Faculty/Staff Newsletter

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Aspiring health care leaders get vivid lesson on the role of leadership in trauma care. Students in the Master of Health Administration program recently had an unforgettable opportunity to step into the heart of one of Northern Virginia’s premier emergency care facilities. Photo by Michelle Thompson/CPH

Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) awarded Sanja Avramovic the 2024 Journal of Health Administration Education Best Paper on her paper Exploring the Potential Benefits and Limitations of Using an AI Text-Generation Tool in Education: An Examination of ChatGPT's Performance on Assessments. 

Honorable Mention was given to John Cantiello and Renee Hotchkiss Geschke for their paper Preventing Academic Dishonesty in Online Courses: Best Practices to Discourage Cheating.

Congratulations!

Community Health graduate Paris Stephens shares how her undergraduate research experience on cancer care interventions with Michelle Williams bridges the connection between her commitment to lead ethical research initiatives and her dedication to becoming a more skilled public health practitioner. Photo provided.

Haila Salaheddine shares how she went from disliking the dentist to having plans to attend dental school after graduating with her Bachelor of Science in Community Health from George Mason. Photo by Evan Cantwell/OUB

Congratulations to Jhumka Gupta, GCH, on her award from Health Resources in Action, Inc. entitled "Community-Centered Randomized Control Trial Protocol Design for Violence Intervention Programs."

Congratulations to Anna Pollack, GCH, on her award from NIH entitled "The MELENA Study: Measurement of Exposures, Lung hEalth, and functioN in hAirdressers."

CPH now has access to Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey data for 2015-2022. These data include survey data on a broad range of topics, including health status, health conditions, functioning, socioeconomic status, medication non-adherence, health insurance coverage and barriers to accessing health care and long-term care. The file is augmented with 5 years of enrollment data and, for beneficiaries enrolled in fee-for-service Medicare, with 5 years of limited FFS claims. Email Alison Cuellar to learn more.

Happy end of the semester and the start of the summer! The last official day for 9-month faculty in the 2024-2025 academic year is May 19 (today!) and the first official day for 9-month faculty in the 2025-2026 academic year is August 11. These dates are based on contract language that states that faculty are expected to be available two weeks after classes end and two weeks before classes begin. Some units may have activities scheduled outside of this timeframe. Please consult with your chairs and divisional dean to explore opportunities for flexibility where appropriate.

Add these important dates and deadlines for the 2025–2026 academic year to your calendar now. This list will continue to be updated throughout the summer.

Tenure-track faculty who need clarity on the deadlines for their materials, please contact Cathy Tompkins – ctompkin@gmu.edu

The exact deadline for instructional faculty annual performance reviews (both term and tenure-line) for spring 2026 has not yet been finalized, but will be announced soon. Please also note that some faculty members who are going up for tenure and promotion may request and require their annual performance review to be completed prior to September 1. Relevant faculty and their chairs or divisional dean will need to coordinate a day/time. Exact dates for the CPH Faculty Networking sessions, the Adjunct Faculty Connections program, and the Dean’s Speakers Series will be in a forthcoming newsletter.

It is not too early to schedule peer teaching evaluations for the fall 2025 semester. These reviews are important for all faculty and especially important to include in tenure and promotion casebooks. Please contact Cathy Tompkins with any questions.

After an 18-month process—driven largely by faculty leadership and engagement—we have finalized the college’s Conflict of Commitment policy.

This policy is the result of many meetings and listening sessions held to fully understand the range of perspectives and the practical realities of our work. In close collaboration with the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, and under the guidance of the Office of Compliance, we’ve worked to develop a thoughtful and workable approach.

The final policy allows faculty to engage in outside professional activities for up to 12 hours per week on average. This is intended to provide flexibility to pursue meaningful external work—such as clinical practice, consulting, or specific types of service—while reaffirming that our primary commitment is to George Mason University.

Importantly, this policy is designed to be fair, transparent, and simple to apply across the board. Here are the key points:

The CPH Conflict of Commitment policy will be available on the CPH website, and we are committed to supporting its consistent application across the college.

Thank you to all who contributed to this process and for your continued dedication to our students, our community partners, and the values we uphold as a college.

We are excited to continue Social Connection Mondays! During the 2025-2026 academic year, we will continue our commitment to being on campus on Mondays, enhancing our connections and communication. According to a Stanford Medicine report, "Social connectedness generates a positive feedback loop of social, emotional, and physical well-being. Employees who are more socially connected not only enjoy these benefits themselves but also contribute to a healthier, more collaborative, and engaged workforce."

Since announcing this initiative, Dean Perry has been excited by the positive response from many of you who have shared how much you've enjoyed seeing colleagues around. It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to model by doing and strengthen our community in a way that aligns with our core values.

For 12-month employees, we look forward to seeing you this summer (especially on Social Connection Mondays) when you are not enjoying time off with family and friends!

The second edition of the STEM Education Newsletter includes CPH faculty honored with teaching awards and grants, information about upcoming AI programming and the STEM Education Hub website, and ways to contribute to the newsletter. Read the Summer 2025 STEM Education Newsletter.

George Mason has an institutional membership to the National Council for Faculty Development and Diversity. Faculty can create an account on the website. NCFDD has many great opportunities for faculty, including the 14-day Writing Challenge, which many of our faculty have completed. Free registration for the writing challenge ends on June 6, and the writing challenge occurs between June 16 – June 29. Happy writing!

May 29 | 12 pm | Multipurpose Room | RSVP here

Kick off the summer with the College of Public Health Staff Council. All classified staff, administrative/professional faculty, and wage employees are welcome to join us for an afternoon of games, grub, and good vibes. Lunch will be served, and there will be prize drawings. Bring a board game to share! Keep an eye out for a calendar invite with an RSVP link.

The College of Public Health led all colleges in Canvas use for spring 2025 classes! 54% of all college course sections were taught in Canvas, a semester earlier than they were required to be, showing the college's leadership in adapting to new technology. All classes starting summer 2025 will utilize Canvas.

Blackboard will be unavailable to students, faculty, and staff on July 15, 2025. Encourage your students to download course materials they’d like to keep. Archives will be maintained for two years, but not on a Blackboard platform. After July 15, faculty may submit a request to ITS to extract materials, grades, or a course export file. Learn more on the Blackboard Retirement Resources page.

In preparation for Blackboard’s closure, you can:

This college faculty/staff newsletter will publish weekly through May. In June and July, this newsletter will publish every other week on the following dates: June 9, June 23, July 7, and July 21.

The newsletter will resume weekly publication in August.

August 20 | 11 am | Multipurpose Room

Join us to kick of the new academic year. Address followed by a lunch reception.

These events previously have been in the newsletter; to see full event descriptions, please consult previous newsletters.

May 20 | 9 am - 12:30 pm | Dewberry Hall | RSVP here

Hosted by the Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact, this half-day workshop is open to faculty, students, administrators, and research leaders. The workshop will provide a forum to hear from the George Mason community about their concerns and challenges in the current research landscape and consider avenues for moving forward despite those challenges. There will be breakout groups for early career faculty, senior faculty, LAU leadership, graduate students, and research administration and support team. 

PUBLICHEALTH.GMU.EDU

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