“ENHP Day” Will Showcase Partnership Projects of College of Education, Nursing and Health Professions

The University of Hartford’s College of Education, Nursing and Health Professions (ENHP) is hosting an afternoon of discussions and presentations that will highlight the College’s wide range of partnerships, research, and scholarship and showcase the human resources that ENHP is bringing to bear on the issues and challenges facing its communities. This first annual “ENHP Day,” being held on Friday, May 4, from 1 to 7 p.m., at the Mandell Jewish Community Center in West Hartford, is free and open to the general public, as well as health care and education professionals.

            Here is a look at some of the programs being offered:

• Kevin Carroll, vice president of prosthetics for Hanger Clinic, will give a talk on “Enabling Technologies: From Human Achievement to a ‘Dolphin’s Tale’” at 1:30 p.m. Carroll, CP, FAAOP, an expert prosthetist, will talk about working with the true star of the film, the dolphin named Winter, and volunteering his clinical expertise in a technical advisory capacity on set during the making of the film. Carroll’s presentation will include ways that prosthetics and orthotics is improving the quality of life for many amputees. (ENHP is a partner with Hanger Clinic in providing a master’s degree program in prosthetics and orthotics.)

• ENHP Dean Ralph Mueller and University Provost Sharon Vasquez will join with Roger Gonzalez, founder and president of LIMBS International, at 1 p.m. and they will sign an affiliation agreement that will allow for ENHP students and faculty to work with LIMBS International on research and its projects in Haiti/Dominican Republic, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The mission of LIMBS International is to transform the lives of amputees throughout the developing world by restoring their ability to walk.

• A discussion of “The Role of Higher Education in K-12 Innovation” will be led by Hartford Public Schools Superintendent Christina Kishimoto, Bristol Public Schools Superintendent Phil Streifer, and Paul Holzer, new director of Achieve Hartford! From 6 to 7 p.m., these education leaders will talk about the ways that the area’s colleges and universities, such as the University of Hartford, can help improve the way that learning happens in the earlier levels of education.

• Between 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. ENHP faculty and education leadership doctoral students will hold roundtable discussions on a wide array of topics, such as music therapy and autism, math literacy, teacher preparation in early childhood education, and tutoring strategies.