VCU news

Laura Siminoff, Ph.D., VCU School of Medicine/VCU Massey Cancer Center
Siminoff, a nationally recognized expert on health communication and decision making in disease treatment and in organ and tissue donation, and professor and chair of the VCU Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, will contribute to the newly launched National Institutes of Health Genotype-Tissue Expression Project, which is designed to understand how genetic variation may control gene activity and its relationship to disease.

The Genotype-Tissue Expression Project will generate data about how gene expression is regulated in different organs in the human body. This will serve as a resource for researchers across the country to study inherited susceptibility to illness and establish a tissue bank for biological studies down the road.

Through a partnership with the National Disease Research Interchange, Siminoff, who is also the associate director of the Cancer Prevention and Control research program at the VCU Massey Cancer Center, will serve as a principal investigator on a project to examine the ethical, legal and social issues related to donor recruitment and consent. This work will provide an assessment of participant feedback on the consent process for the project.

Siminoff and her team hope to learn how to consent families and patients in socially and ethically acceptable ways that will maximize the diversity of tissues in the biobank repository and still be sensitive to the cultural and ethical requirements for informed consent by biobank participants, including the need for privacy and confidentiality. The VCU School of Medicine has received a $283,000 grant from the NIH to support this work.

The National Disease Research Interchange, which is funded by the NIH, is a national human tissue center. Established in 1980, the NDRI was designed to provide scientists with the human tissue necessary to study human systems and human disease.

William Notter, University College

Notter, assistant professor in the University College, received the 2010 High Plains Book Award for Poetry on Oct. 8 for his collection, “Holding Everything Down.” Notter’s book, which was published in 2009 by the Southern Illinois University Press, also was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award.
Established by the Parmly Billings Library, the High Plains Book Awards recognize regional authors and/or literary works that examine and reflect life on the High Plains including the states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Notter grew up in Colorado and has worked in Wyoming as a U.S. Forest Service interpreter and a Student Conservation Association volunteer.

W. Greg Miller, Ph.D., School of Medicine, Department of Pathology

Miller, professor of pathology, director of clinical chemistry and director of pathology information systems in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, is the newly elected president of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. AACC is the principal association of professional laboratory scientists. Members develop and use chemical concepts, procedures, techniques and instrumentation in health-related investigations and work in hospitals, independent laboratories and diagnostics industries worldwide. The AACC provides international leadership in advancing the practice and profession of clinical laboratory science and its application to health care.

Miller has been a member of AACC since 1974 and has served the organization in a number of capacities. He received the AACC Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine in 2007.

Linda Hancock, Ph.D., RN, Wellness Resource Center

Hancock, director of the Wellness Resource Center, received the Sharyl W. Adams Award from SAFE, Chesterfield County’s community coalition to prevent substance abuse, for her efforts to reduce substance abuse among young people. Hancock has been a member of the SAFE board of directors since 2006 and contributed many hours of service as a key participant in a number of SAFE initiatives. This service included serving as a facilitator for SAFE’s Café Conversations, helping middle school children and their parents talk about underage drinking issues using creative, interactive and fun activities.

Hancock challenges teens’ perceptions about how many of their peers are drinking or using drugs. Through interactive survey techniques, she demonstrates that teens often overestimate peer use of drugs and alcohol.

“I love volunteering for SAFE because it’s a real team approach,” Hancock said. “All types of community members – students, school administrators, business owners, law enforcement, health care professionals and parents – we all work together to reduce the harm caused by substance abuse. No one can do everything, but we can all do something. I invite everyone to become part of SAFE and its mission.”

Edward F. Ansello, Ph.D., Virginia Center on Aging
Ansello, professor in the Department of Gerontology and director of the Virginia Center on Aging, has received the Clark Tibbitts Award from the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE). The award is the highest honor given in the gerontology field. Named after the AGHE founder, the award honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of gerontology as a field of study in institutions of higher education. Ansello’s work focuses on elder caregiving, aging with lifelong disabilities, pre-retirement planning, geropharmacy and coalition building. Ansello also received the Distinguished Academic Gerontologist Award by the Southern Gerontological Society in 1990 and the Distinguished Teaching Award from AGHE in 2001.

Daniel R. Longo, Sc.D., Department of Family Medicine
Longo, professor and research director in the Department of Family Medicine, has been appointed as a Health Care Quality and Effectiveness Research (HCQER) Study Section standing member. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is responsible for improving the quality, safety, efficiency and effectiveness for all Americans. Longo will serve with other researchers who review grant applications related to the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care and determine the recommendation for federal funding. His professional experience extends to co-director of Ambulatory Care Outcomes Research Network and director of the Grant Generating Project. He will serve a four-year term with the HCQER study section.