SPHHP Students Reap Honors, Opportunities

Second-year athletic training graduate student Marie Pettit was recently awarded two scholarships:

• The Kent Scriber Scholarship through the Eastern Athletic Trainers’ Association (EATA). The scholarship honors Scriber, who was a past president of EATA and is a member of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame. Pettit’s $3,000 award is part of a program honoring outstanding students from the EATA membership who have excelled academically and clinically as professional (entry-level) athletic training students. The awards are meant to encourage recipients to continue their education toward a professional athletic training degree and pursue a career in athletic training.
• The New York State Athletic Trainers’ Association Memorial Scholarship. Pettit won the $2,000 scholarship because of her strong academic achievements while she pursues her degree in athletic training at a Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education accredited college in New York State.

Rehabilitation science doctoral student Fiona Zhao, MPT, won first place at the recent Network in Aging of Western New York research competition. She gave a platform presentation to 200 competition attendees on her study, “The effect of moderate exercise on brain oxyhemoglobin and cognition for two obesity levels of older adult with diabetes.” The study concluded that a progressive home exercise program improved several aspects of cognition, including memory, in the subjects of the study. The study’s coauthors were Zhao’s advisors, Clinical Professor Machiko Tomita, PhD, SPHHP Department of Rehabilitation Science, and Assistant Professor Anirban Dutta, PhD, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.     

SPHHP’s Occupational Therapy program has started a student chapter of the National Coalition of Occupational Therapy Advocates for Diversity (COTAD). A network of OT practitioners, students and educators striving to make health equity a priority at all levels of healthcare, COTAD does work in justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism and anti-oppression. The student chapter at UB is facilitated by Associate Professor James Lenker, PhD, OTR/L, ATP, RESNA Fellow. To achieve its mission, the new chapter's members have begun planning activities related to outreach, education, support and more.