Committed to the SECC

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During last fall’s State Employee Charitable Campaign, UT Health San Antonio raised nearly $400,000 and handily defeated UTSA in a one-day challenge for most contributors. The UTSA challenge Sept. 19 was for most individual donations that day. UT Health San Antonio had 1,095 donors while UTSA had 611.

To show their commitment to the campaign, UT Health San Antonio President William L. Henrich, M.D., and UTSA President Taylor Eighmy, Ph.D., wore matching T-shirts with both schools’ logos and proclaiming “Together We Make Lives Better Through SECC.”

It’s ugly sweater season!

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You know you have one hidden in a closet or a drawer somewhere, right? Well, ’tis the season to show off that ugly sweater.

The Digital Experience team within Marketing, Communications and Media is running an Ugly Sweater Contest open to all students, faculty and staff. To enter, follow @uthealthsa on Instagram and tag @uthealthsa in your ugly sweater post. The winner will receive a winter swag bag,

The deadline for entering is the end of the day on Friday, Dec. 20.

Dr. Kalkwarf elected president of retired faculty association

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Kenneth L. Kalkwarf, D.D.S., M.S., was elected president of the Association of Retired Faculty and Associates (ARFA) on Dec. 12 during its annual meeting at Club Giraud. Dr. Kalkwarf retired as dean of the School of Dentistry in 2012 after 24 years in the position. He also served as interim president of the university from 2012-13.

He succeeds W. Frank Elston, former vice president of university relations, who served as president the past two years.

Kalkwarf is the 15th president of ARFA, which was founded in 1995 to bring faculty and professional staff together to keep members informed of campus activities and to participate in social and health care educational activities. Dr. Harry Martin was the first ARFA president.

Dr. Shirlyn McKenzie was elected to a two-year term as vice president/president elect, and Dr. Brenda Jackson will be the association’s Secretary-Treasurer. The 2020 ARFA Executive Board includes the officers plus Dr. Hasi Venkatachalam, Dr. Gale Haradon, Dr. Stephen Shanfield, and new board members Dr. Chuck Hermesch, Rudy Gomez and Rajia Tobia.

One of the primary activities of the association is to award a scholarship each year, on a rotating basis, to an academically outstanding student from each of the five UT Health San Antonio schools. The recipient is selected by the school. This year, a $2,000 scholarship was given to Chibulke Ofeogbuna, a second year medical school student. Since the first scholarship of $500 was awarded to a medical student in 2009, 12 more students from all five schools have been awarded grants totaling $11,795.

Persons eligible for ARFA membership are retired faculty, administrative and professional personnel with five or more years of full-time employment. Spouses, widows and widowers of members are entitled to full membership. Annual dues are $20.

Employees who are anticipating retirement can receive ARFA information and an application from Human Resources or Cindi Adcock, Office of the President, adcockc@uthscsa.edu / 210-567-2003.

Study links inflammatory marker to dementia

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An inflammatory marker called sCD14 is related to brain atrophy, cognitive decline and dementia, according to a study of more than 4,700 participants from two large community-based heart studies. The study was published Dec. 9 in the journal Neurology.

“We have strong reason to believe that sCD14 can be a useful biomarker to assess a person’s risk of cognitive decline and dementia,” said study senior author Sudha Seshadri, M.D., professor of neurology at UT Health San Antonio and director of the university’s Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases.

“The most exciting part is that we could assess this risk in advance, when there is ample time to intervene and change the course of a person’s life,” Dr. Seshadri said.

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