Dean’s Message –Spring 2025 Newsletter
Thank you for reading our Spring 2025 newsletter! We have an exciting semester lined up this year, and we look forward to seeing you all at events this spring.
In addition to student-oriented events like the Student Organization Fair and community outreach efforts such as the H.O.P.E. Health Fair in Centennial Plaza, this spring will bring Raise Your Pick Giving Day, Project MOVE, a new Rehabilitation Sciences Complex open house for prospective physical therapy students, and much more.
Raise Your Pick Initiatives
Raise Your Pick Giving Day is right around the corner! Make plans to be part of UTEP’s largest annual giving day on April 22-23, where we will celebrate the University by supporting programs, scholarships, Miner Athletics, and student resources.
Our college proudly serves the community by preparing top-tier healthcare professionals that go on to serve the region. As part of UTEP’s upcoming Raise Your Pick Giving Day, the College of Health Sciences has three initiatives that will help support our students and programs and improve the health of our community as a result.
Health Sciences Doctoral Scholarships
Our Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Ph.D. Program – one of only six programs of its kind in the nation – was created to provide a strong pipeline of professors to train our students.
Our doctoral students dedicate four to five years to completing their degrees, a commitment that typically requires giving up full-time employment to focus on coursework and research projects. Your gifts will help remove financial barriers through student scholarships, allowing them to focus on coursework and research projects, and complete their degrees in a timely manner.
Rehabilitation Sciences Complex
This new complex, which houses the Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy & Movement Sciences departments, has allowed us to increase admissions into our professional doctoral programs, which will ultimately help address critical healthcare provider shortages in our region.
Ensuring students have access to cutting-edge technology and equipment for honing their clinical skills is critical for this new facility. Your gift can help ensure the success of our students by equipping the facility with advanced technology to support both teaching and research.
Health Sciences Student Professional Development
Our students are engaged in a variety of professional development experiences, including research projects that address pressing health challenges that impact underserved populations. These opportunities often lead to invitations for students to present their work at national conferences and meetings. Your support can expand access to these opportunities for professional development and networking, ensuring more students graduate with a competitive edge, ready to assume leadership positions in their fields.
Research Projects
UTEP has once again earned R1 status in the latest Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, confirming the University’s position among top research universities nationwide. We’re proud to have contributed to this important designation through our ever-growing research efforts and greater emphasis on immersive research and educational experiences for both graduate and undergraduate students.
This semester, research in our Department of Kinesiology made international headlines, and with good reason! Sudip Bajpeyi and his team found that electrical muscle stimulation can help enhance resistance training, and the news made its way to the New York Post and even GQ Magazine and Men’s Health in Spain.
In addition, the Department of Occupational Therapy’s OTD Class of 2026 cohort was selected to present at the upcoming American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) conference, which will be held in April in Philadelphia.
We are also proud to announce that Emre Umucu, Ph.D., has been identified as one of the top chronic disease experts in the world based on his research output in recent years. He’s shown outstanding leadership, having recently been awarded the Roger G. Barker Distinguished Research Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association (APA).
We’re excited to continue this semester and celebrate the Class of 2025 at Spring Commencement.
Until then, follow us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram for more updates.
Go Miners!
Stacy Wagovich, Ph.D.
Interim Dean, College of Health Sciences
