Holiday Happenings
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group photo at holiday party

Holiday Happenings

As per tradition, faculty and staff celebrated good tidings of the holiday season and the end of another year during the University’s annual holiday party in the Hafter Student Center on the Friday, December 15. As always the event was well attended and filled with laughter and good cheer. Members of the University’s President’s Council dressed in festive holiday gear while passing appetizers to guests, who also enjoyed a full buffet from Williamson’s Culinart staff, all while enjoying games, door prizes and each other’s company with music from resident DJ JR Burrs playing in the background.

The event also serves as the perfect opportunity to recognize the institution’s hard working and dedicated faculty and staff for their years of service.

This year’s service award recipients were:
5 years
  • Venita Cromartie, patient representative, The Eye Institute
  • Dr. Lauren Sponseller, chair, Department of Occupational Therapy Program
  • Dr. Girija Sundar, director, Distance Education Programs, Osborne College of Audiology
  • Thomas Greco, institutional service clerk
  • Jamie Lindsay, interim associate director, Externship Program, Pennsylvania College of Optometry
  • Dr. Michelle Britchkow, assistant professor, Pennsylvania College of Optometry
  • Andrew (Blaine) Carfagno, senior database administrator
  • Jayne Mangini, administrative assistant, Occupational Therapy Program
  • Steven Lee
  • Dr. Martin Pienkowski, associate professor, Osborne College of Audiology
  • Maureen Owens, controller
  • Alfred Luton
  • Larry Smith
  • Dr. William Monaco, associate director, Public Health Programs

 
10 years
  • June Dunwell, secretary, Admissions
  • Monica Maisto, director, Admissions
  • Tiffany White
  • Kerry Lueders, assistant professor, College of Education and Rehabilitation, co-director, Low Vision Rehabilitation Program
  • Dr. John Snyder, assistant professor, Pennsylvania College of Optometry
  • Dana Major, research
  • Alycia Miller, ophthalmic technician
  • Dr. Alexandre Pertzev, senior research associate
  • Lyvonia Fennell

 
15 years
  • Celeste Tucker, assistant director, The Eye Institute
  • Deborah Anderson, contact lens, The Eye Institute
  • Kristine Harvey-Stinson, manager, Help Desk
  • Dr. Alexander Dizhoor, research
  • Dr. Elena Olshevskaya, research
  • Dr. Igor Peshenko, research


20 years
  • Lynne Corboy, director, Institutional Advancement
  • Karen Greave, administrative assistant, Institutional Advancement

 
25 years
  • Geraldine Cunningham, patient representative, The Eye Institute
  • Paula Kane, administrative coordinator, Osborne College of Audiology
  • Donald Kates, vice president, Finance

 
30 years
  • Dr. Jean Pagani, associate professor, Pennsylvania College of Optometry
  • Dr. Maria Parisi, associate professor, Pennsylvania College of Optometry
  • Robert Atkinson, technical services

 
35 years
  • Dr. Mitchell Scheiman, director, Biomedicine and dean, Research
  • Marcy Graboyes, associate professor, College of Education and Rehabilitation

 
40 years
  • Nancy Griffin, associate director, Admissions
  • Dr. Jeffrey Nyman, associate professor, Pennsylvania College of Optometry
  • Dr. Richard Brilliant, professor, Pennsylvania College of Optometry

 
45 years
  • Dr. Thomas Lewis, professor, Pennsylvania College of Optometry

Other celebrations took place on campus earlier in the month. On Thursday, December 7, the Office of International and Continuing Education hosted the second annual MSc Mixed Cohort Holiday Party. Students in the cohort, who have been on campus since October, hail from China, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and India. Since many are away from home for the first time, students, staff and faculty joined together for a potluck feast featuring traditional meals from each of the students’ individual home countries for all to enjoy.

The festive celebrations continued on both December 18 and 19 at staff and faculty at the University’s three clinical facilities – The Eye Institute (TEI), Pennsylvania Ear Institute (PEI) and Speech-Language Institute (SLI) competed in a holiday door decorating contest.

Door DecoratingPresident Dr. Michael H. Mittelman and vice president for Academic Affairs, Dr. Janice Scharre, served as judges. The contest entries were judged based on their level of creativity and how well they embraced the holiday spirit.

TEI winners

  • 1st place: Drs. Jenewein & Labib - “The night before Christmas at TEI”
  • 2nd place: Administrative Staff (decorated by Marisa Jones) - “A Cornea Christmas”
  • 3rd place: Drs. Kenny & DeMoss – “Happy Low Vision Holidays”

 

SLI & PEI winners:

  • 1st place (tie): PEI - “Have Yourself an Audiology Christmas” and SLI - “An International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Christmas List”
  • 2nd place: SLI - “Singing Loud for all to Hear”
  • 3rd place: PEI - “A Classic Christmas Scene”

From all of us at Salus University, we want to wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season!