as well as individuals outside the sphere of Marshall University.

Board members include Dr. Joseph P. Assaley, Dr. Maurice A. Mufson, Dr. Dev R. Rellan and Tamela J. White (four-year terms); Dr. Shari J. Clarke, Monica J.W. Hatfield, Dr. Mark F. Sheridan and Dr. Charles E. Turner (three-year terms); Sharon N. Ambrose, Steven L. Shattls, Dr. Omayma T. Touma and Joan M. Weisberg (two-year terms); Dr. Joseph I. Shapiro, Dr. Paulette Wehner and Linda S. Holmes, ex-officio members.

White, former nurse and hospital administrator, will serve as chairwoman. Sheridan, a 1987 graduate of the medical school and local physician in private practice, has been selected by the board as chair-elect.

Members of the inaugural board met for an organizational meeting in April and expect to meet bi-annually.

Follow H-D reporter Beth Hendricks on Facebook or Twitter @BethHendricksHD.

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Med school board community-focused

A professor in the MU School of Medicine has been elected president of the largest medical specialty group in the U.S.

Professor of Medicine David Fleming will serve as president-elect of the American College of Physicians beginning April 11, and his official presidency will begin in April 2014.

As president of the ACP, Fleming will represent the college at multiple national and international events. He will also be responsible for advising the Board of Regents in formulating policies.

The election results did not come as a surprise to Fleming, as there were only four or five individuals nominated by the Board of Regents, the policy-making branch of the ACP, Fleming said.

I am very thrilled about this, Fleming said. It is an honor to be selected and represent the organization at a very high level.

The ACP, founded in 1915, is the largest medical-specialty organization in the country. It has 133,000 members consisting of professionals, students, internal medicine sub-specialists and fellows.

It started out as an education institution but has grown since then to educate and mentor internal medicine doctors, said Alan Forker, governor of the Missouri chapter of the ACP in 2011. The organization also monitors and responds to policy issues affecting the healthcare system.

Fleming, a former governor of the Missouri chapter of the ACP, held a position on the board of governors for a year before joining the Board of Regents in 2012.

The board nominated Fleming for presidency, and he won by a majority, Forker said.

(Fleming) is a great leader and contributor to policy formations, Forker said. I think his leadership, great voice and expertise helped him get to where he is. He is going to be a fabulous president.

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Professor to head American College of Physicians

Party school? Safety school? Not so much anymore.

UMass Amherst may not have entirely outlived those nicknames and reputations. But its become so surprisingly selective that the alumni magazine ran a story recently titled Could You Still Get In?

The answer may be no, says Kevin Kelly, the director of admissions.

Many people who once found it easy to get into UMass would struggle to be admitted now, frankly, Kelly says. Its not the UMass that it was 20 years ago. Its not the UMass that it was even 10 years ago.

The number of applicants for the roughly 4,600 freshman seats available each year has increased from about 20,000 to more than 34,000 since just 2005, while their average GPA is up from 3.38 to 3.66 and combined SAT scores from 1143 to 1197.

The reason, in a word: price. Tuition, fees, room, and board add up to $23,167, less than half the cost of many Massachusetts private universities.

I wanted to reduce the amount of loans Id need to pay back, says Leo Sheehan, a junior from Raynham who plans to go to medical school and decided on UMass over Boston University.

The main difference for me was that BU was $33,000 more, he says. And they offer the same thing.

Students such as Sheehan have pushed the number of applicants accepted at UMass from 80 percent 10 years ago to 63 percent now. That makes it only slightly easier to get into than BU, though much easier than Northeastern and Boston College partly because its freshman classes are so much bigger, Kelly says.

The number of applicants from out of state has also doubled since 2005, to more than 15,400.

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Would UMass accept you today? Don’t be so sure.

Published: Sunday, April 21, 2013 at 7:44 p.m. Last Modified: Sunday, April 21, 2013 at 7:44 p.m.

The Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center Team won first place at the Leadership Gainesville Alumni Associations 5K Fallen Heroes Run held recently at Ironwood Golf Course.

The team received a $500 prize, which they donated to the Gainesville Fisher House Foundation to benefit the house, now under construction at the VA center. When completed, the facility will provide a home away from home for families of patients receiving medical care.

. . .

Four distinguished University of Florida faculty members have been appointed Elizabeth Wood Dunlevie Honors Term Professors for the 2013-14 academic year.

They are: Susan Gillespie of the department of anthropology, Panos Pardalos of the department of industrial and systems engineering, Jack Putz of the department of biology, and Lou Ritz of the department of neuroscience. They will each teach a course for the UF Honors Program during the academic year.

The endowment gift from Elizabeth Wood Dunlevie, a UF graduate, provides summer salary and support for the faculty members activities. The goal of the program is to encourage the most esteemed faculty at UF to participate in the University Honors Program as instructors and mentors. Dunlevie Professors are selected by Kevin Knudson, director of the Honors Program, in consultation with a committee of UF faculty, from a pool of nominees submitted by department chairs.

. . .

Judy Charudattan, a French teacher at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, and director of cole Franaise, has been selected to judge and evaluate the speaking sections of students throughout the country competing in the Grand Concours, which is an annual National French Exam.

Charudattan serves on the national Foreign Languages in the Elementary Schools Commission of the American Association of Teachers of French and is a recipient of the Dorothy Ludwig Excellence in Teaching Award Elementary from the American Association of Teachers of French. Charudattan has been also inducted into the Teachers Hall of Fame by the Florida Foreign Language Association, in recognition of her personal commitment, dedication and invaluable contributions to the field of foreign language education.

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Local VA team wins Fallen Heroes 5K run

Frank Lakin, a longtime University of Northern Colorado teacher and administrator, died Wednesday after an extended battle with leukemia.

He was admitted to the Medical Center of the Rockies last week, then moved to the hospitals hospice area. Family members were with him when he died.

Lakin, 82, grew up in Santa Fe, N.M., when it was a small town. He loved to tell stories of the famous artists and writers who moved into town when he was a boy, and they were customers on his paper route.

He later attended Colorado State College of Education in Greeley, (now University of Northern Colorado), which was the same college his mother attended to become a teacher. He was at the college only a short time when he was drafted into the U.S. Marines and, after basic training, was sent to the 38th Parallel in the Korean conflict. His term in the military expired two months before the conflict ended.

Lakin returned to UNC, joined a fraternity, and became the student president of the college. It was then he met Donna Dhorty. They married while in college and were married 57 years.

Dick Bond was president of UNC when Frank was in the schools administrative offices, and remembers Lakin as having the support of the deans and the respect of the faculty. And as an alumnus, he was a never-ending supporter of UNC, Bond said.

Bond also said everyone who knew them also knew of the closeness between Frank and Donna Lakin. It was a heartwarming relationship, Bond added.

The couple had three sons: Dr. Greg Lakin of Wichita, Kan.; retired Coast Guard Capt. Gary Lakin of Virginia Beach, and Dr. Terry Lakin of Pueblo.

Frank graduated in 1955, and began a lifetime of devotion to UNC, serving in almost every level of the college, from part-time teacher, to acting and interim president of the university. He served a fellowship at the Lab School, then became admissions officer for the college. He left Greeley for two years to earn his Ph.D. from Oregon State University, then returned to the college he and Donna loved.

In his career, he served as assistant to the dean of the Graduate School; vice president for Academic Affairs; and he served as acting president of UNC twice and was interim president in 1971.

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Longtime UNC prof, administrator Frank Lakin passes away

By M. English Journal Register News Service

A member of PWs Class of 1999, Radicioni studied allied health at CMTHS and is currently chief radiation therapist at the new Einstein Medical Center Montgomery.

She and fellow CMTHS alums Piero Sassu, Alon Shaya and Jarrett Young were honored during the Plymouth Township-based schools recent 10th annual Distinguished Alumni dinner and presentation.

Following her PW-CMTHS graduation, Radicioni earned an associate degree in radiation therapy at Gwynedd-Mercy College and now volunteers as a clinical supervisor in the colleges radiation therapy program. She is also an educator for the National Youth Leadership program. The mother of two lives in Royersford with husband Ernest.

Sassu, a 1980 graduate of Norristown Area High School, studied industrial electricity at CMTHS and is director of public safety at the Haverford School.

Shaya, a 1997 graduate of Harriton High School, studied culinary arts at CMTHS and is executive chef-partner at New Orleans Domenica Restaurant.

Young, a 1999 graduate of Upper Merion Area High School, also studied culinary arts at CMTHS. As lead culinary arts instructor at Chester County Technical College High School-Brandywine Campus in Downingtown, the King of Prussia man reports to one of his former CMTHS teachers, Seth Schram.

Jarrett is a fantastic chef one of the best that I have known and I have known many, says Schram, now CCTCHS building director and principal. He takes time and care in his food preparation to meet his impeccable standards, which translate to everything he does in life. Jarrett is not only one of the best culinary teachers I have known but is a fantastic and well-rounded educator. He commands respect and integrity, leads by example and is by far the most loved teacher in my building.

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., Young is also a member of CMTHSs Occupational Advisory Committee.

The schools Distinguished Alumni Association inductees are chosen by the groups 12 trustees, a mix of staff, school board officials and community members from CMTHSs primary enrollment areas the Colonial, Norristown Area and Upper Merion Area school districts. Some 40 graduates have been named to the organization since its creation a decade ago. Continued...

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Central Montgomery Technical High School in Plymouth Meeting inducts four into Distinguished Alumni Association