December Faculty and Staff Features

Curtis Sessler, M.D., Orphan Muren Distinguished Professor, Department of Internal Medicine

Sessler, director of VCU’s Center for Adult Critical Care, was elected president-designate of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) at CHEST 2012, the annual meeting of the College, held Oct. 20 to Oct. 25 in Atlanta.

Sessler began his VCU career with fellowship training in pulmonary diseases and critical care medicine. He has received a variety of teaching awards, including VCU School of Medicine’s Educational Innovation Award, and has served on multisociety task forces addressing research, training competency, workforce shortage and reimbursement.

Sessler will transition into his one-year term as ACCP President in October 2014. His previous ACCP leadership includes 24 years as an active Fellow, service on the board of regents and as chair of the Critical Care Section, chair of the Council of Sections and chair of the Critical Care Institute.

William L. Dewey, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology

Dewey is the recipient of this year’s Torald Sollman Award from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental therapeutics (ASPET). The award is made on the basis of originality and uniqueness of accomplishments throughout a long career distinguished by sustained contributions to education, research and service in pharmacology.

Dewey has worked at VCU since 1972, when he was recruited to serve as director of the graduate program in pharmacology. He has held various positions since that time including vice chair for research, dean of the School of Basic Health Sciences, assistant dean of the Graduate School, associate provost and vice president for research and graduate studies and director of the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park.

In May 2012, Dewey’s more than 40 years of research and academic leadership were honored at commencement with the Presidential Medallion, VCU's award for extraordinary achievement.

Jeanne Walter, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Family and Community Health, School of Nursing
Jean Zavertnik, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Adult Health and Nursing Systems, School of Nursing

Walter and Zavertnik received the Daisy Nurse Faculty Awards from the VCU School of Nursing. The awards honor excellence in teaching. The award-winners were nominated by peers and students and were selected for the honor by the school’s master’s program committee.
The Daisy Nurse Faculty Award is a national program designed to demonstrate appreciation for the commitment and inspiration of nurse faculty. Honorees are recognized for teaching skills, leadership, ability to instill strong patient care and compassion in students and dedication to helping students achieve excellence in nursing.

Mary Jo Grap, Ph.D., Nursing Alumni Endowed Professor, School of Nursing

Grap, who is also the interim associate dean of research, has accepted an invitation to serve on the editorial board for Nursing Research, the official journal of the Eastern Nursing Research Society and the Western Institute of Nursing. Its mission is to report empirical findings from the highest quality basic and clinical research focused on understanding health and illness experiences and to estimate the impact of therapeutic actions and nursing systems.

In her invitation to join the board, the incoming editor, Susan J. Henly, Ph.D., stated Grap's knowledge and views arising from her many accomplishments in biobehavioral research and symptom management, especially with application to critical care, positioning her to make valuable contributions to the board. Grap's research focuses on investigating sedation effects in mechanically ventilated, critically ill patients.

Donald Mikulecky, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, VCU Center for the Study of Biological Complexity
Mikulecky has coauthored a book about climate change titled “Global Insanity: How Homo sapiens Lost Touch with Reality while Transforming the World,” which deals with the fact that the global economy that sustains the civilized world is destroying the biosphere.

The book follows a perspective that suggests the more developed a system is, the less potential it has to change its way of being. According to a press release announcing the book, “This perspective reveals the limits that complexity places on knowledge and technology, bringing to light [humans’] hubristically dysfunctional relationship with the world and increasingly tenuous connection to reality.”

“The inescapable conclusion,” the press release continues, “is that, barring a cultural metamorphosis that breaks free of deeply entrenched mental frames that made [humans] what [they] are, continued development of the Global Economy will lead inexorably to the collapse of civilization.”

Mikulecky came to VCU in 1973. A theoretical biologist, he specialized in creating and testing mathematical models of biological systems and processes. His coauthor, Jim Coffman, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Maine.

Alison Montpetit, Assistant Professor, Department of Adult Health and Nursing Systems
Michael Davis, Project Director of Exhaled Breath
Montpetit and Davis presented scientific podium sessions on "Breath Analysis in the ICU" at the 2012 International Breath Analysis Meeting held in Sonoma, Calif. Montpetit presented on the topic "Evaluation of Exhaled Breath Condensate Matrix Effect in the Measurement of Cytokines by Multiplex Bead Assay." Davis presented on the topic "Continuous Exhaled Breath Condensate pH Analysis in Mechanically Ventilated Adults." Montpetit and Davis also presented a poster together, titled "Exhaled Biomarkers of Pulmonary Infection in the Critically Ill."

Montpetit is currently the principal investigator on a School of Nursing breath analysis study that may one day aid in developing breath tests to help diagnose diseases.

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