October Faculty and Staff Features

Bruce Spiess, M.D., Professor of Anesthesia

Spiess, director of both the VCU Blood Utilization Committee and VCU’s Practicing Excellence in Transfusion Therapies (PET), is part of a feature-length documentary that has been reviewed by the New York Times and LA Weekly. The 110-minute documentary, “Primum Non Nocere: First — Do No Harm,” calls for drastic cutbacks in blood transfusions and fundamental shifts in the way donors, patients and physicians view them.

“Blood banking and transfusion save some lives, but we’ve over-utilized it,” says Spiess, who points out that while blood banks have done well about safeguarding against the transfer of HIV, many far more common risks still exist including those that severely suppress breathing and the immune system.

“Blood transfusion has never undergone randomized clinical trials to the level at which a new drug would have to go through the FDA,” he says in the film.

Through VCU’s PET program, Spiess has played a major role in reducing the number of orthopedic transfusions at VCU Medical Center to the lowest in the nation. Cardiac transfusions at VCU Medical Center have also been the lowest in the nation at times.

Spiess is world renowned in the field of transfusion medicine and blood substitutes, coagulation medicine and operating room safety.  He has pioneered the use of both hemoglobin-based and non-hemoglobin-based Perfluorocarbon-( PFC) oxygen therapeutics in humans and pre-clinical research.  He was the first to pioneer the use of Thromboelastography- TEG for whole blood viscoelastic testing in heart surgery.  He has established cutting edge intra-operative coagulation testing at every hospital he has been involved with and such testing now is becoming standard.

Tony Gentry, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy, VCU School of Allied Professions

Gentry, director, assistive technology for cognition laboratory, received an Educator of the Year award from the Virginia Rehabilitation Counselors Education Association.  The award honors an educator-researcher who has conducted exemplary work to develop innovative programs and services for persons with disabilities. 

Gentry, nationally recognized as a pioneer for innovative research and training in the use of handheld computers as cognitive-behavioral aids, serves those with autism, brain injury and cognitive disability conditions.

 

 

 

Kathryn A. Murphy-Judy, Ph.D., Associate Professor of French, School of World Studies, College of Humanities and Sciences

The Foreign Language Association of Virginia (FLAVA) is holding its annual conference for all Virginia Pre-K through Ph.D. world language educators from Oct. 4 to Oct. 6 in Williamsburg. Murphy-Judy, associate professor of French in the School of World Studies in the College of Humanities and Sciences, assumed the presidency of FLAVA last October, and her term lasts for another year. Several VCU faculty members and students will participate in the conference.

FLAVA is joining with the Virginia Community College System Peer Group Meeting for Languages for the first time this year. In addition, an incipient association for teachers of Arabic in Virginia will gather to define itself.

David Wojahn, Professor, Department of English, College of Humanities and Sciences

Wojahn received the 2012 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets for his book, “World Tree,” his eighth collection of poetry. This $25,000 award is presented for the most outstanding book of poetry published in the U.S. in the previous year.

Wojahn was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in poetry in 2007 and the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes. He was also named the 2009 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and the Dominion Foundation and was the recipient of the Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize, a $10,000 annual award that recognizes poets with strong ties to Central Virginia who have contributed significantly to the art of poetry.