Good Notes

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Monthly Momentos: April 2025

This ongoing blog series celebrates people, milestones, and achievements from across our health system. Content is adapted from monthly updates shared with the University of Utah Board of Trustees.

April highlights include TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world, $5.5M from legislature for medical education in Southern Utah, Best Grad School rankings, and more.

Kudos

  • Wesley Sundquist, PhD, chair of the Department of Biochemistry, was named to TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world for a research discovery that has the potential to transform global HIV prevention. More than 20 years in the making, research in Sundquist’s lab laid the foundation for the development of lenacapavir—a drug that prevents HIV infection with 99.9% to 100% efficacy.

  • Mark Yandell, PhD, professor of human genetics, was named to Modern Healthcare’s 2025 Innovators list for his groundbreaking work in AI and data science. Yandell launched three machine learning and artificial intelligence tools that have significantly advanced implementation of precision medicine to bring the right treatment to the right person at the right time.

  • Becker’s Hospital Review named Christian Sherwood, MA, chief human resources officer for U of U Health Hospitals & Clinics, to its list of CHROs and chief people officers to know in 2025. The list honors executives who hold a broad range of responsibilities related to human resources and are deeply committed to improving their health care organizations.

  • Dorothy (Dart) Schmalz, PhD, chair of the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism, was named a Fellow of the Academy of Leisure Sciences. Schmalz is one of seven scholars from across the country to receive the honor this year. Fellows are selected based on their contributions to scholarly literature, engagement, recognized leadership and participation in professional associations, and outstanding performance in the field of leisure sciences.

June Round inspects a dish of microbes cultured from the gut.
Wesley Sundquist’s research focuses on understanding how the HIV virus is built on a molecular level and how it interacts with the body to infect and spread through cells. This image created by Janet Iwasa, PhD, shows the structure of a particle of HIV. The yellow pinwheel-like structures are the proteins that make up the viral protein shell, the target of Sundquist's breakthrough drug lenacapavir.

Leadership Appointments

  • David Eldredge, MSW, LCSW, was named the new executive director of the Huntsman Mental Health Institute (HMHI). Eldredge has served in various capacities at U of U Health, most recently as director of behavioral health crisis at HMHI where he helped develop one of the nation’s most comprehensive crisis response systems.

  • John Barrett, MD, was named chair of the Department of Family & Preventive Medicine. Barrett has been with University of Utah Health since 2013 and has served as interim chair since January 2024, managing the affairs and core administrative responsibilities of the department.

Achievements in Clinical Care

  • The American Heart Association (AHA) released new data showing that Utah leads the nation with the fastest stroke response times. Utah is the only state where more than 85% of patients with acute ischemic stroke receive intravenous thrombolytics within 45 minutes of arriving at the hospital. This achievement puts Utah far ahead of nearly every other state. The data is a conglomeration of all stroke patients in Utah who are entered into AHA’s Get with the Guidelines database—including patients from U of U Health, Intermountain Health, St. Mark’s Hospital, and Jordan Valley Hospital.

American Heart Cross Get With the Guidelines Stroke Phase III Map
American Heart Association map shows how Utah leads the nation with the fastest stroke response times. Click on image to view larger.

Achievements in Education

  • U of U Health schools/colleges are nationally recognized for various accomplishments and competencies—as reflected in 2025 Best Graduate School rankings released this month by U.S. News and World Report:

College of Health
#12 Kinesiology PhD Program
#17 Physical Therapy DPT Program
#29 Audiology
#32 Speech-Language Pathology
#37 Occupational Therapy MOT Program

School of Medicine
#3 Physician Assistant Program
Tier 2 Research
Tier 2 Primary Care

College of Nursing
#6 Nurse-Midwifery Program
#12 Online Master’s in Nursing Program
#22 Doctor of Nursing Practice Program
#39 Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program

College of Pharmacy
#26 Doctor of Pharmacy Program

  • The Utah State Legislature approved $5.5 million in ongoing funding to establish the Southern Utah Regional Medical Campus, to expand the reach of medical education. Michelle Hofmann, MD, MPH, MHCDS, interim senior associate dean of the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine’s Southern Utah Regional Medical Campus, played a key role in securing this funding. Recruitment for the inaugural Southern Utah MD cohort begins in 2025-2026.

Learn more about the new Southern Utah Regional Medical Campus.

Achievements in Research

Achievements in Community Collaboration

  • Since 2010, the University of Utah has been consistently awarded the prestigious Carnegie Foundation’s Elective Classification for Community Engagement. As part of its 2026 reclassification application, the U hosted the Community Engagement Showcase to spotlight exemplary community engaged work being led by faculty in partnership with community members. Nine finalists shared a wide range of work that included guidelines for conducting research on homelessness, a public school-based health collaborative, and community health workers partnering with medical students.

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