UNMC, UMA primary health providers at Multicultural EXPO

Community Partnership staff displayed the newly created billboard for their PHAT program (Physically Healthy and Toned Kids). Left to right, Antonia Correa, tobacco prevention specialist; Valda Ford, director; Wayne Houston, community liaison; Tamika Bradley, research assistant; Rubens Pamies, M.D., UNMC vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean of graduate studies; and Linda Cunningham, cultural competence coordinator.

UNMC and the University Medical Associates (UMA) joined forces Oct. 4-5 to create a strong health component at the first Nebraska Multicultural EXPO, designed to empower families through health, education, business and finance. The two organizations are now in position to be named the primary health sciences provider at the annual event in the new Qwest Center Omaha Arena.

“When Tim Clark (executive director of the Nebraska Multicultural EXPO) asked us to assist him in developing a top notch health component to the EXPO, I saw a wonderful community relations opportunity for UNMC and UMA,” said Valda Ford, director of UNMC Community and Multicultural Affairs. “The entire campus was enthusiastic about providing information booths and screening services at the EXPO. I received many compliments from community people who were impressed by the heavy presence of UNMC and UMA at the EXPO.”

Sherrita Toler, a fourth-year UNMC medical student, and Ira Combs, a community liaison nurse coordinator, gave health screenings to EXPO visitors.

UNMC and UMA faculty, students and staff represented such divisions and departments as Community Partnership, School of Allied Health Professions, Office of Student Equity and Multicultural Affairs, Human Resources, Department of Cardiology, Clinical Research Center and Minority Health Education Research Office, Department of Graduate Studies, and the Baker Place and SONA community health clinics.

“The participation of UNMC and UMA really boosted the credibility of the EXPO as a major health sciences awareness opportunity,” Clark said. “Health is one of our four areas of focus so we needed UNMC and UMA to make a strong presentation – and they did.”

Left to right: physician assistant education students, Frankie Spartz and Sarah Jabs, EXPO visitor Janice Pittman and Susan Langdon, clinical coordinator of medical technology education. Members of UNMC’s School of Allied Health Professions staffed an information booth.

There were more than 100 vendor presentations, many of them interactive and/or offering entertainment on their own. There was a fashion show, free massages, hair styling and grooming tips, a 25-foot high rock climbing wall wide enough for three climbers at a time and a youth golf clinic. The EXPO had a unique mix of financial and consumer product vendors, social service information booths and municipal/county/state presentations. In addition, the large sound stage was used by a continuous line of ethnic artists from Native American dancers to a nationally acclaimed, gospel-recording star.

“UNMC and UMA staff, students and faculty did a great job for the EXPO,” Ford said.

June Cooper-Gadson, nurse coordinator, Minority Health Education and Research Office, chats with EXPO visitors about MHERO (Minority Health Education and Research Office).

The groups provided various screenings including cholesterol (Tony Gates, district manager of Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company, funded the supplies), blood sugar (diabetes), blood pressure (hypertension) and PSA (prostate cancer). Nurses and nurse practitioners were on hand for counseling and encouraged a number of individuals to see their family physician because of the screening results, Ford said.

EXPO attendees visited booths hosted by community liaisons, Ira Combs, Wayne Houston and Aura Whitney-Jackson; and spoke with Richard Rigmaiden, M.D., about the mission of the Minority Health Education and Research Office, and Rubens Pamies, M.D., UNMC’s vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean of graduate studies.

“We know the EXPO is going to be even bigger and better next year,” Ford said. “Our goal was to do such a great job as health provider that EXPO coordinators will consider UNMC and UMA as their first choice to anchor the health component every year. I think we succeeded.”