In the News

November 2021
This winter, five Carroll students traveled to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to attend and present at the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA) General Assembly on work they did with Health Sciences Department faculty member Kelly Parsley.  This is a conference of over 300 college students sharing ideas on how to make campuses healthier and more supportive for students. 

The students shared their work in three presentations focused on student health and safety. Bray Holmes and Sarah Graham shared on healthy relationships, Eliza Shepherd and Faith Lundberg shared on campus Covid responses, and Eliza Shepherd and Chloe Unterseher shared on developing LGBTQ+ community support.

Bray Holmes commented, “This was an amazing experience because we were able to get some great feedback and other ideas on how schools handle these issues as well. We look forward to implementing their suggestions and continuing to work on these issues each semester.” 

In May, Helena Food Share harvested spinach and radishes that were planted by the Gardening and Community Health class, featured on KTVH in March. Watch the story

News item on a COVID-19 vaccination clinic organized by Carroll Public Health and Health Sciences major Kali Cox and Carroll Health Sciences Department Chair Kelly Parsley in the Carroll Insider.

At Carroll, we have been extremely fortunate to have had several on-campus opportunities to vaccinate our students, faculty, and staff against COVID-19 – including an opportunity to receive the Pfizer vaccine in the Campus Center.
 
These opportunities have arisen due to the dedicated work of our students and faculty and staff as well as the great partnerships we have in the Helena community.
 
On March 26, Carroll College was given 100 doses of the Moderna vaccine from the Helena Indian Alliance/Leo Pocha Memorial Clinic. Through the determined work of Carroll’s Public Health and Nursing students and Professor Kelly Parsley’s tireless advocacy on our behalf, this opportunity came to fruition with our students receiving valuable hands-on experience in the process.

Today and yesterday’s Pfizer vaccination clinic in the Campus Center was a result of an offer by Lewis & Clark Public Health of 400 Pfizer vaccines for the Carroll community to be administered by St. Peter’s Health pharmacy students with Carroll’s Public Health students managing set up, sign up, flow, and monitoring areas. Second-dose clinics are scheduled for May 5 & 6.
 
Through a combination of efforts, we are pleased to be doing our best to provide COVID-19 vaccination opportunities for all who want it in our Carroll community.
 
We are encouraging all students and employees to get vaccinated for COVID-19, but also recognize it is a personal decision.

March 31, 2021

Kyla Dane and Andy Quinn are interviewed by KTVH in a story about PH 321 Gardening and Community Health, taught by Health Sciences faculty member Gerald Schafer. Watch the story

Carroll Health Sciences Grad, Jordan Zepeda, was featured in the Billings Gazette 40 Under Forty.   

Find something to be grateful for every day

February 14, 2021 

Age: 28

Company and title: SCL Health, St. Vincent Healthcare, manager of infection prevention

Hometown: Cascade, MT

Education and/or background: Master’s degree in public health from the University of Montana and bachelor’s degree in health sciences from Carroll College. Infection prevention in acute care hospitals for six years.  In college, Jordan Zepeda took an epidemiology course “just for fun.” Through that course, she uncovered her passion for public health and using a population-based approach to improve health outcomes.  “The infection prevention field is an intersection between health care and public health. It allows me to use my epidemiology and public health skills to improve outcomes for our patient population,” said Zepeda.

If you couldn’t do this, what would you do instead?

I would be a microbiologist. That was one of my favorite courses in college and I considered pursuing it as career. As an IP, I still get to use some microbiology knowledge and every once in a while, I get to go to the lab to see all the cool bugs they’re growing.

What other passions/callings are part of your life?

I value my family time and love being a mom and wife. We have a very energetic 2-year-old and our second daughter is due in January 2021. We enjoy spending time together outside, hiking & camping with our rambunctious dog.

More of Jordan's interview from the Billings Gazette

2014 Carroll Health Sciences Grad, Dakota Amy, Opens a Physical Therapy Clinic in East Helena

Dakota Amy, DPT has opened OrthoRehab Physical Therapy in East Helena.

An Idaho native, Amy came to Helena on a football scholarship to play for Carroll College. He was team captain and earned Academic All-Conference and Academic All-American honors. He is a 2014 graduate of Carroll with a degree in health sciences and a minor in public health. He earned his doctoral degree in physical therapy from the University of Montana in 2018.  Amy has experience in sports medicine, post-concussive treatment, and orthopedics

Health Sciences Majors Participate in Orthopedic Research Society (ORS) Annual Meeting

A Report from Dr. Alyssa Hahn, Assistant Professor of Biomechanics

February 2020 -- This past summer, I hired three undergraduate research students to join my research team. Each worked on an independent research project that culminated in the submission of an abstract to a major conference. We were notified in November that all three students’ abstracts were accepted, two as poster presentations and one was selected as a podium presentation. Additionally, all of my research students applied and were awarded Montana INBRE Travel Grants to aid in funding their travel to this conference. Thus, on February 8-11, my research team traveled to Phoenix, AZ, to attend the Orthopedic Research Society (ORS) Annual Meeting and present our research.
 
ORS is an international conference (with over 3,000 members) for biologists, engineers, surgeon-scientists, orthopedic surgeons, and those in the field of musculoskeletal science and orthopedic care. Thousands of leading experts in orthopedics attend from across all across the world. Importantly, Carroll College was the smallest higher education institution represented (by a landslide), and the ONLY research team composed of exclusively undergraduates. Every other research team in attendance was composed of a combination of PhDs, MDs, DVMs, post-doctoral researchers, and graduate and undergraduate students. 
 
Hope Welhaven, a senior health sciences/public health major, was selected as one of three individuals (out of THOUSANDS of attendees) to give an oral podium presentation during an Osteoarthritis Phenotypes Spotlight Session. Her talk was titled, “Metabolomic profiles of articular cartilage vary by osteoarthritis grade.” Ethan Viles and Jenna Starke were selected for poster presentations. Ethan, a junior biology major, presented one of his summer projects titled, “Metabolomic profiles of conditioned media from primary human osteoarthritic chondrocytes and SW1353 cells.” Jenna Starke, a recent Carroll health sciences/anthrozoology and graduate and soon-to-be medical student presented her work titled, “Global metabolomic profiles of human joint fluid following a second ACL tear: a case study.”