Behind the Blue

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 17, 2022) – The Loop is UK HealthCare’s internal communication network for health care employees, which includes articles, videos, podcasts and other multimedia to keep staff “in the loop” on what’s new at UK HealthCare. The Loop provides information on current events and workplace matters, as well as highlighting the work of the people who keep UK HealthCare running.

On this episode of ‘Behind the Blue’, we’re featuring a podcast interview that was recently released on The Loop featuring Dr. Tukea Talbert, Chief Diversity Officer at UK HealthCare.

Juneteenth is recognized as the day that marked slavery’s end in the United States. Also referred to as The Day of Jubilee, Juneteenth is an opportunity to celebrate freedom, but also to recognize the role slavery has played in the development of our nation and its systems.

In this interview, Talbert led colleagues Timothy Gaillard, VP for Ambulatory and Medical Group Operations at UK HealthCare and Dr. Darwin Conwell, Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at UK HealthCare, through a discussion about the importance of the Juneteenth holiday, both in and out of the health care realm.

"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.

For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email [email protected] or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.

To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 16, 2022) – On January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the ‘Emancipation Proclamation’, but it wasn’t until June 19th, 1865 that the last remaining enslaved African Americans – men and women in Galveston, Texas – learned they were free.

Since that time, June 19th, or “Juneteenth”, has been celebrated annually in various parts of the United States to commemorate emancipation as well as celebrate African-American culture. Still, it took until June 17th of 2021 for the day to be recognized as a federal holiday, after becoming more widely celebrated among African-American communities and gaining more and more mainstream attention in the US.

On this episode of Behind the Blue, Dr. Anastasia Curwood, director of The Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies and African American and Africana Studies (AAAS) at UK, discusses the Juneteenth holiday, from her personal feelings and reflections on the significance of the day, to the importance of observance of the holiday by the university, and more.

"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.

For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email [email protected] or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.

For more information about CIBS, including ways you can support, visit https://cibs.as.uky.edu/.

To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 14, 2022) – The University of Kentucky Alumni Association started the Great Teacher Award program in 1961 to honor excellent teaching at the university. There have been over 300 teachers honored since that first year. Nominations may only be submitted by current students.

To receive the award, a candidate must:

• Hold the rank of full-time lecturer or above and have been a member of the faculty for the past three years at UK.
• Have superior knowledge of the subject matter.
• Have original and innovative classroom presentations.
• Demonstrate concern for students, both inside and outside the classroom setting.
• Not have been a recipient of the award for the past 10 years.

A committee of the UK Alumni Association Board of Directors and a representative from the student organization Omicron Delta Kappa select the recipients based on objective rating and ranking of the eligible nominations submitted.

This episode of Behind the Blue spotlights one of the 2022 Great Teacher Award winners. Olivia Davis, from the Gatton College of Business and Economics, joined the faculty at the University of Kentucky in January 2018. She was in public accounting with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in the assurance practice before joining UK. As a CPA with nearly 14 years of experience, Davis brings a wealth of practical experience to her classroom. She invites her students to go beyond just the technical accounting and auditing concepts by sharing real-world, current scenarios with them.

Davis serves as the faculty advisor for the UK Student Chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants and she is a professional member of NABA. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s in accounting from UK. Davis was awarded the Gatton College Teaching Excellence Award in 2020, the 2021 Gatton College Faculty of the Year (student selected) and the 2021 University of Kentucky Provost’s Award for Outstanding Teaching.

"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.

For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email [email protected] or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.

To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 9, 2022) – Dr. Eric N. Monday is UK’s executive vice president for finance and administration. One of his responsibilities in that role is to oversee the development and implementation of the university’s annual budget.

In a few days, the UK Board of Trustees will consider a $5.6 billion budget for 2022-2023. It is the largest budget in the history of the university – fueled by continued growth in the university’s health care enterprise and research missions as well as what is expected to be the largest first-year class ever at UK.

On this episode of Behind the Blue, Monday explains how the budget is shaped, some of the areas of emphasis for the budget and how it is helping move the institution’s mission forward – to advance Kentucky.

"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.

For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email [email protected] or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.

To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 7, 2022) – The University of Kentucky Alumni Association started the Great Teacher Award program in 1961 to honor excellent teaching at the university. There have been 307 teachers honored since that first year. Nominations may only be submitted by current students.

To receive the award, a candidate must:

• Hold the rank of full-time lecturer or above and have been a member of the faculty for the past three years at UK.
• Have superior knowledge of the subject matter.
• Have original and innovative classroom presentations.
• Demonstrate concern for students, both inside and outside the classroom setting.
• Not have been a recipient of the award for the past 10 years.

A committee of the UK Alumni Association Board of Directors and a representative from the student organization Omicron Delta Kappa select the recipients based on objective rating and ranking of the eligible nominations submitted.

This episode of Behind the Blue spotlights one of the 2022 Great Teacher Award winners. Zachary Bray, from the Rosenberg College of Law, is a James and Mary Lassiter Professor of Law at the Rosenberg College of Law. A Lexington native and graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the Yale Law School, Bray worked at the University of Houston Law Center before coming to UK as a visiting assistant professor in 2015. He was promoted to full professor in 2020. At the University of Houston, he was recognized with a university-wide Provost’s Teaching Excellence Award. Bray’s research focuses on monument law, private land trusts, low-income housing, the Endangered Species Act, groundwater conflicts and religious land use. Bray has taught as a visitor at the Washington University School of Law and The College of William & Mary Law School. He has taught undergraduate students considering law school in the Kentucky Legal Education Opportunity Summer Institute and the University of Houston Law Center Pre-Law Pipeline Program.  

"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.

For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email [email protected] or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.

To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 2, 2022) – The University of Kentucky Alumni Association started the Great Teacher Award program in 1961 to honor excellent teaching at the university. There have been more than 300 teachers honored since that first year. Nominations may only be submitted by current students.

To receive the award, a candidate must:

• Hold the rank of full-time lecturer or above and have been a member of the faculty for the past three years at UK.
• Have superior knowledge of the subject matter.
• Have original and innovative classroom presentations.
• Demonstrate concern for students, both inside and outside the classroom setting.
• Not have been a recipient of the award for the past 10 years.

A committee of the UK Alumni Association Board of Directors and a representative from the student organization Omicron Delta Kappa select the recipients based on objective rating and ranking of the eligible nominations submitted.

This episode of Behind the Blue spotlights one of the 2022 Great Teacher Award winners. Beth Barnes, from the UK College of Communication and Information, is a professor and the director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Integrated Strategic Communication. She leads the international studies programs for the college and represents it on the university’s International Advisory Council. She has taught in Cape Town, South Africa and London, England. Her specialty areas include international education, media audience measurement, curriculum development and non-profit strategic communication. She worked in both advertising and public relations prior to teaching. Barnes teaches the introductory course in the ISC major as well as courses in account management, public relations and sales promotion, and sponsorship. For 13 years she was director of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications. Barnes earned her bachelor’s degree from The College of William & Mary and her master’s in advertising and her doctorate in communication studies from Northwestern University.

"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.

For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email [email protected] or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.

To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 26, 2022) – On Tuesday, May 31st the World Health Organization (WHO) will observe ‘World No Tobacco Day’. The purpose of this yearly celebration is to provide information to the public regarding the dangers of tobacco use, as well as shine a light on the business practices of tobacco companies, what the WHO is doing to fight the tobacco epidemic, and what people can do for themselves and their families to live a healthier, tobacco-free lifestyle.

Dr. Ellen Hahn is a Professor in the Colleges of Nursing and Public Health at the University of Kentucky and Director of BREATHE (Bridging Research Efforts and Advocacy Toward Healthy Environments), a multi-disciplinary research, outreach, and practice collaborative of the College of Nursing and its partners. BREATHE’s vision is that all people will have access to clean air and live in healthy environments.

With over 80 organizational community partners, BREATHE is a clearinghouse for information, research and analysis, and policy development, as well as community education and outreach related to smoke- and tobacco-free policies, tobacco health disparities, electronic smoking devices, tobacco prevention and treatment, and radon reduction. These programs include the Tobacco Policy Research Program, the Kentucky Center for Smoke-free Policy (KCSP), and the Radon Policy Research Program.

Dr. Hahn also serves as Director of UK-CARES (Center for Appalachian Research in Environmental Sciences). On this episode of Behind the Blue, Hahn talks about the significance of World No Tobacco Day, the work of the BREATHE collaborative, how it’s never too late for communities and their members to go smoke-free, and more.

"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.

For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email [email protected] or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.

To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 18, 2022) – The University of Kentucky is proud to be the home of global leaders in aging and brain research, all striving towards the same goal: finding a stop to the 6th leading cause of death in the United States: Alzheimer’s Disease.

UK’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging has been around for nearly half a century, helping lead the way in Alzheimer’s and dementia research. Center Director Dr. Linda Van Eldik firmly believes they will find a cure through the work going on right here on the UK campus.

With their dedicated work recently earning the center renewed funding from the National Institute on Aging, education and community support are big parts of the role Sanders-Brown plays. In between various trainings, workshops and community events, they are also making life-changing and life-saving discoveries.

Soon, Van Eldik and others at Sanders-Brown will be able to welcome a very valuable piece to their research – the volunteers – into a brand new facility at UK HealthCare’s Turfland Campus.

On this episode of Behind the Blue, Van Eldik joins UKPR’s Hillary Smith to discuss the larger game plan of finding a cure, and the team effort between those volunteers, the world-class faculty and staff at Sanders-Brown, and the University of Kentucky as a whole.

"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.

For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email [email protected] or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.

To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 12, 2022) – Every year, the University of Kentucky celebrates thousands of graduating individuals who receive degrees and make their way into the workforce and the world.

For many of these graduates, leaving the world of the university brings a whole new set of challenges as they ask themselves, “what’s next?” Being prepared to live on their own, finding success in a new job, reaching out to new support networks and more can be a daunting set of obstacles for those departing UK.

On this episode of ‘Behind the Blue’, two members of UK’s Office of Student Success talk about tips on facing the future as a UK alum, and also what current students can do during their college career to make the most of their time here and be ready to confidently move on after graduation.

Kayla Gill is a Senior Program Advisor with Off-Campus Student Services. A native of Lexington, Kayla serves as an advocate and advisor with first year students residing off-campus and first-generation students living on and off campus. She works to implement diversity and inclusion program initiatives for marginalized students as well as foster a sense of belonging for students.

Originally from Michigan, Mark Williams works as a Senior Program Specialist with UK’s Community & Professional Development Programs. Williams spent time after college working as an accountant in both public accounting and insurance firms, but realized his passion was serving students and helping them transition from college into their careers.

"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.

For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email [email protected] or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.

To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 4, 2022) — This spring, the University of Kentucky is celebrating more than 5,300 degrees conferred by the Board of Trustees, with around 3,900 expected to cross the stage of Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center during the UK Commencement Ceremonies.

On this episode of "Behind the Blue," we spotlight three of those graduates to talk about their time at UK, the memories they’ll take with them and how they’re prepared to move ahead and make the most of what they’ve learned.

Growing up, Emily Lucke’s father spent time in Iraq as a member of the U.S. military, and sent home newspapers and other material written in Arabic that fascinated the Clarksville, Tennessee native. Upon arrival at UK, Lucke was able to turn that fascination into a career path, majoring in both political science and international studies, and becoming a member of the Lewis Honors College. Equipped with a foreign language component in Arabic, she completed an internship at the U.S. Homeland Security- Kentucky Intelligence Fusion Center. There, she translated and examined terrorism propaganda and threats to critical infrastructure, and collaborated on key intelligence questions posed by terrorism.

Lucke is proud of the personal and academic growth she experienced at UK, along with leadership and project management skills that she feels will take her far in her career. She believes it’s important for students to take advantage of counseling and other self-care resources the university provides in order to make the most of their time here and experience college to its fullest potential.

Breona Link is a UK superstar and her light shines bright among her peers. The Bowling Green, Kentucky native calls her four years at UK the best of her life. Link made it her mission to get involved as much as possible during college to make the most of her education. She is the president of the UK Student Activities Board, the former president of the UK NAACP, director of MLK Wildcats for Service, a UK 101 peer instructor and held an internship with Charles Booker for Senate.

Link encourages any new student to dive in and try everything. It will open doors you could have never dreamed possible. She will graduate from the College of Health Sciences' Clinical Leadership and Management program.

Balancing an excellent academic standing while conducting high quality research, Alison Porter has soared through her veterinary science master’s program in the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, with determination and tenacity. The Oil Springs, Kentucky native is eager to return to her Eastern Kentucky roots and be a force for good, ready to serve the underserved population and community where she was raised.

As a physician, Porter will fulfill a great need. With her well-rounded science background and acceptance into the UK College of Medicine, she will be well equipped to serve these rural communities and individuals without access to top-rate medical care in their local areas.

"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.

For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email [email protected] or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.

To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.