 |
|
|
Lifeline Online SAVE THE DATE Kent L. Thornburg, epigenetics authority, to speak at KU Lawrence December 1, 7 p.m. at the Commons IN THE NEWS
Colombo and Carlson show DHA in formula benefits infant brain and heart Buzhardt, Walker and Greenwood: Making Online Decisions system improves Early Head Start Saunders and Saunders explore use of IPad for children with cortical visual impairment Barlow, Anderson, Popescu, Wlliams win 2011 KCART Discovery Grants Reichard finds possible Kansas Medicaid savings through preventative care HONORS Friends of the Life Span Institute Graduate Research Awards to Venkatesan, Anderson Dot Nary wins Switzer Fellowship PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
|
HONORS Friends of the LSI announce seventh annual Graduate Research Award winners Lalit Venkatesan and Kaston Anderson are the winners of the seventh annual Friends of the Life Span Institute Graduate Research Awards. Venkatesan received $3000 as the advanced graduate research assistant winner. V
The Friends of the Life Span Institute is a philanthropic group of LSI researchers, families and friends. In 2005 the group launched the awards to assist the research and professional development of outstanding graduate research assistants affiliated with an LSI project. Since 2006 the program has recognized two doctoral students each year, one at the dissertation stage and another in the early stages of graduate study. The awards have helped launch the careers of many new scientists who have already made significant contributions to the growing body of knowledge in human and community development, disability and aging. Michael Wehmeyer named APA Fellow
Wehmeyer is an expert in the self-determination of individuals with intellectual disability, access to the general curriculum for students with significant disabilities and technology use for people with disabilities. Dorothy Nary wins Switzer Fellowship
Nary’s project, Is there really no place like home?, is an exploratory study of the impact of non-visitable homes on wheelchair users. This qualitative study will allow her to interview wheelchair users about their experiences in visiting the homes of family members, friends, etc. She will use the data to document barriers that limit the participation of people with disabilities in their communities. Her study may also support the “visitability” policy initiative, which proposes ordinances requiring that all new single family homes be built with accessibility features that allow wheelchair users and others with mobility-related disabilities to visit. Nary is a research associate with the Research and Training Center on Independent Living.
|
U.S. Senator Jerry Moran 
Fawcett and Schultz help World Health Organization think globally, act locally
enkatesan is in his fifth year with the Intercampus Program in Neuroscience and as a GRA in the Communication Neuroscience Laboratories of Steven Barlow, professor of speech-language-hearing and LSI affiliated scientist. Barlow extols Venkatesan’s multidisciplinary training as a model of the LSI mission, citing his contributions to pioneering work as a doctoral student in neuroscience informed by his M.S. in computer engineering. Venkatesan’s research interests include sensory neurophysiology, adult stroke, neuroimaging and sensorimotor integration. Most recently he has been prototyping a means of assessing neural pathways with possible application to correct motor disorders of individuals who have had strokes and sensorimotor integration disorders of individuals with hypersensitive Autism Spectrum Disorder. 
Kaston Anderson, Jr., was the $2500 winner as a promising early career doctoral student. Anderson is in his second year of the Ph.D. in Behavioral Psychology and a GRA with the KU Work Group for Community Health and Development, an LSI-affiliated center. Anderson has been involved in the Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF-SIG ) research project, under the direction of Jomella Watson-Thompson, LSI principal investigator and assistant professor in the Department of Applied Behavioral Science. The project focuses on reducing underage drinking in 14 Kansas counties using evidence-based prevention strategies. The project, funded by the Kansas SRS, ends in 2012. But Anderson will use his Friends award to examine the sustainability of the approaches used in the project in a random sample of the counties as a component of his dissertation research. Watson-Thompson commends Anderson’s commitment to examining the sustainability of evidence-based research, particularly in addressing health disparities. 
Michael Wehmeyer, director of the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities, professor of special education, senior scientist and associate director of the Beach Center on Disabiity was elected a Fellow of the American Psychological Association in September. Fellow status is awarded on the basis of outstanding contribution to the field. of psychology. 
Dorothy Nary was awarded a Switzer Fellowship from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research which provides 12 months of funding for a research project. Fellowships are awarded to help the nation build disability and rehabilitation research capacity.