NH-ME LEND Selected for MCH Diversity & Health Equity Collaborative

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Friday, April 19, a University of Maine graduate student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono. The student reports that they are at a local hospital with minor injuries.

Emergency services, including the Orono Fire Department, University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, University of Maine Police Department, Orono Police Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

The university vehicle involved in the incident was a Chevrolet Express van. It was being operated by a university employee.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 and the Dean of Students Office can be reached at 207-581-1406.

The scene has been cleared and Long Road is now accessible. An investigation is being conducted by the University of Maine Police Department with assistance from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lt. Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

Alan Kurtz, Susan Russell and Betsy Humphreys in Birmingham, AL.

March 7, 2017 CCIDS News

The New Hampshire-Maine Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (NH-ME LEND) Program was recently selected to participate in the 2017 Diversity & Health Equity Peer Learning Collaborative, supported by the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Bureau, Division of MCH Workforce Development.

The Division of MCH Workforce Development provides national leadership and direction in educating and training future leaders in maternal and child health. Special emphasis is placed on the development and implementation of interprofessional, family-centered, community-based and culturally competent systems of care across the entire life course.

The 2017 Diversity & Health Equity Peer Learning Collaborative will facilitate the sharing and use of information to more effectively address diversity and health equity within MCH training programs. Through participation in the 2017 Collaborative, the NH-ME LEND will develop and implement new recruitment strategies to increase the numbers of racially and ethnically diverse long-term LEND trainees at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and the University of Maine (UMaine). This will be achieved through the development of graduate and undergraduate “pipelines” at both universities through partnerships with the following: Graduate School Admissions’ offices; directors of federally-funded TRIO Programs that assist low-income individuals and first generation college students (for mentorship and recruitment of undergraduate students into graduate programs in LEND-related disciplines); and directors and faculty of multicultural and diversity programs (i.e., Native American Studies, Interdisciplinary Disability Studies, Women’s Studies, etc.). The UNH-UMaine partnership will result in the development of a Diversity & Health Equity track at both universities.

Core members of the NH-ME LEND team include Betsy Humphreys, Ph.D., Interdisciplinary Training Director, University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability; Susan Russell, M.S., Associate Director, University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies; and Alan Kurtz, Ph.D., Coordinator of Education and Autism Initiatives, University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies (pictured in the photo above).

The NH-ME LEND will be joined in the 2017 Diversity & Health Equity Peer Learning Collaborative by programs from Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Washington and Wisconsin.

2017 Diversity & Health Equity Peer Learning Collaborative (courtesy of UAB)

A kick-off face-to-face meeting was held on February 8-9, 2017 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Throughout the course of the Collaborative (January-June 2017), team members will participate in regular webinars, as well as web-based team sharing opportunities with Federal staff and facilitators. All Collaborative participants will be part of an online Community of Practice that will serve as a discussion forum and repository of MCH and diversity-related resources and tools.