When Charae McConnell, OTD ’19, read that 84% of occupational therapists (OTs) are white, she knew it was more than an abstract statistic in her class textbook. As an African American, she’d seen the...
“I believe in a health equity first approach to community engagement. If we look at how community engagement impacts the most marginalized and start from there, everyone benefits.” - Sam Alavi...
Doug Stone, ABSN ’20, MSN-FNP ’22, arrived in Medyka, Poland just days after his SMU semester ended in May. Within hours, he started his first shift as the senior medical provider of the local...
Nurse managers are in high demand, and many RNs are pursuing a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree with an eye toward moving into leadership positions. Others are pursuing a BSN to increase...
Shefali Parikh, MOT ’99, still recalls commiserating with classmates after their occupational therapy licensing exam 23 years ago. What worried her classmates most were the hundreds of dollars it cost...
In a photo on her Instagram feed, Guadalupe Vega-Tiistola stands in front of a brightly striped serape, a traditional cloak from Mexico, proudly wearing her new white lab coat that marks her induction...
To no one’s surprise, people’s mental health dramatically declined in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, an additional 129 million documented cases of depression and anxiety were reported...
“I was born of a nurse and married a nurse,” Howard “Mike” Milliken, MD, proudly declares when asked why he has such a strong connection to Samuel Merritt University nurses. During his 40-plus years...
On Jan. 1, the University became independent after being an affiliate of Sutter Health since 1999. We asked SMU President Ching-Hua Wang to tell us why the University chose to become independent and...
When Gul Ahmad Samimi began receiving threats from the Taliban, he made the heart-wrenching decision to leave his home and his family. He fled Afghanistan in 2015, after working for a U.S. aid agency...