Over the years, students in the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University have personally witnessed the impact of cancer on countless lives.
Some have watched loved ones fight the disease, while others have worked with cancer patients during clinical rotations. Other students and alumni have even been cancer patients themselves.
Whatever their unique experiences with cancer have been, the response has been powerful. Their encounters with cancer turned into a growing tradition that benefits children from across eastern North Carolina who are fighting cancer battles of their own.
The eighth annual Pirates vs. Cancer event on April 12 raised close to $15,000 for pediatric cancer patients at ECU Health’s James and Connie Maynard Children’s Hospital.
Led by Brody students, the fundraiser has gained popularity and momentum over the years, with volunteers having their hair cut and donated, getting their heads shaved and even — for special faculty volunteers — receiving a pie to the face in support of the cause.
“One thing that I love about Pirates vs. Cancer is that you are able to see with your own eyes the direct impact of this work on the children at Maynard Children’s Hospital,” said Carly Uhlir, Brody student and event coordinator for Pirates vs. Cancer. “We know that every dollar we raise will add up to make a difference. Kids with pediatric cancer are more than just patients — they are among the strongest and bravest in our community. I want to continue the Pirates vs. Cancer mission that the founders so strongly believed in years ago and that has transcended all these years.”
Dr. Cedric Bright, senior associate dean of admissions for Brody, volunteered to receive pies in the face during the event on the lawn of the Health Sciences Student Center.
“It does your heart good to help the students with this type of thing to support those that are going through trying times with cancer,” he said. “Patients teach us so much, and this is just one way of us trying to give back to those patients that teach us so much.”
Jillian Berntsen of Kinston had her hair cut as an audience looked on and cheered — much like the health care teams and supporters helping her daughter during her cancer journey.
Berntsen said her daughter is receiving in-patient care at Maynard Children’s Hospital, her latest stay stretching for nine weeks. Pirates vs. Cancer gave the family a welcome respite from the hospital walls.
“There are so many things this hospital does, and the people we get to interact with have really become our family at this point from everything she’s been through,” Berntsen said. “We never really thought we’d have to experience anything like this and had no idea that things like this existed. This is the first time we’ve left the hospital in nine weeks, and knowing we had this to look forward to all week was something to get us through another week.”
The event was also eagerly anticipated by Brody students and community volunteers who wanted to help create a memorable and meaningful way to benefit pediatric patients. It has become part of a lifeline of support that keeps this special patient population equipped with resources to help them during their cancer journeys.
“The funds raised by PVC are critical to the maintenance of a positive environment for pediatric cancer patients here in Greenville,” said Grant Irons, Brody student and interdisciplinary chair of Pirates vs. Cancer.
Irons, who plans to pursue medical oncology as a specialty and spent time before medical school working with cancer patients, said the event also offers students a chance to see the realities of what some patients face and an opportunity to pause and look at the bigger picture.
“As future health care leaders, it is important to remember why we are here,” he said. “We entered the health care field to improve the lives of others. To become a well-rounded physician, I believe it is important to be involved outside of the classroom. There are endless opportunities to support our patient population here in Greenville, and I would encourage all health sciences students to lend a hand in these efforts.”
Dr. Cathleen Cook, Brody clinical associate professor of pediatric hematology/oncology and faculty advisor for Pirates vs. Cancer, said the event gives students exposure to the care of pediatric patients right here in eastern North Carolina.
“This fundraiser allows them the chance to see their financial contributions directly help these children while they are hospitalized in James and Connie Maynard Children’s Hospital and cared for in our ECU Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Clinic,” Cook said.
Previous donations through the event, she added, have been used to remodel an inpatient playroom, a space of respite for patients undergoing treatment. Pirates vs. Cancer also helps fund a portion of summer camps for pediatric hematology and oncology patients — Camp Rainbow and Camp Hope.
“Often, donors and volunteers are unaware of the administrative costs that are allocated from the proceeds and not able to see their donations at work,” Cook said. “For Pirates vs Cancer, 100% of the donations are re-invested in our pediatric patients, most specifically our oncology patients. It is my vision to continue to engage these future physicians annually and help support their goal of expanding this fundraiser.”
Brody student Katie Holt decided to get involved with the event to make an impact beyond fundraising. She served as this year’s president of Pirates vs. Cancer.
“Helping to put on this event is awe-inspiring because it puts into perspective the actual size of the Brody and health sciences community,” Holt said. “Applying to Brody, you are frequently told about the passion of the community in serving Greenville and eastern North Carolina. Helping to organize this event gives you a front-row seat to this passion in action.”
Holt said the annual event has caught on across the community.
“People I have never met have reached out to us to offer their help,” she said. “Businesses across the community donate their time and money. Employees from all different departments buy T-shirts to support us. Students across the many health sciences schools donate their hair. The event has shown us firsthand that ECU doesn’t just talk about serving others but goes above and beyond to invest in its community.”
Holt said the event, in addition to benefiting pediatric cancer patients, helps center medical students and remind them why they chose health care careers.
“Serving others, through this event or another community service program, benefits the community as well as serves to fight burnout and protect your mental health,” she said. “I know it has done this for me and many others on the Pirates vs. Cancer team by connecting us to something bigger than ourselves and keeping our sights fixed on a point beyond the next test.”
Uhlir said the event brings participants full circle in seeing their own life journeys while also understanding the magnitude of the battles other people face.
“It is both humbling and inspiring. As medical students, we often lose sight of the big picture. These patients have been through so much, so it is an amazing opportunity to be able to support them directly,” she said. “I also think back to all of the children I have known both personally and indirectly from the time I was a kid myself until now, and how this is such a great way of honoring their spirits.”
Alumni and friends answered the call to support East Carolina University during Pirate Nation Gives on March 20. Some even say it was the GOAT — the greatest of all time.
The eighth annual day of giving event surpassed expectations and raised more than $8.6 million in support of university priorities, including student scholarships, health care initiatives, athletics, and faculty and program support. In the first minute of the day, 64 donors made gifts, setting off donations from on campus and across the country as more than 2,800 Pirates gave during the 24-hour fundraiser.
“Thank you, Pirate Nation, for being part of an outstanding day of giving at ECU. We asked for you to make an impact on the university and you rose to the challenge,” Chancellor Philip Rogers said. “Your gifts and enthusiastic support of ECU allow the university to boldly pursue our mission. Because of you, ECU students will have more access to a top-tier education and more opportunities to participate in innovative initiatives and experiential learning programs. ECU will continue to transform and uplift the region we call home.”
Champions answered the call by establishing numerous challenges for donors, which, when fulfilled, unlocked additional gifts supporting scholarships and programs across all disciplines. Across the board, Pirate Nation showed its support for scholarships, student athletes, health care and initiatives throughout the university.
Notable gifts this year include:
- Chris Campbell, an industrial technology student, who honored his late mother by creating the Pamela A. Garriques Excellence in Logistics Scholarship Fund in the College of Engineering and Technology.
- Richard Cobb ’68, who established the Richard Cobb Sr. Freshmen Recruitment Scholarship Endowment in academic affairs and made a $25,000 gift to support the endowment.
- Max Joyner Sr., who made a $15,000 gift to support the Marching Pirates.
- David E. McCracken, who gave $15,000, and the Veteran Smiles Foundation, which made a $10,000 gift to support the ECU Veteran Patient Care Fund in the School of Dental Medicine. The combined gifts support the expansion of the Veteran Smiles program statewide.
- Oak Foundation’s $50,000 donation to the University Priority Fund for Greatest Needs, which helps the university to respond to immediate and pressing financial needs across ECU.
- Voyages of Discovery received broad support from donors, unlocking a $40,000 match for the community lecture series.
ECU donors could specify where and how they wanted their funds to be used, designating support to scholarships, research, innovative programs and more. Throughout the university new signs highlighted the influence of philanthropic efforts, allowing students, faculty and staff to see that many of the institution’s buildings, services, facilities and programs are made possible by donors.
Campus Spirit
Students, faculty and staff also participated in Pirate Nation Gives through a variety of on-campus initiatives aimed at building participation. A PeeDee squishmallow stuffed toy search and philanthropy honor cords for graduating Pirates added competitive spirit and boosted student involvement. Students accounted for 16% of the day’s donors. Hundreds visited tables at the campus student centers to share social media posts, snap up philanthropy cords, thank donors and support the cause.
Sophmore Christina Dowd was excited to capture a PeeDee squishmallow and earn $500 in bonus money for ECU’s STEPP program. Dowd said she was tracking the clues and found the PeeDee stuffed toy in a Main Campus Student Center meeting room.
STEPP Director Adam Denny said it is fantastic having students in the program participating in Pirate Nation Gives.
“It shows their interest in giving back to the program and, equally important, to the institution,” Denny said. “STEPP is one of the few academic support programs nationwide that provides access to resources to individuals with learning disabilities at no additional cost beyond tuition, which means every gift matters. For current students and the sustainability of our program, we are incredibly grateful for any support to our mission.”
Women’s basketball, club sports, disability support services, the School of Communication, the Office of Global Affairs, Integrated Coastal Studies Programs and the School of Theatre and Dance all earned bonus money from the PeeDee squishmallow search.
Fundraising Creativity
Across all of ECU’s colleges, schools and campuses, Pirate Nation Gives advocates found creative ways to boost interest in their funds.
The Thomas D. Arthur Graduate School of Business wooed potential donors by bringing baby goats to campus. Students, faculty and staff who visited the Arthur School got to pet the pygmy goats.
Why goats? Dr. Linda Quick, assistant dean of the Arthur School, said it was because the Arthur School strives to be the GOAT when it comes to graduate education in eastern North Carolina.
“We asked all who stopped by to support the Arthur School by participating in Pirate Nation Gives. Doing so will ensure that we are well on our way to becoming the GOAT,” Quick said.
Funds raised by the Arthur School during Pirate Nation Gives will support student travel, scholarships, innovative programming for students, connections with industry leaders and additional opportunities for military affiliated students, among other initiatives.
Bonus leaders
Throughout Wednesday, leaderboards on the Pirate Nation Gives (PNG) website tracked support for areas of campus and encouraged giving with a competitive spirit. Numerous social media challenges gave participants the opportunity to win bonus money for their favorite ECU area or fund.
Serious competition began at midnight as donors vied to make the event’s first website gift. It was down to the millisecond to determine that two students, Nicole Barefoot and Anna Stone, tied in the timing of their gifts supporting the Club Sports Priority Fund – in honor of dance. They captured first place and $3,000 for the fund. Alumnus Eric Rivenbark captured second place and selected the ECU Alumni Association Priority Fund to earn $1,000 in bonus money.
Several club sports participants held watch parties to try and be the first to donate and win those bonus prizes. The effort to focus on the Club Sports Priority Fund grew from conversations within Campus Recreation & Wellness.“We started talking about PNG the first day I was hired in my current position. We were strategic on creating a united front and empowering our students and club sports to reconnect with alumni and build new relationships with donors, family and friends,” said Justin Waters, senior assistant director of sport programs. “Helping the students understand the ‘why’ helped the ‘how.’”
Waters said they had an “all for one, one for all” approach and had all 26 club sports come together to help raise scholarship dollars for the priority fund. The fund helps students offset costs they may accrue while playing a club sport at ECU. These dollars tear down barriers in order to help students keep chasing their passions, Waters said.
“Because of this day and all the philanthropy, we are able to provide financial relief for students during a time in our society where attending and staying enrolled in college is more costly than ever,” Waters said. “I also believe that it’s important that our students recognize that we are trying to be the best stewards of their interest and advocating for them during this day is a great way to build trust.”Night owls and watch parties paid off on the final gift competition of the day. The Recreation Sciences Alumni Society Fund captured first place and $3,000 thanks to a watchful eye on the clock from faculty member Edwin Gomez. Club Sports in honor of women’s volleyball was the runner-up fund with a gift from parent Emily Davis and will receive $1,000.For more information about the many ways to give to ECU, visit ECU University Advancement.
In a ceremony more festive than formal, fourth-year medical students in the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University learned March 15 where they will spend the next three to seven years completing residency training.
This year, 100% of Brody’s 79 members of the Class of 2024 — which began its medical school journey during the COVID-19 pandemic — matched with a residency program.
The traditional event is arguably the pinnacle of the medical school experience for Brody students. Before they opened their envelopes to reveal their next stop, the students were presented to the audience of family, friends and members of the Brody community to strains of music they each selected as they marched — or danced — across the stage in the ballroom of ECU’s Main Campus Student Center.
“Match Day is such a special time for these students from the Brody School of Medicine, all of whom have worked incredibly hard to reach this exciting moment,” said Dr. Michael Waldrum, dean of Brody and CEO of ECU Health. “Our medical students, by virtue of the education they receive here at Brody, are uniquely prepared to provide high-quality, human-centered care to the patients they will soon serve as part of their residency training and beyond. I want to extend a heartfelt congratulations to the Brody Class of 2024. We are grateful for the positive impact they will have on the lives of so many.”
Dr. Jason Higginson, executive dean of the Brody School of Medicine, said the class of 2024 represents Brody’s mission — a diverse group of students who come from all parts of the state, who will largely return to serve North Carolina as doctors.
“We have a 100% match rate, well above the national rate, which is also a testament to our faculty and staff,” Higginson said. “About 50% of our graduates are staying in North Carolina, which is our primary mission, and about 20% are staying locally.”
One of Brody’s secondary missions is getting future doctors to practice primary care, and half of the class of 2024 have committed to being on the front lines of health care.
“They are great kids. It’s one of our best classes ever,” Higginson said.
A perfect match
Before he even knew the mission carved out by the Brody School of Medicine to reach underserved patients and address health disparities, Connor Haycox was intent on improving lives.
During his undergraduate years at Davidson College, Haycox volunteered and interacted with patients from underserved communities and saw himself as a future physician to help bridge gaps in care.
“I wanted to go into medicine to help address that,” said Haycox, a native of Chapin, South Carolina. “I could see myself as a primary care physician; I figured I could do the most good for people on the front lines.”
Haycox matched in family medicine at ECU Health.
“I know this is where I’m supposed to be,” he said.
After college, Haycox spent two years completing a MedServe fellowship — an AmeriCorps program through which fellows assist in key primary care services and engage in community health work including outreach, education and other projects that impact community health. During the fellowship, Haycox worked in a rural family medicine practice in Benson, North Carolina, where he witnessed “the breadth of the problems patients presented,” he said. “I wanted to be able to meet them in their particular situation and help them maximize their health goals. I really started to see myself in that role.”
By the time Haycox was ready to take on medical school, he knew Brody was the place for him. His goals and his philosophy naturally aligned with the school’s mission, making it a perfect fit.
“The mission of Brody to develop family medicine doctors to serve the state was really a natural transition for me,” he said. “It just made the whole process that much more streamlined. I saw myself here from the start.”
Haycox sees himself serving eastern North Carolina long term — especially since his wife, Dr. Natalie Malpass, a 2022 Brody graduate, is completing a family medicine residency with ECU Health. The two met during Haycox’s stint in Benson, and that experience has cemented his view of medicine as part of teamwork and partnership.
“I think it’s invaluable to have a partner in medicine,” Haycox said. “It’s such a challenging field and an emotional investment, and I feel like having someone to be able to talk to about the things you see has helped me professionally, but it’s more just being able to walk through life with someone who understands.”
Working with the Benson clinic to respond shortly before medical school to help the team coordinate the practice as a COVID-19 testing site also showed him the importance of taking unforeseen circumstances and transforming them into something meaningful.
“Medicine is personal, and we adapt,” Haycox said. “We do that because we need to for our patients. The pandemic was a whole learning process, and it taught me that we may not have all the answers, but we can learn with our patients how to best come out.”
Navigating the pandemic with his classmates also taught him lessons about adaptation, appreciation and taking advantage of opportunities that presented themselves over the years. Haycox served as an anatomy tutor and was part of Brody’s Medical Education and Teaching Distinction Track cohort — which prepares students to be effective medical educators and develops their interest in academic medicine.
“I can see myself going into academic medicine in the future, so I wanted to develop those skills,” he said.
As for the culmination of his Brody experience, Haycox is excited to celebrate his next step alongside his family. For him, Match Day is the beginning of a new adventure in primary care and family medicine.
“Medical school is a long haul, so I’m excited to celebrate with my family,” he said. “Today, all of this kind of becomes more real.”
From motherhood and maternal medicine
For most medical students, finding out where they will complete their residency during Match Day is plenty to celebrate. For Ahoua Dembele, that’s just the start of the day’s festivities as her family is in town for an equally joyous celebration: a baby shower for her third child, due in just four weeks.
Dembele moved with her family from her home in Ivory Coast to Senegal, then attended boarding school in France. She returned to Africa’s north coast, this time Tunisia, with her family for six years before finally settling in Charlotte after graduating high school in 2011.
When Dembele arrived in the States, she had some measure of command of a number of languages – French, Arabic and an understanding her first language, Dyula, a dialect of Mande, but she didn’t speak English. She enrolled at Central Piedmont Community College for a crash course in a new language and started her educational journey.
After a few years at the community college and managing a pizza restaurant, she transferred to UNC Charlotte, where she graduated with a degree in biology because she was always fascinated with science.
She soon had her first son and worked for a while as a medical assistant in a doctor’s office in Charlotte.
Dembele was accepted as a medical student at Brody just before the COVID-19 pandemic complicated just about every aspect of life – especially education. The disconnected learning was tough, but she excelled, especially in light of having her second son just before starting school and getting married to her long-time partner who was frequently out of the country for business.
“I started medical school when my oldest was 2 or 3 and my youngest was 1. Daycare regulations were a little weird and my school was, too. We couldn’t go to Brody because of COVID, so I had to find ways to study,” Dembele said.
Her mother stayed with her to help with the boys and when her husband was home “he would do everything so that I could find places to study, but it was hard because they still need their mom, so I had to find ways to at least do bedtime every day.”
Dembele matched to undertake her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at ECU Health. She wants to make a difference in the lives of mothers and babies, especially after witnessing health conditions in eastern North Carolina through her clinical rotations. She hopes to sub-specialize in maternal and fetal medicine.
“Something about pregnancy has always attracted me. It’s miraculous, phenomenal, that a body can do that,” Dembele said. “It’s mind blowing. I’ve seen a lot of deliveries, but I’m always amazed, every time, even at my own.”
She credits Dr. Jill Sutton, a clinical associate professor at Brody who specializes in obstetrics and gynecology, with invigorating her desire to focus on pregnancy and women’s health.
“The first time she taught us she was so bubbly, so excited and so joyful when she was talking about pregnancy,” Dembele remembered. “Her enthusiasm, her devotion. I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is who I want to be.’ She’s been a mentor for a long time, and I hope to stay here and continue to train with her.”
At Match Day, Dembele was joined by her husband, her boys and her mother, who traveled from Wisconsin, where they now live. She beamed with pride amidst a family that had travelled so far, and made real sacrifices, to stand with Ahoula as she tore open the envelope that revealed where the next few years of their lives would play out.
Dembele will have a few weeks with her newest child before starting residency as she and her husband planned — calculated — the pregnancy meticulously.
She is a scientist, after all.
‘That’s the kind of doctor I want to be’
The few minutes it takes for the National Resident Matching Program’s mathematical algorithm to match applicants and programs across the country can be daunting for many medical students to think about — but for Emmalee Todd, reflecting on those fateful moments feels a bit zen.
“I think that no matter where I end up, I will find a way to be happy and fulfilled and feel like I’m moving in the direction I want to move in,” Todd said. “I feel like regardless of where I have ended up, I’ve been able to find my own path in that setting.”
And they will do it again.
Todd, who crossed the stage to the inspiring lyrics of Shakira’s “Try Everything” from the movie “Zootopia,” was joined by their parents and girlfriend Friday as they opened their envelope to reveal that they matched in internal medicine and pediatrics — known as “med-peds” — at the University of Maryland.
“I’m really excited,” Todd said. “Maryland made a really good impression on me. I’m excited for it.”
Todd’s journey through medical school was inspired by leadership experiences, bonding with fellow students and learning to adjust to what comes in ways that ensured not only success but a lesson to carry with them into the next chapter. A member of Brody’s first class to begin medical school under “pivoted” protocol because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Todd said their class made up for lost time later.
“For most of us, 2020 was pretty lonely,” they said. “We were thrown into this whole new level of work and new level of stress, and we wanted to be able to lean on our classmates.”
The Class of 2024 leaned into the changes, however, and started forming bonds as they interacted during some classes and labs and outside of school. Those bonds have stood the test of time and have been a vital part of Todd’s experience — which really began when they were an undergraduate at Northeastern University in Boston studying behavioral neuroscience.
Todd became an emergency medical technician and got a firsthand look at medical care — after getting a taste of the health care field over the years from their mother, Dr. Karen Todd, a pediatrician and Brody alumna herself. That exposure, coupled with making friends from all over the country and world, helped lead Todd toward a career in health care.
“I was meeting people from places I’d never been before,” they said.
After working for two years as a medical assistant, Todd brought that same energy to Brody, where they could see themselves as part of a smaller class.
“It really came down to the vibes,” they said. “It was one of the few places I interviewed where I felt a connection to the people, students and faculty right away. I could see myself here.”
Todd has thrived, taking on leadership roles including class diversity representative, executive treasurer and vice chair on the Medical Student Council, an elected organization that represents the medical student body as a voice in education, political and social interests.
“I got nominated our first year and decided I was going to run,” Todd said. “I got elected, and there I was. When you’re asked for your input, it’s because someone thinks your input is valuable. It is an honor, the trust [my classmates] have placed in me to be a voice for my class, to speak up and advocate for changes, policies and guidelines that are going to improve or rectify parts of our experience.”
Todd, who was drawn to med-peds because of an experience during a third-year rotation.
“I was trying to be open-minded, though I initially thought I wanted to do emergency medicine,” Todd said. “During my internal medicine rotation, I spent two weeks in the med-peds clinic and fell in love with the feel of it, with the attendings and residents and their personalities and the way they thought about medicine and approaching their patients. The more I got to interact with them, the more it reinforced that that’s the kind of doctor I want to be. They were passionate about trying to do the right thing for their patients.”
Drawing upon every memory and experience they gained along the way — from undergrad to Match Day — Todd is ready to embrace the next step and to take advantage of all the lessons waiting on the horizon.
“I thought when I was in undergrad that I wanted to get my Ph.D.,” they said. “I love neuroscience; I loved feeling like I was on the cutting edge of the frontier of knowledge, pushing into something that people have never known about before. But the more I got into the clinical environment, I really liked the detective work aspect of medicine, the team feel of it. All of the members of the health care team bring their own skills to the table but have the same goal, which is making the patient better.”
Like many health professionals who treated patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, Drs. Paul Bolin and Paul Shackleford started to draw conclusions about who was most at risk of dying from infections: people with eastern North Carolina’s typical comorbidities like hypertension, diabetes and obesity.
Shackleford, a primary care provider and research professor at the Brody School of Medicine, said large swaths of the population served by the heath care structure in eastern North Carolina can be identified through electronic medical records. But that is just part of the equation, leaving a sizable percentage of citizens outside of public health surveillance.
“We started having people novel to our system who were coming into the hospitals, which gave us the idea that maybe we should start looking for people to figure out a mitigation strategy,” Shackleford said.
At the height of the pandemic, Shackleford and a team of health care professionals — Bolin, a fellow Brody professor and chairman of the department of internal medicine, and Dr. Linda Bolin, an associate professor of nursing science in the College of Nursing with expertise in hypertension, and Dr. Ashley Burch, an assistant professor and behavioral health scientist in the College of Allied Health Sciences — were getting requests from businesses across the region to help find ways to keep workplaces functioning and employees safe on the job.
“I don’t have any industrial hygiene or occupational health credentials, but when somebody calls, we have to help” Shackleford said. “One business owner called from his hospital bed recovering from COVID. His business was identified as critical infrastructure, so they were up and running, or trying to run, and struggling because they had employees who were out of work.”
Shackleford said they “didn’t do anything magical” besides reiterating the established guidelines. But having direct contact with workers who likely weren’t getting routine medical care and under public health surveillance spurred Shackleford and the Bolins to consider how they could be proactive in finding citizens with chronic illnesses. The COVID-19 pandemic would eventually subside, but the unhealthiness of rural Southern lifestyles was here to stay. How could they be part of stemming the tide of disease caused by diet and lifestyle choices?
The team inaugurated the SERVIRE (Stopping Early Reversible Vital organ damage In Rural Eastern North Carolina) project and decided that incorporating students into outreach efforts would fulfill ECU’s motto, and overarching mission, of service.
To date the SERVIRE project has worked with more than 35 businesses across eastern North Carolina, having engaged nearly 1,400 workers at job sites ranging from a water faucet manufacturer in New Bern to a metal fabrication shop in Ahoskie and a commercial fishing fleet on Hatteras Island.
Researchers initially envisioned more interaction with farm workers, but enough of the potential study participants were undocumented, and reticent to participate, that study directors refocused their efforts to more traditional manufacturing businesses. While they were able to reduce operating cost and complexity, and deal with the privacy issues, the question of why 20-25% of workers flatly refused to be part of the study shifted the focus of the team’s research.
“We have folks that know how to run focus groups sit down and actually ask them, ‘What’s the problem?’” Shackleford said. “Early on in COVID we pivoted to delivering vaccines to individuals who would not go to mass vaccination sites, and it was a similar cohort. Yet they were welcoming of the one-offs that we were able to offer. We didn’t do a lot of vaccines, but we still got in the door.”
Hesitancy would be a continuing challenge, Shackleford knew, but it was better in his mind to achieve what could be achieved to keep small towns in the region from folding.
The Bolins and Shackleford recognize that providing health care to rural communities relies on vibrant and resilient businesses that support the functioning of small, rural communities. Without well-paying jobs, hospitals and community clinics run the risk of losing resources or shuttering altogether.
“If we can keep industry running, we can keep this community fed,” Shackleford said.
Reaching Underserved Communities
For Dr. Linda Bolin, who has advocated for heart health for many years, educating patients on health-promoting lifestyle changes wherever she can is important.
“Some companies, like Moen, want us back all the time, and it gives us an opportunity to talk to them and ask, ‘Well, what changes have you made?’” Bolin said. “It heightens their awareness to know we are going to come back. Sometimes you have to hear things more than once, like with students, you have to repeat it several times for the idea to click.”
Bolin said diet and movement are a huge part of the problem for eastern North Carolina. People who seem relatively healthy because their young bodies can mask systemic health issues might actually be ticking time bombs, health-wise.
“During the Vietnam War we had 18-year-olds dying, and when autopsies were done, they were already suffering from atherosclerosis. Establishing healthy habits and making behavioral changes early in life, before age 20 is crucial,” Bolin said. She stressed that the workforce is often seemingly young and robust but shows signs of unhealthiness from eating fast food and being too exhausted from a 12-hour shift in a manufacturing facility to want to exercise.
“These conditions can take a toll on the body, especially for those with a family history of cardiovascular disease, leading to the onset of pre-hypertension,” Bolin said. “We see a significant number of people with hypertension who are already taking maximum medication doses, leading to a classification of resistant hypertension.”
Bolin likened this situation to developing tolerance to antibiotics after prolonged use — if individuals with resistant hypertension develop severe infections such as sepsis, standard antibiotic treatments may become less effective.
Meloney Quay, a Moen employee from New Bern, said she values the SEVIRE outreach because it’s hard to get in to see a primary care doctor and she usually only seeks medical care in emergencies. She would like to see a clinic at her job site twice a year to keep tabs on her basic health information.
Sapphire LaCoss, who also works on the Moen manufacturing line, said she first participated in the SERVIRE research project because it helped lower the cost of her health insurance. Because both her mother and grandmother are diabetic, she feels a responsibility to keep on top of testing.
“I have four kids. I play football, soccer, basketball and volleyball. I help cheerleading. I like to stay healthy,” LaCoss said. “[The Moen leadership] realizes that we work from 5:30 until almost 4 every day and we don’t have time to go to the doctor, right? I think it’s important that they think that their employees are taken care of and they’ll help us because it keeps us healthy and keeps the business going.”
Brooke Rose runs Rural Carolina Ambulance Service with her husband in Ahoskie and is contracted to do the testing for the research project. She said she gets a lot of satisfaction from helping to identify workers’ health concerns.
“We’ve caught very high blood pressure or that they are diabetic and didn’t know they had it. Then they can get the help that they need,” Rose said. “We’ve seen them later and their levels were down, their blood pressure is better and they’re very appreciative. They’re grateful.”
Teaching Students
SERVIRE is formally a research project, working to establish best practices for how to identify workers who have fallen through the cracks of the health care system. But the project leaders have turned it into a teaching opportunity — students and contracted medical workers assess workers for basic health metrics that can identify precursors for serious medical complications: height and weight, body index, neck circumference and basic blood sugar readings.
The research is important for the immediate health of the individuals who are tested, and the study directors hope their work will impact regional health in the long-term, but the outreach efforts also give ECU students hands-on experience working with the high-risk populations they will serve after graduation.
Linda Bolin and Burch offer an Honors College seminar for pre-nursing and health majors that focuses on chronic diseases in eastern North Carolina and provides students with the opportunity to participate in the SERVIRE project.
Their seminar, titled “Ghosting Premature Death: Promoting Prevention in Eastern North Carolina,” emphasizes the importance of early engagement with health-related majors by exposing potential students to population health issues and social determinants of health.
“Having these students, along with pre-medical and pre-nursing students, volunteer as integral members of the team is essential because it recognizes the significance of investing in future doctors, nurses and other health care workers, instilling in them a sense of service to their community,” Linda Bolin said.
Several students who were enrolled in the Honors College seminar as pre-nursing majors are now first semester students in the College of Nursing.
Kaylee Ontiveros, an Honors College nursing student from Ayden, said it was eye-opening for her to see just how far from primary care options many of the workers were, and how having hands-on experience with patients can tie together book learning and classroom lectures.
“A lot of people struggle to get medication or get to the hospital compared to places like our city, where can get to doctors right down the road,” Ontiveros said. “We saw a patient who had an abnormality in her neck that she didn’t know about. We said, ‘OK, you need to check this out,’ so it was really putting everything from classroom into perspective.”
Gracyn Faulk, a fellow Honors College nursing student from Goldsboro, participated in research visits to a call center in Greenville and a soup kitchen. She agrees that having an opportunity to interact with real patients was a benefit to her education.
“It’s not what I expected. I’m not really sure what I expected. But it was good to see some of the social determinants of health that we talk about in class, to see them in real life. Some of the people had stories that you wouldn’t hear otherwise,” Faulk said.
Gracie Ipock, a first semester Honors College nursing student from Morehead City, was with Faulk. She said being in the community and learning about people was a huge benefit. Ipock had previously worked as a certified nursing assistant, but this was a new way to interact with patients.
“I think it will help me to be better at clinicals like now because I’m able to talk to these people and not be so scared,” Ipock said. “The more confident you are with working with them, the more they’re going to feel relaxed. Someone could look perfectly fine and not know that they have a lot of issues going on with their health.”
More than 30,000 donors answered the call to support East Carolina University and propelled the Pursue Gold campaign to a historic $526.9 million fundraising record.
“The ECU community has demonstrated a willingness to invest in our future in a remarkable way through the Pursue Gold campaign,” Chancellor Philip Rogers said. “Every contribution makes a direct and positive difference in advancing the upward trajectory of our institution. To all our donors and advocates in Pirate Nation, I say thank you.”
In modest and monumental ways, benefactors answered the chancellor’s charge and exceeded the ambitious $500 million goal. Donors contributed nearly $100 million in philanthropic support during the 2022-23 fiscal year, making it the most successful fiscal year fundraising endeavor of the campaign and setting the bar as the most robust fundraising year in the university’s history. Year-end gifts added a boost of more than $10 million to the campaign’s closing figure.
Previously, numerous donors helped build a foundation of philanthropic success during the university’s Second Century campaign, which raised $219 million from 2008-2012.
A leadership gift from Fielding and Kim Miller in 2015 establishing the Miller School of Entrepreneurship was one of the first commitments that solidified ECU as an institution where philanthropic investment can be transformational.
Efforts to reach the $500 million goal began in earnest in 2017. Due to leadership changes at the university and a pause during the COVID pandemic, the campaign covered more than seven fiscal years of fundraising. In each of those years, new and long-time donors followed the example set by those before them.
Highlights of the campaign’s significant milestones include:
- A commitment from James and Connie Maynard supporting the College of Education and gifts in support of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium renovations boosted gifts in 2017, the first year of the comprehensive campaign.
- ECU held its second Pirate Nation Gives event in 2018, raising more than $500,000 in 24 hours. Investments by the Oak Foundation in the STEPP Program, Van and Jennifer Isley to create the Isley Innovation Hub, and Robert and Penny Barnhill in the Brody School of Medicine and ECU Health were among the year’s significant gifts.
- In 2019, an anonymous $5 million gift established the BB&T (Truist) Center for Leadership, Travis and Cassie Burt endowed a professorship in cardiovascular sciences, and TowneBank committed $3 million in support for ECU Athletics.
- Fundraising efforts continued to set new records in 2020, with a professorship in the School of Dental Medicine honoring Dr. Jasper Lewis and growth in corporate and foundation gifts. Dr. Betty Beacham and Mason and Kim Mason supported student veterans with gifts through the Veteran Services (SVS) office in the ECU Division of Student Affairs. Nancy Bedford created an endowment focused on study abroad for students in the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences. Donors responded generously to efforts to support students during the pandemic. ECU raised $185,000 for student emergency funds and distributed 2,079 pounds of food from the (Williams-Ross) Purple Pantry. Grady White Boats and company owner Eddie Smith were crucial to fundraising growth in 2020 with the largest gift in Pirate Club and Athletics history at the time, establishing the Grady White Boats Athletic Campus.
- The public phase of Pursue Gold was announced in 2021. A $5.2 million gift from the estate of Beatrice Chauncey was not only a surprise but also the largest planned gift ever for the School of Music. The College of Education also received its largest gift establishing the Roos Elementary Education Scholarship Program. A gift from Dr. and Mrs. Bruce Klitzman established the Rachel Klitzman Memorial Nursing Scholarship in the College of Nuring. A total of $48.3 million was given or pledged to the university during this fiscal year.
- In 2022, the first full calendar year of Pursue Gold, the comprehensive fundraising effort surpassed the $400 million mark. The year’s effort was marked by $69.8 million in fiscal-year philanthropic support. Burney and Judy Warren created a multi-million dollar fund to support the EC (Brinkley-Lane) Scholars program. Tom Arthur’s $5 million commitment to the College of Business, established the Thomas D. Arthur Graduate School of Business. The Brody family continued to make a significant impact at ECU and the Brody School of Medicine, funding the Brody Scholars program and other initiatives.
- The unprecedented $30 million commitment from Robert Gentry Brinkley and Amy Woods Brinkley and Lewis Patrick Lane III and Lynn Lewis Lane is the largest combined commitment to undergraduate education in ECU history and was the largest gift of 2023 and the Pursue Gold campaign overall.
- Donors contributed nearly $100 million in philanthropic support, making 2023 the most successful fiscal-year fundraising endeavor in history. Gifts included: $5 million from Van and Jennifer Isley for a multipurpose indoor practice facility in Athletics, $3.2 million from the United Health Foundation to expand the North Carolina Statewide Telepsychiatry Program, and $2.5 million in planned gifts from Cheryl and John Oliver in support of the Coastal Studies Institute. Several gifts ensured the final months of the campaign were a success including suppport from Richard Twilley for the Twilley Academy of Sales Leadership, Dr. Emily and Paul Bray, whose investment touches the health sciences and health care areas of the ECU Health Foundation, and two significant anonymous gifts for Athletics and Access scholarships.
“It is clear that ECU alumni, friends and donors are all behind our great university. We had nearly 90 individuals, families and organizations who have committed more than $1 million each during the lifespan of Pursue Gold,” said Christopher Dyba, vice chancellor for University Advancement. “The campaign has served as a momentum builder for the university. Through this effort donors have seen how their gifts are fueling student success, alumni have reconnected with ECU, and the university has rallied support from every corner of Pirate Nation.”
Dyba said the enthusiasm for supporting the campaign has been building since Chancellor Philip Rogers’ arrival in 2021. Rogers kicked off the public phase of the comprehensive campaign in November 2021 and asked Pirate Nation to come together to help carry ECU into the future.
Pirate Nation donors supported, or pledged gifts, to more than 2,250 unique funds across campus priorities through the ECU Foundation, Athletics, ECU Health Foundation and the ECU Alumni Association, which is now integrated into the ECU Foundation.
More than a quarter of the gifts will create opportunities for student success through funding $184 million in merit, need-based and athletic scholarships.
Dyba explained that as a result of the campaign, the foundations have provided $161 million to the university since 2017. On average, each year, the foundations provide $23 million for university needs.
More than $201.6 million in campaign gifts sustain the university’s value and secure ECU’s endowment. Dyba said with more than 1,390 endowed funds, the amount the foundations earn and provide to the university will continue to grow.
“There will be a return on investment for years to come,” he said. “As a result of this campaign, funds provided to the university will further increase as pledges are paid, endowments grow and other commitments are fulfilled. Funds from Pursue Gold will continue to make ECU affordable and accessible to students.”
Catalyst for support
A comprehensive campaign generates funds for the university. It also serves as a platform to connect alumni and friends to the breadth and depth of work happening across the university and showcase the willingness of others to invest in ECU’s future.
The Pursue Gold campaign has sparked conversations about ECU and expanded interest in the university.
One such connection happened for Sean and Andrea Smith, from Charlotte, in conversations with friends, Robert and Amy Brinkley. The Smiths have a passion for education and helping students go to college and were encouraged by the Brinkleys to consider ECU in their philanthropic endeavors.
Andrea and Sean both recall Amy Brinkley’s enthusiasm for how much ECU does for students through philanthropic support. Andrea Smith and Amy Brinkley were colleagues at Bank of America. Robert Brinkley is a long-time champion of ECU. He served on the ECU Board of Trustees including two years as chair.
“Wanting students to be able to get a degree without debt – or little debt – and not have to go to work to pay off college loans is really important to us,” Andrea Smith said. “The idea of Access Scholarships really resonated with what we want to do for students.”
Sean Smith said his own student loans made him reconsider his goal of attending law school after graduating from ECU because he didn’t want to take on more debt. The Smiths decided to endow an Access Scholarship so future students don’t have to make the same choice. They established the Smith Family Access Scholarship Endowment in 2018 and endowed a second Access Scholarship in 2022. They also have an endowed scholarship in ECU Athletics.
“We would get letters from the kids who had received our scholarship telling us how our support helped them stay in college. It’s very rewarding for us to hear from them directly,” Sean Smith said. “Being able to get an education positions people for success and impacts their social mobility. It greatly increases your odds of being successful.”
Since their initial investment, the Smiths’ enthusiasm for ECU has only deepened. Sean serves as president of the Pirate Club’s executive committee. In 2020, the Smiths’ son enrolled at ECU and they became Pirate parents.
During an Access Scholars luncheon, the Smiths were inspired by a conversation with students who shared that the idea of studying abroad had never occurred to them as an option. Soon after the luncheon, the Smiths created the Smith Family Study Abroad Endowment to promote study abroad opportunities for Access Scholars.
“There are so many things we take for granted that some students don’t have an opportunity to do,” Sean Smith said. “We want the students to have as many experiences as possible at ECU.”
The Smiths are committed to their efforts to make a college education affordable and accessible. They have provided scholarship support at the University of South Carolina, where two of their children attend, and at Andrea’s alma mater, Southern Methodist University in Texas. In Charlotte, they volunteer with organizations focused on mentoring students and helping them prepare for and apply to college.
“We see ECU changing lives and doing so much with (donor investments),” Andrea Smith said. “ECU is meeting people where they are, and it differentiates ECU. It’s a win for the kids which is the most important outcome.”
Fundraising efforts continue
While the comprehensive campaign has come to an end, fundraising for the university continues. Philanthropic efforts through University Advancement and the ECU Foundation will focus on university needs and student success through merit and needs-based scholarships for admissions and retention.
ECU Athletics will continue the Pirates Unite Campaign to raise $60 million to provide critical funds and essential training spaces that will transform the experiences of student-athletes.
The ECU Health Foundation will remain focused on raising philanthropic support for ECU Health, the ECU schools and colleges of the health sciences and Laupus Library.
The East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine held its ninth annual Celebration of Research and Scholarship (CORAS) Feb. 7, showcasing student, resident and faculty research and welcoming two keynote speakers who spoke to the event’s theme, “AI in the Dental World.”
More than 50 research posters dotted the Ross Hall rotunda throughout the morning while the researchers stood by to explain their methods and findings to visitors from the school, university and other institutions.
The event is one of the school’s central traditions, honoring research as a key part of its mission and vision.
Dr. Margaret Wilson, vice dean and interim associate dean for student affairs, welcomed visitors and participants to the event and emphasized the importance of research and scholarship to the ultimate benefit of patients.
“It’s important that we pause and reflect on the opportunities that we all have as educators and learners to improve oral health and overall health for all communities,” she said. “Research plays an essential role in improving oral health — and in order to make progress and create new knowledge, we need to have dedicated faculty who are involved in research, engaged in scholarly activities and committed to inspiring curious students and residents, enabling and encouraging them to develop a passion for discovery.”
Dr. Sharon Paynter, ECU’s acting chief research and engagement officer, said the event is part of the university’s growing research enterprise.
“Last year, the university recorded more than $85 million in sponsored activities — an all-time record,” she said. “We are investing in startup packages, high-impact experiential learning for students who participate in research efforts, catalyzing research teams and ideas, high-performance computing resources and other critical research infrastructure. The ways that the School of Dental Medicine has engaged in that growth and investment strategy is evident at events like this one. It is through events like CORAS that the magic happens.”
Dr. Alexandre Vieira, the school’s associate dean for research, said that research should be considered an essential part of dental education.
“Research should be in the fabric of everything we do,” he said, from education to serving as clinicians to making a difference in communities. “We are part of the same mission.”
Keynote speakers were Dr. Donald A. Tyndall, professor of diagnostic sciences at UNC Chapel Hill’s Adams School of Dentistry, who presented “AI and Diagnostic Imaging in Dentistry: A Rising Tide That Lifts All Boats,” and Dr. Jin Xiao, associate professor and director of perinatal oral health at the University of Rochester’s Eastman Institute for Oral Health, who presented “Smart Connected Oral Health Community (SMART Teeth): Using AI and Digital Technologies to Close the Gap in Oral Health Disparity.”
Students and faculty also received awards during the event, including the following honors:
- Case Reports: Areej Hussein
- Clinical Research: Asha Sude
- Community/Epidemiology Research: Lucy Anna Sheaffer
- Basic & Materials Research: DaQuan Mebane
- Scholarship of Teaching/Mentoring: Dr. Michael Webb
- People’s Choice Award: Markus Mosley
- Hinman Research Symposium Award: DaQuan Mebane
- SCADA Award: Liam Hopfensperger
- AADOCR Research Day Award: Markus Mosley
Lisa Finch, office manager in the Office of Research and CORAS organizer, said the event underlines the importance of research as part of dental education.
“Research is simply important; it is important for the overall health of our community,” she said. “This is part of our mission to lead the nation in community-based oral health education, research, patient care and service. It is important for the school to celebrate student research because our students and residents are the next generation that will continue to build upon the blocks of our health and well-being.”
Dental students shared their thoughts on the value of research and CORAS as part of their dental education.
“The acknowledgment not only affirmed our hard work but also highlighted the effectiveness of our presentation in capturing the audience’s attention and interest. Winning these honors provided a sense of accomplishment and inspired us to continue striving for excellence in our academic pursuits,” said Mosley of being honored with awards for his work, alongside co-author and dental student Erika Stevens. “Being the first time presenting our findings, we were slightly anxious about communicating with our dean, faculty and peers. To our pleasant surprise, after all the hours of planning with Dr. (Wenjian) Zhang, we demonstrated our aptitude for delivering insightful research with unwavering confidence and enthusiasm, showcasing a profound mastery of the subject matter.”
Mebane said the opportunity to research alongside faculty offers unprecedented experiences.
“The opportunity to share my findings on hypertension, a topic that intersects with dental health in significant ways, with peers and mentors was both an honor and a learning experience,” said Mebane, class of 2027. “Oral health has an inextricable connection to systemic health. A large part of the mission of our dental school is to serve the underserved rural areas of North Carolina. Older age is a major factor that increases the odds of developing hypertension, making a deeper understanding of this condition invaluable for us as future clinicians.
I.J. Okons, a member of the class of 2025, has presented her research every year since starting dental school.
“It provided an opportunity to showcase the culmination of our efforts and present our findings to a broader audience,” Okons said. “It’s also gratifying to see our work acknowledged and appreciated, especially knowing that it has the potential to make a positive impact on prenatal oral health education for pregnant women and their prenatal providers. Research is crucial for me as a future dentist because it allows me to stay actively engaged of emerging technologies and advancements in dentistry. It empowers me to engage with the community and comprehend the impact of our efforts on prenatal oral health education for both expecting mothers and their prenatal providers.”
Mike Sheppard was a part-time drummer, keeping the beat to his band’s classic rock tunes during gigs in and around his hometown of Canton, North Carolina.
But that musical rhythm was interrupted by a different kind of tempo — the throbbing pain that he almost constantly felt in his teeth and mouth. That’s when Sheppard had to set down his drumsticks.
He sought help at the East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine’s community service learning center (CSLC) in Sylva, where he received care during the school’s ECU Smiles for Veterans event in December.
“It’s been life-changing,” Sheppard said.
He and more than 100,000 patients have received care through the School of Dental Medicine’s on-campus and hospital clinics, CSLCs and community program sites across the state — an achievement that goes well beyond a headcount, but is instead measured by smiles restored.
“Celebrating this milestone is not just about a number,” said Dr. Greg Chadwick, dean of the ECU School of Dental Medicine. “It is about educating the next generation of dentists as we provided much needed care to 100,000 North Carolinians, many of whom may not have had access to this care if it were not for our community service learning centers across the state and our supporters and donors who have been there from the beginning.”
The School of Dental Medicine opened its doors to students in 2011, driven by a mission of preparing dentist leaders and increasing access to oral health care for patients across the state, especially in rural and underserved communities. Since 2012, the school’s model has expanded through the creation of the CSLCs and innovative programming that reaches more patients where they are.
“This is a landmark moment for ECU and the School of Dental Medicine,” said ECU Chancellor Philip Rogers. “This is not only a milestone, but also a mile marker, as we are just getting started. It is a reminder that we are upholding a promise we made to the people of our state to prepare new dentist leaders and increase access to oral health care for patients everywhere, including our most rural communities.”
Over the course of his visits to the CSLC-Sylva, Sheppard received partial dentures and repairs to cracked and broken teeth. The difference, he said, has been evident in daily life.
“Before, I was in lots of pain; at least two or three days a week I’d be functioning with really bad pain,” he said. “Now, I feel 100% better than I did.”
Sheppard has also returned to his music.
“Since last year, we’ve done seven gigs that I hadn’t done for years before because of the pain,” he said. “I can do this again and not have to worry about the pain and embarrassment. If affects the way you perform. When you can smile and you couldn’t before, it’s confidence — and confidence can lead to other things.”
‘A mutually beneficial setting’
“When I first heard ECU School of Dental Medicine has treated 100,000 across the state, my first response was, ‘Wow!’ This accomplishment is incredibly impactful to all of North Carolina, and knowing I was a small part in that, is very special,” said Dr. Jennifer Vrikkis ’16, who practices at Reynolda Smiles Family Dentistry in Winston-Salem. “I can’t believe it’s been several years since leaving formal education and starting my journey in private practice, but I still feel like I’m a part of ECU with the same mission to serve our community.”
An important piece of the school’s model is recruiting and educating students who have shown the desire to make a difference for North Carolina through dentistry. These students and alumni come from all over the state, bringing with them a passion for caring for others through creative and daring initiatives.
Close to 90% of ECU School of Dental Medicine graduates practice in North Carolina, a number that could be impacted by the school’s unique model of care. During their fourth year, students gain experience at three of the school’s eight CSLCs across the state, as well as clinics in Ross Hall, the school’s campus facility.
That model not only provides a wider variety of clinical experiences for students, but more opportunities for patients to receive care.
Dr. Robert Pinner ’21 runs Pinner Family Dental in Greenville and considers the latest milestone a win for students and alumni from the school’s first days.
“Though I’m just a small link in a long chain of participants, it gives me tremendous satisfaction to see all we have collectively accomplished,” Pinner said. “This mutually beneficial treatment and learning setting—and the doubly positive outcomes it provides—is really the overlooked ‘secret sauce’ that sets our students apart. Upon graduating, our students are ready and prepared to go practice dentistry at a high level. Building this model was intentional and took a great deal of forethought and diligence.”
Dr. Roopwant Kaur, assistant dean for engagement and clinical associate professor of operative dentistry, said the milestone is a testament to the school’s commitment to delivering care based on a proactive and assertive approach, “demonstrating commitment to pioneering and innovative strategies in addressing complex health care challenges.
“This remarkable accomplishment serves as a shining example of our unparalleled success in balancing our core educational mission, impactful community service initiatives and unwavering dedication to clinical excellence,” she said.
Dr. Jasper Lewis Jr., a Greenville pediatric dentist who supported and guided the dental school’s creation, said the school is going beyond the mission and vision it was first founded to achieve.
“Our students are exposed to the same curriculum as other schools, but in a model that gives them a broader exposure to dental needs of all types of patients from a large variety of educational and financial backgrounds across the state,” said Lewis, also the namesake of the school’s first endowed professorship. “Students are taught not only the didactics and mechanics of dentistry, but how to be efficient for the patients as well as themselves. This helps them to see more patients in a given time at less expense to both the patient as well as the provider.”
The mountains-to-coast approach
The state motto of North Carolina is a poignant yet bold call “to be, rather than to seem.” ‘To seem’ is stationary. ‘To be’ is a journey, a calling.
The School of Dental Medicine’s mission has long been less about words and more about works — finding ways to tangibly reach more patients while preparing dentist leaders eager to care for a state that needs them. The school is built on a combination of hope, grit and determination that intersect at a crossroads of better health and better lives.
“Over the years, our students have not only learned to care for the patients they interact with, but they have also nurtured their inherent desire to serve,” said Dr. Margaret Wilson, vice dean and interim associate dean for student affairs. “Our students and alumni are living and working our mission, and their hard work shines through this meaningful milestone. Each of them has left a mark on our school, and in turn, on the patients they care for and in the communities where they make a difference.”
The CSLC system, an award-winning model that includes centers in Ahoskie, Brunswick County, Davidson County, Elizabeth City, Lillington, Robeson County, Spruce Pine and Sylva, each sprung from roots carefully cultivated in their communities spanning regions, demographics and distinctive needs. These centers serve as the school’s “secret weapon” against the challenges North Carolina faces in oral health care — aging dentists, remote locations, lack of insurance or means of funding care and other challenges specific to communities, families and patients.
“Seeing the plan unfold from the perspective of the community service learning center has been an enriching experience,” said Dr. Ford Grant, faculty director of the CSLC-Ahoskie. “From my pre-ECU perspective, it is remarkable that 100,000 patients have been cared for since the first patient was seen in Ahoskie in July 2012. How would these patients have received care without the school? It is a humbling thought as we celebrate this milestone.”
Grant said the number also signifies that there is a long way to go still.
“So many more of our North Carolina citizens still have access to care issues,” he said. “The main campus at Ross Hall and the rural-based community service learning centers can only meet some of the unmet dental needs of the state. ECU’s model is in a great position to support dentists in rural locations through continuing education and community service projects. Being involved in underserved areas can help lift up communities by providing much-needed dental care and has encouraged young people in rural areas to seek careers in the health professions. We hope our staff, students and faculty interacting within the community continue to help inspire others.”
Caring for special populations
When Bruce Hair started having dental issues, he stopped talking. He didn’t want to meet new people or be put in a position to hear jokes or ridicule.
Hair, of Franklin, North Carolina, had dealt with a broken front tooth for more than a year when he sought help at the CSLC-Sylva through ECU Smiles for Veterans.
“I am so happy with the outcome,” Hair said. “When I was missing that whole front tooth, I was uncomfortable around strangers and anywhere for that matter. I just let it get to me in a personal sense. I had stopped smiling; my life was just kind of closing in.”
These days, he can be himself again.
“Now that I can smile and look at people and talk in a normal way, I’m just a lot happier,” Hair said.
Hair and other patients who are considered part of special populations — veterans, children, the elderly, those with special care needs — have found more accessible oral health care thanks to the school’s programs focused especially on them.
In addition to ECU Smiles for Veterans, the school offers the Sonríe Clinic for migrant farmworkers, school-based dental programs in Bertie and Jones counties and a monthly clinic in Hyde County, among other volunteer and outreach programs. Since 2020, the school-based programs alone have provided more than 12,000 preventive and diagnostic services to over 1,000 children in Bertie and Jones counties who have extremely limited access to care, said Rachel Stewart, supervisor of school-based oral health prevention programs for the School of Dental Medicine.
“Being on the front lines of these programs is an amazing opportunity to connect with patients and community members,” Stewart said. “By staying immersed in the community, we can see the changes as they happen and connect with community members and leaders to learn how to best serve the children of the county. Not only do the programs provide clinical services, but we also provide oral health education and supplies to each child.”
Third-year dental students develop age-appropriate presentations that they present in each county as well, improving the oral health literacy of the children while also helping the dental students develop their passion for working in underserved communities.
Faculty and student research also leads to reaching more patients and finding more innovative ways to care for them; the school’s research base is expanding and taking advantage of resources, grants and partnerships across the state and nation. Special needs care capabilities are also expanding through state allocations and other funding.
The growth in these areas keeps some students confident that their ECU School of Dental Medicine experience is preparing them to care for the next 100,000 patients.
“Being a part of the school has been an inspiring journey,” said fourth-year dental student Cherina Jo McKnight. “I knew that committing to this school would teach me the keys to unlock many doors closed to underserved populations. I believe that one of the most rewarding aspects of becoming a dentist is making a difference in someone’s life while doing something I truly love.”
Chadwick said the momentum is building for the school’s most fruitful years to come.
“Each of these 100,000 patients is a North Carolinian, a part of our dental school community and a face that represents our mission and vision,” he said. “We are grateful to them for entrusting their care to us — and we look forward to restoring and creating even more smiles across the state as we enter the next chapter in the life of our school.”
When East Carolina University’s new Farm 2 Clinic (F2C) mobile teaching kitchen and pantry hits the road it will deliver more than nutrition to underserved people in the region. The 28-foot trailer, wrapped in bold purple, with imagery of colorful produce and program logos, also carries the university’s values.
“I am struck by how this is a mobile billboard for ECU’s mission of student success, public service and regional transformation,” said Christopher Dyba, vice chancellor of university advancement. “I cannot help but have a bit of awe seeing this and want to take a moment to say how impressive and beautiful this is.”
The mobile teaching kitchen and pantry launched Tuesday at a ribbon cutting and celebration at the College of Allied Health Sciences. Through its hunger-relief platform, Food Lion Feeds, Food Lion invested $150,000 in ECU’s innovative F2C initiative to make the trailer possible.
“Today’s event celebrates a longtime and meaningful corporate partnership with Food Lion,” Dyba said. “Together, we share an important commitment to ending hunger and addressing health disparities in our local communities.”
Dyba also recognized Duke Endowment, which provided programmatic support for the Department of Nutrition Science to manage the Fresh Start program, and Camping World and Signsmith for their efforts to outfit and design the trailer.
Through the Food Lion partnership, the mobile teaching kitchen and pantry is equipped with two commercial refrigerators, shelving, sinks, spaces for food preparation and cooking, and extensive storage for educational supplies. At the ribbon cutting, the trailer also was loaded with hundreds of pounds of fresh produce donated by Food Lion. The produce will be provided to patients at the Pitt County Care Clinic, run by Dr. Tom Irons, and the Hope Clinic in Bayboro.
The mobile teaching kitchen and pantry is designed to improve access to healthy food and support improved nutrition and health for uninsured, low-income diabetes patients in rural eastern North Carolina. The program provides nutrition science students experience as they guide patient participants to learn food skills while enabling them to provide fresh, local produce to patients directly.
David Garris, director of operations with Food Lion, said the company supports ECU’s Farm 2 Clinic initiative because of its transformative approach to addressing food insecurity.
“We applaud ECU and the work you’re doing. We’re honored to be a part of and support your mobile teaching kitchen and pantry,” Garris said. “Now more than ever, unique approaches and collaborative partnerships, like the one we have with East Carolina University, are needed to address food insecurity. Together, we are meeting our community’s needs by increasing access to fresh and nutritious food and addressing the root causes of hunger.”
The partnership with ECU carries a personal element of pride for Garris, who describes himself as loyal and bold, purple and gold.
“To say that I am proud of East Carolina might be an understatement. I am incredibly proud to support their efforts. As a former student of East Carolina University, where I studied music education, I was a proud Marching Pirate and have always felt a sense of belonging,” Garris said. “We love this university, and even more so, we love what this university means and does for eastern North Carolina.”
Dr. Michael Wheeler, chair of the nutrition science department, described the new mobile kitchen as a celebration of three Ps — the right people, project and partnership
The idea of a program to take nutrition science into the field was discussed for years within the department. He said it became reality when Dr. Lauren Sastre, assistant professor and founder and director of the F2C initiative, created the project. Sastre and F2C graduate students leaders recruited more student volunteers to implement the program. By establishing partnerships in the community more people became involved and supported the initiative.
At Hope Clinic in rural Pamlico County, Executive Director Yolanda Cristiani and staff provide primary health care to low-income, uninsured adults. Cristiani heard a presentation on ECU’s Fresh Start program and applied to participate.
“From the health coaching to the diabetes education and exercise, and the nutrition aspect, this program exceeded my expectations,” she said. “One (program graduate) lost a considerable amount of weight, gained confidence, got a job, and now we see him outside the grocery store he now works in, swinging a kettle ball on his breaks. This has really changed his life in a lot of ways.”
Cristiani said she sees many positive results of the Fresh Start program in her community. Patients have included their family members and shared the lifestyle changes and nutrition lessons at home. She said the addition of a mobile teaching kitchen and pantry will significantly boost their support of marginalized communities.
Brandon Stroud ’21 ’23, F2C’s assistant director, is completing his dietetic internship with ECU and plans to be a registered dietitian. His career path has been influenced by working in the community with Fresh Start and watching F2C grow.
“This program was my first exposure to community-engaged nutrition research and programming and changed my career trajectory as I want to continue to find innovative ways to work in and serve eastern North Carolina,” Stroud said. “One highlight for me was a patient whose blood sugar was so high it had started to affect his vision, and he told us that after the program he was able to see better.”
Stroud said much of the program’s success was generated by the involvement of more than 200 students who contributed 200,000 volunteer hours, participated in 23 student research projects, and assisted in developing 14 national peer-reviewed scientific presentations and publishing five peer-reviewed manuscripts.
“We are not only serving eastern North Carolina, we are showing the rest of the United States how to do food and nutrition programming in novel ways,” Stroud said.
Brooke Gillespie ’23, F2C coordinator and a nutrition science graduate student, began as a volunteer with the Fresh Start program in her junior year.
“At that time, I was so beyond excited to get my foot in the door with a program that represented ECU and the eastern North Carolina community. Little did I know, I was stepping into a world that would completely change my life,” Gillespie said.
During her earlier involvement in Fresh Start, Gillespie said Sastre took her under her wing and trusted Gillespie with food preparation and recipe development, vital components that keep the program running. Thanks to Food Lion, she said, program components will be managed with ease using the mobile kitchen.
“I can tell you that our impact is far beyond what numbers can represent. I have been able to watch students go from shy, nervous and unsure of their abilities into being some of the most self-assured, confident and driven future health care professionals,” Gillespie said. “I have listened to patients who have told me how this program has helped them face barriers they never thought they would overcome. I even had a patient tell me how when she started the Fresh Start program she thought that diabetes had control over her life, but now she knows that she has control over her diabetes.”
ECU’s Pursue Gold campaign to raise half a billion dollars will end in December. This ambitious effort will create new paths to success for Pirates on campus, across the country and around the world. Donor gifts during the campaign will keep ECU constantly leading and ready to advance what’s possible. Learn more at ECU’s Pursue Gold.
Fourth-year East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine student William Via’s rotation at the school’s community service learning center (CSLC) in Spruce Pine handed him the opportunity to care for a group of veterans during the center’s inaugural ECU Smiles for Veterans event.
It was an experience he won’t soon forget.
“I never have worked with a more appreciative group of patients that also deserve the most appreciation themselves,” Via said.
While it was the first ECU Smiles for Veterans event at the CSLC–Spruce Pine, the school has hosted events through the program since 2018. It partnered with western North Carolina veterans organizations to host the inaugural program 95 miles southwest of Spruce Pine at the CSLC–Sylva. Prior to the Spruce Pine event, the ECU Smiles for Veterans program had provided more than $125,000 of care to more than 275 veterans.
The program was created to reach veterans who have not had access to dental care in the past, part of the school’s efforts to prioritize special populations within its communities. The event provides preventive care and necessary procedures — from fillings to extractions and more — at no cost to the veterans.
In 2018, school leaders joined forces with local veteran services organizations, NC Serves Western and Smoky Mountains Outreach Foundation — now Veteran Smiles Foundation — which provides education and financial support to veterans in North Carolina who want to improve their oral health. As the program has grown and expanded from Sylva to the CSLC–Brunswick County and those in Lillington and Spruce Pine, the Delta Dental Foundation has also become a sponsor through its mission to expand equity in oral and overall health by partnering with community programs.
The community also pitched in to make the day a success. DT’s Blue Ridge Java offered coffee and refreshments, United Community Bank brought lunch, Image Dental Arts provided some partial dentures and local Robert Bailey delivered laser-edged flags to show appreciation to the veterans.
An ECU Smiles for Veterans Patient Care Fund has also been created to help support the program.
ECU Smiles for Veterans events are held throughout the year, and fourth-year dental students completing one of their nine-week rotations at the school’s eight CSLCs might find themselves in the middle of one of the school’s strongest traditions.
“Within the first week of our arrival to the clinic, the whole staff was meticulously planning the event,” Via said. “It was immediately evident to me that the ECU School of Dental Medicine’s Spruce Pine clinic had a passion to serve our country’s veterans. Their foresight and effort could be seen and felt by every veteran patient that participated in the event.”
During the event in Spruce Pine, faculty, students and residents provided $10,000 worth of care to 15 veterans, supported by an enthusiastic office staff.
“Our veterans are a special group of people. They served our country, and through our Smiles for Veterans Day, we get to serve some of them,” said Gene Self, business services coordinator at the CSLC–Spruce Pine. “It was awesome to hear about their tours of duty and to get to hear their stories. The event strengthened our connection by meeting our mission ‘to serve.’”
Self said the event was made more meaningful by the faculty and staff who made the trip from Ross Hall, the dental school’s campus facility in Greenville, to help provide care.
“Serving patients like these and making a difference in our community is one reason I love working at ECU School of Dental Medicine in Spruce Pine,” he said. “Through our partnership with Veteran Smiles and other community partners, we are able to care for underserved patients and make care more accessible for those who need it. Having a positive influence in the lives of people in our community is one thing that drew me to School of Dental Medicine in the first place.”
Charles F., a veteran who received care during the Spruce Pine event, said the care he received that day is already making an impact.
“It’s going to change my life; I can actually smile now,” he said, detailing the procedures he had completed. “I’ve been trying to get care for my teeth for over two years. This is a lot of work, and I’m so thankful for it.”
Via said participating in the event was an experience he will carry with him as he cares for future patients.
“Every patient had an individual story that fit into a collective love and appreciation for our country. I am so thankful to have been a part of that service day. When a service event goes so well, it makes me ready for the next opportunity to do even more.”
He said the event was also unique because many of the school’s faculty who lead the ECU Smiles for Veterans events are veterans themselves who are also active in carrying out the school’s mission of opening doors to dental care across the state.
“Having faculty and administrators that have dedicated their careers to service through the Armed Forces brings an excitement that is hard to describe,” he said. “The service events that the school is able to hold emphasizes the immense need in North Carolina communities, a need that ECU School of Dental Medicine works so very hard to meet.”
The East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine is able to support more rural underserved North Carolinians with dental care needs thanks to a first-time gift from The Leon Levine Foundation.
Through the $60,000 gift, supporting the patient care funds program, more patients can receive care at the SoDM’s community service learning centers (CLSCs) and clinics throughout North Carolina. Patients who qualify are able to get low-cost dental procedures and preventive care through the program.
“We are honored to receive support from The Leon Levine Foundation as we work to fulfill our mission of serving the people of North Carolina,” said Dr. Greg Chadwick, dean of the ECU School of Dental Medicine. “Generous grants in support of patient care funds allow us to serve even more patients in rural and underserved communities through our CSLCs. We are also better able to provide our students with high-quality educational and clinical experiences and create innovative solutions to the oral health challenges in our region and state.”
For more than a decade, the CSLCs have allowed the dental school to achieve its mission to develop leaders with a passion to care for the underserved and improve the health of North Carolina and the nation. The SoDM has earned national awards for its innovative model of education and patient care.
“We believe that equitable access to quality healthcare – including dental care – enriches the wellbeing of individuals and their families. In light of this, The Leon Levine Foundation is honored to support the patient care funds program through ECU’s School of Dental Medicine,” said Dr. Michael Richardson, senior program officer of healthcare. “These resources directly help underserved and uninsured patients, resulting in healthier communities.”
Richardson said Levine cared deeply about establishing pathways from poverty to self-sufficiency. Providing access to affordable treatment through the CSLCs allows patients to face one less barrier to economic mobility.
“While North Carolina has faced a shortage of dentists in recent years, especially in rural communities, we are confident that ECU’s School of Dental Medicine will positively impact dental care trends in the region in the years to come,” Richardson added.
Fourth-year dental students spend three nine-week sessions serving in CSLCs across the state, living and working in communities whose residents face a plethora of disparities, from financial hardships to geographical access.
The Leon Levine Foundation supports programs and organizations that improve the human condition through investments in education, healthcare, human services and Jewish values. Based in Charlotte, the foundation invests in nonprofits across North Carolina and South Carolina with strong leadership, a track record of success, and a plan for financial sustainability. Through its investments, the foundation intends to create pathways to self-sufficiency, champion strategies for permanent change, and facilitate opportunities for growth.
ECU is in the public phase of the Pursue Gold campaign to raise half a billion dollars. This ambitious effort will create new paths to success for Pirates on campus, across the country and around the world. Donor gifts during the campaign will keep us constantly leading and ready to advance what’s possible. Learn more at pursuegold.ecu.edu.