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About the cover: Artist Dave Szalay is a professor at the Myers School of Art at the University of Akron, a NEOMED partner school.
DEPARTMENTS 20 HUMANITIES IN MEDICINE 22 HUMANITIES IN MEDICINE 23 LEADERSHIP SPOTLIGHT 24 TASTES LIKE HOME 26 CLASS NOTES 30 DONOR SPOTLIGHT Ignite won first place for Best Trade Publication in Ohio from both the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists and the Press Club of Cleveland for its Spring 2020 and Fall 2020 issues, marking the first time it has won the top statewide award from both organizations in the same year. For the 2020 issues, Ignite also won awards for covers and headline writing from the Press Club of Cleveland, as well as awards for medical/science writing, feature designs and covers from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists.
Current and past issues of Ignite can be accessed free from issuu.com
Crystal Cole, M.D. (’07), medical director of the Center for Gender-Affirming Medicine at Akron (Ohio) Children's Medical Center
FEATURES
04 BEARING THE WEIGHT OF THE COVID 29 Nearly half of U.S. adults reported gaining an average of 29 pounds in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. What’s going on?
08 SPEAKING OF SEX A NEOMED alumna who heads a gender-affirming clinic explains how the language we use can help LGBTQ+ patients and their families.
12 PRACTICING THE ART OF CARE The daughter of a basketball coach herself, Senior Executive Director Holly Gerzina, Ph.D., sees the Wasson Center for Clinical Skills Training, Assessment, and Scholarship as a safe place for students to practice, practice, practice.
16 GOOD TROUBLE IN ROOTSTOWN, OHIO
For more, visit neomed.edu/ignite
NEOMED challenged what it saw as a flawed assumption nationally: that not enough qualified underrepresented (Black and Latinx) pre-medical students were available to enroll in medical schools.
NORTHEAST OHIO MEDIC AL UNIVERSITY
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