Year: 2023

Wow: Our ReBUILD Detroit scholar, Rebecca De La Garza, won best presentation at the national ABRCMS (Annual Biomedical Research Conference For Minoritized Scientists) 2023 Phoenix for her poster presentation, Alexithymia Moderates the Relationship between Memory for Emotion and Companionship. Congratulations and wow, Rebecca and her team of coauthors:
Rebecca De La Garza, Darius A. Vann, Robiann R. Broomfield (doctoral student co-mentor), Gavin D. Sanders, Robin A. Hanks, & Lisa J. Rapport (co-mentor/Advisor)

To boot, last month, Rebecca garnered the Science Research Excellence Award – Second Place at the Annual University of Detroit Undergraduate and Graduate Research Symposium. In our lab, we call this series of events “convergent validity”. Way to go, Rebecca and our team.

Wow. This award encompasses trainees in all the health professions trainees across the spectrum of specialties within the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System (e.g., medicine, psychology, nursing, dentistry, etc.). Read more about the award here.

 

Darius Vann led fellow lab members Gavin Sanders, Rebecca De La Garza, and Robiann Broomfield on a poster submission that garnered a Student Blue Ribbon, Evidence-Based Practice Award from the American Psychological Association (APA) Society for Clinical Neuropsychology (Div. 40).  The study was titled “Computer Equipment in Tele-assessment is Confounded with Performance and Demographic Characteristics.” Darius presented in a session sponsored by Division 40 – Society for Clinical Neuropsychology, 2:00 – 2:50 PM, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Level 2, Halls D and E.

Not coincidentally, our own very recent alum, Dr. Jeremy Grant, was gracious enough to send Darius a note of congratulations before letting us know that he too won a Blue Ribbon Award: The poster abstract that he completed at his University of Florida postdoctoral fellowship, “Quick-Reference Criteria for Identifying Multivariate Change in Mild Cognitive Impairment”, won the award for Best Research Abstract by an Early Career Professional.

That’s how we roll at our lab :).

       

So much good news it cannot fit into a single headline:

Gavin Sanders has accepted an offer from The University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW) Medical Center for his postdoctoral fellowship. This outcome was Gavin’s quest when he joined us at WSU, and he garnered it just like in the dream (except in real life, it took a lot more hard work than in the dream) :).

Sarah Patrick likewise accepted an offer from her first-choice postdoctoral fellowship at The Ann Arbor VA/University of Michigan consortium, where she is currently on internship.

Gavin Sanders is first author of a publication in Brain Injury:
Sanders, G., Rapport, L. J., Marwitz, J. H., Novack, T. A., Walker, W., Tefertiller, C., . . . Zhang, Y. (2023). Barriers to driving and psychosocial outcomes after traumatic brain injury. Brain Injury, 1-10. doi:10.1080/02699052.2023.2172611. See the abstract on PubMed.

Jeremy Grant is first author of a publication in Applied Neuropsychology:
Grant, J. G., Rapport, L. J., Darling, R., Waldron-Perrine, B., & Bernitsas, E. (2023). Incremental validity of brief and abbreviated neuropsychological tests toward predicting functional outcomes in multiple sclerosis. Applied Neuropsychology: Adult, 1-11. doi:10.1080/23279095.2023.2176766. Download a free copy of the article here.