School of Health Professions faculty awarded more than $5.6 million in federal grants in second half of fiscal year

With projects ranging from increasing the number of physician assistants practicing in rural South Texas to research aimed at improving central hearing in people with concussion, School of Health Professions researchers have been awarded more than $5.6 million in federal grant funding in the last six months.

“These awards reflect well on the outstanding efforts of School of Health Professions faculty to make valuable contributions in the areas of research, health professions workforce development and interprofessional education,” said David Shelledy, PhD, RRT, RPFT, FAARC, FASAHP, dean of the School of Health Professions. 

The awards include:

• “Integrated Clinical Care Experience in Rural Texas (ICCERT)”

Project Director Tiffani Burgin, DMSc, MPAS, PA-C, assistant professor and director of clinical education in the Department of Physician Assistant Studies, received a five-year, $2 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration for ICCERT, which will provide hands-on training to participating Master of Physician Assistant Studies students as they rotate through rural clinics that offer behavioral health and primary care. The program is designed to address barriers to health care services in rural areas of South Texas and to increase the number of PA students who choose to practice in rural areas after graduation. The project includes support for continuing education for practicing PAs in a variety of areas, including substance use disorder and proper use of Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD). 

Collaborators on the project include Adrienne Lindsey, MA, DBH, assistant professor and director of the Center for Substance Use Training and Telementoring at Be Well Texas, and Stacy A. Ogbeide, PsyD, ABPP, associate professor of Family & Community Medicine and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and assistant dean for faculty in the Office for Faculty, Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine. Collaborators from the Department of Physician Assistant Studies are Leticia Bland, DHSc, MPAS, PA-C, assistant professor and director of didactic education and outcomes assessment, Owen Hill, PhD, MPAS, PA-C, associate professor and research director, and Bernice Esteghamatdarshad, MPAS, PA-C, assistant professor/clinical.

• “Evaluation of Post-Acute Care Access and Outcomes: Influence of Social Determinants of Health on Urban and Rural Rehabilitation Service Areas Before and After COVID-19”

Associate Dean for Research Timothy Reistetter, PhD, OTR, FAOTA, a professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy, has secured more than $1.5 million in RO1 grant funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to support his research on the effect of social determinants of health on rehabilitation outcomes before and after COVID-19 in the United States. The study evaluates post-acute care rehabilitation access and outcomes across urban and rural areas. Reistetter serves as the study’s principal investigator. His research team includes Susanne Schmidt, PhD, assistant professor/research, and Alex Bokov, PhD, instructor/research, both in the Department of Population Health Sciences in the Long School of Medicine. His collaborators at The University of Texas Medical Branch are John Prochaska, DrPH, MPH, associate professor in the Department of Population Health and Health Disparities and associate dean for student affairs in the School of Public and Population Health, and Yong-Fang Kuo, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Data Science.

• “Project ASPIRE: Advancing Successful Preparation of Interprofessional Related Services in Education Settings”

The Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs awarded a five-year, $1.2 million grant to fund Project ASPIRE, a multidisciplinary project directed by Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Bridgett Piernik-Yoder, PhD, OTR, FAOTA, professor and chair of the Department of Occupational Therapy. Faculty from the Department of Occupational Therapy including Assistant Professor Mei-Ling Lin, PhD, OTR, and Clinical Associate Professor Autumn Clegg, EdD, OTR, and from the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, including Associate Professor and Chair Fang-Ling Lu, PhD, CCC-SLP, and Assistant Professor and Director of Clinical Education Angela Kennedy, SLP-D, CCC-SLP, comprise the project team. Project ASPIRE is an interprofessional, evidence-based workforce development project aimed at addressing the shortage of highly prepared occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists serving school-age children with high-intensity needs. The project will recruit and provide enhanced education, training and mentoring to occupational therapy and speech-language pathology scholars for personnel shortage areas in Texas. 

• “Substance Use Education in the Interprofessional Setting (SEIS)”

Leticia Bland, DHSc, MPAS, PA-C, assistant professor and director of didactic education and outcomes assessment in the Department of Physician Assistant Studies, is the program director on a three-year, $759,300 grant awarded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency. The goal of the project, Substance Use Education in the Interprofessional Setting, is to address the shortage of trained substance use disorder providers by training physician assistant and clinical psychology students from UT Health San Antonio and clinical mental health counseling students from The University of Texas at San Antonio using an interprofessional, evidence-based curriculum developed for the project. 

Bland is collaborating with Stacy A. Ogbeide, PsyD, ABPP, associate professor of Family & Community Medicine and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and assistant dean for faculty in the Office for Faculty in the Long School of Medicine, Adrienne Lindsey, MA, DBH, assistant professor and director of the Center for Substance Use Training and Telementoring at Be Well Texas, and Heather Trepal, PhD, LPC-S, associate dean for academic programs and student success and professor in the Department of Counseling at UTSA.

• “Targeted Auditory Plasticity Training to Improve Central Hearing in Mild TBI”

Department of Communications Sciences and Disorders Associate Professor Rocío Norman, PhD, CCC-SLP, is principal investigator on a three-year grant from the Department of Defense, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program Traumatic Brain Injury and Psychological Health Research Program. The study aims to determine the neural basis and efficacy of a validated hearing intervention on veterans with mild traumatic brain injury and central hearing loss. The intervention will target hearing in noise and spatial hearing, both of which are critical to military readiness. Norman is collaborating with Edward Golob, PhD, professor in the Department of Psychology at UTSA, and Alicia Swan, PhD, at the VA Polytrauma Center in San Antonio. Norman’s portion of the grant is $129,600.