Five UCF Health Management and Informatics students were recognized at the annual American Health Information Management Association’s national conference in Miami.

In 2008, the Center for Public and Nonprofit Management was established as the research extension of the UCF School of Public Administration. Now, in 2018, the center is celebrating 10 years of policy-changing research, 10 years of working with local nonprofit agencies and 10 years of providing support to the community at large through community engagement initiatives. The center supports UCF’s emergence as a preeminent research university.

Many would describe Feldheim as a trailblazer. That can be seen through her accomplishments at the School of Public Administration and UCF at large, including becoming the first woman in the school to obtain tenure. In 2005, Feldheim became the chair of the Department of Public Administration. Under her strategic leadership, the department grew exponentially, adding several programs including nonprofit management, emergency management, research administration, and urban and regional planning. As the department was recognized for extending beyond just public administration degree programs, it was renamed the School of Public Administration in 2011, with Feldheim as the school’s founding director.

Adrian Andrews is the first fully-online UCF student pursuing a graduate degree in health management and informatics to work on a National Science Foundation-funded project.

Students pursuing their master’s degree in urban and regional planning in the School of Public Administration have an additional opportunity to apply for financial support. The Orlando Metro Section of the American Planning Association (APA) established the Judith Mucci Endowed Scholarship Fund at UCF. “The Judith Mucci Scholarship Fund will allow us to increase our capacity to support deserving and qualified students to achieve their goal of pursuing a graduate degree in urban and regional planning,” says Luis Santiago, associate professor and director of the program.

The Health Foundation of South Florida has awarded UCF $57,884 for its Strategies for Person-Centered Care in Behavioral Health Treatment Programs project. Dr. Andraka-Christou and her research team (Drs. Atkins, Gabriel, and Cortelyou-Ward) will use the funding to explore methods for operationalizing person-centered care in substance use disorder and mental health disorder treatment. Currently, person-centered care has primarily been defined at the conceptual level, with little guidance for substance use disorder and mental health disorder treatment service providers. The project goal is to create an actionable list of practices for treatment centers and healthcare providers to implement person-centered care.

Congratulations to our college’s Gene Paoline, professor of criminal justice, on his Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Society of Criminology Division of Policing. He is also the incoming chair of the division and Jacinta Gau, associate professor criminal justice, will serve as co-chair.

Patients can use virtual reality, robotics and other high-tech learning tools to keep up with their studies.

Anna Eskamani ’12 ’15MNM ’15MPA, a Democrat and first-time candidate, was elected in District 47 in Orange County.

In this era of classrooms saturated with testing, we are missing the overall end of education: What do we want our students to be like as a result of their school experiences?