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Faculty Convocation slated for Aug. 23  Rear Admiral Cristina V. Beato, M.D., acting assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will be the keynote speaker for the Faculty Convocation on Aug. 23.   The convocation, to be held in the Harper Student Center, will also honor nine faculty members in the following categories: Teaching Excellence, Developing Scholar, Outstanding Clinician and Distinguished Faculty Service.   Beato serves as the principal adviser on health policy and medical and scientific matters to the secretary of Health and Human Services. She also oversees the Office of Public Health and Science. In this capacity she works to reduce health disparities, combats HIV/AIDS, encourages prevention against chronic diseases and promotes women’s health. She is board certified in family medicine.   She emigrated from Cuba as a child and earned her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of New Mexico. She joined the university faculty and eventually became the School of Medicine’s associate dean for clinical affairs and chief medical officer of the UNM Hospital System. Beato joined the HHS in 2001 as deputy assistant secretary for health and was later promoted to principal deputy assistant secretary for health.   She is mother of two children and resides in the Washington, D.C. area.   The three recipients of the Teaching Excellence awards were profiled in the Catalyst shortly after they were announced in May. They are Darlene Shaw, Ph.D., educator-mentor; John Welton, Ph.D., R.N., educator – lecturer; and Teresa Kelechi, Ph.D., R.N., developing teacher. The remaining six honorees, selected during the summer, are listed below. Outstanding Clinician David B. Adams, M.D. After earning his M.D. degree in 1977 at the Medical College of Virginia, David Adams, M.D., joined the U.S. Navy, where he served for nine years before resigning with the rank of commander. At the time of his departure from the military, Adams was based in Charleston, serving as head of general surgery at the Naval Hospital and a clinical instructor in surgery for the Medical University.  Following his resignation from the Navy, he joined the faculty as assistant professor of surgery. Currently, he is a tenured professor of surgery and head of the Section of General and Gastrointestinal Surgery. In the field of gastrointestinal diseases, Adams is regarded as the “go-to” surgeon not only in South Carolina, but throughout the Southeast. He has held high elective office in several professional organizations and is in great demand as a speaker and visiting professor. He is also regarded as an excellent teacher, being the recipient of several faculty excellence awards from the College of Medicine, the Paul O’Brien Resident Teaching Award from the Department of Surgery and the College of Medicine’s Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award. Developing Scholar Maurizio Del Poeta, M.D. A native of Italy, Maurizio Del Poeta, M.D., earned his medical degree from the University of Ancona School of Medicine in Ancona, Italy and received additional training there in the field of infectious diseases. Later, he went to Duke University for advanced training in basic and translational research related to this area of interest. In 1999, he joined the MUSC faculty as assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. He has continued his strong record of outstanding research that began during his advanced training. His laboratory focuses on mechanisms by which sphingolipids mediate signaling pathways and regulate fungal pathogenesis, particularly in Cryptococcus neoformans. This particular pathogen poses a significant threat to immunocompromised patients, especially those with the AIDS virus. Other classes of people at risk are infants and young children and those whose immune systems were suppressed in relation to organ transplants or cancer treatment. C. neoformans can lead to meningoencephalitis. Apart from his research, Del Poeta is highly regarded as a teacher, so much so that he is a constant nominee for outstanding teaching awards and was named Professor of the Year in the College of Pharmacy. Developing Scholar Ziad Nahas, M.D. Ziad Nahas, M.D., earned his medical degree from St. Joseph University Medical School in Beirut, Lebanon and interned in Lebanon and France before coming to Baylor University’s College of Medicine to serve a residency in psychiatry. In 1997, he joined MUSC as a research fellow in neuroimaging and psychopharmacology. Since 1999 he  served as medical director of the Brain Stimulation Laboratory and in 2000 he attained the rank of assistant professor. He was integrally involved in the development and application of two innovative treatments for depression, transcranial magnetic stimulation and vagal nerve stimulation. Nahas combined the technology of functional magnetic resonance imaging with both of these new brain stimulation technologies in order to elucidate central nervous system mechanisms associated with both the symptoms of severe depression and its successful treatment. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Vagus Nerve Stimulation Therapy System to help patients with chronic or recurrent depression. In 1998, MUSC was the first trial site to implant the VNS device in a patient for the purpose of treating depression. Since then, more than 30 other patients received similar procedures. Distinguished Faculty Service Brent M. Egan, M.D. Brent Egan, M.D., is a professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. Upon completion of his medical education and training at the University of Michigan, Egan served on the faculties of his alma mater and the Medical College of Wisconsin before joining the Medical University of South Carolina in 1992. He quickly compiled an impressive body of work in terms of research funding and publications and today enjoys the reputation of one of the nation’s foremost authorities on hypertension. In 2002, he established the Hypertension Initiative to provide guidelines, standards and monitoring of patient therapies throughout the Southeast. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services took note of Egan’s program and named it as the Best Practice Model in 2004. He also serves on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals and is active in several professional organizations. At the same time, Egan maintains a heavy academic schedule, teaching students ranging in age from high school to professionals. Distinguished Faculty Service Margaret P. Schachte, MBA A graduate of Duke University, Margaret Schachte, earned her master’s at Emory University and joined MUSC’s Drug Science Foundation as executive vice president. Prior to her current position as the first and only director of the Office of Research Development, she served as Director of Research Administrative Services and Planning for the university. She also contributed to MUSC in numerous other capacities, serving on numerous committees and working groups, including the Hollings Cancer Center, the Foundation for Research Development and the university’s Yearly Employment Support (YES) campaign, which she chaired. In 1997, she joined the MUSC faculty and currently holds the position of assistant professor in the Department of Library Science and Informatics. In addition to helping other faculty members obtain sizeable grants, she acquired her own grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, making MUSC the coordinating center for nine other institutions, including Stanford and Johns Hopkins universities. By some estimates, Schachte’s office has generated more than $100 million in funding for MUSC. Distinguished Faculty Service Albert H. Keller, Jr., D.Min. Albert H. Keller, Jr., D.Min. earned graduate degrees from Union Theological Seminary and Yale Divinity School before completing his doctoral work at Princeton Theological Seminary. He continued his educational pursuits overseas, in France, Switzerland, England, and India before returning to the United States. Keller began his teaching career in the Virginia State Penitentiary before moving to The Republic of Congo. In 1969, he returned to America as the Presbyterian university pastor for Charleston-area colleges. His rapport with MUSC students prompted the late Hiram Curry, M.D., the founding chair of the Department of Family Medicine, to include Keller on the faculty to teach medical ethics. Since that time, students from various MUSC colleges learned from Keller not just medical ethics, but concepts in death, dying, mourning, among other issues in the humanities. Apart from the formal classroom setting, Keller serves as a mentor and counselor to virtually every category of person on the MUSC campus, from faculty to patients. For more than 20 years, as a member and chair of the University Humanities and the Medical Center Ethics committees, he helped to emphasize the arts and shape policies regarding end-of-life issues. Beyond the campus, Keller was a leader in the founding of Hospice of Charleston, one of the first premier hospice organizations in the United States, and the Charleston Interfaith Crisis Ministry homeless shelter, where he often ministers to its residents.   The convocation begins at 4:30 p.m. Aug. 23 with a reception to follow. All faculty members are invited to attend and recognize the accomplishments of their colleagues and to initiate the new academic year.     Friday, Aug. 12, 2005 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. 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