VCU news

Shannon D. Jones, associate director for research and education at Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences

Jones has been named to a national leadership fellowship program for health sciences librarians.

The National Library of Medicine and the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries jointly run the Leadership Fellows Program that prepares emerging leaders for director positions in academic health sciences libraries. Eighteen fellows have assumed director positions in the program's ten years, including two from the current 2010-2011 cohort.

The competitive selection process recognizes a substantial record of accomplishment and demonstrable potential. Fellows have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills in a variety of learning settings, including exposure to leadership in another environment.

Fellows are paired with mentors who are academic health sciences library directors and will visit the libraries of their mentors for two-week residencies. Jones has been paired with a mentor at Yale University.

For more information, visit http://library.vcu.edu/blog/news/2011/09/tompkins-mccaw%27s-Shannon-Jones.html.

Toni-Leslie James, assistant professor of costume design, Department of Theater, School of the Arts

Leslie-James recently accepted an invitation to join the exclusive and prestigious National Theatre Conference, a cooperative association of influential leaders in commercial, non-commercial and educational theater. Membership is invitation only and limited to 120 people at a time.

Leslie-James also was awarded the National Black Theatre Festival’s Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design Award, and her work and an interview will be featured in an upcoming exhibition, “More Life! Angels in America at Twenty,” at the Museum of Performance and Design in San Francisco.

In addition, Leslie-James will have her work appearing in four upcoming or current world premiere plays, a new Broadway revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Pipe Dreams” and the west coast tour of “The Scottsboro Boys.” Each of the plays employed VCU theater graduates or current students.

Christopher Preuss, Virginia Commonwealth University Police Lieutenant

Preuss recently completed the FBI’s National Academy, a training program to improve the administration of justice in police departments and to raise law enforcement standards, knowledge and cooperation worldwide. Participants came from 26 countries.

Participation is by invitation only, and Preuss was the first VCU Police representative to attend the academy, which provides training in law, behavioral science, forensic science, understanding terrorism and terrorist mindsets, leadership development, communication and health and fitness. He graduated on Sept. 16 at the academy’s Quantico campus.

Preuss is commander of investigations and special operations unit for the VCU Police Department.  

Danielle Dick, Ph.D., VCU School of Medicine and Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics at VCU

Dick, associate professor of psychiatry, psychology and human and molecular genetics, is the recipient of the 2011 International Society of Psychiatric Genetics Richard Todd Award. The award is presented to the author of the best oral presentation abstract submitted in child-related psychiatry at the annual World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics meeting.

Dick’s work emphasizes the need to go beyond identifying specific genes in order to understand how the risk associated with specific genes unfolds across development and in conjunction with the environment. Her work has shown that genes associated with adult alcohol dependence are associated with children’s behavior problems earlier in development, and that this risk is mitigated when kids have high parental monitoring and less deviant peers.

Dick, who joined VCU in 2007, examines how genetic and environmental factors come together to impact the development of alcohol dependence and related problems. Since 2000, she has been working with a multidisciplinary, multisite team of researchers through the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism, to identify specific genes involved in the predisposition to alcohol dependence.

This fall, Dick, together with Kenneth Kendler, M.D., professor of psychiatry, and human and molecular genetics in the VCU School of Medicine, launched a project titled, “Spit for Science: The VCU Student Survey,” which provides incoming VCU freshman an opportunity to participate in a survey and DNA collection focusing on substance use and emotional health.

Dick was presented with the award at the XIXth annual World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics: Genes to Biology meeting in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 13.

Clareen Wiencek, R.N., Thomas Palliative Care Unit, Massey Cancer Center
Wiencek, nurse manager in the Thomas Palliative Care Unit at the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, has been elected to join the board of directors for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN).

During her 35 years in the nursing profession, Wiencek has served as a staff nurse, nurse manager and researcher, including a decade in various roles at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland.

The AACN is the largest specialty nursing association in the world. The organization’s vision is to create a healthcare system driven by the needs of patients and their families in which acute and critical care nurses make their optimal contribution. AACN members elect board directors through a process initiated by AACN’s Nominating Committee. Directors began their three-year terms in July. 

Debra Lyon, Ph.D., RN, professor and chair, VCU School of Nursing’s Department of Family and Community Health Nursing

Lyon is one of 142 nurse leaders nationwide that will be inducted as Fellows during the American Academy of Nursing’s 38th Annual Meeting and Conference on Oct. 15 in Washington, D.C.

Academy fellows include nursing leaders in education, management, practice and research who serve as experts in their fields. They work with other health care leaders to enhance quality of care and strengthen delivery nationally and internationally, promote healthy aging and human development across the life continuum, reduce health disparities and inequalities, shape healthy behaviors and environments and integrate mental and physical health care.

Lyon is the Collins-Teefey Distinguished Professor in the VCU School of Nursing, where she has also conducted NIH-funded research in areas that include symptom management in women with breast cancer and complementary and alternative therapies for symptom management.