Class Note 1996
Happy 2019 to my fellow ’96s far and wide! As we usher in this final year of the decade, we close the books on a year in which so many of our classmates have left indelible marks in fields where they work to make the world a happier, healthier place for all of us.
To begin, congratulations to Dr. Sansea Jacobson, who was recently promoted to associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (UPMC). Sansea is widely respected as a leader in medical education oriented toward child and adolescent psychiatry, promoting compassionate care of children and their families. As such, she provides care for her young patients in the Services for Teens at Risk clinic (a program focused on suicide prevention for depressed and anxious youth), at the UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital’s Center for Children and Families, and through her affiliation with the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She is a frequent speaker on suicide prevention at both the local and national levels.
Like Sansea, Chesley (Homan) Flotten is charting a course of her own in the arena of mental and emotional health counseling. Chesley is a licensed clinical social worker specializing in patients suffering from anxiety, depression, illness and disability, grief and loss, and caregiving stress. “I’m excited to announce that I’ve started a private counseling practice! It’s been in the works for a while now, as I’ve been looking for a way to expand my work to help people in my local community. I’ll also be offering telehealth for those a bit further away [from her base in Topsham, Maine] or for whom coming to an office isn’t possible.” She has launched clearspacecounseling.com to better serve the needs of potential patients and offer broader support in some of life’s toughest times.
Also working to promote the importance of self-care for mothers is Wendi McKenna, who was recently featured on a segment of Good Morning San Diego to discuss that particular topic in detail. Wendi is a pediatric physical therapist who specializes in working with parents to better understand and foster their children’s motor and sensory development. She is the founder of Strides Physical Therapy, a pediatric physical therapy clinic in Solana Beach, California, and MovePlayGrow.com, a site that works to better prepare parents to minimize preventable medical diagnoses and movement dysfunction in their children.
Two of our classmates are making bold stands locally to help expose and address our country’s massive opioid addiction epidemic. Brandon del Pozo has tackled the issue head on early in his tenure as chief of police for Burlington, Vermont. He has addressed the Burlington city council on the topic and recently very publicly commented on the passing of Madelyn Ellen Linsenmeir after 15 years of opioid addiction (a story picked up by People, the Huffington Post, and The Boston Globe); he did so in a Facebook post that itself went viral, resonating with many around the country. He also asked scientists specializing in addiction science and psychiatry to work with Burlington’s police department to better allow its officers to understand the depths of and their roles in confronting the crisis.
From his side of the epidemic, Dr. Michael Bradley is working to curb opioid dependency at the South County Health Orthopedics Center in Rhode Island. In his role as an orthopedic surgeon he has outlined a multi-modal approach to pain management working between surgeon, pharmacists, and patients to minimize the use of narcotics before, during, and after surgical procedures; his approach works to control the patient’s pain levels while promoting use of non-narcotic options to reduce addiction and other side effects.
—Garrett Gil de Rubio, 1062 Middlebrooke Drive, Canton, GA 30115; ggdr@alum.dartmouth.org
