Last month at Vermont State University’s Castleton and Lyndon campuses, 11 Larner medical student volunteers from the Class of 2027—Lajla Badnjević, Jeremiah Bates, Shannon Bennett, Alison Chivers, Aaron Dees, Lindsey Gleason, Ian Kent, Taylor Krause, Elizabeth Medve, Chloe Ruscilli, and Eli Zettler—served as Southern Vermont Area Health Education Center (AHEC) student mentors at the week-long summer Governor’s Institutes of Vermont (GIV) Health and Medicine Institute.

Each summer, many Vermont high school students attend one of two week-long sessions to learn about career opportunities in health care, with the goal of growing the medical labor pool for the state. The attendees belong to a mentor group that is led by a Larner medical student, and the mentors also lead hands-on trainings. For example, Badnjević presented on food desert impacts on health; Krause focused on diabetes with the students, testing glucose levels of items like soda, lemon juice, and honey; Gleason presented a neurological exams session, with the students mimicking actual patient exams, testing reflexes, motor skills, and eyesight; and Kent led Health Careers Jeopardy, Sheep Brain Dissection, Sheep Heart Dissection, and a lecture on pharmacy technician work in the retail and hospital setting. “It was a pleasure to work with such an ambitious group of students. I love opportunities like these that get people excited about healthcare, show that there are healthcare opportunities that can suit anyone, and disperse basic medical skill knowledge into our communities,” said Kent.

The Southern Vermont AHEC posted appreciation for the mentors on their Facebook page, which reads, “Big thanks to the GIV Team for their unwavering support and commitment, the mentors from the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, Vermont State University Castleton Campus and University of Vermont for their energy and innovation.”

Read full story about the 2024 Health and Medicine Institute

Mark Nelson, Ph.D., chair and University Distinguished Professor of pharmacology, gave the Björn Folkow Lecture at the 15th Mechanisms of Vasodilation/Endothelium-Dependent Hyperpolarization (MOVD/EDH) 2024 conference July 2–5 at Magdalen College in Oxford, United Kingdom. The MOVD/EDH conference provides a forum for plenary lectures by some of the world’s leading vascular researchers and opportunities to discuss current research into the mechanisms that determine vascular reactivity in health and disease. Nelson’s research focuses on ion channels and calcium signaling in smooth muscle and endothelial cells, particularly in the brain vasculature and urinary bladder. He has a part-time professorship at the University of Manchester and is a visiting professor at the University of Oxford. Nelson’s lecture was one of 10 plenary lectures at the MOVD/EDH conference.

Tim Lahey, M.D., professor of medicine at the Larner College of Medicine and director of ethics at the University of Vermont Medical Center, has been selected as physician representative to the 2024–25 Healthcare Ethics Consultant (HCEC) Certification Commission, the national organization that oversees professional standards in clinical ethics.

The HCEC Certification Commission is made up of specialists and leaders in clinical health care ethics consultation, and the group offers expertise representing the varied roles of health care ethics consultants throughout the field. The panel is tasked with creating the key components of the certification program and their responsibilities include choosing a testing company, selecting item writers for the entry-level exam based on the role delineation study, setting eligibility criteria, and establishing policies and procedures to direct the commission’s activities.