The Official USU Newsletter

Volume 8, Issue 10 • June 24, 2013

www.usuhs.edu
2 The Pulse The Official USU Newsletter

On the cover

Thousands of servicemembers have been 

diagnosed with traumatic brain injury. As a 

result, the Uniformed Services University’s 

Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative 

Medicine created a brain tissue repository to 

help researchers understand the underlying 

mechanisms of TBI in servicemembers.

 (See story, page 2)

Sharon Willis

Deputy Vice President for External 

Affairs and Managing Editor

Gwendolyn Smalls

Chief, Media Affairs

Tech. Sgt. Oshawn Jefferson

Deputy Chief, Media Affairs

Christine Creenan-Jones

Editor

MC2 Brittney Cannady

Writer

Lori Fields

Layout and Design

The Pulse is printed by USU’s Duplicating Center.

Production

The Pulse is funded by the Department of Defense and 

published by the Uniformed Services University. It is 

authorized for members of the U.S. military services, 

USU alumni, faculty and staff. Contents of the Pulse are 

not necessarily the official views of, or endorsed by, 

the DoD or USU. Appearance of anything resembling 

advertising in this publication does not constitute 

endorsement by the DoD, USU or Pulse staff members.

The contents of this publication shall be made 

available for use or patronage without regard to race, 

color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, 

physical handicap, political affiliation or any other 

non-merit factor of the user or patron.

Editorial content is edited, prepared and provided by 

the USU Office of External Affairs. The editor reserves 

the right to edit articles to conform to DoD policy 

and Associated Press style. All photos are DoD photos 

unless otherwise indicated. 

The Pulse will be published bi-weekly on Mondays. 

The deadline for submissions is at 4 p.m. Tuesday prior 

to the publication date. Submissions can be sent to 

christine.creenan-jones@usuhs.edu or 301-295-3338.

Courtesy photo

The world’s first brain tissue 

repository to help researchers understand the underlying mechanisms 

of traumatic brain injury in service 

members has been established at the 

Uniformed Services University of the 

Health Sciences (USU).

The announcement follows Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s 

Symposium on Traumatic Brain 

Injury. Secretary Hagel convened 

a group of senior defense officials, 

experts in the medical field, and 

outside organizations to discuss 

advancements and areas of collaboration regarding traumatic brain injury. 

“We have been at war for more 

than a decade, and our men and 

women have sacrificed,” said Dr. 

Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense for Health Affairs and 

director of TRICARE Management 

Activity. “The military health care 

system is bringing all the resources 

it can to better understand how to 

prevent, diagnose and 

treat traumatic brain 

injuries and to ensure 

that service members 

have productive and 

long, quality lives. Our 

research efforts and 

treatment protocols 

are all geared toward 

improving care for 

these victims. And 

that will have benefits 

to the American 

public, at large.” 

The Center for 

Neuroscience and 

Regenerative Medicine 

Brain Tissue Repository for Traumatic 

Brain Injury was established at the USU with 

a multi-year grant from 

the U.S. Army Medical 

Research and Material Command, to 

advance the understanding and treatment of TBI in service members. 

“Little is known about the longterm effects of traumatic brain injury 

on military service members,” said Dr. 

Daniel Perl, a neuropathologist and 

director of the brain tissue repository. 

“By studying these tissues, along with 

access to clinical information associated with them, we hope to more 

rapidly address the biologic mechanisms by which head trauma leads to 

chronic traumatic encephalopathy.” 

CTE is a neurodegenerative disorder that involves the progressive 

accumulation of the protein tau in 

nerve cells within certain regions of 

the brain. As the tau protein accumulates, it disturbs function and appears 

to lead to symptoms that can be seen 

in affected patients such as boxers 

and, more recently, football players 

with multiple head trauma. 

USU establishes first brain tissue 

bank to study traumatic brain injury 

in service members

Department of Defense News Release

Courtesy graphic

Continued to page 4
June 24, 2013 3

Blended learning initiatives focus of 

USU’s Education Day

By Christine Creenan-Jones, editor

The Uniformed Services University’s 

6th annual Education Day featured two 

keynote lectures on this year’s theme, 

“Blended Learning Initiatives for the 

21st Century Student,” June 11.

The first presenter, Jane Clark, PhD, 

dean of the School of Public Health at 

the University of Maryland, delivered 

a talk called, “Introduction to Blended 

Learning: Possibilities and Pitfalls.” 

Clark opened with a brief historical 

narrative of American public education, beginning with the Massachusetts 

School Laws that helped create compulsory, government-sponsored education 

in the United States in the 1640s.

Back then, classroom learning was 

rudimentary at best with teachers 

reading from books at the front of the 

room. Over the ensuing centuries, 

however, much has changed, including technology. 

“Everything’s in the cloud now,” Clark 

said, referring to the Internet and its 

widespread use as a platform for educating 21st century students.

The Internet and other technological 

advancements led to the creation of new 

teaching methods, including distance 

or online education, flipped classrooms 

and massive open online courses. 

These mediums are becoming standard educational modes at 

universities across the nation, and 

Clark, an expert on this front, offered 

an insightful critique of technologyenhanced education.

It’s more convenient, there’s better 

control, and faculty members have 

opportunities to create refined, nearperfect lectures, she said. On the flip 

side, creating blended learning lesson 

plans can be a laborious and time 

consuming, especially for teachers who 

aren’t tech-savvy. Furthermore, not all 

students respond well to online courses, 

and it can also be difficult to gauge their 

level of understanding through traditional methods like social cues and 

body language, since face-to-face time is 

more limited with blended learning.

Marcio Oliveira, PhD, assistant 

dean for Educational Innovation in 

the School of Public Health at the 

University of Maryland, offered tips 

for overcoming these shortfalls in his 

keynote talk, “How to Achieve Faculty 

and Student Acceptance of New 

Teaching Technologies – Strategies 

and Examples.”

Oliveira believes blended learning 

platforms can be adapted to meet everyone’s needs. Podcasts, video recordings 

and digital books, for example, can be 

integrated into distance learning curriculums that engage all types of learners. 

“Sometimes you have to think outside 

of the box or use creative teaching 

methods for online learning,” he said.

Even complex topics, like the Krebs 

cycle – a series of chemical reactions 

that generate energy in all aerobic 

organisms – can be taught online, 

using innovative methods like digital 

diagrams, animation and recorded 

lectures, Oliveira added. 

For many faculty members, these 

methods are unconventional, but 

Oliveira encourages educators to 

“think wild” and challenge conventional standards to meet the needs of 

21st century students.

Courtesy photoCourtesy photo

Jane Clark, PhD Marcio Oliveira, PhD

Navy Capt. (Dr.) Barbara Knollmann-Ritschel, an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology 

at the Uniformed Services University, and Army Lt. Col. (Dr.) 

William Kelly, the third-year clerkship director for the Department 

of Medicine at USU, won this year’s 

Innovation in Learning Award, 

sponsored by the Faculty Senate 

Education Committee. 

Knollmann-Ritschel and Kelly 

were selected because they made a 

significant impact on the education 

of students at USU through innovative methods. Knollman-Ritschel 

used concept maps to engage 

students in discussions about topics 

that are integrated but diverse, and 

Kelly had students participate in 

structured patient encounters that 

included a pre-patient briefing on 

heart disease, an interview and 

examination of real heart-failure 

patients and follow-up presentations with student findings.

These teaching innovations 

were heralded by KnollmannRitschel and Kelly’s peers, who 

selected the Innovation in Learning Award winners on June 11 

during Education Day. 

Innovation in 

Learning Awards

By Christine Creenan-Jones, editor

Continued to page 5
4 The Pulse The Official USU Newsletter Courtesy photo

USU faculty member receives 

Lifetime Achievement Award from 

Society for Vascular Surgery

By Christine Creenan-Jones, editor

Norman Rich, MD, the founding 

chair and namesake of the Norman 

M. Rich Department of Surgery at 

the Uniformed Services University, was awarded this year’s Lifetime 

Achievement Award from the Society 

for Vascular Surgery.

The prestigious award, SVS’s 

highest bestowed honor, is given to 

individuals who make outstanding 

contributions to vascular surgery 

while demonstrating exemplary 

leadership and professional practice. 

Rich, a Stanford-educated surgeon 

and retired military officer, is best 

known for his work in vascular 

trauma. He helped establish the 

Vietnam Vascular Registry in 1966, 

and later served as its director. 

Rich is also a highly esteemed teacher 

and writer. He’s published more than 

300 manuscripts and authored or 

co-authored five books, including the 

internationally recognized publication, “Vascular Trauma.” Rich has also 

trained dozens of vascular surgery 

fellows and played a vital role in creating several different premier surgery 

programs across the United States, 

including USU’s Department of Surgery.

In two separate celebrations, 

members of the Uniformed Services 

University came together to observe 

special milestones in military history. 

The university recognized the Army’s 

238th birthday with a cake-cutting 

celebration and remarks by Dr. Eric 

Schoomaker, former surgeon general 

of the Army and USU’s first scholar in 

residence, June 14.

“I hope you all recognize that 

within the limits of civilian fashion 

and good taste, I am dressed today in 

as much Army green as I could muster 

from my closet,” he said. “Although 

I take great pride and pleasure in 

working at a joint DoD organization 

here at USU, there are certain days, 

such as today, where I am afforded 

the opportunity to play favorites 

among the services. My trust, faith 

and respect is with all of our Sailors, 

Marines, Airmen and Public Health 

Service officers, but my heart is with 

Soldiers and the Army.”

Three days after Schoomaker delivered a heartfelt speech about the Army, 

USU personnel gathered to celebrate 

the 115th birthday of the Navy hospital 

corps. Laura Martinez, a retired master 

chief with more than 32 years of active 

duty service, was the guest speaker.

 “The legacy of the hospital corps 

lives in each of us who wear or have 

worn the caduceus of the hospital 

corps... a badge of mercy and valor,” she 

said. “You’ve done this while practicing 

faithfully all of your duties as a hospital 

corpsman, and you’ve continued to hold 

the care of the sick and injured to be a 

privilege and sacred trust.” 

Dr. Peter Gloviczki (right), president of the 

Society for Vascular Surgery, presented SVS’s 

2013 Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. 

Norman Rich, founding chair of the Uniformed 

Services University’s Department of Surgery.

brain tissue bank...

Continued from page 2

DoD researchers will look at the 

brain tissue samples to characterize the neuropathologic features of 

TBI in service members. Important 

questions to be addressed include: 

“What does blast exposure do to the 

brain?” and “Do the different forms 

of brain injury experienced in the 

military lead to CTE?” 

Service members exposed to blasts 

“are coming home with troubling, 

persistent problems and we don’t 

know the nature of this, whether it’s 

related to psychiatric responses from 

engagement in warfare or related to 

actual damage to the brain, as seen in 

football players,” Perl said. “We hope 

to address these findings and develop 

approaches to detecting accumulated tau in the living individual as a 

means of diagnosing CTE during life 

- and, ultimately, create better therapies or ways to prevent the injury in 

the first place.” 

“We are learning though the 

process of discovery the effects of 

repetitive mild traumatic brain injury 

and also how to prevent this issue 

of chronic traumatic encephalopathy,” Woodson said. “The brain tissue 

repository will enable us to learn even 

more about how we can treat injuries 

and prevent future calamity for 

service members.” 

For further information on donation 

to the brain tissue repository for 

traumatic brain injury, please contact the 

repository team at CNRM-TBI@usuhs.

edu or 855-DON-8TBI (855-366-8824).

USU Brigade celebrates service birthdays

By MC2 Brittney Cannady, writer
June 24, 2013 5

Congressman Chris Van Hollen presented the Legion of Merit to Dr. William Gilliland, the 

associate dean for Medical Education at the Uniformed Services University, May 2. 

Education Day...

Continued from page 3

Photo by Thomas C. Balfour

Trivia Question #1

Graduate School 

of Nursing 

20th Anniversary

The Graduate School of Nursing 

has a broad reach with many different programs to choose from. It’s 

origin, however, was not as diverse or 

multidisciplinary as today’s school. 

In fact, students from the first class 

were all part of this program, the 

only one offered in 1993.

Do you know which GSN program 

was the first to enroll students? If 

so, e-mail your answer to christine.

creenan-jones@usuhs.edu. The first 

person to answer correctly wins a 

large coffee and doughnut, courtesy 

of USU’s cafeteria.

Maryland Congressman presents 

Legion of Merit

By Christine Creenan-Jones, editor

Dr. William Gilliland, the associate dean for Medical Education at 

the Uniformed Services University, 

earned the Legion of Merit for his 

exceptional service while commissioned in the U.S. Army.

United States Congressman Chris 

Van Hollen presented the award to Gilliland, a 25-year medical corps officer, at a 

ceremony held at USU on May 2.

During the ceremony, Van Hollen 

thanked Gilliland for his outstanding service to the nation and shared 

highlights about Gilliland’s illustrious 

career, including his leadership roles 

at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

where he served as the co-director of 

the Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic and 

director of Continuing Medical Education; the National Capital Consortium, 

where he served as program director of 

the Rheumatology Fellowship, which 

boasted a 100-percent board certification passing rate for all trainees in the 

program; and the Uniformed Services 

University, where he served as a course 

director for the ICM-3 course, director of the Fourth Year Programs for the 

Department of Medicine and assistant 

dean for Curriculum before assuming 

his current position.

Gilliland has also contributed to 

military medicine and public health 

through membership on a wide 

variety committees and professional 

organizations, including the American 

College of Rheumatology, the Army 

Chapter of the American College of 

Physicians, the Executive Committee 

on Curriculum and many others.

“In all of my military assignments, I 

have always been fortunate to be assigned 

duties that interested me – undergraduate 

and graduate level teaching, programmatic administration, patient care and 

research,” he said. “When I first came 

to USU as a medical student in 1983, I 

never intended to complete a military 

career, but stayed because of the opportunities, patients and especially the 

amazing military and civilian employees 

with whom I had the pleasure to work. 

While I am honored to be recognized 

by the Army with the Legion of Merit, 

I always felt that I was simply doing my 

job, and that was reward enough.”

“The old model will not work,” he 

said. “We need to change the way we 

think about education.”

Heeding this advice, USU has 

changed significantly over the past 

several years. A postgraduate dental 

college was added, the School of 

Medicine overhauled its program and 

the Graduate School of Nursing added 

a new Doctor of Nursing Practice 

degree last summer. These changes 

were highlighted during Education 

Day as well, with talks from USU’s 

senior leadership about the university’s growing enterprise.

Photo by Thomas C. Balfour
6 The Pulse The Official USU Newsletter

Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Daryl 

Mercado will mark 10 years of Navy 

service, June 23. His first decade in the 

service has been memorable – so much so 

that he recently was chosen to receive the 

Secretary of Defense’s 2012 Junior Enlisted 

Member of the Year Award. 

“It was a surprise,” he said, recalling how he found out by accident while 

rehearsing for the commencement 

ceremony at the Uniformed Services 

University, where he is based. “I am also 

extremely humbled because I could not 

have done this without my senior leaders, 

peers and my family,” he said.

Born in the Philippines, Mercado 

immigrated with his family to Chicago 

when he was a young boy. Upon graduating from high school in 2003, he joined 

the Navy in the hopes of becoming a 

corpsman and later a doctor.

“Growing up, I spent a lot of time 

in the hospital because of my grandfather, who was sick. I saw all the pain 

and struggles he went through. He 

motivated me,” Mercado explained. 

Following the completion of his studies 

at the Naval School of Health Sciences, 

Mercado served as a laboratory technician 

at the Naval Air Facility in Atsugi, Japan, 

where he gained clinical experience.

Mercado was ambitious, though, and 

wanted more. He began working as an 

emergency medical technician during 

his off-duty hours.

After Japan, Mercado served as the 

sole laboratory technician aboard the 

USS Cleveland from 2007 to 2010. Upon 

completion of the two tours, he came to 

USU where he serves as lead petty officer 

and the enlisted advisor for the Graduate Education Office, where he provides 

guidance to company commanders on 

professional development.

“It’s a team effort,” is how Mercado 

describes his job at USU. “I can’t do it 

without my fellow first classmen.”

Mercado is busy outside of work, as 

well. The father of two children, ages seven 

and three, he also is working on completing his Masters of Business Administration 

from George Washington University.

He’s not stopping there, either. 

Mercado hopes to apply to the Enlisted to 

Medical Degree Preparatory Program at 

USU, which is a new program that allows 

enlisted service members to complete 

preparatory medical school coursework 

while maintaining an active duty status.

“I always wanted to go to USU,” 

Mercado said. He has about a year left 

of prerequisites to complete before he 

can apply to medical school. USU is his 

number one choice, he said, because, 

“you learn more about how to become a 

doctor in a military setting.”

Mercado said he wants to give back 

to the organization that has given him 

so much.

“The military has been really good to 

me,” he said. “There are a lot of programs 

out there. All you have to do is express 

what you want to do and your leaders and 

peers will help guide you. I had the same 

mentality throughout my Navy career and 

it’s been working out for me.”

Mercado added, “with hard work and 

dedication, you can achieve anything 

you want as long as you put your time 

and effort and heart into it.”

Mercado will be formally honored 

by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel later 

this year.

USU Corpsman receives Junior Enlisted 

Member of the Year Award

By Marie-Reine Maroun, Health.mil staff writer

Daryl A. Mercado

Patrick DeLeon, PhD

Photo by Thomas C. Balfour

Courtesy photo

GSN faculty member 

receives high honors 

from American 

Psychological Foundation

By Christine Creenan-Jones, editor

Patrick 

Deleon, PhD, 

a distinguished 

professor in 

the Graduate School 

of Nursing 

at the 

Uniformed 

Services University, received this 

year’s Gold Medal Award for Life 

Achievements in the Practice 

of Psychology by the American 

Psychological Foundation.

Deleon was lauded by the APF 

for several large-scale, enduring contributions to psychology, 

including his work to establish 

the Civilian Health and Medical 

Program of the Uniformed 

Services and the National Institute 

of Mental Health at the National 

Institutes of Health. He also 

helped rewrite Medicare regulations to give psychology more 

weight and its practitioners more 

autonomy, and changed the eligibility requirements for becoming surgeon general to include 

psychologists as contenders. 

Furthermore, Deleon, former 

chief of staff to Senator Daniel 

Inouye, used his political influence to change outmoded 

standards to reflect the importance of psychology in healthcare 

today. His advocacy led to the 

creation of more interdisciplinary community health centers 

and the establishment of the 

Emergency Medical Services 

for Children program, a national 

initiative designed to reduce 

childhood disability or death 

because of illness, injury 

or trauma. 
June 24, 2013 7

Air Force Maj. (Dr.) Cade Nylund 

(SoM ’04), assistant professor in the USU 

Department of Pediatrics was selected for 

membership in the prestigious Society 

for Pediatric Research this year. Nylund 

and other new inductees were recognized at a special presidential reception 

during the Society’s annual meeting held 

recently in Washington, D.C.

“The Society for Pediatric Research 

is one of the largest academic research 

organizations in pediatrics. Selection 

is a very formal process that requires 

specific nomination and endorsement 

by several members,” said retired Air 

Force Col (Dr.) Martin Ottolini, who 

nominated Nylund on behalf of the 

Pediatrics department in a process that 

began in early 2012. “They use a rigorous 

review of a candidate’s entire academic 

research record. They don’t begin to look 

at candidates until they have established 

their own sustained academic productivity beyond completion of sub-specialty 

training, and select members who are 

‘actively engaged in and have ongoing 

commitment to conducting research 

that creates new knowledge to advance 

the health and well-being of children 

and youth. It is a distinct honor that Dr. 

Nylund was selected at such a young 

stage of his professional career.”

Nylund’s nomination focused on 

both his earlier clinical studies of the 

immunopathology and potential new 

therapies of Crohn’s Disease in children, 

followed by his more recent work 

using the electronic databases of the 

military health care system to identify 

risk factors for a variety of chronic 

diseases, including the identification of 

risk factors and comorbid conditions 

associated with autism spectrum disorders in children. He was recruited to 

USU by Ildy M. Katona, MD, Pediatrics 

department chair, in 2010 after completion of his training in gastroenterology 

to support this and other aspects of the 

pediatric clinical research portfolio.

Navy Ensign Teresa Gilbride, a firstyear medical student at the Uniformed 

Services University, has been swimming 

for as long as she can remember. 

Growing up, she spent a lot of her free 

time in the pools around Washington, 

D.C., as both a lifeguard and member of 

her local pool’s swim team.

Nowadays, Gilbride is busy with a full 

course load at USU, but she still finds 

time to swim laps in the Olympic-sized 

pool at Naval Support Activity Bethesda.

Gilbride’s hobby – laps up and down 

NSAB’s 164-feet lanes – also became 

someone’s saving grace earlier this 

month when she used her swimming 

and first-responder skills to help a man 

in dire straits. On that day, she was 

doing her usual laps when something 

unusual caught her eye.

“As I was coming toward the wall, I 

noticed a guy lying at the bottom of the 

pool in the lane next to me. At first I 

thought he was just holding his breath, 

but I went down anyway,” she said.

By the time Gilbride reached him, the 

man was unconscious. She brought him 

to the surface, where she was met by a 

lifeguard, who helped keep him afloat, 

while Gilbride and others pulled the 

man onto safe ground and checked for a 

pulse. They found none. 

Gilbride and a bystander began 

administering CPR, a lifesaving 

technique she had reviewed just a 

few months earlier in a Military and 

Emergency Medicine department first 

responder skills class, and which was 

still fresh in her mind.

“I did the chest compressions while a 

bystander performed the rescue breathing. After a while, he began coughing 

and gasping for air, and I knew everything was going to be O.K.,” she said. 

He was taken to Walter Reed National 

Military Medical Center for treatment. 

The man survived, thanks to 

Gilbride’s swift response and the others 

on the scene. Still, she doesn’t think her 

actions were heroic. 

“It was a team effort. Plus, any one of 

my classmates could’ve done what I did. 

Still, I feel overwhelmingly thankful I 

was in a position to help,” she said. 

It also underscored a simple habit 

– when you see something out of the 

ordinary, investigate the situation – and 

drove home the importance of practicing 

skills that save lives, which for Gilbride, 

means swimming and studying. 

USU professor selected for prestigious 

pediatrics society membership

Courtesy of USU Department of Pediatrics

Medical student makes a splash, saves a life

By Christine Creenan-Jones, editor

Photo by Sharon Willis

Navy Ensign Teresa Gilbride

Air Force Maj. (Dr.) Cade Nylund, assistant 

professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the 

Uniformed Services University, and Army Capt. 

(Dr.) Luis Lozada, a third-year pediatric resident 

at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, 

were recognized by the Society for Pediatric 

Research for outstanding contributions to the 

field of pediatrics. Nylund was also selected for 

SPR membership this year.

Courtesy photo
Final Frame

The Learning Resource Center 

is hosting a poster exhibit 

from the National Library of 

Medicine called, “And There’s 

the Humor of It: Shakespeare 

and the Four Humors.” 

The exhibit, on display until July 

6 on the first floor lobby of the 

LRC, discusses the four bodily 

humors - black bile, phlegm, 

yellow bile, and blood - which 

were believed to define health, 

mental state and personality 

from the time of Greek 

philosophers such as Aristotle, 

Hippocrates and Galen through 

Shakespeare’s era.

Drawing images from 

historical texts and examples 

from characters portrayed in 

Shakespeare’s many plays, 

the exhibit illustrates the role 

of the humors in historical 

health through images taken 

from rare texts found in the 

collections of the Folger 

Shakespeare Library and the 

National Library of Medicine.

Visit https://www.nlm.nih.

gov/exhibition/shakespeare/

introduction.html for more 

information about the exhibit.