Faculty/Staff Newsletter

Miller is director of health services at USMC headquarters and vice chief, BUMED, Reserve Policy and Integration for the United States Department of Navy. She will speak at the College Degree Celebration at EagleBank Arena on May 17 at 2 pm.

Four faculty— Jay Shiver, Patrice Winter, P.J. Maddox, and Steve Brown—were honored for their combined decades of experience at George Mason as they retire at the end of the spring or fall 2025 semesters.

Congratluations to the 12 faculty and staff who were recognized by their colleagues for their achievements and outstanding performance this past year at the 2025 Faculty and Staff Awards Ceremony! 

University award winners will be honored in next week's newsletter. 

Gilbert Gimm and Melissa Villodas highlight the need for state-level reforms, including Medicaid website accessibility and automatic Medicaid re-enrollment, to protect health care access for foster youth between ages 18 and 26.

Thank you to all of the generous faculty and staff who made a gift during Mason Vision Day.

Due to your generosity, the College of Public Health received more than 70 gifts totaling more than $25,000.

We are proud of this milestone! Compared to Mason Vision Day 2024, the College more than doubled its donor participation, and its dollars raised increased by more than 400%!

If you were unable to make a gift during Mason Vision Day, and would still like to give, visit publichealth.gmu.edu/give.

April 22 | 11:30 am - 12:30 pm | Multipurpose Room | RSVP here

Featuring David Johnson, CEO and Founder, 4sight Health

After nearly 30 years in investment banking, closing $30 billion of financing transactions for the healthcare system, David Johnson leveraged his master’s in public policy education from Harvard’s Kennedy School to found 4sight Health, a think tank focused on market-driven healthcare reform. He has advised healthcare organizations and serves in roles with companies like Curate Health, GaussSoft, HealthiPass, and more. Dave is the author of three books—Market vs. Medicine, The Customer Revolution in Healthcare, and The Coming Healthcare Revolution. His expertise spans health policy, academic medicine, economics, and disruptive innovation, earning him an Azbee Award for business writing.

The first 50 in-person attendees will receive a copy of his book, The Coming Healthcare Revolution: 10 Forces that Will Cure America’s Healthcare Crisis.

April 30 | 10:30 am – 12 pm | Zoom (Meeting ID: 936 1629 6358
Passcode: 238727)

Instructional, research, and administrative staff are welcome and encouraged to attend to hear announcements and updates from the Faculty Council and the Dean. Faculty should have received a calendar invite with a Zoom link from our Faculty Council Chair, Phillip Zane. If you have any questions, contact Cathy Tompkins (ctompkin@gmu.edu).

April 22 | 1:30 – 2:45 pm | Zoom

Hear term faculty committee updates from your term faculty colleagues on the identified priorities they have been working on. The committee will provide a status update on goal achievement and work-in-progress. They will also discuss future plans and leave time for Q&A. Learn more.

National Undergraduate Research Week is April 21-25. OSCAR will be at a JC Atrium Kiosk several times during the week and will have several virtual seminars, including How to Get Started in Undergraduate Research, Research Ethics, Research Video Presentations, and a Faculty and Mentor Information session. Learn more and share with your students and colleagues.

The OSCAR Annual Spring Celebration of Student Scholarship and Impact will be held on May 6 in Dewberry Hall. Any undergraduate student who has worked on a project this year is invited to register to present a poster or display of their project. Learn more here and encourage your students to present their projects.

Congratulations to Denise Hines on being the guest co-editor of April's APA's Psychology of Men and Masculinities.

Over the next several newsletters, we'll share details about the pilot research projects CPH is supporting.

Melissa Villodas, SW: In response to the U.S. Surgeon General's 2021 call to action on addressing the crisis of youth mental health, this study partners with LAZERA Ministries to evaluate and enhance their 1 Brotherhood Empowered Teen Mental Health and Leadership Program, which serves Black and Hispanic youth along the Richmond Highway Corridor in Fairfax County, a recognized mental health desert and area of high social vulnerability. This proposed research seeks to generate actionable insights and preliminary data to support program development and external funding applications to further expand the effectiveness and reach of this program.

RRF Foundation on Aging has an open LOI due May 1. RRF funds research that seeks to identify interventions, policies, and practices to improve the well-being of older adults and/or their caregivers. Preference is given to projects aimed at generating practical knowledge and guidance that can be used by advocates, policy-makers, providers, and the aging network. Learn more.

George Mason maintains a website of helpful resources, such as sample mentoring plans, NSF broader impact statements, data management plans, or sample proposals. Have a look.

The George Mason library has resources to help you document your research impact. In addition, subject librarians may be able to help you with your discipline-specific questions.

Note: due to space limitations, not all events and reminders are listed every week. If you see an event you want to attend, please put it on your calendar.

April 15 | 10 – 11:30 am | Dewberry Hall and live via GMU-TV

Support our college winners of university awards! (They will be honored in next week's newsletter.) View the full list of recipients here.

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

Planning for a Productive Summer | April 16 | 1:30-3 pm | Zoom | Registration required

April 18 | 12 pm | Zoom

See who's presenting, as well as past talks here.

 April 17 | 1:30 pm | Peterson Hall Room 2000 or Zoom

Associate Professor Judy Sng from the National University of Singapore will discuss her pioneering use of generative AI to enhance psychiatric medical education. Her work features AI-generated videos of simulated patients tailored to different cultural contexta, helping medical students develop empathy, diagnostic skills, and clinical decision-making.

April 25 | 12 - 3:30 pm | Peterson Hall 

Next session: April 29 
Our yoga instructor, Teri Patterson, will be at a yoga retreat and will miss a few sessions. No yoga on April 8, 15, and 22.

HAP continues leading the units, with Nutrition and Food Studies in second place. T Rebmann had the most steps for an individual this past week. Report last Monday-Sunday by today at midnight.

PUBLICHEALTH.GMU.EDU

Access the CPH brand toolkit, including new CPH and department logos here.

View the newsletter archives here.