A native of Toledo, OH, LaDale Whaley earned an A.A.B. in Graphic Design from Davis College, Toledo, OH, a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration on communication, business and design from the University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, and a M.S. in Education Media Design and Technology from Full Sail University, Winter Park, FL.
Over the course of the next several weeks, we will be profiling a prominent member of the Teaching & Learning Center Staff. This week Keedra Smith, an Academic Technology Consultant for the TLC, took time out of her busy schedule to answer a couple of questions.
TLC: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Keedra Smith: I was born and raised here in Memphis, TN. I attended Hamilton High School, home of the Mighty Wildcats. After graduating from high school, I attended Middle Tennessee State University where I received my Bachelors degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Computer Information Systems.
I am very family oriented and my family and I are very close. I am the proud mother of a 7 year old son, whom I adore. He has the key to my heart.
If you drew up your list of great challenges, what would be on it?
The diverse gathering of TEDMED attendees – onsite and at simulcast locations such as UTHSC – will be participating in The Great Challenges Program. The idea is to provide America and the world with a comprehensive view of the great challenges.
A proposed list of 50 great challenges of health and medicine have been drawn up [download full brochure here]. During TEDMED, 50 knowledgeable individuals will serve as Advocates for those 50 challenges. The Advocates will circulate among the 1200 onsite attendees and be able to interact with simulcast participants via the TEDMED Connect application.
The 20 final Great Challenges will be decided by a vote – and your vote, as a TEDMED attendee, will count!
In the coming year, multiple strategies will be used continue the dialogue on the selected 20 Great Challenges.
Want to know if the issues on your list of Great Challenges is among the top 50? Visit TEDMED’s Great Challenges Program website!
IMPORTANT! Stay up to date with the TEDMED schedule and interface directly with presenters and the on-site audience by downloading the TEDMED Connect application for iPhones, iPads, and Androids (I can’t locate the app for Androids right now – check the Android app store).
UTHSC is in great company for TEDMEDLive. Check out the map of participating institutions who’ve signed up to receive the TEDMED simulcast.
Sessions at UTHSC are scheduled as follows:
Individuals from the Memphis health care community, medical device manufacturing community, University of Memphis, and others will be joining UTHSC faculty, staff, and students for one or more sessions.
Plan to join your colleagues for an event that will challenge and change your thinking, stimulate innovation and imagination, and inspire us to think about the possibilities in health and medicine. Bring a friend!
RSVP right away if you’re attending the Tuesday evening session so we can plan for beverages/snacks – faculty and staff can go to the HR Training website and select the TEDMED event in the right-hand column. Students, email crussell@uthsc.edu if you plan to attend.
Check out this word cloud (Wordle) of the titles of the talks scheduled for TEDMEDLive 2012. This was done by Jonathan Eisen who, on his blog, lists himself as an evolutionary biologist, microbiologist & genomicist, Open Science advocate, recovering Harvard/Stanford alum, cyclist & Professor at UC Davis. Check out his blog for links to his lab page, Google Profile, and Twitter feed.
Eisen is presenting at TEDMED 2012 – the title of his talk is Who are “Me, Myself, and Us?”
… so said Peter Diamandis in his TEDMED 2011 talk (watch it below). He talks about how innovation will increase exponentially thanks to cheaper and more easily available technology. Having a common goal, an enticing motive, and being fearless helps.
Diamandis is the founder of X PRIZE and the co-author of Abundance: The Future is Better than you Think. The mission of the X PRIZE Foundation is to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity by motivating and inspiring brilliant innovators from all disciplines to leverage their intellectual and financial capital.
Who will innovate? Who HAS innovated?
The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible … and achieve it, generation after generation. Pearl S. Buck, First Woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature
If the above is true, why is it that NIH funding increasingly goes to older researchers?
In 2007, more grants were given to 70-year-old researchers than those under age 30.
The people who will truly innovate are those who have no fear.
What about you? Fearless?
New speakers. New twists on what we think we know about healthcare and our healthcare challenges.
Have a look. TEDMEDLive @ UTHSC is going to be great!
The CHIPS Team is composed of medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy students. The team’s advisor is Dr. Melody Cunningham.
CHIPS: Community Health Initiative Program for Seniors.
The target population is senior companions working with MIFA, even though the team hopes that the MIFA clients will experience a secondary benefit. Components of CHIPS include:
It was noted by the judges that NONE of the team members were born in the 1970s when the show “CHIPS” was running! Thank you, team and judges, for the engaging discussion about your project at the end of your presentation!
Team members of Team POMP were from medicine, pharmacy, graduate health sciences, occupational therapy. Their faculty advisor was Dr. Stuart Caplan. On the title slide is the saying: Leaves are supposed to fall. People aren’t.
The goals of Team POMP’s proposal were to address fall prevention and home safety. The team recommended a fall prevention seminar for the senior companions. The information from the seminar would provide the senior companion with information beneficial to them as well as to the clients that the senior companions serve.
Judges talked about the opportunities for this program to fit in with the existing MIFA programs. All the teams had great interactions with the judges – it was so great that the judges, students, and advisors gave up some of their Saturday for this worthwhile program!
ICE (In Case of Emergency): Personal Health Records
Team members composed of nursing, pharmacy, and medical students. Drs. Steve Nace and Linda Pifer were the team advisors.
The team is interested in addressing the issue of polypharmacy, which is an issue common to an older adult population, such as MIFA’s Senior Companions. The team touched on health literacy, poor patient-provider communication, and health records. Their program objectives were to provide medication reconciliation, improve functional health literacy, and create an ICE Folder.
The team’s logo was a UT along with the green person portion of the MIFA logo, with the words surrounding the icons of Uniting Communities, Education, Research, Clinical Care, Public Service. Clever idea.
The team described horizontal and vertical sustainability and laid out a timeline. They clarified some of the obstacles and answers that were important to address in initiating such a program.
The judges raised some good questions that team members answered quite well.
UTHSC's Teaching & Learning Center 