Aaron Smith

Dr. Aaron Smith, a social work professor, taught students in USF's School of Social Work for many years. He worked extensively with Grandmothers United and USF's Kinship Care program and believed in the important and valuable role grandmothers play in raising African American children. Smith was involved in different collaborative projects while at USF, and used a strengths-based approach in much of his work. He was committed to providing a more comprehensive narrative of the African American family experience even in the context of poverty and complex family and community challenges. Smith was part of a collaborative research project including CFS faculty that studied African American family and community strengths in five predominantly African American communities. This research resulted in an all-inclusive list of individual family and community strengths that were identified and observed consistently in the five African American communities located in Plant City, Baltimore, Detroit, San Diego and Savannah.

Dr. Smith also worked in communities in the Tampa Bay area and was a key contributor in a collaborative community project in Tampa that resulted in the development of a resource guide for the community residents. Entitled "The Spiritual Educational Network Directory (SEND)," this valuable resource guide included a number of educational and social service supports for children and families provided by African American faith-based institutions. It also included other community resources such as day cares, pre-schools, clothes closets, after school tutoring, summer education programs, FCAT/SAT training, elderly care ministry, health fairs, senior citizen supports and health education information.

Smith and other USF faculty members were recipients of the 2002 Kente Award. The word "Kente" comes from two Asante words that together mean "whatever you do to it, it will not tear." It is the ceremonial cloth of kings intended to be a visual representation of history, philosophy, ethics, moral values, codes of conduct, religious beliefs, political thought and beauty. In receiving this award the impact of Dr. Smith's academic and community contributions continues.

Dr. Aaron Smith is retired and currently lives in Maryland.

Black History Month Did You Know Facts:

• Sophia Danenberg (born 1972) is best known as the first African American and the first Black woman to climb to the summit of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain. She accomplished this feat on May 19, 2006.
• In 1985, Dr. Manley West, Jamaican pharmacologist and Dr. Albert Lockhart, a Jamaican ophthalmologist developed the drug Canasol from cannabis for the treatment of glaucoma.

Joe Walton, PhD, Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, was recognized at the Innovation Awards Annual Luncheon held on January 27th for new patents in 2018-2019. This first patent is shared with Parveen Bazard, Robert Frisina and Venat Bhethanabotla called Plasmonic Stimulation of Electrically Excitable Biological Cells. The second patent is shared with Luisa Scott called BK Channel-Modulating Peptides and Their Use.

Tinnitus or "ringing in the ears" is an audiological condition that disproportionately impacts the elderly or those who are or have served in the military. Tinnitus sufferers perceive a sound when no actual sound is present. Acute or cumulative noise exposure and aging are the most common factors underlying tinnitus. In fact, persistent tinnitus effects over 10-15% of individuals over 65 years of age, and reaches over 60% among Military Service members, who are exposed to damaging noise from gun fire, IEDs, and heavy machinery. In addition to the impact on hearing, moderate to severe tinnitus is associated with poor sleep, poor cognitive focus and poor mental health. Despite the significant need, there is currently no FDA approved medications with a primary indication for reducing tinnitus.

Patients with tinnitus exhibit changes in brain activity that produce the phantom sound and this brain activity is regulated by ion channels that are present in all neurons, the cells responsible for brain communication. Tinnitus may be relieved by modulating the function of specific ion channels in the brain. One ion channel, the large conductance calcium-activated potassium (BK) channel is implicated in other brain excitability disorders, and studies suggest that it may be useful for treating tinnitus. This work led to a successful patent application awarded to Drs. Luisa Scott, CEO of Cognosetta, Inc. and Dr. Joseph Walton. In partnership with Cognosetta, Inc., the Walton lab is working to develop a treatment for tinnitus based on a patent that uses neuropeptides to silence overactive neurons. The current studies, funded by the National Institute of Health, will support the preclinical efficacy and safety for this innovative pharmaceutical strategy for treating tinnitus. The goal of this drug development partnership is to provide a pharmaceutical treatment for patients with persistent, subjective tinnitus. This medication is expected to improve quality of life for active duty Service members, Veterans and many civilians beyond current treatment strategies. With current state-of-the art treatment for tinnitus, clinicians cite between 20-50% success in providing any sort of life-improvement, and the degree of improvement is generally not sufficient for people with moderate to severe tinnitus.

Bryanna Fox has been approved by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences to replace Mike Leiber as Co-Editor of Justice Quarterly.

Ross Andel (SAS)
Aging in Puerto Rico: Longitudinal Follow-up of the PREHCO Study
Sponsor: University of Alabama, Birmingham
9/1/2019-4/30/2024
Amount: $170,290

We propose to gather two additional waves of data for the first and only population-based study of older adults in Puerto Rico, extending follow-up to between 16 and 20 years. This sample is unique in having information on key characteristics relevant to health and aging from over a decade ago, before many of the adversities that people in Puerto Rico are now facing. Our findings can serve to identify and target areas of greatest need to maintain health and quality of life among older Puerto Ricans without overextending government resources, which are most likely to continue to be limited.

1. Galea, J. T., Marhefka, S., Cyrus, E., Contreras, C., & Brown, B. (2020). Novel approach to scale integrated depression and HIV care. The Lancet HIV. doi: 10.1016/s2352-3018(20)30025-4


 

2. Quinn, R. D., Arnold, A., & Littlewood, K. A. (2020). The Transformative Nature of Community Engagement in the Arts. In A. Zimmerman (Ed.), Preparing Students for Community-Engaged Scholarship in Higher Education (pp. 379-402). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-2208-0.ch019


 

3. Pandey, A., Mereddy, S., Combs, D., Shetty, S., Patel, S. I., Mashaq, S., ... Parthasarathy, S. (2020). Socioeconomic Inequities in Adherence to Positive Airway Pressure Therapy in Population-Level Analysis. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 9(2), 442. doi: 10.3390/jcm9020442

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