Alumni News

From the Alumni President

The need for nurses continues to grow in 2003. The Nurses Alumni Association (NAA) Board is acutely aware of the challenges in educating and supporting undergraduate and graduate nursing students.

Although the School of Nursing is the recipient of a $5 million grant from The Helene Fuld Health Trust, the gift targets second-career students with a special interest in leadership and social responsibility. Hence, there is still a compelling need for more nursing scholarships, which we are working hard to overcome.

For instance, we met and exceeded our 2002 Annual Fund goal of $100,000, thanks to all of our alums who contributed so generously. We are striving even higher to reach our $105,000 goal for 2003. Every gift is important. We invite each of you to work in your own locations to ease our country’s critical need for nurses through the Annual Fund.

There is an old adage “actions speak louder than words.” Essentially, the NAA is using this approach to teach students how to be creative alumni. We hope to build cohesive bonds between students and alumni through fund-raising projects and dialogue on pressing social issues. Our second objective is to exceed the Annual Fund goal.

These objectives can be met in many fun ways, least of which are telephone solicitations. We invite those of you outside the Atlanta area to establish booster groups to develop creative ways of supporting new Emory students. The Board has already started by holding raffles, silent auctions, a garage sale, and most recently, a 5K race for runners and walkers at Lullwater.

We want to build lasting connections that show our students how to be great alums. Won’t you join us?

Carmen G. Woodson, 59C, 80N
President, Nurses Alumni Association

Talk to the President
NAA President Carmen Woodson wants to hear from you. Please contact her by phone at (404) 315-6332 (home) or by e-mail at goffwood@bellsouth.net.

Martha L. Orr, 64N, 65MN, of Slingerlands, New York, is still riding high after receiving a top leadership award from the American Nurses Association (ANA) in July 2002. The recipient of the Honorary Recognition Award for distinguished national/international service, Orr was one of 18 outstanding nurses honored at the ANA convention in Philadelphia. The ANA bestows its national awards every two years for outstanding contributions to the nursing profession and the field of health care.

“This sure beats a gold watch,” says Orr, who is nearing retirement after serving 18 years as executive director of the New York State Nurses Association.

Always on the cutting edge, Orr established one of the first clinical nurse specialist roles in the 1960s. In the 1990s, she helped the ANA develop a quality assurance and assessment process for its constituent member associations (CMAs) to measure their effectiveness.

During the 1980s, Orr remained steadfast during a complex court battle to preserve collective bargaining for nurses in her state. Orr’s leadership and vision at the time led to changes in the ANA’s policy, structure, and bylaws to preserve its multipurpose nature while assuring that the collective bargaining program was sufficiently insulated from supervisory influence. “This model withstood court challenges and became a model for other CMAs,” notes the ANA. “Orr’s unfailing commitment, thoughtful analysis, and tenacity are hallmarks of her leadership ability and have contributed directly to the advancement of the ANA and the well-being of the profession.”

Stuart R. Goldstein, 85MN, (second row, right) and family

One Foundation, Two Different Worlds

Stuart R. Goldstein, 85MN, his wife, Wendy E. Kleiner, and their three sons have enjoyed the best of two worlds, having lived in Israel for six years and in the United States. Set in the beautiful hill country of the Galilee near Nazareth, their Israeli village of Ramat Yishai had about 1,000 families.

“Friends in Israel advised us that living in a small community rather than an urban setting would be easier for the kids’ adjustment,” says Goldstein. “I give the village credit for the kids’ absorption into the culture. There were very few English speakers, so it was total language and cultural immersion. Everyone in the village was so welcoming.”

Goldstein and Kleiner, who also is a registered nurse and ob/gyn nurse practitioner, worked in the city of Haifa. Already fluent in Hebrew, the couple had lived in Israel from 1976 to 1979, and it was during that time when Goldstein applied to Emory. “I wanted to be a nurse practitioner, and that profession is not recognized in Israel. It has one of the highest doctor/patient ratios in the world, so nurses working independently are rare.”

After graduating from Emory, Goldstein joined a family practice in Dunwoody, Georgia, and then moved to Vanderbilt, where he loved teaching students in the academic and clinical settings. But the call of Israel proved too strong.

The family returned in 1995 when Goldstein was hired to help develop the curriculum for a baccalaureate nursing program at the University of Haifa. A year later, he became the evening supervisor for Rambam Medical Center, which served the northern half of the country.

“We treated members of the US Navy 6th fleet when they came to the Mediterranean,” he says. “We were also the evacuation hospital for the Israeli Army and UN soldiers during the war in Lebanon.”

Goldstein’s family, including his in-laws, all became dual citizens of the United States and Israel. While the Goldstein family planned to stay forever in Israel, a health emergency changed that. Wendy’s mother was dying of breast cancer, and the family returned stateside in 2001 to help care for her until she died that year.

The family now lives in Boca Raton, Florida, where Goldstein is director of home teams for Hospice By the Sea. The oldest son, Josh, stayed in Israel and serves in an anti-terrorist unit with the Israeli Army. High school students Noah and Eli have readjusted to American life. Their mother opted not to work at first to help her family reintegrate and to recover from her own battle with breast cancer. In April 2002, the entire family, including Wendy’s father, David, participated in the Avon 3-Day Walk Against Breast Cancer from Boca Raton to Miami. Wendy has since joined a large ob/gyn practice.

The couple continues to adjust to the dramatic changes in US health care. “Back in the states, I started working in a primary care practice in Fort Lauderdale but was shocked at how patient care has been affected by insurance issues,” Goldstein recalls. “You lose patients because you as a provider are no longer covered by their insurance plans. Time spent on documentation for Medicare means less time spent with patients.”

Eventually, Goldstein discovered another love. Hospice By the Sea treats about 250 patients in their homes, and a similar number in other facilities. “It’s one of the last places you can do real nursing in America,” he says. “We get a lot back from the patients, and the nurses here love their work. As director, I don’t do as much hands-on care as before, but we discuss all the patients, and I know what’s going on with them and their families. I’m still doing the work that I first sought by going to Emory. It was a terrific professional foundation.”

John Howett’s daughters—(L–R) Ciannat, Meghan, Catherine, and Maeve—all graduated from Emory.

A Family Affair

Maeve A. Howett, 82C, 85N, 97MSN, comes from a long line of Emory graduates. She is the daughter of John Howett, professor emeritus of art history at Emory, and Catherine Howett, professor emerita in the College of Environment and Design at the University of Georgia. All four of their daughters graduated from Emory.

Currently, Maeve holds a Robert W. Woodruff Fellowship as a doctoral student in the School of Nursing. Established in fall 1999, the PhD program now has 16 students, the first of whom graduated this spring. Maeve, who is enrolled in the third class, is conducting research on lactation among mothers from low-income groups, who tend to breast feed less than women in higher-income groups. She is the only Woodruff Fellow in the PhD nursing program.

“I’ve been a nurse for 17 years, a nurse practitioner for five years, and a lactation consultant for three years, mainly with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston,” she says. “I also have two teenagers, who are brilliant creatures, you know.”

Maeve’s sisters all have followed successful career paths. Meghan Howett Magruder, 80C, 83L, is a senior partner in the Washington, DC, law office of Hale and Dorr and chair of the American Bar Association Committee on Environmental Law. Catherine Howett Smith, 84C, 99G, followed in her father’s art history footsteps. She is associate director of the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory. Last but not least, Ciannat Mary Howett, 87C, is a senior attorney with the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington.

Tour of Duty

Maryam Haddad and Jenny Williams, both 01MSN/MPH, are serving their profession and their country as Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officers with the CDC. Their two-year tour of duty, which ends soon, has led to some interesting assignments, some of which involve confronting bioterrorism.

Haddad has been out West helping prepare for potential bioterrorism attacks at major events such as the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. “I am assigned to the Utah Department of Health, where I have helped state and local health departments enhance disease detection and response capacity in the case of bioterrorist events or other naturally occurring outbreaks,” says Haddad. “I was also on a CDC team that assisted the Arizona Department of Health in bioterrorism surveillance during the 2001 World Series in Phoenix.”

Also that fall, she responded to a coccidioidomycosis outbreak in Utah. Because this illness (also called “Valley fever”) was previously considered endemic only to the southwestern states, Haddad and her colleagues alerted health care workers that this fungus could cause pneumonia in people who live or travel through a wider geographic area. In August and September 2002, Haddad was on a CDC team that assisted the Louisiania Office of Public Health with a clinical case series of West Nile virus meningoencephalitis.

To complete their master’s thesis at Emory, Haddad and Williams traveled to Fiji to evaluate the South Pacific’s new nurse practitioners. As an EIS officer, Williams works close to home at the CDC National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) in Atlanta. But like many other CDC staff members, Williams was drafted for investigations stemming from 9/11. She was on a team dispatched to monitor New York City emergency rooms for possible signs of chemical and other bioterrorism agents. In November 2001, she assisted with the Connecticut anthrax investigation and later published “Anthrax Postexposure Prophylaxis in Postal Workers, Connecticut, 2001,” in Emerging Infectious Diseases 8(10) 2002.

At the NCBDDD, she has been examining low vitamin B-12 levels in women attending family planning clinics in Georgia, screening for nutritional deficiencies in patients age 50 and older, and comparing rates of Down’s syndrome.

Williams has no complaints. “My job is wonderful and highly recommended,” she says.” Haddad agrees. “We’re both really enjoying our work, though we miss working together!”

Dr. Elizabeth Capezuti (left) presents
Lynn McCormack, 02MSN, with an award
for her essay in a contest
sponsored by the Center for Health in
Aging at Wesley Woods.

Winner’s Circle

Lynn McCormack, 02MSN, is having a great year. Last August, she completed her master’s degree at Emory to become a geriatric nurse practitioner. She is putting her advanced knowledge to practical use as the director of nursing at Westbury Medical Care Home, a 196-bed, long-term care facility in Jackson, Georgia. McCormack began her new position last fall, when she also accepted an award as one of five winners in an essay contest sponsored by the Center for Health in Aging at Emory’s Wesley Woods Center. McCormack and four other students in medicine and public health each received $500 to support their activities related to geriatrics and aging. McCormack wrote her essay on “What Is Needed To Improve Care of Older Adults.”

There’s more. The award winner works part-time with an internal medicine group of physicians in Griffin, Georgia, and sees approximately 60 patients a month at Brightmoor Nursing Home, also in Griffin.

McCormack definitely believes that "knowledge is power" regarding the care of older adults. “Individual topics can be tailored to specific needs or disease processes for the greatest positive impact on a person's older years," she writes in her essay. "Education of groups can reach greater numbers of people with generic information such as consequences of poor lifestyle choices and preventive health care, empowering adults to guide their future health."

Sharing information with voters and governing bodies can help raise awareness about issues affecting older adults. "Education is the key element to empower individuals and groups," she concludes. "Those in position to influence, formulate, and fund change also need current information. Education may well be the key to the future of geriatric health care."

1940s
Ruth Wright, 47N, has been retired since 1989. Wright devoted her career to pediatrics, working in the premature nursery at Crawford Long and Grady Memorial hospitals. She also was employed by the state of Georgia as an instructor in premature infant care at both hospitals. Later, she was the nurse manager for the Children’s Clinical Center and practiced pediatric nursing at Northside and Scottish Rite Children's hospitals in Atlanta.

1960s
Dr. Eugenia (Genie) M. Fulcher, Ox59, 62N, and Robert M. Fulcher, Ox60, 62C, are two of four co-authors who wrote Pharmacology: Principles & Applications: A Worktext for Allied Health Professionals (W.B. Saunders Company, 2002). Genie is on the faculty at Swainsboro Technical College in Georgia, and Robert is a chief pharmacist with CVS Pharmacy.

1970s
Dean A. Stewart, 79N, has been employed by Hoffmann-La Roche for the past eight years as a clinical trial monitor. In April 2002, he returned to Atlanta after a 15-month assignment as a compliance and training adviser in Pharma Development Operations in Basel, Switzerland.

1980s
BORN: To Robin (Domm) Burch, 81MN, and her husband, Thomas G. Burch Jr., a son, James Kennett, on March 1, 2001. He has two older brothers, Robert and Maxwell.

Shari Margolin Baccari, 82N, and her husband, John, of Jacksonville, Fla., adopted a daughter, Samantha Nicole, born on Sept. 2, 2001. Samantha joins her big sister, Michelle Elaine. Shari is a quality compliance manager for BlueCross BlueShield of Florida.

MARRIED: Jane Watson Sweetwood, 83N, 88MN, and Michael Sweetwood on May 26, 2002. She works as needed as a PACU nurse at Emory University Hospital. Sweetwood also is a clinical support specialist for Codman of Johnson & Johnson and an independent beauty consultant with Mary Kay Cosmetics. The couple lives in Cumming, Ga.

BORN: To Cheryl Berkey Clement, 85N, and her husband, Kirk, a son, Seth Robert, on Oct. 16, 2000. Seth Robert has three sisters, Allison, Rebecca, and Hannah, and a brother, Isaac. The family lives in Milford, Mich.

BORN: To Maureen Abbate Vidrine, 85N, and her husband, Malcolm, of Monroe, Ga., a daughter, Selma Odile, on March 1, 2001. Maureen is director and a psychotherapist at Horse Time, Inc. in Covington, Ga.

“Horse Time, located on Falconwood Farm, is a program based on the belief that horse-human interactions can provide the basis for uniquely effective mental health treatment,” she says. “Since 1997, Horse Time has served hundreds of children, teens, and adults through therapeutic horsemanship lessons.”

MARRIED: Jennifer Joan Gimbel (formerly Manning), 87N, and Dr. J. Rod Gimbel on March 10, 2001. The couple lives in Knoxville, Tenn.

Karen H. Brown, 89MN, helped set up the emergency department at the new Emory Crawford Long Hospital (ECLH), which opened to patients in August 2002. Brown is director of nursing for emergency services at ECLH and Emory University Hospital (EUH). The old Crawford Long emergency room had 22 beds in 6,000 square feet of space, including hallways. The new emergency department has 24,000 square feet of space for 22 beds and a four-bed express care unit for nonurgent health problems. An eight-bed clinical decision unit opened recently.

“Patients in for chest pain workups and other problems can stay in one of the smaller units instead of tying up an ER bed that is needed,” says Brown. “We have a much larger waiting room and some individual family waiting rooms. There is a freshwater and a saltwater aquarium in the waiting room. The department is big and beautiful and a wonderful place for all of us to work.”

1990s
BORN: To Beth Young Hew, 91Ox, 93N, and her husband, Maurice Hew Jr., of Pearland, Texas, a son, Joshua Thomas, on Nov. 28, 2001. Beth is a nurse practitioner at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Kimberly Parrish Jasch, 93N, of Sarasota, Fla., obtained her Certificate of Nurse Midwifery from the Frontier School of Midwifery & Family Nursing in September 2001. She also received her MSN from Case Western Reserve University in January 2002. Jasch works full time as an advanced registered nurse practitioner and certfied nurse midwife at Sarasota Ob/Gyn Associates, PA.

Judith Ramirez Sherman, 91Ox, 93N, graduated from Georgia State with a master of science degree in May 2001. She specialized to become a nurse practitioner and now holds that position in anesthesia services at Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, Ga. Also, she and her husband, Mark, have a son, Garrett Augusto, born on Nov. 13, 2002. The family lives in Sugar Hill, Ga.

BORN: To Jennifer Morton Snow, 94N, and her husband, Craig, a daughter, Elizabeth Rose, on Jan. 29, 2002. She joins her brother, Jonathan, who is two years older. Snow is a family nurse practitioner for Brevard Cardiology in Melbourne, Fla.

BORN: To Rita Smith Aldridge, 93Ox, 95N, and her husband, Thomas, their first child, Olivia Anastasia, on March 31, 2002. Rita is a certified registered nurse anesthetist in Charlotte, N.C. The family lives in nearby Mooresville.

MARRIED: Janine L. Brenton (formerly Maisonneuve), 95MN, and Stephen Brenton on Oct. 5, 2001. The couple lives in Ladson, S.C. Janine retired as a commander with the US Navy after 20 years of
honorable service. She has a teenaged daughter, Jacqulyn Maisonneuve.

Elisabeth Grace Spatola, 96N, of Rock Hill, S.C., spent June to September 2002 working with orphans and other patients in Malawi. She was there on behalf of the African Bible College Medical Clinic and Children of the Nations, a Christian orphanage organization. Spatola previously was an oncology nurse at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C.

MARRIED: Laurie Lee Buschini, 98N, and Mark Buschini on April 7, 2002. She is a nurse practitioner with Nephrology Associates of Northeast Florida in Jacksonville.

MARRIED: Kimberly S. Clapp, 96Ox, 98N, and Nicholas Stuart Ludlam, 99C, on June 15, 2002. Clapp is a registered nurse in the CICU at Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, Conn.

MARRIED: Sharon Harrow, 98N, 00MSN, and Matthew Sones, 99MPH, on Oct. 19, 2002. Sharon is a nurse practitioner with the Atlanta VA Medical Center.

MARRIED: Kimberley Smith Lowe (formerly Susan Kim Smith), 92Ox, 94C, 98N, and Clinton Lowe, on Sept. 29, 2001. She works as an RN at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta and is studying at Georgia State to become a nurse practitioner. The couple lives in Suwanee, Ga.

Diane M. McCormic, 98N, was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserve on May 5, 2002. McCormic spent a year of active duty at Camp Zama, Japan, and returned to the states last fall.
“During the second half of my tour of duty, I spent four days a week as an RN at the US Army MEDDAC Outpatient Clinic and only worked one day a week in my military police capacity,” says McCormic. “I was often assigned as charge nurse and supervised three medics and coordinated support from five RNs.”

McCormic also worked as an ob/gyn nurse, a pain management case manager, interim manager of the infection control program, and a MEDEVAC medical attendant for hemorrhagic stroke patients requiring complete care. She returned to the Atlanta VA Medical Center in February 2003.

MARRIED: Michelle Melissa Ossmann (formerly Arrascue), 98N, 01MSN, and Eric W. Ossmann, MD, on Aug. 12, 2000. She is an acute care nurse practitioner at The Emory Clinic, and her husband is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Emory. The couple lives in Atlanta.

BORN: To Cynthia (Cindy) Kristine Terry (formerly Milne), 98N, 02MSN, and her husband, Jonathan, a daughter, Emily, on Oct. 5, 2001. The family lives in Marietta, Ga.

2000s
BORN: To Michelle McClain Uhl, 00C, 00N, and her husband, Anthony, a son, Russell Davis, on Dec. 19, 2001. The family lives in Newnan, Ga.

BORN: To Tonyie Jenkins-Andrews, 02N, and her husband, Andre Johnson, a daughter, Bryani, on Sept. 23, 2002. Bryani was welcomed home by her siblings, Brenddon and Blake. The family lives in Jonesboro, Ga.

Edith Honeycutt, 39N, clearly remembers the first time she saw Chris Hauck, 38N. The two women met in September 1936, when Honeycutt arrived at Emory to begin her nursing education.

“As I entered beautiful Harris Hall and proceeded up the marble steps, my attention was drawn to one of the loveliest girls I had ever seen standing in the vestibule,” writes Honeycutt in a memoir about her early nursing experiences.

It was the beginning of a wonderful friendship that would last until Hauck passed away on August 8, 2002, at age 87. She died of complications from multiple myeloma at Emory University Hospital, the very place where she learned her clinical skills and also met surgical resident A.E. (Gene) Hauck, 35M. The Haucks were married for 61 years, until his death in 1999, and raised two sons together.

Although Hauck did not practice nursing after she married, she remained devoted to her profession. “She was a loyal friend to the School of Nursing and represented the essence of caring to faculty, staff, and students,” says Anne Bavier, assistant dean for planning
and external relations. “We miss her elegant, caring presence and reminder of what is best about Emory nursing.”

Hauck was passionate about the environment as well. A former president of the Lullwater Garden Club, she helped the group purchase the Lullwater Conservation Garden from Emory in 1964. She campaigned to place her Druid Hills neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Places and for DeKalb County to purchase the Callanwolde mansion for use as a cultural and event center. Hauck also was active in other gardening and conservation organizations.

Whether hosting a dinner or pruning camellias, Chris Hauck exuded her own special style and charm. “She was an elegant dresser,” remembers family friend Ivy Dougherty of Atlanta.

That couldn’t have been more true during the School of Nursing building dedication in 2001. As part of the festivities, Hauck and Honeycutt wore nursing uniforms from different periods.

“She always remained loyal to the school,” says Honeycutt. “She was a very dear friend.”

Memorial gifts for scholarships may be sent to the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, 1520 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30322.

1920s
Mary Alice Parker Morrison, 29N, of Ormond Beach, Fla., on Aug. 15, 2002, at age 95. Morrison was born in Winder, Ga. She and her husband, Max, a Naval officer, traveled around the world twice. They moved to Daytona Beach, Fla., after World War II and eventually built and owned Sun Glow Pier and Sun Glow Cottages. Morrison was a founding member of First Presbyterian Church in Daytona Beach and was past president of the Presbyterian Women’s Club of Florida. She also was an avid bridge player. Morrison created a $50,000 gift annuity to fund a scholarship to the School of Nursing, according to her goddaughter, Andrina Carey. Other survivors include Carey’s husband, John, and numerous nieces and nephews in Georgia.

1930s
Evelyn Whittle (formerly Gifford) May, 34N, of Vero Beach, Fla., on May 12, 1999, at age 86. Survivors include her husband since 1989, J. Donald May, and his three sons.

1940s
Martha Doster Hill, 40N, of Midland, Ga., on Jan. 26, 2002. Hill was a retired public health nursing supervisor. She is survived by her only daughter, Kerry H. Barwick of Midland.

Mildred Rossman Roberts, 41N, of Marianna, Fla., on Nov. 3, 2001, at age 81, according to her husband of 47 years, Louis S. Roberts II. In addition to graduating from Emory, she held a degree in landscape architecture from the University of Georgia. Roberts was a member of the Marianna Garden Club and the First Presbyterian Church. During World War II, she served as a lieutenant in the Emory Unit of the US Army Nurse Corps. Other survivors include two sons, a daughter, six grandchildren, and two sisters.

Margaret Bonner Funderburk, 46N, of LaGrange, Ga., on Dec. 12, 2000, at age 76. She died from complications caused by diabetes. Funderburk was employed for many years as a registered nurse at
City-County Hospital in LaGrange, now the West Georgia Medical Center. As a supervisor, she developed and taught in-service training programs for nursing assistants. She also was an instructor for the LPN Program at Troup Technology Institute and later joined LaGrange College as campus nurse. Survivors include five children, 11 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

1960s
Dorothy Etheredge Leonardos, 64N, of Shreveport, La., in June 1994, at age 74. She was retired from the Louisiana Department of Health and Human Services. She was survived by her husband, Steve J. Leonardos, of Karnack, Texas, who has since died.

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