Dean's Message - June 2025
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This past month I had the pleasure of working with our Food is Medicine team to host the second annual Healthcare Culinary Conference, which provides programming for nutritionists, community health workers, and healthcare professionals that is embedded within and supported by UMass Dining’s Chef’s Culinary Conference. The programming included talks by well-known speakers such as Becky Ramsing from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Liveable Future, Julie Mennella from the Monell Chemical Senses Center on the development of taste sensory from conception through adulthood, and chef, author, and activist Alice Waters on the past and future of school-supported agriculture, to name a few of the many excellent presentations. We also had the opportunity to chat and tour the new Food Bank of Western MA. It was incredible to witness their work in action and to hear about the breadth and depth of their program, which supports access to and availability of nutritious food for vulnerable communities. This is a topic of great importance given the current reconciliation budget bill, which proposes to cut and/or significantly change eligibility criteria for these programs, impacting the health of millions of Americans. Learn how you can advocate for the Food Bank here.
A highlight of the conference are the cooking demonstrations and banquets which showcase the amazing work of chefs at UMass and in our New England area. We prepared many Mediterranean dishes that focused on eating mainly plant-based foods, fish, and foods that are low in fat, sodium, and sugar. We learned a lot in preparing the meals, had fun along the way, and even had a surprise visit by the Chancellor Reyes as seen here with Amelia Mazzuca and Megan Patton-Lopez.
Over the past academic year, our faculty and staff were highly engaged in completing our 2024-2034 Strategic Plan Refresh to align with UMass Amherst’s For the Common Good. This plan reaffirms our commitment to public health despite the current challenges we face, and provides a promise to ourselves that we will create strong and healthy individuals and communities in the state and beyond. This will soon be available on our website.
In this time of uncertainty for higher education and for researching evidence-based strategies to improve the health of Americans, we are resilient and determined to work collaboratively across campus and with our community partners. Despite federal funding cuts, our faculty continue to obtain prestigious NIH grants – including recent R35 Outstanding Investigator Awards obtained by Kinesiology’s Ned Debold and Biostatistics’ Zhengqing Ouyang – and are diversifying their research portfolio. In Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Jacquie Kurland received a grant from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI); Environmental Health Sciences’ Meichen Wang received CAFÉ funding for her research; an interdisciplinary team involving Health Policy and Management’s Theo Schall received an Institute of Diversity Sciences seed grant; and Speech, Language, and Hearing Science’s Tim DeLuca received a public service endowment grant.
As this academic year comes to a close, we have some bittersweet news to share from the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, as we celebrate the retirement of three extraordinary individuals whose contributions have shaped our community for decades. Lisa Sommers, Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Language, Speech, and Hearing; Karen Helfer, esteemed Professor and Associate Dean for Graduate, Postdoctoral, and Faculty Development in the College of Natural Sciences; and Joy Holhut, our dedicated Administrative Assistant, have each left an indelible mark on the SPHHS. Their unwavering commitment, care, and wisdom have touched countless lives and helped foster a culture of support, growth, and well-being. As they embark on this exciting new chapter in their lives, we encourage everyone to reach out with your gratitude and warm wishes. We thank them deeply and wish them joy, rest, and fulfillment in the years ahead.