2007 Staff Members on the Go

Gwen Nelmes, the museum’s tour program coordinator, and Jennifer Heilman, the museum’s public affairs specialist, attended the Shepherd Park Citizens Association meeting at Shepherd Park Elementary to promote museum programs to local community members and businesses residing in the Gateway Georgia Avenue corridor.

Kathleen Stocker, assistant archivist, Brian Spatola, anatomical collections manager, Rebecca Farlow, anatomical collections intern, and Steve Hill, exhibits manager, participated in the National Museum of Civil War Medicine’s 15th annual conference held at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C. Stocker gave a presentation on illustrating the “Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion.” Spatola presented Walt Whitman and his soldiers, with Farlow giving an analysis of comparative ballistics, and Hill speaking about Civil War prosthetics.

Andrea Schierkolk, the museum’s public programs manager, and Jennifer Heilman, the museum’s public affairs specialist, represented the museum at the official launch of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Campaign at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer Heilman, the museum’s public affairs specialist, attended the seminar “Communicating Health News Across the Media Spectrum” hosted by EurekAlert! and the American Association for the Advancement of Science at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The seminar highlighted a panel of reporters representing a wide range of media organizations, including USA Today, Washington Post, Associated Press Broadcast, U.S. News & World Report and Bloomberg News.

Archie Fobbs, the museum’s neuroanatomical collections manager, attended “Neuroscience 2007,” the 37th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, Calif. Scientists gathered to exchange through lectures, symposia and workshops ideas about cutting-edge research on the brain, spinal cord and nervous system. At the meeting, Fobbs participated in the Annual Brain Awareness Campaign workshop, “Public Education: Brain Awareness and Beyond,” to learn more about worldwide Brain Awareness Week activities.

Beth Eubanks, the museum’s registrar, traveled to Brescia, Italy where she couriered the museum’s portrait of Dr. John H. Brinton painted by Thomas Eakins in 1876. Brinton was long associated with the Army Medical Museum before the painting was bequeathed to the museum’s collection. The portrait has most recently been on exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and will now be on display as part of a major exhibition on 19th century American art hosted by the Museo di Santa Giulia. The exhibition, “America! Storie di pittura dal nuovo mondo,” will run from Nov. 24, 2007 through May 4, 2008, and will feature approximately 200 works by major American artists.

Gwen Nelmes (on right in photo), tour program coordinator, Andrea Schierkolk (left), public programs manager, and Adrianne Noe, Ph.D., the museum’s director, represented the museum at S.E.E. Gateway Georgia Avenue Day. Sponsored by Gateway-Georgia Avenue Revitalization Corporation, the event highlighted neighborhood businesses and community programs extending from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to the Discovery Communications facility in Silver Spring, Md.

Dr. Edward Beeman, a museum docent, has authored and published the book “Charles Armstrong, M.D.: A Biography” online through the National Library of Medicine. Armstrong was a bacteriologist who discovered in 1939 that the polio virus can be transmitted to cotton rats, and started self-tests with nasal spray vaccination.

Alan Hawk, the museum’s historical collections manager, attended three conferences in Montreal. Hawk presented a paper entitled “Navy Medical Artifacts in the Collection of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology” at the First Annual Meeting and Papers Session for the Society for the History of Navy Medicine in addition to attending a separate session entitled “The Vision Statement.” He also presented the paper “The Viet Cong Pharmacopeia” at the 80th Annual Meeting of the American Association of the History of Medicine.

Beth Eubanks, the museum’s registrar, attended the American Association of Museums meeting in Chicago. Eubanks participated in the session “Boomers and 13rs: When Museum Talents Converge,” which focused on styles of leadership and the work habits of different generations working in museums today.

Andrea Schierkolk, the museum’s public programs manager, and Jennifer Heilman, the museum’s public affairs specialist, attended the meeting of Washington, D.C. organizations for the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission on Capitol Hill at the Library of Congress. The meeting’s focus was aimed at planning events for the bicentennial in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

Franklin Damann, the museum’s anatomical curator, and Brian Spatola, the museum’s anatomical collections manager, taught at the 20th Annual Forensic Anthropology course held at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Academy in Ashburn, Va. The course was planned and implemented in accordance with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through joint sponsorship of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and the American Registry of Pathology.

Brian Spatola, the museum’s anatomical collections manager, attended the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology’s 43rd Annual Forensic Dental Identification and Emerging Technologies lecture and mini workshop in Bethesda, Md. The focus of the course is to expose the experienced forensic scientist, and to introduce the novice, to state of the art techniques for forensic endeavors with an emphasis on mass disaster and dental identification. Spatola taught eight workshops on Forensic Anthropology with Marilyn London of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., and Maj. Laura Regan of AFIP.

Mike Rhode, the museum’s chief archivist of the Otis Historical Archives, has written a chapter with JTH Connor entitled, “’A Repository for Bottled Monsters and Medical Curiosities’: The Evolution of the Army Medical Museum,” in the book “Defining Memory: Local Museums and the Construction of History in America’s Changing Communities” published by AltaMira.

Adrianne Noe, Ph.D., the museum’s director, was presented with a certificate of appreciation from the College of Southern Maryland. Timothy Keating, dean of CSM’s arts and sciences, and Lelia Allen, a psychology professor at CSM, who has been sending her students to tour the museum as part of their course curriculum, recognized the museum for its partnership with the college. More than 5,000 students at CSM have been impacted since Allen began sending her students to the museum in 1989. Noe, left, is pictured with Keating, center, and Allen, right.

After six years on staff at the museum, Steven Solomon, the museum’s public affairs officer, has announced his retirement. He and his wife, Mary, will be moving to Tampa, Fla. with their beagle. He was a member of the multiservice public affairs team that handled media relations at Andrews Air Force Base for the state funeral of President Ford, and was on hand during ceremonies marking both the casket’s arrival and departure. He also has completed FEMA’s one-week Advanced Public Information Officers course at the Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, Md.

Alan Hawk, the museum’s historical collections manager, presented the lecture entitled “The Medical and Surgical History of the Future: Prospective Collecting” at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. The presentation focused on the collecting of contemporary pieces into the museum’s historical collection, which contains more than 15,000 artifacts. The museum’s current collecting agendas include the Satava Collection, orthotics and prosthetics, and the Global War on Terrorism collection initiative. Hawk also attended the annual conferences of the American Association for the History of Medicine, the Medical Museum Association, and the founding meeting of the Society for the History of Navy Medicine, all held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Jennifer Heilman, the museum’s public affairs specialist, attended the D.C. Chamber of Commerce’s annual event, “Ask Me About Washington,” an information forum on Capitol Hill co-sponsored by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. Heilman had an opportunity to promote the museum and its programs to Congressional staffers who attended.

Vince Neaz, the museum’s photographer, recently received an award for 10 years of federal service at a ceremony presided over by Col. Renata Greenspan, director of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Col. Greenspan, left, is pictured with Neaz, right.

Johanna Medlin, the museum’s collections technician for the human developmental anatomy center attended the Fourth Annual Conference on Brain Injury in Children and Adolescents, presented by Brain Injury Services. This was an opportunity to reach out the public and demonstrate the museum’s place in education and research. Medlin, center, is pictured with Dr. Maryanne Talbot, president for the Northern Virginia Brain Association, left, and Dr. Rick Parente, a neuropsychologist from the University of Maryland, right.

After two years on staff, the museum’s senior curator, Jeff Reznick, Ph.D., has been appointed director of the Institute for the Study of Health and Occupation of the American Occupational Therapy Foundation, Bethesda, Md. He will retain close connections to the museum in the future, promoting historical research based on its collections and working further with collections staff to expand the institution’s holdings related specifically to orthotics, prosthetics, and the field of rehabilitation generally.

Alan Hawk, the museum’s historical collections manager, was promoted to Chief Petty Officer, and attended his pinning ceremony at the base theatre of Andrews Air Force Base. Hawk is a member of Naval Reserve Office of Naval Intelligence Unit 0466 out of Suitland, Md.

Jeff Reznick, PhD,the museum’s senior curator, represented the NMHM last fall at the Koshland Science Museum of the National Academies, on a panel that explored connections between Washington, D.C. and Abraham Lincoln. Reznick's presentation, “Lincoln Connections at the National Museum of Health and Medicine,” focused on the NMHM's own connections to Lincoln through events that followed the president's assassination by John Wilkes Booth. Also last fall, Reznick was elected to the fellowship of the Royal Historical Society (RHS) of the United Kingdom. Founded in 1868, the RHS is the premier society in Great Britain which promotes and defends scholarly study of the past.

Archie Fobbs, the museum’s collections manager, represented the NMHM at the St. Louis Science Center last fall. Fobbs’ presentation, “The Teenage Brain and Alcoholism,” was sponsored by The Dana Alliance, a branch of the Dana Foundation, a private philanthropic organization with particular interests in brain science, immunology and arts education. Topics discussed included blood alcohol levels, nerve impulse and the effects on reaction time, safety and head trauma as a result of driving under the influence, visual cortex impairment, and the long term physical effects of alcohol of the brain.

Steven Hill, the museum’s exhibits manager, represented the NMHM at the 25th Army Science Conference which was held in Orlando, Fla. The conference displayed one of the museum’s articulated human skeletons as part of the Research Development and Engineering Command, in addition to four medical textbooks dating from 1940-1960.

Mike Rhode, the museum’s archivist, was recently featured in George Washington University’s independent student newspaper, The GW Hatchet, for his favorite pastime—comics. Rhode, ‘87 GW alumnus, is the co-author of the Comics Research Bibliography, editor of exhibition and media reviews for the International Journal of Comic Art, a contributing writer for Hogan's Alley, a magazine on cartoon arts, and blogs on his ComicsDC web site. Rhode has explored his hobby by writing several historical articles about comics, including stories about the NMHM’s collection of Civil War, World War I and World War II cartoons.