The Official USU Newsletter

Volume 8, Issue 3 • March 18, 2013

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

Military members 

sacrifice a lot for their 

country, even their lives. In 

the wake of these terrible 

tragedies, family members 

suffer, too. Yet, the impact 

and magnitude of their 

sorrow is largely unknown.

The Center for the 

Study of Traumatic Stress 

at the Uniformed Services 

University is bringing new 

visibility to these struggles 

by giving thousands of 

grieving parents, spouses, 

siblings and children a 

voice with the National 

Military Family Bereavement Study.

The study, led by Dr. 

Stephen Cozza, associate director 

of the CSTS, scientifically measures 

the impact military death has on 

surviving family members.

“Our study has two phases, both 

of which aim to understand and 

define the grief process in a multidimensional way,” said Cozza.

In phase one, participants complete 

an online questionnaire that covers 

a broad range of topics related to the 

loss experience. The CSTS is also 

collecting saliva samples, so researchers can identify candidate genes 

that may contribute to resiliency or 

prolong and intensify grief. 

In the second phase, two or 

more members of the same family 

are interviewed on three separate 

occasions over two years, either by 

phone or in person. This long-range 

data collection gives CSTS experts 

a closer look at unique loss experiences over time.

 “Is a mother’s grief different than 

a spouse’s grief? Does bereavement 

change if a servicemember’s death is 

combat related, a suicide, homicide 

or accident?” Cozza said. “We hope 

our research will find answers to 

these questions and more.”

In less than four months, the 

CSTS has already recruited more 

than 700 participants and collected 

nearly 300 saliva samples, and it 

plans to recruit thousands of new 

volunteers over the next two years.

“This is an opportunity for us 

to do good work and help people 

get through a difficult time,” Cozza 

said. “We hope our findings impact 

policy in meaningful ways, so survivors grieving the loss of a loved one 

get the support they need.”

In addition to Cozza, the 

National Military Family Bereavement Study Team includes Joscelyn Fisher, PhD, study project 

manager, Jill LaMorie, DSW, senior 

field researcher, and geographically 

assigned field researchers and other 

scientists within the CSTS.

Visit http://www.militarysurvivorstudy.org/ to learn more 

about the National Military Family 

Bereavement Study.

On the cover

From left to right: The Honorable Ashton B. 

Carter, deputy secretary of defense; Robert 

Thompson, chief of staff at USU; Air Force 

Tech. Sgt. Tasha Nix, CFC keyworker for the 

USU campaign; and Michael Rhodes, DoD 

director of Administration and Management, 

celebrate USU’s successful campaign during 

the Department of Defense Combined Federal 

Campaign awards ceremony held at the 

Pentagon, Feb. 11. (See story, page 4)

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

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.

Courtesty Photo 

CSTS launches first scientific military 

family members bereavement study

By Christine Creenan-Jones, editor
March 18, 2013 3

 Photo by Thomas Balfour

Battlefield nurse learns to heal invisible wounds 

By Christine Creenan-Jones, editor

HM1 Daryl 

A. Mercado 

was selected as 

USU’s Service 

Member and 

Sailor of the 

Year. Although 

the award 

was given 

to Mercado, 

according to 

him, he didn’t earn it by himself.

“It’s a great honor to be selected. 

I couldn’t have done it without 

guidance from the chief ’s mess, first 

classes and a few junior members,” 

he said. “A lot of my success goes to 

them, because they all helped me in 

some way.”

Mercado serves as USU’s leading 

petty officer and the enlisted advisor for 

the Graduate Education Office. In these 

roles, he assists company commanders 

in all matters relating to the professional 

development of more than 100 Army, 

Navy and Air Force students in USU’s 

Graduate Education programs. Mercado 

calls his job both challenging and fun.

“It’s a mixture of experienced officers 

and those who haven’t been in the 

military,” he said. “They’ve been at USU 

for three or four years and are ready to 

go, so I try to mentor them and make 

sure they know the military culture 

whether they go to the fleet or a unit.”

Mercado’s duties also include 

conducting formations and inspections, 

providing guidance to students on Navy 

policies and regulations, and being a 

positive example for students at USU.

“You have to stay hungry and 

driven,” he said. “I love being successful. I don’t like being recognized, but I 

like achieving my goals.

Mercado has been achieving important goals for many years now. He 

enlisted in the Navy in June 2003 and 

served as a laboratory technician at 

Naval Air Facility in Atsugi, Japan.

As one of the top students in his 

class, Mercado was selected to attend 

the Naval School of Health Sciences 

in San Diego. After graduating in 

2005, he served as the sole laboratory 

technician aboard the USS Cleveland 

(LPD 7) from 2007 to 2010 before 

coming to USU.

HM1 Daryl Mercado USU Service Member, Sailor of the Year 

By MC2 Brittney Cannady, lead writer

HM1 Daryl A. 

Mercado

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard Schulz, 

a student in the Psychiatric Mental 

Health Nurse Practitioner program, 

studies behavioral health problems 

every day at the Uniformed Services 

University. His program frames and 

contextualizes major psychiatric 

disorders – depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder and more. 

Schulz will soon diagnose and treat 

these complex problems on his own. 

He and 10 other military officers in 

the PMHNP program are finishing up 

their clinical rotations before graduation in May. After commencement, 

they’ll use the arsenal of tools they’ve 

gathered at USU and their military 

experience to begin mending some 

of the most vexing, misunderstood 

wounds of our time.

“We’re brain mechanics. That’s how 

I see our profession,” Schulz said. 

“For us, a fix-all solution doesn’t exist, 

because two patients with the same 

clinical diagnosis may need totally 

different interventions.”

Although these work challenges are 

new, Schulz has been taking care of 

wounded warriors for 21 years now. He 

began his military career as a corpsman in 1992 and was commissioned 

seven years later. As a naval officer, 

Schulz worked as a critical care nurse 

in several downrange locations.

“I spent six months in Kandahar, 

Afghanistan, treating all kinds of 

combat trauma wounds. At first, we 

received anywhere from zero to nine 

casualties. As the tempo of war picked 

up, our team would easily triage more 

than 30 patients in a single day,” Schulz 

said. “Our base flag flew at half mast 

for a long time, which meant another 

servicemember was killed in the line of 

duty. It was very sobering work.”

Schulz’s trying time on the frontlines also provided a looking glass into 

a new world of invisible wounds. All 

around him, people were suffering, and 

mainstream medicine couldn’t help 

their kind of suffering.

“In my patients, I saw a lot of pain that 

couldn’t be healed on operating room 

tables,” he said. “I wanted to help them.”

This desire led Schulz to USU. 

His passion is vigilant still, but the 

course toward his master’s degree has 

been tough.

“The program is pretty grueling, but 

I’m glad the Navy sent me here. You get 

strong military exposure and a chance to 

see the big picture at USU,” Schulz said. 

“I feel like I have a leg up compared to 

my peers in civilian programs.”

A strong edge is necessary for a 

largely unchartered discipline like 

mental health, which according to 

Schulz, still needs innovators to pull 

back the veil of mystery.

“There’s so much that still needs to 

be discovered,” he said. “There’s a lot of 

room for us to be leaders in this field.”
4 The Pulse The Official USU Newsletter

For a long 

time, the human 

stomach was 

considered the 

perfect safeguard 

against dangerous bacteria. A 

strong defender, 

the stomach is a 

constantly changing environment with acidic gastric 

fluids that kill harmful germs. 

However, the discovery of Helicobacter 

pylori, a common but deadly bacterium, 

has spun conventional scientific thinking in new directions. In the early 1980s, 

researchers found the bacterium living 

and thriving inside the upper gastrointestinal tract. Since then, researchers like 

D. Scott (Scotty) Merrell, PhD, an associate professor in the Uniformed Services 

University’s Department of Microbiology 

and Immunology, have been working 

hard to understand the bug.

“If untreated, H. pylori can live in 

the stomach forever,” he said. “No other 

known bacterium can do this.”

H. pylori’s survivability is both 

perplexing and harmful. It’s linked to 

ulcers, stomach cancer and other gastrointestinal diseases, although many carriers experience no adverse side effects.

“About half of the world’s population has H. pylori in their digestive 

tract, but only 10 to 15 percent have 

clinical symptoms that range from 

mild to severe,” said Merrell. “In these 

cases, antibiotics plus proton pump 

inhibitors are typically prescribed. 

This treatment method used to be very 

successful with a cure rate around 

95-plus percent. Recently, however, 

the number started dropping, which 

means the bacterium is adapting and 

becoming more resistant.”

This evolution has jump-started 

new research and partnerships, 

including Merrell’s recent collaboration with a technology institute in 

Israel and a local biotechnology firm 

in Rockville, Md. Together, they’re 

working on developing better anti-H. 

pylori therapies. 

The Israeli team has taken a 

novel approach by creating synthetic 

antimicrobial peptides, which Merrell is 

currently testing in USU laboratories.

“The peptides appear to be a promising treatment for H. pylori. They are 

killing lab-grown bacteria and decreasing colonization in animals,” he said. 

“No other single-drug therapy being 

tested can do this right now.”

USU faculty member finds novel H. pylori solutions

By Christine Creenan-Jones, editor

D. Scott (Scotty) 

Merrell, PhD

 Photo by Thomas C. Balfour

The Uniformed Services University’s 2012 

Combined Federal Campaign, the largest workplace 

charity, was hugely successful, with 246 pledges 

totaling $172,219. These contributions will benefit 

many non-profit organizations that provide health and 

human services, and other benefits worldwide.

“Even after 33 years of participating in the CFC, I 

still feel privileged to contribute to charities that aim 

to help those less fortunate than me,” said Robert 

Thompson, chief of staff at USU. “I’m very proud of 

the fact that our USU community set new records 

during a year of significant fiscal uncertainty for each 

of us. We were recognized with the President’s Award, 

Summit Award and 

Participation Award 

for our unprecedented 

levels of contributions 

and participation.”

Alpha Omega Alpha, founded in 1902, is the national 

medical honor society. AΩA is dedicated to the belief that, 

in the profession of medicine, care will be improved for 

all by recognizing high educational achievement, honoring gifted teaching, encouraging the development of leaders 

in academia and the community, supporting the ideals of 

humanism, and promoting service to others. 

A number of USU personnel, including medical students 

from the Class of 2014, were recently inducted as the newest 

members ofAlpha Omega Alpha and were recognized for their 

outstanding academic achievement in addition to significant research, community service, and leadership roles. The 

honored medical students include: Alexander Knobloch, 

Alexander Lanigan, Barbara Williams, Charles Miller, Clare 

Griffis, Derek Grady, Evan Sleipness, Geoffrey Farnsworth, 

Justin Mygatt, Michael Berge, Michael Eliason, Patrick 

Grimm, Rebecca Lauters, and Timothy Russell. 

Additionally, the following faculty members/alumni/

fellows/residents were also selected for Alpha Omega 

Alpha: Faculty - Dr. Patricia McKay, Dr. Rodney Chan; 

Alumnus - Dr. Jason Bothwell; Residents/Fellows - Dr. 

Nicole Vietor; Dr. Maria Kurtz; Dr. Kevin Bernstein; Dr. 

Christy Sine; and Dr. Edward Stickle.

USU hailed for another 

successful CFC campaign

By Christine Creenan-Jones, editor

Medical students inducted into 

national honor society 

By USU Office of External Affairs
March 18, 2013 5

The Learning Resource Center 

is showcasing a slice of university 

history in a new exhibit called, “Laying 

the Foundation: The Charter Class, 

1976-1980.”

The display, which chronicles life 

on campus for the Uniformed Services 

University’s “charter martyrs,” will run 

through the end of March. It includes 

original photos and factual information 

about the social side of medical school 

during the university’s early years.

An active cohort, USU’s charter class 

participated in several extracurricular 

activities, including sports, yearbook 

and newsletter clubs. They also 

organized a popular talent show and 

faculty roast called, “Fed Med Follies.” 

These social activities helped shape 

the university’s culture and future, and 

so did USU’s first alumni, who set the 

standard for thousands more to follow. 

“It is simply amazing how successful each student was in his or her 

career,” said Emelie Rubin, the institutional archivist at the LCR. “Most 

of the graduates remained in the 

military for their entire careers, and 

many have had successful private 

practices as well.”

LRC showcases USU history in new display 

By Christine Creenan-Jones, editor

Courtesy Photo

Graduate School of Nursing is 

celebrating “20 Years of Innovations

Submit your favorite GSN memories.

http://www.usuhs.mil/gsnanniversary/

sharegsnmemory.html

Learn more about the

Graduate School of Nursing

http://www.usuhs.mil/gsn

Celebrating “20 Years of Innovations” 1993–2013

What Fuels You?

Performance fuel comes from 

many sources—food and drink, 

inspirational messages, yoga or 

support from your buddies. 

Fuel sources are limitless, but 

finding the right ones are critical. So, the Human Performance 

Resource Center wants to know, 

what helps you push harder? 

Send them a picture of your 

“fuel.” Your photo could be 

featured on HPRC’s Facebook 

and Twitter.

You can submit your photo in 

one of three ways:

1. Attach your photo to a 

Facebook message and 

describe your performance 

fuel in 1-2 sentences.

2. Email your photo to hprc@

usuhs.edu with the subject 

line “Performance Fuel” and 

give a brief description (1-2 

sentences) of your performance fuel.

3. Tweet or direct message 

HPRC your photo and brief 

description to @HPRCupdates 

with the hashtag #hpofuel.

However you submit your photo, 

be sure to include your name so 

HPRC can give you credit. 

Information provided by HPRC.

Twitter

Follow us at

https://twitter.com/

usuhspao

The Learning Resource Center is exhibiting a new display called, “Laying the 

Foundation: The Charter Class, 1976-1980.” 
 

 

 

 

6 The Pulse The Official USU Newsletter

Word on Campus

By Christine Creenan-Jones, editor

“I try to keep my weight 

down and exercise a 

minimum of three times 

per week. I manage 

stress and my blood 

pressure through yoga 

and a good sense of humor, watch my 

intake of red meats, eat a lot of fish and 

take nutritional supplements proven to 

improve heart health.”

Eric Schoomaker, MD, PhD, scholar-in-residence

“I exercise occassionally 

and try not to eat 

much fat.”

Brian Cox, PhD, professor, 

Department of Pharmacology

“I run six miles, five 

times a week. I also 

do CrossFit twice a week 

to keep the machine 

working.”

Canadian Army 1st Lt. 

 Korami Dembele, Master of 

 Science in Public Health candidate

 

“I walk two miles 

everyday.”

Linh Nguyen,

grant coordinator

Heart disease is a major problem in the United States, even though it’s preventable and 

controllable. Because staying heart healthy is so important, Pulse staff members asked USU, 

“How do you keep your heart healthy?”

“I try to eat a healthy 

diet and exercise 

regularly. My favorite 

activity is basketball.”

Air Force Staff Sgt. Avary Romar,

information technology NCOIC for the 

Graduate School of Nursing

“I work out twice a week. 

Secondary PT, hooah!”

Army Sgt. Matthew Baine,

supply sergent, Department of 

Military and Emergency Medicine

“I watch my cholesterol, 

and work in exercise 

and stress reduction 

whenever possible.”

Carol Romano, PhD,

associate dean for Academic Affairs, 

Graduate School of Nursing

“I wear a pod, so I know 

how many steps I take. 

I also work out three times 

a week.”

Army Maj. Kelley Togiola,

DNP student in the Family Nurse 

 Practitioner Program
 

March 18, 2013 7

LAM goes high-tech with 

new waste disposal system

By Christine Creenan-Jones, editor

USU hosts panel on 

LGBT mental health

By Jeremy K. Johnson 

Naval Air Station Bethesda

Operations were recently 

modernized in the Center for 

Laboratory Animal Medicine. A 

high-tech waste disposal system 

was installed, making life easier 

and safer for LAM technicians and 

everyone else at the Uniformed 

Services University. 

Until this month, LAM had to 

manually transport 400-pound 

containers filled with animal 

bedding and other waste to industrial-sized dumpsters located just 

beyond USU’s periphery. 

New technology, however, has 

significantly lightened LAM’s 

heavy load and improved university-wide sanitation. Now, debris 

moves by stainless-steel enclosed 

conveyor belts, and waste is deposited into exterior receptacles. The 

leak- and sound-proof system also 

senses capacity automatically and 

shuts down so there is no accidental discharge.

“It’s more hygienic and people are 

less likely to get injured,” said Aladino 

Robles, chief of LAM’s Animal Facility. “We no longer move potentially 

unsanitary material through common 

areas, and our technicians don’t have 

to bear as much heavy weight while 

carefully navigating loading docks, 

which can be especially dangerous in 

bad weather.”

Although new, the upgraded 

waste disposal system has already 

proven its worth.

“We move up to 1,200 pounds of 

animal bedding and feed per day,” 

said Robles. “This system is a great 

purchase for LAM and the university.”

Roosevelt McCoy, an animal caretaker at USU, uses LAM’s new waste disposal 

system. The modern system transports animal bedding and feed through 

stainless steel pipes to outside dumping sites.

 Photo by Thomas C. Balfour

The Uniformed Services University hosted the first educational panel 

to focus on the mental well-being 

of deployed gay and lesbian servicemembers by featuring four panelists 

affected by the issue, Feb. 6.

Three openly gay and lesbian 

servicemembers and the wife of one 

panelist answered questions from 

31 military mental health specialists 

about the types of issues that affect 

lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender service members, especially 

when deployed.

The panel was part of a 10-day 

course called “Topics on Deployment 

Psychology” conducted by USU’s 

Center for Deployment Psychology, which trains both military and 

civilian mental health professionals 

to provide evidence-based care for 

servicemembers and their families.

During the panel discussion, 

students also had opportunities 

to ask questions about a variety of 

LGBT-specific issues they had seen 

with patients or wanted to know 

more about. Panelists talked about 

life under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” 

trust issues with military mental 

health providers, dealing with hostile 

co-workers and feelings of isolation 

when a spouse is deployed.

“It was an incredible privilege 

to participate in this forum,” said 

National Guard Lt. Col. Todd Burton, 

a member of the LGBT-themed panel. 

“The students were engaged, interested, and really want to do the right 

thing as they move from the classroom to the field. They presented 

challenging questions that really 

showed their commitment to meeting 

the needs of all service members.”