Rhigel "Jay" Tan (Nursing) received Nevada Business magazine's "Educator Healthcare Hero" award during the eighth annual Healthcare Heroes ceremony in September. The publication created the award to recognize outstanding health care professionals in both Northern and Southern Nevada. A diverse panel of health care professionals chose 10 honorees…

Vanessa Gepielago (Nursing) received the Lillian Wald Community Nursing Award for her efforts to encourage a change in Nevada law regarding sexual education. She encouraged the review and passage of a bill that would modernize the current curriculum, which she believes would help reduce the state's rising teen pregnancy rate. The award is named in…

Barbara St. Pierre Schneider (Nursing) had her work published in the August issue of Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, which is the official journal of the Aerospace Medical Association. The article, "Simulated Flight, Muscle Genetics, and Inflammatory Indicators in Mice," describes her research testing the effects of short-term…

Mark Buttner and Patricia Cruz (Community Health Sciences) received a $1.1 million, 16-month award from the Nevada department of health and human services to conduct environmental monitoring.

Tish Smyer (Nursing) has been reappointed by the governor to the Nevada State Board of Nursing. Currently serving as board president, she originally was appointed to the board in 2008. Her new term expires in October 2016. The board is charged with protecting the public's health, safety, and welfare through effective nursing regulation. Nursing…

Connie Mobley (Dental School) is an invited keynote speaker at the International Association for Dental Research/American Association for Dental Research annual meeting in Seattle in March. The title of her presentation is "Nutrition and Oral Health Research Horizons: Obesity and Diabetes Prevention."

Ken Czerwinski (Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies) and Ralf Sudowe (Health Physics and Diagnostic Science) received a $596,146 grant from National Security Technologies (NSTec) for development of synthetic debris for nuclear forensics.