Members of the DMU Alumni Association Board of Directors want their 12,179 fellow alumni to also “get on board,” so to speak, by getting more engaged with the University.
New Alumni Board leaders include President Pam Harrison Chambers, M.P.H.’01, PA-C’92, associate professor in DMU’s physician assistant program. President-elect is Sanford Zelnick, D.O’80, director of the Florida Department of Health in Sumter County and a retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force Medical Service. Vice president is Gary Plundo, D.O.’79, M.P.M., FACOFP, vice president of medical affairs for Genesis HealthCare, the largest nursing home chain in the nation.
During their Oct. 9 meeting, Alumni Board members brainstormed on ways to involve more alumni at and with the University, including as lecturers, preceptors, presenters to DMU student clubs and as donors. They also discussed the roles of the Alumni Board Councils for DMU’s three colleges. Each Alumni Board member serves on a college council.
“We decided the activities of each council should be left up to each Alumni Board representative,” Chambers says.
The evening before the Alumni Board’s Oct. 9 meeting, members attended DMU’s Glanton Minority Scholarship Dinner. That “set the tone,” Chambers says, for a highly energized meeting.
“The members were excited to help conceptualize how alumni could be more involved with the colleges and the students,” she says. “Working with the board members is incredibly invigorating. Everyone has ideas and a huge desire to help DMU.”
In addition, board members clarified officers’ term limits and amended its bylaws to better reflect DMU’s value of professionalism. The board received updates on the University from President Angela Walker Franklin, Ph.D., and several department leaders. Over lunch, they gained insights on a “day in the life at DMU” from students in osteopathic medicine, podiatric medicine and surgery and physical therapy.
The Alumni Board concluded its daylong meeting with a highlight: They joined members of the College of Osteopathic Medicine Class of 1980, who were on campus to celebrate their 35-year reunion, for a student-led demonstration of the University’s new ultrasound equipment. Board members got to use the technology on student volunteers and even on some board members.
“Many of us had only ordered ultrasounds but had never actually performed one,” Chambers says. “It was fascinating.”
