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Computer science graduate turns internship experience into a full-time position

Colleen Rich — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 18:47:21 +0000

Computer science graduate turns internship experience into a full-time position Colleen Rich Wed, 12/11/2024 - 13:47

When Dhyeya “Dee” Padhya transferred to ��AV from Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) in fall 2022, he was struck by the vibrant campus life, which was far different than his first two years in college during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dhyeya “Dee” Padhya

“Coming to George Mason there were so many things happening like fairs and club events. That was definitely a very welcomed change for me,” Padhya said. “I felt like a new person and George Mason was a huge part of these last few formative years of my life.”

He is set to graduate in December 2024 with a BS in computer science and a minor in computational and data science.

During his time at George Mason, Padhya worked in the University Career Services office as the senior front desk student assistant, where he greeted students and gave them career assistance, as well as managing the career advisors’ appointments and calendars.

He also helped administer career assessments and did set-up work and guided students at George Mason’s well-attended career fairs.

For his commitment to career services at George Mason, Padhya was featured on the cover of this year’s Career Readiness Guide.

This summer, Padhya also got professional experience in his field as a data analyst intern at Capital One.

“With a computer science major, an internship is very important. I definitely felt prepared for it with the help of my [CS 450 Database Concepts] course with Professor Ping Deng and my [CS 484 Data Mining] course with Jessica Lin. Those courses were definitely the most helpful for my internship,” said Padhya.

What’s your best memory of George Mason?

Getting the call that I got the internship at Capital One was definitely one of the best experiences of my life. Part of my responsibilities were what we call “productionizing” a data set. There was a whole process of getting data from the right sources, cleaning it, and then automating that process to automatically update the data on a weekly basis.

How have you grown while at George Mason?

Throughout high school I was a straight-A student, but my very first class here was a challenge for me and I ended up getting a B minus. It took some getting used to, but just coming to terms with the fact that it’s not the end of the world if I’m not perfect was really impactful.

Best piece of advice for incoming students?

Don’t have the mindset that you’re underqualified for something. The job market is very difficult right now, but I think it’s important to understand that your GPA, while important, isn’t ALL that matters in the professional world. During job interviews for me it was more about what my personal and professional experiences were. Employers want to know who you are as a person and what experiences have you had that led you to become that person. I also think it’s important to engage with all the resources George Mason has to offer, like the Career Services office.

What’s next for you?

I will be returning to Capital One for a full-time data analyst position after graduation.

Discover what University Career Services can do for you

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George Mason’s Fuse at Mason Square opens with its commercial launch

Colleen Rich — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 20:25:07 +0000

George Mason’s Fuse at Mason Square opens with its commercial launch Colleen Rich Mon, 12/09/2024 - 15:25

��AV gave the public its first look at Fuse at Mason Square and what it’s in store for the metropolitan Washington, D.C., region with the building’s Dec. 6 commercial launch.

From left, President Gregory Washington with speakers from the event Ryan Touhill, U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, Brian Naumick, and Liza Wilson Durant. Photo by Ayman Rashid/Office of University Branding

A state-of-the-art tech research hub intended to be a beacon for students, researchers, and entrepreneurs to come together and collaborate, Fuse will serve as the center for technological advances in the region, fostering innovation in various sectors while adding to the tech talent pipeline necessary to help fuel the economies of the region and the commonwealth of Virginia.

“The most surefire way to strengthen an innovation ecosystem is for a top-tier research university, local industry, and the community to join together in partnership,” said George Mason President Gregory Washington.

The 345,000-square-foot-building, which will welcome students in Fall 2025, features specialized labs for robotics and virtual reality and data visualization, as well as office spaces, retail, and co-working areas and classrooms.

Rep. Don Beyer, who is working toward a master’s degree in computer science at George Mason, was among the speakers to laud the project at the brief ceremony in Arlington. Photo by Ayman Rashid/Office of University Branding

Fuse cost roughly $254 million to construct, with $90 million each contributed by George Mason and the commonwealth’s Tech Talent Investment Program, as well as $78 million from Edgemoor Infrastructure and Real Estate.

George Mason announced in October that the building’s first tenant, Cybastion, a cybersecurity and digital IT company focused on emerging markets, would move into Fuse in spring 2025. The restaurant Wood & Iron will be located on the ground floor. About 75% of the building’s commercial space has been committed.

U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), who is enrolled at George Mason and working toward a master’s degree in computer science with a concentration in machine learning, was among the speakers to laud the project at the brief ceremony in Arlington, joining Washington; Liza Wilson Durant, George Mason’s associate provost for strategic initiatives and community engagement who is also the associate dean of George Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing and director of the Northern Virginia node of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative; Ryan Touhill, director of Arlington Economic Development; and Brian Naumick, vice president and managing director of Edgemoor.

George Mason's Liza Wilson Durant took questions from the media about the new building. Photo by Ayman Rashid/Office of University Branding

Fuse at Mason Square supports the Tech Talent Investment Program, a 20-year initiative aimed at producing 25,000 additional tech graduates in Virginia. The building will house George Mason’s Institute for Digital Innovation and the new School of Computing, part of the College of Engineering and Computing, and will offer courses in artificial intelligence, data analytics, and cybersecurity.

Washington expects the new building to be a catalyst for economic growth. “When we started the Fuse project in April of 2022, I said then that we’re not just breaking ground on a building—we’re breaking ground on Virginia’s future,” he said. “That future begins in earnest today with the Fuse leasing grand opening.”

In This Story

Gregory Washington

Liza Wilson Durant

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Cyber savant hacks his way onto international team

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 16:48:51 +0000

Cyber savant hacks his way onto international team Nathan Kahl Tue, 12/03/2024 - 11:48

Dylan Victor Knoff is president of the Mason Competitive Cyber (MCC) club, a computer science major, and the kind of self-motivated hacker you might see rummaging through Goodwill bins, in his free time looking for a $4 router that he can use to bolster his resume.

“I’ll pull it apart and take the firmware off the chip. It's good fun, responsibly and ethically doing stuff to it, of course, and then reporting vulnerabilities,” he said.

The ��AV junior likes to examine routers because they are more likely than other devices to have detectable problems. Once he finds a vulnerability, per industry practice, he reports it to the vendor and then MITRE, the nonprofit that that catalogs firmware and software problems. Getting a mention on their common vulnerabilities and exposures listing looks good professionally for young cyber sleuths.

This ambition to make the cyber world a better, safer place is a theme in Knoff’s life. First, he started a Capture the Flag (CTF) team during high school, and then he attended a university cyber club while still a teen. When the Orlando native and first-gen college student could have chosen the local University of Central Florida, instead he left home for George Mason, recognizing the university’s prowess in the field and the benefit of being close to potential employers in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region. Knowing that breaking into cybersecurity is no Mickey Mouse endeavor, shortly after arriving in Fairfax he networked with the Battelle intern coordinator and subsequently landed a paid, full-time co-op with the STEM giant.

When he's not hacking routers, Knoff enjoys Shenandoah National Park

Knoff is on the U.S. Cyber Team and in October competed at the International Cybersecurity Challenge in Santiago, Chile. He said, “We competed against other countries’ teams in a two-day CTF, where one day was attack-and-defend, and the second day was on vulnerability assessment and exploit development.”

Knoff’s research focus is reverse engineering and vulnerability research. “I'll find something wrong with a specific device or framework and I'll find a ‘zero day,’ which is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor, and then I'll disclose it to them,” he said, indicating the standard industry practice.

For next year’s DistrictCon, a hacker conference in Washington, D.C., in February, Knoff and two members of MCC participated in the Junkyard Contest, where participants find vulnerabilities in devices; they discovered a stunning eight zero days on one router.

Knoff is giving a separate talk at the conference, on return-oriented programming, a way that hackers can get into a system by reusing code that already exists in a program. “I made this tool that utilizes computer emulation to analyze and visualize the memory side effects of elements that make up a return-oriented attack. Using data aggregation, these elements are then sorted based on their exploitation effects and made easily searchable to an operator.” He made the tool open source, available to anyone on GitHub, and is releasing an updated version the day of the talk.

On rare days when he’s not at a keyboard, Knoff enjoys getting outside, especially for a hike. “I love going to Shenandoah with my friends, doing Old Rag and White Oak,” he said, referencing two of the more popular—and challenging—Shenandoah National Park trails.

Currently he’s entertaining offers for two new co-ops, with the hopes of potentially spinning one of those into full-time employment. And whether scaling digital peaks or the rugged trails of Shenandoah, Knoff will find himself climbing…toward discovery and solutions in a safer cyber world.

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George Mason expands partnership with GDIT to build a skilled and diverse technology workforce

Colleen Rich — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 17:02:19 +0000

George Mason expands partnership with GDIT to build a skilled and diverse technology workforce Colleen Rich Wed, 10/30/2024 - 13:02

��AV announced this week an expanded partnership with General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), a business unit of General Dynamics, to enhance career development opportunities for university students and GDIT’s workforce. The focus areas include cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and government contracting.

The partnership strengthens George Mason’s role as a key economic driver in Northern Virginia and a critical source of tech talent, while broadening GDIT’s efforts to cultivate a skilled and diversified talent pipeline.

“George Mason has been recognized over the years in numerous college rankings as Virginia’s top public university for diversity, innovation, cybersecurity, homeland security, service to military veterans, and service to students outside the traditional college ages," said George Mason President Gregory Washington. “We are committed to partnering in the region to meet the pace of change in the today’s workforce, providing opportunities for students of all ages and backgrounds to pursue a rigorous education and lead successful careers, and attracting and keeping talent in Virginia.”

This collaboration also aligns with GDIT’s technology investment strategy, which emphasizes employee growth and upskilling. It also enhances government contracting capabilities by leveraging George Mason’s Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting, located within the Costello College of Business. The center is the nation’s first dedicated to addressing business, policy, and regulatory issues in government contracting.

“Expanding our partnership with George Mason demonstrates our commitment to investing in the future workforce,” said Amy Gilliland, GDIT’s president. “As the largest and most diverse educational institution in Northern Virginia, George Mason has played a pivotal role in shaping our talent pipeline for more than a decade. We look forward to further strengthening our relationship so GDIT will continue to be a top employer of choice for George Mason students.”

U.S. News & World Report, the Wall Street Journal, and Washington Monthly all rank George Mason as a top public university for the upward mobility of its graduates.

As part of the expanded partnership, GDIT will collaborate with George Mason on several programs, including:

Partnering with the College of Engineering and Computing, as well as Costello College of Business, to expand recruitment opportunities, career mentorship programs, networking sessions, technology open houses, and capstone projects.
Offering students, faculty, and staff opportunities to participate in various GDIT events and initiatives, such as cyber hackathons, career development seminars, and technology showcases at the GDIT Emerge Innovation Center.
Providing industry expertise for George Mason’s Clearance Readiness Program to prepare students interested in a career in the cleared space.
Hosting leadership insight sessions focused on mental health, career pathways, work-based communication skills, and resiliency.

This partnership is part of GDIT’s workforce initiative, which collaborates with high schools, colleges, and universities across the country. GDIT has formed similar partnerships with institutions in Louisiana, Colorado, Texas, and Missouri to foster the next generation of technology innovators and make a positive impact in these communities.

George Mason, one of the largest universities to receive state funding through the Tech Talent Investment Program, has committed to increasing its computing graduates, in both undergraduate and graduate computing programs, to almost 16,000 students over the next two decades. With flourishing partnerships with leading companies like General Dynamics and initiatives supporting small businesses and entrepreneurship across the state, George Mason is building on the more than 15,000 paid or stipend-supported internships available to students annually.

��AV has committed to increasing graduates in both undergraduate and graduate computing programs to almost 16,000 students as part of the state's Tech Talent Investment Program.

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College of Public Health receives NIH grant to pilot AI chatbot for African Americans with depression

Mary Cunningham — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 17:03:05 +0000

College of Public Health receives NIH grant to pilot AI chatbot for African Americans with depression Mary Cunningham Mon, 06/10/2024 - 13:03

In This Story

Farrokh Alemi, PhD

Janusz Wojtusiak, PhD

Kevin Lybarger

As a leader in innovative health solutions, ��AV’s College of Public Health received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) AIM-AHEAD program grant to pilot an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot for Black and African Americans with depression. Professor Farrokh Alemi will enhance his first-of-its-kind, evidence-based artificial intelligence tool to address the medication needs of African Americans with depression.

Professor of Health Informatics Farrokh Alemi

The existing AI tool recommends antidepressants for 16,775 general-population patient subgroups, each representing a unique combination of medical history. For each of these subgroups, the current project will analyze the effectiveness and appropriateness of the recommendations for African Americans, using the NIH All of Us database and existing published literature.

To the researchers' knowledge, this is the first research focused on developing and evaluating an antidepressant recommendation system for Black and African American people.

“Antidepressant medications are a first-line treatment for depression; however, a majority of depressed patients do not experience improvement with their first antidepressant. Additionally, minority populations, including Black and African Americans, are not well represented in antidepressant studies, contributing to reduced antidepressant effectiveness in these populations,” said Alemi. “There is a significant need to synthesize available evidence regarding antidepressant effectiveness and provide personalized treatment recommendations, and this project addresses a major gap in the management of Black and African Americans with depression.”

Researchers will develop a Knowledge-enhanced Antidepressant Recommendation Dialogue System (KARDS), which will engage users in a back-and-forth conversation to acquire the patient information needed to identify the appropriate antidepressant medication. The AI will provide the patient with a list of recommended medications, list of the relevant studies, and an explanation for the medication decisions. The system will automatically send the patient’s clinician a brief point-of-care recommendation and explanation, with an option to examine a complete record of the conversation and the supporting evidence.

“Chatbots—or patient-facing dialogue systems like the one we will create—hold transformative potential for the health care sector and are increasingly prominent in psychiatric applications, predominantly through therapy-bot implementations,” said Alemi. “Our chatbot will help improve the detailed, time-consuming, medical history intake process, and provide point-of-care summary and prescription recommendations to the patients’ clinicians. The chatbot will make patients more comfortable because the natural language modality provides an intuitive, empathetic, stigma-free interface.”

Once the AI chatbot is developed, the team will test the dialogue system with Black and African American patients to evaluate system functionality and user preferences. Additionally, the project will train a Black or African American doctoral or master’s student in AI, expanding the available workforce and building the community’s capacity to address AI.

Alemi will lead the research team, which includes Janusz Wojtusiak, a George Mason professor of Health Informatics and the director of the Machine Learning and Inference Laboratory, and Kevin Lybarger, a George Mason assistant professor in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology in the College of Engineering and Computing. All three members have collaborated previously to diagnose COVID at home from presenting symptoms.

The $70,906 grant is part of the NIH’s AIM-AHEAD (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity) program, which aims “to establish mutually beneficial and coordinated partnerships to increase the participation and representation of researchers and communities currently underrepresented in the development of AI/machine learning models and enhance the capabilities of this emerging technology, beginning with electronic health record data.”

Innovate for Good is an ongoing series that examines how George Mason faculty in the College of Public Health are harnessing technology to improve health outcomes.

If you have stories to share as part of the Innovate for Good series, email Mary Cunningham at mcunni7@gmu.edu.

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George Mason, Howard receive $1 million from Google to launch Cybersecurity Clinic

Colleen Rich — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 19:11:38 +0000

George Mason, Howard receive $1 million from Google to launch Cybersecurity Clinic Colleen Rich Wed, 06/05/2024 - 15:11

The National Security Institute’s Cyber and Tech Center (CTC) at ��AV’s Antonin Scalia Law School and Howard University School of Business (HUSB) have been selected to receive $1 million in support from Google’s Cybersecurity Clinics Fund to establish the NSI CTC – HUSB Cybersecurity Clinic. The funding from Google.org, the company’s philanthropic arm, is part of a $25 million collaboration with the Consortium of Cybersecurity Clinics.

Hazel Hall at Mason Square. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Cybersecurity clinics at higher education institutions provide free digital security services to under-resourced organizations, similar to how law or medical schools offer free community clinics. The new NSI CTC – HUSB Cybersecurity Clinic will give students from George Mason and HUSB the opportunity to learn cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI) skills in an effective, hands-on manner while simultaneously helping to protect vulnerable organizations and critical infrastructure, such as local small businesses, hospitals, schools, and nonprofit organizations, from cyber attacks.

The added opportunities for George Mason students come at a critical time and could prove beneficial in fueling the growing tech talent workforce needed for the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area. Forty-one percent of the undergraduates of the Class of 2024—and 44 percent of the graduate students—earned degrees in STEM fields and the health sciences. Computer science was among the top five majors for bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degree recipients.

According to the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Risks Report, cyber insecurity remains one of the top 10 global risks over the next 10 years. Currently, there are nearly 450,000 open cybersecurity jobs available in the United States, including more than 90,000 cybersecurity jobs across the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, and demand for cyber professionals is projected to grow 32% by 2033. To ensure that communities, critical infrastructure, and businesses big and small across the United States are secure, a skilled, diverse, and AI savvy cybersecurity workforce is needed.

The NSI CTC – HUSB Cybersecurity Clinic is a jointly developed and run multidisciplinary clinic that educates and trains students from both universities on cybersecurity in a classroom and clinical setting. Thanks to the generous support of Google, the clinic will be able to provide students critical hands-on practical experience from faculty, lecturers, and mentors, enabling them to provide direct cybersecurity assistance to public critical infrastructure organizations, including state and local governments, K-12 schools, utilities, public hospitals, and small businesses within the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area—all of which are facing a barrage of cybersecurity threats without the resources to address these threats.

The region is not only a thriving tech hub, but it also houses numerous universities and other educational institutions that are training the next generation of cybersecurity practitioners. The new clinic seeks to ensure that tomorrow’s workforce is diverse, capable, and motivated to strengthen the overall cybersecurity resilience of the broader communities.

“Scalia Law is thrilled to be partnering with the Howard University School of Business and Google.org on this important effort to educate young leaders and drive positive cybersecurity outcomes in the local community,” said Ken Randall, Allison and Dorothy Rouse Dean and ��AV Foundation Professor of Law at the Scalia Law School.

“This funding from Google for a new cybersecurity clinic allows both institutions to extend our efforts to support workforce development in the region and increase exposure to this technology. The work of the clinic promises to be very impactful in addressing an important educational need in a critical technology area,” said Anthony D. Wilbon, PhD, dean of the Howard University School of Business.

“Both universities have deep ties to cybersecurity and innovation—from expert faculty to students eager to tackling tomorrow’s technology challenges—and the clinic will be a great step forward to broadening and diversifying the technology education pipeline in the region,” said Jessica Jones, deputy executive director of the National Security Institute.

“The world is in a moment where emerging technologies, like AI, are creating both new opportunities and threats in the world of cybersecurity,” said Heather Adkins, vice president of Security Engineering at Google. “It’s essential that we invest in growing a strong, diverse and widespread cybersecurity workforce to help protect everyone—from critical infrastructure to small businesses and schools.”

The NSI CTC – HUSB Cybersecurity Clinic is one of 15 new clinics set to launch in 2024 at higher education institutions across the country, thanks to a collaboration from Google and the Consortium of Cybersecurity Clinics. In addition to the Google.org support, the tech company is offering NSI CTC and HUSB volunteer mentorship from Google employees, Google Titan Security Keys, and scholarships for the Google Career Certificate in Cybersecurity. Learn more on Google’s blog and the consortium’s website.

The announcement builds on Google’s 2023 support for 10 clinics, part of a combined commitment to launch 25 Google-supported cyber clinics nationwide by 2025. With the latest round of funding, Google.org has now committed more than $25 million toward creating the diverse and AI- and digital-security savvy workforce needed to protect critical U.S. infrastructure from cyber-attacks.

Learn more about cybersecurity at George Mason

George Mason faculty are tackling cybersecurity’s talent pipeline problem

Jennifer Anzaldi — Fri, 10 May 2024 17:01:06 +0000

George Mason faculty are tackling cybersecurity’s talent pipeline problem Jennifer Anzaldi Fri, 05/10/2024 - 13:01

If you’re a cybercriminal, the latest news on cybersecurity talent shortfalls should put a smile on your face. For example, the majority of cybersecurity leaders report that their teams are understaffed, and they have problems retaining qualified professionals.

But for Nirup Menon, a ��AV professor of information systems and operations management (ISOM), and Brian Ngac, an instructor in the ISOM area, this workforce challenge is a golden career opportunity for the young people of Northern Virginia and the Washington, D.C., area.

Nirup Menon and Brian Ngac

The pair recently won a two-year award from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, to create unique experiential learning opportunities and workshops designed to enhance cybersecurity education and workforce development.

Working closely with industry partners Mobius Consulting and Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), Menon and Ngac will recruit and help select students to work on actual cybersecurity projects. “They need to have taken some fundamental cyber class ahead of time,” Menon clarifies. “We want students with a commitment to the field. It allows you to get experience but it’s also competitive.”

Throughout the 12-week projects, students will receive mentoring both from the industry participant and from business faculty. “We run it in an agile scrum-like manner,” Ngac says. “Every week, we ask ‘What did you do?’ ‘What are you going to do?’ ‘What are the challenges that are impacting your work?’” If students run into trouble, faculty mentors can work with industry managers to help them get back on track.

“We’re trying to build not just the cyber workforce but the skills as well,” Ngac says.

Menon and Ngac have developed a specialty in this type of hands-on learning, which they have dubbed the Professional Readiness Experiential Program (PREP). More than 100 Virginia-based undergraduates and 20 industry participants have participated in PREP, which includes projects funded by two Commonwealth Cybersecurity Initiative Experiential Learning grants in collaboration with Mobius and IDA.

“PREP not only focuses on cybersecurity projects, but also works on many business process improvement projects,” says Ngac. "Honors and high-performing ISOM students work on real-world projects with industry participants on identifying technical solutions to business challenges through rigorous research, modelling, analysis, quantification, risk management, implementation planning, and, at times, execution.”

The NIST award also incorporates workshops for students who are new to cybersecurity but interested in exploring it as a career option. Workshops will be launched in collaboration with Trinity Washington University (TWU), an HBCU whose College of Arts and Sciences is women-only. For a field such as cybersecurity, which continues to face diversity challenges, the participation of organizations such as TWU is essential.

“We want to bring in students who have not thought of cybersecurity as a field, because they think it’s all engineering, hacking and coding,” Menon says. The workshops will emphasize the variety of functions that are integral to the space, such as management and auditing, in addition to engineering.

Students and industry participants in the current CCI Experiential Learning Projects

“It’s not just tech, there may be creativity involved in anticipating scams and threats,” Ngac explains. “These are different things we’ll be bringing up in the workshop in terms of roleplaying what cybercriminals might do, or how someone might try to socially engineer an attack.”

Unlike a standard grant, the NIST award is structured as a cooperative agreement in which the funding agency will collaborate in shaping and delivering programs as they evolve.

“The advantage of working with NIST is that top people work there. They are the standards body, so they have seen and surveyed a lot of industry,” Menon says. He also lauds NIST’s high-level view of cybersecurity and its implications. “They’re not just looking at technology but also public policy, human factors, etc. It’s a holistic approach.”

Organizations interested in being an industry participant (whether they have cybersecurity-focused or business process improvement-focused projects) with PREP are encouraged to contact Brian Ngac.

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Associate Professor Erin D. Maughan receives VDOE Grant to invigorate the future of school nursing

Taylor Thomas — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 17:53:38 +0000

Associate Professor Erin D. Maughan receives VDOE Grant to invigorate the future of school nursing Taylor Thomas Fri, 02/09/2024 - 12:53

Both regionally and across the country, there is a severe lack of programs dedicated to school nursing administrators (i.e. nurses who lead school nursing and school health programs at the district level). Erin Maughan, an associate professor in College of Public Health’s School of Nursing at ��AV, intends to remedy this with a $364,503 grant from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). With the funding, Maughan will establish the School Nursing Leadership Academy.

Erin D. Maughan

"There are over 130,000 school nurses across the nation, who are central to the foundation of the health and well-being of children,” Maughan said. "The goal of the academy is to develop leaders in school nursing who have the knowledge and skills needed to successfully oversee school health programs at the district level, as well as state and regional school nursing associations."

The academy, which is expected to be fully developed by June 2024, will be designed to train future leaders in school nursing using TeamSTEPPS, an evidence-based curriculum that prioritizes incorporating effective communication and teamwork into the health care system. The program will take place over one-and-a-half years and will incorporate experiential learning, equestrian activity, and expert-led discussions.

In addition, Mason's Center for Health Workforce is guiding the development of sustainable asynchronous modules for the professional development program, which along with virtual webinars, will provide additional information and mentoring opportunities.

The program kicks off with three days of in–person instruction, during which participants will use virtual reality (VR) modules to practice interprofessional skills and conflict management. Mason's College of Public Health is a leader in integrating VR into the curriculum and training of future health care leaders.

“Participating in the VR will allow gaining experience in a safe, nonthreatening environment where we can talk about how they reacted so they will have confidence and experience when they encounter situations in the real world,” said Maughan.

Maughan was originally approached by the VDOE’s state school nurse consultant Tracy White, who wanted to foster more leadership training and was aware of Maughan’s passion to do so as well. Together, they set into motion plans to create the academy.

Maughan is a leading expert on school nursing and the health of school-age children. Her research expertise is in looking at the role of infrastructure and policy on school nurse staffing and services. In addition, she has expertise in leadership, strategic planning, innovation, and mentoring. Her career is dedicated to children’s health, especially vulnerable populations. She is excited to contribute her skills and knowledge for the success of the academy.

“Having been a school nurse leader and researcher for many years, it has been a dream of mine to create such a program,” said Maughan. "I hope this program will build excitement and create a network of confident school nurse leaders who can transform school nursing in their districts, so that frontline school nurses have the guidance and support they need to work to their full scope of practice.

Maughan emphasizes how this program is not only for school nurses but also for the students they will be serving.

At its core, the School Nursing Leadership Academy is about building capacity to help school nurse leaders build their confidence and skills needed to do well in the position,” said Maughan. “We are confident this initiative will position school nurses and their program leaders to work effectively with school administrators, local health departments, health care providers and families to positively impact student health, and thus improve child health in the commonwealth and the rest of the nation.”

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Erin D. Maughan, PhD

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November 6, 2024
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November 1, 2024
New study shows that university students experienced increased psychological distress during COVID-19, but utilized fewer support services
October 30, 2024

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Mason Students, Grads Claim Top Prizes in TraCCC’s 2023 Anti-Counterfeiting Hackathon

Andrew J Schappert — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 21:27:32 +0000

Mason Students, Grads Claim Top Prizes in TraCCC’s 2023 Anti-Counterfeiting Hackathon Andrew J Schappert Tue, 11/14/2023 - 16:27

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Louise I. Shelley

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Trading under the team name of CyberCrustaceans, ��AV students Anthony Perry and Daniel Horvath—both Honors College students—defeated five finalist teams to win the $20,000 top prize at the Bring Down Counterfeiting Hackathon 2023 (BDC 2023). The hackathon, a nationally advertised competition that began in September, brought together individuals and teams to develop technology-based solutions for combating counterfeiting.

From left, Anthony Perry and Daniel Horvath, aka Team CyberCrustaceans, won the top prize in the Bring Down Counterfeiting Hackathon 2023. Photos by Ayman Rashid/Office of University Branding

BDC 2023 was organized by the Schar School of Policy and Government’s Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) in partnership with strategy and analytic firm Blue Clarity, which administered the competition. Major sponsors included e-commerce and technology company Amazon.com Inc. and the Global Innovation Policy Center, a department within the U.S. Chamber of Commerce devoted to promoting innovation, creativity, and strong intellectual property protections.

CyberCrustaceans’ $20,000 winning entry, called Veritas Ex Machina, was deemed by a panel of practitioner judges to be a breakthrough combination of X-ray technology, optical scanning, and artificial intelligence designed to sift through enormous volumes of small parcels to detect the likelihood of counterfeit product.

The $10,000 Student Prize, SafeURL, was won by a team of Mason graduate students called Tech Titans who tackled the digital domain of counterfeiting with a system designed to uncover fraudulent websites. By employing sophisticated machine-learning algorithms, they crafted a user-friendly platform that helps users discern the legitimacy of URLs, enhancing online security and trust.

The Tech Titans team, which also took home the $2,500 Crowdsource Prize, included Siva Satyanarayana Raju Pusapati, Sampath Sai Yelleti, Hemanth Kumar Reddy Tiyyagura, Chandra Kiran Viswanath Balusu, Anusha Bhavanam, and Poojasree Keerithipati.

The $10,000 CINA prize for research, sponsored by Mason’s Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis Center (CINA), went to Mason students Salem Abdul-Bak and Krishna Purohit (also an Honors College student) and for the Legitima project, which bridges technology with policy. The program uses serialized tokens and a Chrome extension that functions as a digital passport for products, enhancing consumer trust and enabling verification of authenticity. In addition to $10,000, the students receive a semester of mentoring by CINA experts and the opportunity to present their project to a wider audience.

Three other teams with promising concepts won honorable mention prizes worth $1,000 each, bringing the total prize money to $45,500.

Support and prize money came from a variety of organizations including Amazon, Statista, Mapbox, the National Crime Prevention Council, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center, and the International Coalition Against Illicit Economies.

TraCCC founding director Louise Shelley converses with Patrick Kilbride, senior vice president of the Global Innovation Policy Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Hackathon With Purpose

This is the second Hackathon TraCCC has hosted. The competition featured some 80 contestants—faculty and students from many different universities—registering as teams or individuals and working for more than two months to perfect their ideas. Six competitors making the finals were non-Mason.

The competition has two goals: Bringing attention to the serious harms caused by counterfeiting, and encouraging students and others to develop solutions using technology and policy to address the problem.

Counterfeiting is a global problem: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that pirated and counterfeit products make up 2.5 percent of world trade or roughly $464 billion a year. Many if not most of those counterfeit goods present a danger to the public. As an example, during the COVID-19 crisis, TraCCC researchers were able to prevent 67 million counterfeit masks for frontline workers from entering the U.S. market.

“We need the data to show how this problem operates so we can begin to address it,” said TraCCC founding director Louise Shelley of the Hackathon. “And working together, we need public, private, and research partnerships to begin to solve it.”

She added that an additional—and unexpected— benefit of the exercise is to involve technology-oriented students who discover an affinity for policy. She said the participants praised Mason and appreciated the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills.

Six finalist teams presented their solutions at Mason Square in Arlington, Virginia, on November 4 during Hackathon Demo Day, defending them under questioning from a panel of judges that included leading practitioners from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Customs and Border Patrol, and Amazon. While the judges deliberated, a series of notable speakers, including Summer Kostelnik, policy advisor from the White House Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement, offered their views on trends in counterfeiting and what needs to be done to counter them.

Hackathon 3 will be announced later in 2024.

Topics

Hackathon

Schar School of Policy and Government Terrorism Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC)

Schar School of Policy and Government

Schar School News for November 2023

Campus News

entrepreneurship

Mason Square

Schar School Featured Stories

Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP)

Podcast - Ep 53: The critical importance of shared humanity

Damian Cristodero — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 17:44:10 +0000

Podcast - Ep 53: The critical importance of shared humanity Damian Cristodero Fri, 11/10/2023 - 12:44

Content Warning

This story contains references to themes of suicide which some individuals may find distressing.

Dean Melissa Perry joins Mason president Gregory Washington in the studio to discuss to 'epidemic of loneliness' and the importance of a shared humanity.

Photo credit:

Cristian Torres/��AV

Melissa Perry, dean of ��AV’s College of Public Health, is an ardent proponent of virtual reality and AI as tools to help solve the nation’s health challenges. But, as she tells Mason President Gregory Washington, a technology overload has also helped create an “epidemic of loneliness” that has heightened the importance of a shared humanity and “being present for each other.” Perry also discusses her suicide attempt as a teenager which ultimately inspired her career in public health.

^{Getting back to my point about ensuring we remain focused on access and equity, making sure we don’t create digital divides by whatever strategies we’re using AI for. We want to make sure our advancements and our improvements will benefit population health, not just privileged populations that are inclined to navigate sophisticated systems. We want to make it as accessible and level the playing field for everyone."}

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Read the Transcript

Narrator (00:04):

Trailblazers in research, innovators in technology, and those who simply have a good story all make up the fabric that is ��AV, where taking on the grand challenges that face our students graduates and higher education is our mission and our passion hosted by Mason President Gregory Washington. This is the Access to Excellence podcast. This podcast includes a discussion about suicide. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis, please reach out immediately to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also contact the crisis text line at 741-741. These services are free and confidential.

Gregory Washington:
Melissa Perry grew up in rural Vermont about six miles from the Canadian border. As she prepared to attend the University of Vermont in Burlington, she fretted about driving in the city because as she said, it would be too scary and too complicated. But there is nothing timid about what Dr. Perry, the Dean of ��AV's College of Public Health, the first college of public health in Virginia, has accomplished in her career. Dr. Perry is the immediate past co-chair of the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine Committee on Emerging Science. And she is an ardent proponent of virtual reality as a tool to help solve what she calls Virginia's triple health crisis: A dramatic rise in opioid overdoses, the growing demand for mental health services, and the declining supply of qualified healthcare practitioners. She also has a famous relative singer, Katie Perry, which we'll talk about. Dr. Perry, welcome to the show,

Melissa Perry (02:00):

Dr. Washington. I couldn't be more excited to be here. Thanks so much.

Gregory Washington (02:03):

Let's just get things started here. I'm curious what it was like for you, coming from a small town in Highgate, Vermont. Is it true that you were one of only two students in your graduating class to go on to college?

Melissa Perry (02:17):

It is true, in fact. So I went to Missisquoi Valley Union High School, so it was a union school that had several different feeder towns, and I was coming from Highgate, Vermont, and the students from my town, there was a handful of about 30 or so students, and only two of us ended up going to college. So of our 400-student graduating class two from Highgate, Vermont went to college.

Gregory Washington (02:44):

So what did the other students do?

Melissa Perry (02:46):

Well, in Highgate, it's a really small town, as you mentioned, just six miles south of the Canadian border. Not a lot of industry, not a lot of opportunity to be upwardly mobile, economically mobile. So folks would sometimes farm. They sometimes would work in local stores or gas stations. Sometimes they would go into logging, oftentimes into construction. But they oftentimes stayed close to home and really didn't venture far out of our town of Highgate in our county of Franklin County, Vermont.

Gregory Washington (03:19):

So you go to the University of Vermont. How did your time there change your worldview and maybe even guide your career choices? How did that happen?

Melissa Perry (03:27):

Going to university had a huge impact on me. During high school, I had a really troubled time, and it was quite unlikely that I would go to college. A lot of folks didn't believe that I was gonna be able to make it. And when I finally arrived at the University of Vermont, if you can imagine this, it was the first time that I ever had health insurance. So prior to that, growing up in Vermont, our health insurance policy was essentially don't get sick, um, . So I arrive on campus and it was very overwhelming because being from a tiny town, I hadn't had a lot of metropolitan experiences. I hadn't really ventured far out of my town, whereas Burlington, Vermont, really felt like a metropolis. And there were so many students coming from other states who had a lot more resources and a lot more travel, and a lot of exposure to a lot of parts of the world that I'd never seen myself. And in fact, there was a disparaging term for people coming directly from Vermont. They were referred to as woodchucks. And so I was seen as a woodchuck my first year in college. Ultimately, I was able to overcome that feeling of inhibition and embarrassment, but really showing up for the first time in Burlington, Vermont on that campus was, in the beginning very intimidating and very overwhelming, but ultimately it became, education became so affirming for me. I understood once that door opened, I just wanted to keep going.

Gregory Washington (04:56):

That is the liberating power of education, isn't it?

Melissa Perry (04:59):

Absolutely. Absolutely. That's my story.

Gregory Washington (05:02):

So tell me a little bit about your relationship to Katy Perry.

Melissa Perry (05:06):

So Katy Perry, my father left our family when I was really young. I was like two years old when he first left. And he was essentially estranged from our family. It was my brother and mother and me, and I didn't have a lot of connections with him over the years. Later on, I came to learn that he had a half-sister, so his father remarried and had a daughter, and that daughter was Christine. And Christine is Katie's mom. So in fact, Katie and I share the same paternal grandfather, and that makes us first half-cousins.

Gregory Washington (05:42):

First half cousins.

Melissa Perry (05:44):

That’s right, that's right.

Gregory Washington (05:45):

You know where I'm from. We just say, first cousin ,

Melissa Perry (05:50):

We share the same grandfather.

Gregory Washington (05:53):

No, understood. Understood. So let's talk a little bit about you being dean of the first College of Public Health in Virginia. You worked at public health colleges before, and I think when we got connected to you, you were at GW. But I know you've spent some time at John Hopkins, at Harvard, and at GW. Talk to us a little bit about why is the distinction of being a college of public health so important.

Melissa Perry (06:18):

Absolutely. Yes. I think altogether, I've been at schools and colleges of public health for almost 35 years. And in fact, right now there are over 30,000 students in the country that are getting degrees in schools, colleges, and programs of public health. They are studying at the undergraduate level, at the master's level, and at the doctoral level. They are studying epidemiology, they're studying health services, they're studying social determinants of health. They're studying environmental health, and infectious diseases. And here at our college, we also have components of public health that include nursing and also social work. So suffice it to say a college or school of public health makes sure that we have the opportunity to train in very focused ways to prepare a whole myriad of public health experts that can respond to the pressing needs of our country.

Gregory Washington (07:17):

So what is your vision for the college? Where do you want to take it and what kind of impact can it have?

Melissa Perry (07:22):

There is no doubt in my mind that this college can have a tremendous impact. Being the first college in the Commonwealth has been an ultimate honor, privilege, and important opportunity that we are pushing forward to be a leader in providing training, structured training and opportunities for folks in the Commonwealth and beyond that want to sign up for being part of a public health change in our region, in our state, in our nation, and in our world. I'm really excited about being able to convene leaders' expertise and also push forward and generate new knowledge in areas of research. I'm also super excited about how inclusive excellence across this university resonates so powerfully with our College of Public Health. The vast majority of our students, of our faculty, of our staff, they really care in making sure that we ensure health is a human right. And we ensure that everyone has access to health and well-being regardless of where you are in society, regardless of what zip code you live in. And I strongly believe that our College of Public Health is doing this and will continue to push forward with those values and with that mission.

Gregory Washington (08:39):

I love it. Healthcare is a right, and everybody deserves access. You know, that's so important in this day and time. You know, I don't have time to go through all of the programs in the college, but one

Gregory Washington (08:51):

that

Gregory Washington (08:52):

personifies exactly what you've just highlighted there is our Mason and Partners, our MAP clinics, and they provide healthcare to really vulnerable populations in the community. So talk to me about how that program fits into the broader college goals that you have.

Melissa Perry (09:11):

Yes. I have to share the story with you, Dr. Washington. When I was interviewing for this position, and I first learned about Mason and Partner clinics, I almost didn't believe it. What I came to understand was something that hearkened back to a period in my training in the early ‘90s where there was an active interest in people going into health, going into medicine, going into public health, going into nursing, really invested in responding to underserved communities, marginalized communities, and making sure that everyone had access to healthcare. And so, so many of those clinics have somehow disappeared, whereas George Mason has made sure that the Mason and Partner clinics are alive and well, thanks to a lot of hard work on the part of our incredible nurse leaders and our nurse, nursing students, and making sure that everyone, those folks that are the most invisible, the most marginalized, the most hard to reach, are getting access in Fairfax and also in Prince William County. We're super proud of the MAP clinics, and we wanna continue to advance and also ensure that they're as well integrated across the college as possible and also presenting great opportunities for our students across the university.

Gregory Washington (10:27):

It is a fantastic program, and it really does personify the campus. So what other research programs are at the College of Public Health that have you excited?

Melissa Perry (10:39):

We are having a great time in advancing our council on education and Public Health accreditation. This is a big deal for us. Launching this college has meant the support from Mason, the support of the commonwealth, the support of the community. And so now we're hard at work putting together our self-study so that the entire college will be accredited. We're really enjoying the opportunity to integrate nursing. We're very proud of our school of nursing, ensuring that nurses are learning from public health leaders and epidemiologists and health service experts are also learning from nursing. And then also social work. What a point of pride to have a department of social work within a College of public health. And we hear that from students and from faculty saying, this is unique, this is truly interdisciplinary, and this is exactly what we're looking for innovation in health services, provision of healthcare, and also in the prevention of disease.

Gregory Washington (11:36):

Outstanding. Outstanding. So let's talk a little bit about your personal connection to public health. How did you get into the field?

Melissa Perry (11:46):

I really appreciate the question, Dr. Washington. And actually, this goes way back, it goes way back to when I was, was young and growing up in rural Vermont. And in fact, that tiny town had very few, as I mentioned, economic opportunities. There was a lot of strife, a lot of mental and emotional strife. There was unemployment. There were many a single-parent families. There was quite a bit of alcohol abuse, tons of tobacco use, and other drugs. And at a point when I was quite young, right around 14, it was a very lonely time in my life. I was a lonely adolescent. My mom was working night and day at this, actually, it was a local watering hole. It was essentially a snack bar, but it was really a bar. That's how we're able to make some money by selling, uh, beer and wine. And she was working night and day.

Melissa Perry (12:40):

So I didn't have a supportive family or community of friends. I really didn't have anyone. And I reached a point of despair and I was at home alone and felt as though nothing would change, really had hit rock bottom in sadness and loneliness and despair. And so I found a bunch of pills. I didn't know what they were. I just knew at that moment that I didn't wanna continue. I didn't wanna continue living with this kind of pain. And so I took a bunch of pills. I didn't know what they were at the time. I just swallowed, um, I don't know, 50 or so pills. And I guess through tremendous grace, my brother found me. He came home and he found me. He called the ambulance. And the next thing I remember, I woke up in the intensive care unit in Burlington, Vermont. I had tubes everywhere, had no idea how they got there.

Melissa Perry (13:36):

And woke up to realize that three days had passed and I had been in a coma. I was absolutely terrified by what I had just done. I couldn't believe it. It was unfathomable what I had just attempted. At that moment I knew I didn't wanna die. I knew I wanted to live. And it was through the support of a lot of folks, the friends that I didn't know I had, I didn't feel like I had, teachers, mental health workers, guidance counselors. All of these people reached out to me and said to me, you really matter. We don't want to lose you. And I would say, looking back, that that was a transformative moment. That was the moment when I decided I really wanted to make a difference in the world. I wanted to address mental health crises. I wanted to address pain and suffering, and I wanted to get busy living.

Melissa Perry (14:28):

And I just wanted to tell you, Dr. Washington, that, um, this is the first time that I've actually shared this story publicly. And I did it for two reasons. One is that I really respect you and I really trust you, and I know how you and all of our people at George Mason really care about mental health, mental health crises, and people who may be experiencing suicidality or suicidal ideation. So I knew this was a safe place to talk about it. And then secondly, I hope that by sharing this message, if even one person hears this and feels as though this resonates with you, you have to know that there is another side. That it's common to believe that there's not. But you can get through whatever you're dealing with and push through. And there is support to get you through. And I guess my story is, is an example of that.

Gregory Washington (15:26):

Well, first and foremost, I, I'm humbled. I wanna say thank you for sharing. You never know what people are dealing with and what individuals who might be listening to this podcast are dealing with. So I am grateful for you sharing your story, that the story could have an impact on someone else. The reality is you have achieved tremendous heights since that time. You know, and look at where you are today. That's really kind of a message. It's a message of triumph, but it's also a message for people who may be in a point of despair right now. These things can turn around. You can end up at a great point in life. And also, I would say to those of you out here listening, if you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or crisis, please reach out immediately to our suicide and crisis lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also contact the crisis text line at 741-741. These services are all free and confidential. So with that as a backdrop of what you just highlighted to us, what were your thoughts when you read the report by the Centers for Disease Control that said, nearly 57% of teen girls in the US felt persistently sad or hopeless, double that of boys, and 30% of teen girls seriously considered suicide.

Melissa Perry (16:56):

It was incredibly distressing. My first reaction was distressed. The second reaction was, I identify, the third reaction was, I really need to talk about my own experience as a way of reaching out, as a way of affirming what it's like to be in that space as a, as adolescent girl feeling hopeless. I'm really concerned as an epidemiologist and as a public health leader, that we have seen such a tremendous increase in the sense of loneliness and despair and hopelessness. I feel strongly that despite the many, many advances that we've experienced with technology, we're also experiencing a epidemic of loneliness. Mm. In a very paradoxical way. I anchor back to just about 16 years ago, 2007, when the smartphone arrived. And before you know it, we all had this small glass rectangle in our hands. And by its very nature, we start to tune others out.

Melissa Perry (17:59):

There's an important quote that I've used before, and that is behind any type of machine, whether or not it's a gun, a car, or a computer, we are at risk of losing a piece of our humanity. And so as we find ourselves communing at the screen, I think we're disconnecting inadvertently, unconsciously, unintentionally from each other. And so to have such a massive number of teen girls throughout the US experiencing, uh, loneliness and despair tells me that it's critically important to rally support, to turn toward each other, to continuously recognize how much our teens need us as adults, as community members, as friends, as leaders, as parents, as teachers, as educators, and really recognize the critical importance of shared humanity and being present for each other.

Gregory Washington (18:55):

Look, you, you , I don't know if you meant for this to be a class, but you're indeed teaching today. You know, a year or so ago, we did a podcast with Robyn Mehlenbeck, and I don't know if you know, uh, Robyn.

Melissa Perry (19:08):

Yes. I've interacted with Robin for sure. I really admire her leadership at the university.

Gregory Washington1 (19:12):

Yeah. So she heads our Center for Psychological Services and one of the things she said, it stuck with me, and it was, she said, A mental health crisis on the heels of Covid would actually be the country's second pandemic. What do you think about that? And is this all tied together?

Melissa Perry (19:31):

I think that's a very powerful, very insightful statement I wanted to share with you. I thought you’d enjoy hearing that yesterday, I was over in Arlington at the Carter School and we had this great symposium on the many contributions that Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter have made to the world. And so I convened a fireside chat with a colleague of mine, Eliot Sorel, who's a very well-known public mental health, global health psychiatrist. And we talked about the way in which the Carters were grappling with mental health issues in the 1980s. What were the issues then? It was partly ensuring that people were coming out of mental hospitals. It was destigmatizing mental health issues. It was funding research so we could better understand how common these issues were. So we had a very robust conversation. So that's the 1980s. And I mentioned it to say that as a country we've grappled, we grappled with mental health issues. I find that now in the two thousands, 2020s, we are being more open about these conversations. We're also seeing that, for example, pre-COVID, the probability that someone in the US would be experiencing some mental health crisis in their lifetime was around 25%. And that as we are coming out of Covid, the probability that someone 70 or younger might experience some type of mental health crisis has increased to one in two or 50%.

Gregory Washington (21:07):

Whoa.

Melissa Perry (21:08):

So these are very, very real issues. I felt strongly that the extreme isolation that so many millions of people went through during Covid certainly exacerbated mental health issues. The continuous bad news that we all had to consume on a daily basis also exacerbated mental health distress. And I honestly believe, and in some ways the Carter's reinforce this in their notion of community matters. The connections that we have in our lives and how we cultivate them and the way that we seek them out has a tremendous impact on navigating the hardships and the battles that each of us has to navigate on a daily basis.

Gregory Washington (21:50):

I guess kind of all of this seems like it's kind of converging here, right? If you have, the Virginia Department of Health reported that from 2019 to 2020, Virginia saw a 17% increase in overdose deaths. Then in 2021, 37% of adults in Virginia reported symptoms of anxiety or depression. And yet we have 22% of the folk in our population who are unable to get counseling or therapy. When you start to pull all of this together, is this the triple health crisis in Virginia that you were speaking of?

Melissa Perry (22:23):

I think that is very, uh, much how it's manifesting. I think these are very, very, uh, real and pressing and alarming problems. And at the same time, I believe that we can develop solutions. We are developing solutions. I think the awareness, public awareness is absolutely essential. I think unpacking what we're looking at in terms of the healthcare crisis and having enough providers, it partly stems from pushing systems beyond their capacity. And that includes all of the healthcare workers who were pushed far beyond what they could actually handle during Covid. And recognizing that we have to, in many ways make sense and harmonize how we deliver healthcare, how we access populations, and how we support our healthcare providers, our nurses and other health workers, so that they can have a semblance of calm and sanity and harmony in the work that they do and they're so passionate about. Healthcare workers are talking about not as much pay as they're talking about shortages that really compromise their ability to deliver quality care.

Melissa Perry (23:36):

They care about their patients and they can't deliver it. When it comes to the opioid crisis, goodness gracious, who could imagine how lethal our current class of opioids has become? Who could imagine that? We've been contending with drugs as a country for decades now, but we are in a place where these drugs that are currently being used, fentanyl and other drugs are so lethal that it really takes one use to end a life. So I believe a public health approach, a public mental health approach, a population approach to the provision of health, health as a human right, and also health provision as a common good that we all must invest in and believe in and be connected to, is really the answer to this multiple epidemics or what's been referred to as a syndemic of various health crises in the country.

Gregory Washington (24:29):

So why are we stuck in a deficit of this availability of care? It goes well beyond having an adequate number of staff people to deal with it. Why are we stuck?

Melissa Perry (24:40):

Again, I like to anchor back to the early ‘90s when we had very, uh, vigorous conversations as a society and certainly among public health leaders about this notion that healthcare should not be treated as a commodity. It shouldn't be only left to the market to see how it lands. In fact, we have to covet the provision of healthcare to ensure that everyone gets access to quality care rather than just those that can afford it, or just those that can navigate an extremely complicated system. Let's face it, we all recognize that it's getting more and more complicated. I think recent data I've read is that at least 27 million Americans are carrying some type of health-related debt. How did we get there? How did we use healthcare and convert it into a commodity? And with a business mindset when in fact, as a society, we recognize it's critically important that everyone remain healthy and get access to the care that they so deserve.

Gregory Washington (25:45):

So you're a big proponent of virtual reality as a healthcare tool. And in order to tackle a problem like this, we need scale, right? More people need to get access to services and care. So how can VR help in these types of situations?

Melissa Perry (26:02):

Uh, that's a great topic, and you're absolutely right. I think about things in terms of populations. Thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people. That's how I envision how a disease might travel through a population. That tells you so much about the disease, about who's being affected and also what's causing that disease, and what are the factors that are hastening the transmission or the conditions of the disease. To be honest, I like to say that I'm a bit of a digital migrant, and that is that I essentially trained without a lot of technology. I think I typed my, certainly my undergraduate papers on an electric typewriter. So I've never been an early adopter of technology, but when I came to Mason and put on a virtual reality headset for the first time, it was a huge aha moment. It was, okay. So I think cynically, when I heard about VR, I thought, so we're retreating into the virtual world, uh, because we can't solve problems in the real world?

Melissa Perry (27:03):

I think that was my misguided notion. But once I experienced VR, I realized, oh, this is such a powerful way to immerse our students in real-world situations. So sure, you can do role-playing in the classroom, but how about having immersive situations where you really feel like you're there either treating a patient or how about dealing with a person who might be in a mental health crisis? You don't want to be exposed to that for the first time when you're in the middle of it. You really want to, um, have preparation. You wanna have a simulation. So I'm super excited by the many skills and the many creative exposures we can give our students to best prepare them to go out into the world and know how are they going to treat their first patient, or how are they going to navigate, let's say, the new unknown epidemic or a new chemical exposure? We can write scenarios. We can write cases that will have students work through all of those issues and be well-prepared when they graduate.

Gregory Washington (28:10):

That's interesting. 'cause you, you and I aren't too far apart in age. And I remember back when I worked on my dissertation, it was on an Apple, a Macintosh machine. So you were, uh, somewhat of a slow adopter early.

Melissa Perry (28:26):

I was, I was. So just for a correction. So I was doing my undergrad papers on the typewriter I remember at UVM, but for my master's and doctoral work, it was this Gateway computer that came in a Holstein cow-type black and white box. And that I had to assemble. And then it had a MsDos prompt, so I remember that as well.

Gregory Washington (28:49):

Understood. So can't talk these days about the future without talking about artificial intelligence. It's interesting. We're not discussing enough how it can be linked to public health, right? We hear a lot about it with physical health, and we actually hear now about mental health. So where do you see the intersection with AI in public health?

Melissa Perry (29:15):

I think my years of being, not necessarily, I'd say a late adopter, not a laggard or a Luddite, but maybe a late adopter. I think I'm over that because I've recognized that it hasn't, uh, suited me well. So I would put myself in an early adopter space. When it comes to AI, I feel a lot of optimism. I feel worry for sure. I share the many worries that so many folks have put forward. And perhaps we're in what you could call a hype cycle where we're overreacting to what AI has to offer. With that said, similar to virtual reality, these machine learning technologies can push us further. And we've seen head-spinning demonstrations of how AI can come up with the detection of disease, can come up with new diagnoses that currently weren't understood. So I think we need to poke and prod as judiciously and responsibly as possible, and at the same time, not be fearful. We have to recognize that whatever we may be teaching in public health right now may quickly become outmoded. But that means that embracing these technologies and really preparing our students for the next generation where they can harness it, where they can have these powerful curated tools to support them, to envision. I think there are different minds for the future. And I think the humanitarian mind, the ethical mind, the synthesizing mind, the moral mind, those are areas of teaching and educating that we can continue to do. And no machine system is going to change that.

Gregory Washington (30:54):

Right, to a certain extent. But what I will tell you, I believe that AI affords an opportunity. You're looking at data and you're looking at large amounts of data relative to measurements or outcomes relative to public health for communities, right? And AI has the ability to see patterns and data that we may not catch early enough. And so I think that there may be something there in that regard. I think there may be some benefits there that will help in the public health space.

Melissa Perry (31:28):

I completely agree. I think you're absolutely right. The ability to process massive amounts of data and to be able to see patterns and signals amidst reams of data that it's not humanly possible to process. I think that will really catapult us forward. And again, we're seeing that even in the diagnostic space, right?

Gregory Washington (31:48):

I think epidemiologists are gonna be using these tools probably akin to how they use a basic computer today. I honestly believe the tools are gonna be that helpful.

Melissa Perry (31:58):

I agree with you. I don't think that's farfetched at all. And I do have a posture of receptivity and excitement about the future and really wanna make sure that we are as proactive as possible in understanding how best to harness this and how to teach these opportunities of AI usage for our students so they can be really in the driver's seat and they can come up with new applications, which I think are proliferating all the time. So the ability to power through massive amounts of data to detect, again, new risk factors, new signals, and new causes of disease, I remain very optimistic about.

Gregory Washington (32:36):

Well, then you kind of answered my next question for me, because this whole Center of Disease Control report that came out in March basically states that AI is poised to transform the practice of medicine and the delivery of healthcare. I would assume that you would wholeheartedly agree with that.

Melissa Perry (32:53):

I agree with that, and I think that's the kind of open-mindedness that we need to be approaching, the power of AI. And at the same time, understand, getting back to my point about ensuring that we remain very focused on access and equity, making sure that we don't create further digital divides by whatever strategies we're using AI for. We wanna make sure that our advancements and our improvements are going to benefit population health, not just privileged populations or those that are inclined to navigate sophisticated systems. We really wanna make it as accessible and parsimonious and level the playing field for everyone in our society.

Gregory Washington (33:38):

So prior to coming to Mason, you completed a one-year sabbatical in Albania as part of the Fulbright International Education Program for Global Scholars. One thing you found in your interactions with people in that population is that one of the usual greetings between people is, are you tired?

Melissa Perry (33:58):

Yes, that's exactly right.

Gregory Washington (33:59):

What did that tell you about the state of public health, not necessarily in Albania, everywhere as we deal with the physical and mental stress of the pandemic and its aftermath relative to these other factors we discussed?

Melissa Perry (34:13):

I think it was very poignant. Yes. I really had an insight to that when I was in Albania. It's true in the Albanian language, one of the greetings, the first greeting is how are you? To which everyone always responds fine. And then the next is, are you tired? To which people usually say yes, I'm kind of tired. And so it has been a true reflection of the population burden of the stress and strain of what we've been through. At the same time, again, I have to harken back to 2007. I, on a personal basis, feel as though the cognitive complexity and the digital overload that I find myself immersed in and living every day. I think that also can be beleaguering. I think it can be somewhat isolating and overwhelming that our poor brains are trying to keep up with machines, even simply our smartphones as though we can process information like we’re machines, when in fact we're not.

Melissa Perry (35:12):

So there's a fatigue factor there. And as I said at the moment, in March of 2020, when so many universities sent everybody home, I just thought, again, being in that isolated place at home, for those that had the privilege of being at home, because there were hundreds of thousands of essential workers that didn't, they were having to show up for work on the front lines every day. But for those people who were at home, only able to get information from their computer, didn't have the ability to be in their natural settings. And that's among other people, I think our brains are wired to need that. And then consuming constant bad news, that was a very beleaguering and exhausting time. And I think we're still working hard to come out of it to return to a sense of normalcy. In reality, I don't think we'll ever be the same as we were pre-COVID because we learned profound lessons about pathogens, infectious diseases, and the ability for new pathogens to change and to mutate to create the next pandemic. So it's not a matter of will there be another pandemic. Unfortunately, the answer is yes, it's a matter of when.

Melissa Perry (36:33):

But there's so much that we as a society can learn. I say that these have to be lessons learned, not just lessons observed as to what happened. Why did we find ourselves so unprepared, and what can we do going forward? For me, as a dean of a college of public health, it is training the next generation.

Gregory Washington (36:53):

I agree a hundred percent. You know, The Washington Post reported that since 20, 20, 30 states have passed laws that limit public health authorities. Given what we were talking about, given what we know, , since the pandemic hit, what do you see as the consequence of such an action? Why would they do this, by the way?

Melissa Perry (37:17):

Oh boy. Yes, absolutely. You've raised a really serious topic, a really important topic, and an opportunity to learn a ton. Again, lessons to learn rather than to just observe. So in the early days of the pandemic, fellow colleagues from the American Public Health Association published this really eye-opening report where they demonstrated that over the past 25 years, we as a country had lost 250,000 public health jobs. It was a staggering number. It was as though, as I mentioned, training in epidemiology and public health at Johns Hopkins in the early ‘90s. I felt surrounded by cadres of public health leaders. Many were going into the epidemiologic intelligence service. They were being trained to be on the front lines during crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. And when it hit in 2020, we were woefully unprepared. We didn't have those workers. We hadn't invested in the public health infrastructure.

Melissa Perry (38:19):

We had uninvested. And also data. Data is an epidemiologist's bread and butter, just as we were talking about with AI. You need good data, timely data, accurate data, and thorough data in order to understand what's going on. And what we found during the pandemic is that we didn't have it. We didn't have the systems, and a lot of conflicting forces were trying to shield the data or hold onto it and not release it. So what you're just talking about these laws about data usage is part of it. It's the last direction we wanna go in. In fact, I would say data needs to be a public possession. It needs to be made in the public domain to better inform how we prevent disease, how we treat, how we respond, how do we mitigate for all the members of our society. So the last thing we should be doing is disinvesting in public health. COVID did make words like pandemic, epidemiology, and concepts such as infectious disease or disease rate or transmission. Those became household words.

Gregory Washington (39:22):

Exactly. That's one of the silver linings in this whole thing.

Melissa Perry (39:26):

Absolutely. And that was a clarion call. It was an opportunity for public health to rise to the occasion. I think what we can't allow to happen is that we slip back into complacency because we're not in crisis mode. And that, again, we learn valuable lessons for next time versus just observing them.

Gregory Washington (39:44):

So in a perfect world, what would be your definition of public health?

Melissa Perry (39:48):

My definition would be the opportunity for health, well-being and happiness for all. Simply put,

Gregory Washington (39:57):

Outstanding. Outstanding. Well, I can say we can't wait to see the results of the work that you are doing, your vision for our College of Public Health and where it's going and the work in your individual lab. I kept a lab going when I was a dean. What was that term you said in Albania? Are you tired?

Melissa Perry (40:17):

Are you tired? . .

Gregory Washington (40:21):

I did that. I kept a fairly large group of graduate students going during that time. And I could tell you it was tiring, but it was quite fulfilling. I really got a lot out of it personally. And my students, I was able to do right by them too. So I feel good about that time in my life. Any last parting words?

Melissa Perry (40:40):

Absolutely. I just need to gush a little bit because since coming to Mason, it's been really a lot of fun. I'm having a really great time here. I feel very, very affirmed and I feel very comfortable. And so I've been heard to say, this will make you a little bit embarrassed. But as I'm talking about our president, I say, Dr. Washington embodies the values and the vision and the empathy that we all really are inspired by. And I say that I will follow that guy anywhere, . So I'm experiencing a lot of gratitude for Mason, for the way in which I've been welcomed here for the support and excitement about public health, and just delighted to be part of this world-class university.

Gregory Washington (41:25):

I appreciate that, and I look forward to working with you as we move forward in this journey together.

Melissa Perry (41:31):

I'm really looking forward to that too.

Gregory Washington (41:33):

Well, that's going to wrap things up here at Access to Excellence. I'd like to thank Melissa Perry, the dean of the College of Public Health. I am Mason President Gregory Washington saying, until next time, stay safe, Mason Nation.

Narrator:
If you like what you heard on this podcast, go to podcast.gmu.edu for more of Gregory Washington's conversations with the thought leaders, experts, and educators who take on the grand challenges facing our students, graduates, and higher education. That's podcast.gmu.edu.

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