KIRKSVILLE, Mo. (Mar. 26, 2009) – United States Senator Claire McCaskill will make a special trip to Kirksville on Wednesday, April 8, 2009, to host one of a series of “Kitchen Table Talks” statewide. All area residents are invited to attend this event, which will begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m. in A.T. Still University’s (ATSU) Centennial Commons and end with a community roundtable discussion at 6 p.m. in ATSU’s Mehegan classroom. RSVPs are requested by April 6 to communications@atsu.edu or 660.626.2272.

McCaskill and her staff will meet with local residents to reach out to constituents, address their questions and concerns, and provide Missourians with the resources necessary to receive assistance from a federal agency. Problems that constituents are facing, as well as any input that residents have on impending legislation, will be documented.

McCaskill has five offices throughout Missouri – in Cape Girardeau, Columbia, Kansas City, Springfield, and St. Louis. The Kitchen Table Talks will serve, in part, to inform area residents of the services that are available to them when they contact one of her regional offices. McCaskill’s staff can assist constituents on a range of federal government issues.

Additionally, United States Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri’s 9th Congressional District will visit Kirksville on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 for a reception at 10 a.m. in ATSU’s Centennial Commons. All area residents are also invited to attend this event, visit with Congressman Luetkemeyer, and ask questions. Light refreshments will be served. RSVPs are requested by April 10 to communications@atsu.edu or 660.626.2272.

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. (Mar. 23, 2009) – The A.T. Still University (ATSU) Committee on Aging will host its fifth annual Lecture on Aging on April 3 to enhance healthcare providers’ understanding of the challenges and opportunities in treating and caring for older patients, especially in the area of falls prevention.

Keynote speaker Dorothy Baker, Ph.D., R.N., will present “From the Halls of Ivy to the Kitchen Table: Moving Evidence-Based Fall Prevention into Practice.” Dr. Baker is a research scientist and scholar at Yale University School of Medicine. She is also director of the Connecticut Collaboration for Fall Prevention and Hospital Elder Life Program projects.

The lecture will be broadcast on Friday, April 3 on ATSU’s Missouri Campus at 2 p.m. in the McCreight & Couts classrooms located at 800 W. Jefferson St. in Kirksville, Mo. Dr. Baker is presenting live from ATSU’s Arizona Campus at noon in the Saguaro A & B classrooms located at 5850 E. Still Circle in Mesa, Ariz.

The public is invited to attend, and the Committee on Aging encourages healthcare practitioners in any field to take advantage of this free event.

For more information, contact Kelli Partin, Committee on Aging administrative coordinator, at 660.626.2671 or kpartin@atsu.edu, or visit www.atsu.edu/events.

Online Wellness Course Affect on Wellness Behaviors of Online Graduate Students

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – (Mar. 19, 2009) Lynda T. Konecny, D.H.Ed., M.S., associate director of admissions at A.T. Still University (ATSU) and adjunct faculty member at ATSU’s online School of Health Management (ATSU-SHM), recently presented her research in a poster session at the 2009 NASPA Annual Conference in Seattle, Wa. The conference, “Nourishing Partnerships for Lifelong Learning,” was held March 7-11 and brought together student affairs administrators in higher education.

Dr. Konecny’s research, entitled “Online Wellness Course Affect on Wellness Behaviors of Online Graduate Students,” examined the concept of developing and providing resources for student wellness in higher education, which emerged in the 1970s. Today, college and university professionals agree that students are more successful when they have balance in areas of wellness. Wellness resources have been provided for residential students, but relatively few have been developed for online students. Dr. Konecny’s study focused on determining whether participation in a facilitated online course could be effective in increasing the wellness behaviors of online graduate students.

Dr. Konecny graduated from ATSU-SHM in June 2008, and was a member of the first graduating class to receive the doctor of health education (D.H.Ed.) degree. Dr. Konecny, of Kirksville, Mo., attended Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Mich., and Emporia State University in Emporia, Kan.

About NASPA

NASPA is the leading voice for student affairs administration, policy, and practice, and affirms the commitment of the student affairs profession to educating the whole student and integrating student life and learning. NAPSA provides professional development and advocacy for student affairs educators and administrators who share the responsibility for a campus-wide focus on the student experience.

For more information about NASPA, visit www.naspa.org.

MESA, Ariz. (Mar. 18, 2009) – A team from A.T. Still University’s Arizona School of Health Sciences (ATSU-ASHS) was recently awarded a $10,000 grant by the National Headache Foundation for a research project entitled “The effect of sport-related concussion on headache- and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents.”

According to Tamara Vaolvich McLeod, Ph.D., ATC, associate professor of athletic training at ATSU-ASHS and principal investigator in the project, the broad, long-term objective of the research will be to improve the health-related quality of life of individuals following sport-related concussion during childhood and adolescence. Co-investigators on the project include ATSU-ASHS interdisciplinary health science team members Curt Bay, Ph.D., associate professor; John Parsons, M.S., ATC, assistant professor; and Alison Snyder, Ph.D., ATC, assistant professor.

“This grant will help to advance the sports medicine communities’ understanding of how sport-related concussions impact the whole person, making this project both innovative and consistent with the osteopathic principles that define ATSU,” said Eric Sauers, Ph.D., ATC, ATSU-ASHS athletic training program director and chair of the department of interdisciplinary health sciences. “This research could lead to the development of new measurement instruments for assessing this vital outcome in a vulnerable population.”

The National Headache Foundation, founded in 1970, is a non-profit organization which exists to enhance the healthcare of headache sufferers. It is a source of help to sufferers’ families, physicians who treat headache sufferers, allied healthcare professionals and to the public. The NHF accomplishes its mission by providing educational and informational resources, supporting headache research and advocating for the understanding of headache as a legitimate neurobiological disease.

MESA, Ariz. (Mar. 18, 2009) – Tamara Valovich McLeod, Ph.D., ATC, associate professor of athletic training at A.T. Still University’s Arizona School of Health Sciences (ATSU-ASHS), and Ian McLeod, M.S., PA-C, ATC, PA ’08, presented at the Japan Athletic Trainers’ Organization (JATO) meeting March 7-8 in Tokyo, Japan.

Dr. McLeod presented two lectures on concussion assessment and misconceptions, as well as two workshops on the use of concussion assessment tools. McLeod presented two lectures on myofascial trigger point therapy and led two workshops on the same topic. Both are instructors for Japanese athletic training students who visit ATSU annually on an Arizona Athletic Training Tour.

“Dr. McLeod has had a strong international presence this year, having previously presented her research at a pediatric sport-related concussion conference in Zurich, Switzerland, and now giving multiple presentations to athletic trainers in Japan,” said Eric Sauers, Ph.D., ATC, ATSU-ASHS athletic training program director and chair of the department of interdisciplinary health sciences. “Her important research is continuing to be recognized as critical in furthering our understanding of the impact of sport-related concussion on the young athlete.”