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Numerous programs in the School of Health Professions attended conferences this fall, giving lectures, presenting research posters and even competing in a national student quiz competition. 

American Association for Respiratory Care National Congress

Respiratory Care faculty, students and alumni presented, attended and competed at the AARC National Congress in December. 

, presented a poster titled “Peak Flow-Guided Albuterol Administration: Are We Meeting Best Practices?” and served as a mentor and senior author for program graduates’ poster presentations, including:

• “Behind the Breath: Pulmonary Function in the Hidden Burden of Parkinson’s Disease,” graduate Selena Takahasi
• “Bridging Documentation and Therapy: A Quality Assessment of Albuterol Use in Mechanically Ventilated ICU Patients,” graduate Shalini Dhanasekar
• “Reading Between the Lines: Waveform and Pulmonary Mechanics Analysis to Optimize Albuterol Use in Mechanically Ventilated Patients,” graduate Brianna Guerin

Two teams of first- and second-year students qualified and competed in the quiz-style Sputum Bowl. Even though the teams did not place in this year’s competition, the experience was valuable, said Hamsa Hasona, a second-year respiratory care master’s student and president of the program’s Sputum Bowl Club.

Assistant Professor/Research Rain Rueda, MD, MSHCA, MSRC, RRT, RRT-NPS, helped prepare the teams. Rueda and Assistant Professor Megan Carreon, MHA, RRT, Department of Respiratory Care interim chair and program director, served as mentors for poster presentations and as authors on two and one of the accepted presentations, respectively.

“The Department of Respiratory Care’s participation at AARC Congress 2025 demonstrates our program’s strong national presence and commitment to excellence,” Carreon said. “Faculty leadership, student and graduate research presentations, and competitive student engagement in the Respiratory Care Sputum Bowl reflect a culture of scholarship, mentorship and professional preparation that positions our graduates to lead and advance the field of respiratory care.”

Texas Occupational Therapy Association Annual Conference

, and , attended the Texas Occupational Therapy Association Conference, which was held Nov. 14-15. They were joined by program alumni Jessica Thames and Sonia Benzor, who presented their capstone projects.

Lin and Benzor presented a podium presentation and short course titled “Strengthening OT Student Learning Through Foundations of DIRFloortime® Courses.” Lin and Thames presented a poster presentation on a teacher training program for administering a universal behavior screener. 

“These presentations highlight the OT program’s commitment to strengthening university-community collaboration,” Lin said. “The student-led and faculty-guided doctoral capstone projects meaningfully impact real-world practice and support high-quality services for children, families. and communities.”

Texas Physical Therapy Association Annual Conference

Department of Physical Therapy faculty and students presented at the Texas Physical Therapy Association Annual Conference, held Oct. 31–Nov. 1 in Houston.

, presented a lecture titled “Exercise is medicine for psychological stressors in selected patients with chronic health conditions.” Along with DPT student Gishelle Formoso, he also presented a research poster titled “ Interprofessional education sub-competencies in allied health students after interprofessional critical care simulation experiences.”

, presented two posters: “Early Rehabilitation in a Unique Case of Neonatal Spinal Cord injury: From the NICU to Outpatient Care,” with Laura Gibbs, PT, DPT; and “Comparison of Horse Riding Simulators to Live Hippotherapy for Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Scoping Review,” with students Regan Thomey, Angelina Valenzuela, Ruby Vicario and Makenzie Counts.

American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine Conference

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders , delivered a podium presentation at the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine Conference, held in Chicago in October. The presentation was titled “Does Loss of Consciousness (LOC) or Post Traumatic Amnesia (PTA) predict suboptimal performance on cognitive-communication measures in adults with mild traumatic brain injury? A LIMBIC-CENC study.” Co-authors include  and Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology alumna Skylar De La Garza.

Also at the conference, Norman participated in the poster presentation titled “Emotional Valence in Personal Narratives of Young Adults with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Orthopedic Controls” and a Poster Spotlight titled “Fostering Intentional Mentorship: The Military/Veteran Affairs Networking Group Mentorship Model.” 

Norman was also officially appointed secretary of the ACRM Military and Veterans Affairs Networking Group and chair of the ACRM Military Brain Injury Task Force. 

American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI) Annual Conference

Division of Medical Laboratory Sciences , attended the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI) Annual Conference in October. In her role as chair of the Laboratory Professional Retention and Recruitment Taskforce, she served as table lead and representative for the ASHI New Member Reception.  She also served as ASHI mentor for medical laboratory science students during Laboratory Professional Day at the annual meeting. Kudika’s attendance was supported by her receipt of the ASHI Annual Meeting Scholarship.

American Society for Clinical Pathology National Meeting

Division of Medical Laboratory Sciences , presented the session “Implications of the Duffy-Null Phenotype: The Impact of Non-Specific Reference Ranges on Clinical Diagnosis and Management” at the American Society for Clinical Pathology National Meeting, held in Atlanta in November.

Emergency Health Sciences

Faculty of the Department of Emergency Health Sciences gave numerous invited lectures this fall, including:

At EMS World Expo, held in Indianapolis, Indiana, in October:

• , and , presented “Prehospital Whole Blood: Who, What, When, Why, and Where,” and “BLS is BS: Lifesaving is a Spectrum of Care” (also presented at Texas EMS Conference).
• Wampler was among the presenters of “Revenge of the Nerds, Sweet Sweet Revenge” (also presented at Texas EMS Conference)/
• Winckler served on the “Powerhouse Panel: Whole blood Delivery in EMS: Champions and Challenges.”
• Assistant Professor/Clinical  co-presented “NAEMSP Publishes Position Statement on Mobile Integrated Health/Community Paramedicine (MIH/CP)” at the  at EMS World Expo.
• Rollman was a co-author and statistician or faculty/mentor for two award-winning research presentations: “Relative Risk of Death in the Rear Compartment in Fatal Ambulance Collisions” (Best Clinical Research) and “Evaluation of Behavioral Health Curriculum on Paramedic Student Confidence” (Best Educational Research Poster and Best Educational Research Oral Presentation).
• At the Texas Emergency Medical Services Conference in Fort Worth in November:
• Assistant Professor/Clinical and San Antonio Fire Department Deputy Medical Director , presented “Shock, Call, GO! Implementation of Prehospital ECMO Alerting” and served as a presenter of “Hill Country 4^th of July Flood: Insights and Lessons Learned.”
• Wampler participated in the panel “Pulse Check: A Spirited Panel on the EMS Cardiac Arrest Divide (Warning: May Cause Elevated Heart Rate)” and presented in the Top Five EMS Research and Quality Improvement Abstracts of 2025.
• Wampler also served as moderator for the Texas EMS Conference Research Forum, which included 24 posters presented from across Texas EMS Community.
• The Kerrville Fire Department, for which Harper serves as medical director, was honored with the Rural Healthcare Award by the Texas Department of State Health Services for its role in the July 4 Hill Country flood response.