Episode 32: Dr. Randy Wykoff on leadership, public health, and real-world impact

Episode 07: Mathew Desjardins

Mathew Desjardins, a member of the College of Business and Technology [https://www.etsu.edu/cbat/], is overseeing ETSU's innovative new BlueSky Tennessee Institute [https://www.etsu.edu/cbat/computing/bluesky-tn-institute.php]. This groundbreaking program provides Tennessee students the opportunity to earn a bachelor's degree in computing and a job offer at BlueCross in just over two years. Podcast Transcript:  Professor Mathew Desjardins Because the end goal is when they are done with our degree in 27 months and they graduate and they shake your hand and they shake Dr. Noland's hand at graduation, they leave with a job offer. [Music] Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academics at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of our students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us, "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Mathew Desjardins from the ETSU College of Business and Technology. Matthew is part of our Computing faculty and is currently overseeing our Blue Sky Tennessee Institute. Enjoy the show. Professor Desjardins, welcome to our show. It's a pleasure to see you here today. First, I have to ask, did you drive the Tesla over today? Professor Mathew Desjardins I did drive the Tesla over today. Well, actually last night. I tried to come in the night before to get ready for an early day. So it's an interesting drive with a Tesla. You got to kind of let it go, its own control. But I, I trust it completely. It gets me from Chattanooga to here almost every week. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Now, well, I, I like how the Tesla is featured in, in a lot of what you do and the work that you do, so maybe we'll have a chance to talk more about that. Professor Mathew Desjardins Yeah, that'll be great. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I like to start my podcast out with the same question for every guest: Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. Looking back on that day, what's one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Professor Mathew Desjardins Man, I remember my first day teaching. Dr. Kelly Price, a former faculty member in the department, she gave me a chance to, as a graduate student, to teach for her, and at that moment, I was like, "Yeah, this is what I want to do." She really encouraged me to get to where I want, but I was kind of strict, I won't lie. You know, when you're first teaching, you're like, oh, oh man, all my other teachers were strict, right? I have to be strict. So if I can go back to Old Matt or Young Matt, I guess, I would be like: Matt, give them some slack. It's okay. They're students. Remember how it was to be a student. So that would be my one major advice. This is where you should be, yeah, but definitely give them a little more leeway because students go through a lot, and we forget that, I think sometimes. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Something I learned about you recently is that when you first attended as a college as an undergraduate student, things didn't go according to plan. You've been open about sharing the story. Would you tell us a little bit about that? Professor Mathew Desjardins Yeah. I came to school traditionally, right. Every student thinks, okay, you got to go to high school, then you come right out of high school and you're supposed to go to college. One major piece of advice is to listen to your mom. I should have listened to my mom. I left high school, coming to college, and I wanted to go into business. I, I love business; it's actually part of what I do in my current career in Computing. But my mom was like, "No, you're a Computing person. You do everything Computing, you have this very logical mindset." But I was like, "No, Mom. I want to go into business. I know better." So long story is I came to school, and business was not my thing. I don't think it was business or the classes. I think it was just my mindset. Some students don't realize the importance in higher education, and I didn't. I had no idea that I thought I knew better than everyone else. I thought that I can come and make my own life. I wanted to make money, so I ended up actually failing out my first three semesters, and I ended up coming back to ETSU because I wanted to better myself. But I also wanted to provide my knowledge to others and to give the opportunity to students to be like, okay, this is not for me. And now when I hear a student say that, I was like, well, I don't think that's the thing; it's let's find what it is for you. Maybe you made the same mistake I did. Maybe you ended up picking the wrong major. Maybe you just didn't connect with students; maybe you just need someone to say, hey, you can actually do this. I love my parents; they just didn't know or understand what college is. College is a full-time job; it's a job in its own, and if we come in the mentality like, hey, as faculty members we can help those students learn that school is a full-time job, that school takes a commitment, and school's not supposed to be easy. Nothing of value is supposed to be easy, and that's what I learned over those 10 years before I came back. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle It sounds like those prior experiences really shaped you as a faculty member and shaped the way that you approach your students now. Professor Mathew Desjardins Absolutely. I always say I wish I didn't do that gap, but without that gap I wouldn't be the person I am today. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. I've heard you say many times that you learn as much from your students as they learn from you. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Professor Mathew Desjardins Absolutely. I have amazing alumni, but I have a long list of these students that really inspire me to do better, anywhere from doing more research to improve my skills, introducing me to new topics, so these students push me. They challenge me to try new things. They challenge me to understand that, hey, they're human. But I also, through them, show them that faculty members are human, too. And so we have lives, we have interests. I'm down to go to a football game with the students. I had one of the Blue Sky students up here last weekend for the football game. Even though it was dreary, rainy, we still had a good time, 'cause I think allowing students to see that we're both human and understand that we want the same thing—to better each other. And so I learn that from my students, and every time I get in front of a classroom it's not me telling them what my knowledge is; it's also me taking a moment to let them tell me their knowledge and what they have passions for. Creating a learning community, it sounds like that's it. I don't have this like teacher-student; I have more of like, hey, I'm a guide. So I have this knowledge that I want to share to you, and let me guide you through these challenges of what life is called and see if we can figure out what is your best pathway. I used Dr. Dula a lot and you probably have heard Dr. Dula from many people around here, but Dr. Dula in one of his lectures he says college or a degree doesn't make you better; a degree just opens more doors. And I want to take that spirit of what I had when I had Dr. Dula and his lectures that I still watch to today about how a degree just opens doors, and I want to spread that knowledge. For me, the students are opening doors for me as we go through. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's fantastic. So you work in a field, computing, that is constantly changing. How do you stay abreast of all the changes in your field? Professor Mathew Desjardins Our field changes daily. I feel like I talk with our faculty, I'm like, hey, this just happened or hey, this just happened. I would say definitely my colleagues—I want to thank every single person that I've worked with and now in the past—their knowledge that they passed on to me that our field is changing is what allows me to keep changing. I'm a person that doesn't like stagnation, so I definitely, I think I'm definitely in the right field because learning new things every day, seeing new challenges, changing our curriculum almost semesterly—you know, we have to change what we do, what we teach, what we are learning ourselves. So definitely our faculty, but our students—I think our students bring so much nuance. They come and they're like, hey, I heard this or hey, I play this or hey, I want to build the next self-driving car, right? And so we get these ideas from our faculty, we get these ideas from our students, and I think the combination of those two is what allows me to stay current to the point now where I love our curriculum development. So, you know, I'm definitely involved with our development at both the college and our department, but also at the University. So I like curriculum, for us, is what drives students to want to come to us, and I think curriculum is just as much like technology. In all of our curriculum, I know there's many changes that are coming through the university, which is a good thing. It means that we all as faculty are staying current and wanting new changes. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle So it's important to keep the curriculum relevant to help serve students and their future goals, right? Professor Mathew Desjardins Absolutely, and I love that here at ETSU we have a range of everything, and what's really nice though is Computing is kind of central to it all. I always challenge my students: I'm like, all right, Computing is involved with everything—find me something that there's not a need for someone in Computing. You know, we're sitting here in a recording studio and there's a computer that's recording us and managing all this, and so from recording to rocket science to medical schools—you know, the robot over in Quillen—I think there's a chance for us to always be part of everything that's going on. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. So I want to shift gears a little bit. This is a momentous fall as we're launching a wonderful new initiative, our Blue Sky Tennessee Institute. So you have been spending a lot of time in Chattanooga recently helping to launch that Institute. Please tell us about the Institute. Professor Mathew Desjardins Yes. The Blue Sky Tennessee Institute—and I'll—Blue Sky has been my life since 2019, actually even before then. So Blue Sky is Blue Cross Blue Shield wanting to build our workforce development. I mean, they put a request out to Tennessee universities saying, listen, we have this need, and their need is tech people, and we want to partner with some institution to provide these ready people to come and work for them. So in short, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee has a shortage of tech people. You wouldn't know that an insurance company actually has the majority of their employees in technology, and they need those people to keep the business going, and they were like, hey, let's see if we can get a partner to produce the needs. So Blue Cross Blue Shield has been an amazing partners. I want to really stress that because they did a lot of the legwork. They said, okay, we need to internally look at our business and actually know what we need from our employees, right? And so, you know, I think a lot of times we as faculty look at learning outcomes for students, but we don't really do well translating what learning outcomes look like into what an actual business needs from that—sort of the core competencies of the workforce, right? And so, like, you know, we say a student when they can leave they can defend cyber security, but in a business they like, can you actually handle an attack? Can you identify an attack? And so trying to map what they need versus what is being done in schools, they did the leg work to that. They hired a company to help them identify what these core things they needed. When they put that out here, the Department of Computing, with thanks to Dr. Noland and Dr. Pittarese, Dr. Bennett, and Mr. Hendrix, we all together put together a proposal to Blue Cross Blue Shield saying, hey, these are the courses and here's the things we can actually do for you, and here's where we're going to need your help a little bit. The help turns into internships. So these students—they're going through our program—so they're going through a traditional Computing degree; they're doing the information systems concentration. So it's a degree that any student here on Main Campus can do. The only thing we did a little bit different is they're not getting the same breaks; we're ensuring all classes are lining up in the prerequisite order, right? So they're going fall, winter, spring, summer. They get a couple breaks. They're going to have a little bit of winter break, but they'll have to do just their online winter course, so they'll be doing one online. They'll get spring break. They'll get a little time in the summer, but it's just kind of continuous for 27 months. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle An accelerated process. Professor Mathew Desjardins It is. It's, you know, and sometimes we think accelerated as we're shortening credentials or we're trying to reduce the requirements, but they're getting the same education. It's the same time length; we're just ensuring that everything happens one after the other, right? They're also getting professional development. So again, going back to our amazing partners with Blue Cross, they are getting professional development, so the students are getting mentors from both their executive leadership team—so if someone at a vice president level or higher is actually mentoring them, someone actually has their CEO as a mentor giving them advice on how to go through—but then they're also getting what IT members, so the actual information technology folks that are in the workplace as mentors too. And so not only are they getting our education, they're getting professional experience, professional development. Because the end goal is when they are done with our degree in 27 months and they graduate and they shake your hand and they shake Dr. Noland's hand at graduation, they leave with a job offer from Blue Cross Blue Shield. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Wow. Professor Mathew Desjardins And instead of having to, like, figure out what they need to do over, you know, a year—'cause Blue Cross says it takes about a year for a student to transition from graduation to actual workforce—they've been doing this now for 27 months, so hopefully that time is much reduced, shortened. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle  So I am also very interested in the processes that you've built in to support students along the way. Can you tell us a little bit about the student support? Professor Mathew Desjardins Absolutely. Student support is number one. I'm a number one advocate for students, and which made me a very ideal candidate to go down there and represent ETSU in this partnership. I put students one, the department two, the university three, me last—but you know what's best for the students. Our students are our customers. Our students are our people that are coming to us wanting this knowledge, and so we need to do what's best for them. But we have other support. So not only me, we have the entire University supporting us. I have everyone from student life and enrollment; they have been down there many times. I can't thank them enough for all the work they're doing. Dedra Johnson in the CFAA having tutors ready on hand—she's been amazing support in that. But going back to our amazing partners, they hired a Student Success Specialist, so Melissa Graham—she's a Blue Cross Blue Shield employee. She works for the Blue Sky program. She's a former K–12 counselor, and so she knows what a traditional student coming out of high school would need. So she's looking at it from, you know, she's the academic support from ETSU and all of the services we offer—we got that—but Melissa is also coming in behind for crisis management alongside our Counseling Center. So she's identifying and meeting with these students, you know, every other week saying, hey, what's going on. Blue Cross is supporting them financially, you know, so this first cohort has a full last-dollar scholarship, right, which is really supportive. You know, money is not the most important thing, but it does make a burden on students which could cause stress, so some of our students can't live at home while they're doing this. So Blue Cross Blue Shield stepped up and said, hey, we can help with that. Our community foundations—the Benwood Foundation and the Community Chest of Chattanooga—have put in money towards this to help support these students, whether that's for food. All their books are being covered, all of their supplies; they're getting a laptop. These students have so much financial support. They're getting crisis management. They're getting social interaction by our cohort model, where it's a little bit different. You know, the people who are listening to this are like, oh man, this sounds amazing—how are you getting it done? Well, we put through some restrictions, right? So they're here treating it as a job, right? So they're in class 9 to 3. Do I teach that whole time? No. I teach my normal time, but then we have general education that's online, so we give them online time blocks. We have people come in for tutoring and support. We changed higher education slightly. You know, it's not the you-build-your-schedule-try-to-get-everything-in-on-like-a-two-hour-time-and-if-you-don't thing. We're very hybrid K–12 but with all the college courses built in around it. So it's fantastic. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle What's the interest been among prospective students and their families? Professor Mathew Desjardins So we're in the process of interviewing for our next cohort of students, right? So we got 32 students, and let me—maybe this will put in perspective—we were originally only wanting to do 15, and the out—we had ended up last year having 96 people apply. Out of those 96 we chose 32. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Wow. So that was really, really amazing return—there's strong interest, absolutely, from the local community around Chattanooga and beyond. Professor Mathew Desjardins Absolutely. This year we're about 10 times larger in interest, so the initial applications coming in are about 10 times from what we were last year. The questions, the amount of tours and interviews that we've been doing with students and talking with students—it's grown exponentially. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle That's fantastic. Professor Mathew Desjardins And I really do believe this is, you know, it might not be for everyone, and we do an interview process because we want to select the best candidates. And the best candidate is not academic; the best candidate is do they have an interest in our field, do they want leadership potential, do they have some interest in Computing. Because a lot of people think Computing is one thing and Computing's not another thing, and so we ask these interviews and we want, you know, if a student says, "Hey, I want to come to this program but I also want to do marching band," well, we don't have a marching band down in Chattanooga, so let's see if we can get you up to main campus and join our marching band up here because that would be a better experience for them. We don't just say yes to everyone. We take the best candidate that wants to complete something in 27 months and get a different college experience—a good one—but it'll be different. But if they want a traditional one, we try to get them up here. We have a student right now for whom it was better to go the traditional path, and we got him up here and he's loving it and he's killing it. And I love that it was best for him, and he's going to be a good case to say, hey, if we do this for this type of student, you know, we can see a good outcome for those. That's great. You help them with other kinds of off-ramps. Any student that I get to interact with, whether they get taught by me or they get taught by someone else—we need a better workforce; we need better people. Our future is in our students. Our future is not us—no offense—it's not us. Our future is who we're teaching. And if we can, you know, set a good foundation and a good groundwork for them to want to do exactly what I'm doing, then I did my job. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle What's been the most impactful part of this experience for you? Professor Mathew Desjardins Oh man, the students. I mean, that's such a—oh, he's going to say the students—no, it really is the students. Dr. Noland recently came by and visited with Trustee Grisham, and those two people are just amazing people and I want to thank them very much for coming down. But you know, they were asking, I was like, why did you come into this program? Why did you do this? And every single one of the students was like, well, we really like the 27 months. You know, that was definitely a drive for them, but they liked that it was close by; they liked that it was ETSU because we are not a nameless institution, which is great, right? But they said the family, right? And for the past few days I've been hearing Dr. Noland talk about family. I've been hearing other faculty talk about family and staff members talk about family, and it's something that I talk about all the time: ETSU is a family. So I would say the most impactful is growing our family—being able to have these 32 students. I have a different interaction with these 32 students than I've had with any of my students ever. I could make those close interactions with a few of my students in the past, but I have these students five days a week, you know, eight hours. Some of those students are there from 8 in the morning till 11:00 at night; they don't want to leave, you know. And being able to go out to dinner with them and their families or go to lunch with them just to have a side conversation—I played a video game the other day with them—the interaction between these students has made me a better person. And so my biggest impact in this whole experience is being able to interact with these students on a different level that I think some of our faculty miss. I can build those personal relationships and I, I love it. I love every part of it. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle I read on your social media recently that this has been the highlight of your teaching career so far. Professor Mathew Desjardins It has. I love teaching. You know, I told Dr. Countermine, the former chair of our department—he was the one who initially hired me into ETSU and I thank him for that—and that was a highlight in my career at that moment. And every time I teach it was always a highlight, and a highlight, and I love teaching. Last year, you know, seeing some of my students who had gone through the pandemic and didn't see them for almost a year and then got to see them and graduate—just that excitement of graduating. Well, I saw that excitement when I went to these 32 Blue Sky students' high school graduations. I walked in and they're like, "You came," and I was like, "Absolutely, congratulations, you came through high school." So now in 27 months we'll do this all over again, but it'll be blue and gold, you know, and they were really excited. And that moment where I had the ability to impact just one student—yeah—or now 32 students—a chance to get the degree that they want, a career that they want, a pathway in life that they want. Really, when I wake up every morning it's not, "Oh, I have to go to work," it's, "I can't wait to get to work," and that experience has been really great for me. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Well, your enthusiasm and excitement are evident. It also reminds me of a book that many of us have read over the last year, which is called Relationship Rich Education. It talks about the impact that these kinds of relationships and experiences have on student success, and it really highlights the importance of the student and faculty relationship and feeling like the student knows that he or she can rely on a faculty member to help sort of be that support system to get them through and the impact that that has on student success. The last question I have for every guest: what impact do you hope your students will make on the world? Professor Mathew Desjardins Oh, that's a really deep question. You know I think students if students can just find what they're truly passionate about I found my passion and I don't plan on that passion Ever Changing uh I just want that passion to grow so if a student can find their passion they will naturally leave their mark on the world so if a student can go in and take the same passion I have to whatever they want to do whether that's in Computing whether that's in photography as fun or building a self-driving car or boating or just having a family if they can take the same passion that I'm trying to express to them and just know that people are people and we all are human and if they can go to the world like that I think that would be a what I would love my students to to leave with. It's great. Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you, Mathew. This is truly an exciting time for you, for the Blue Sky Institute, and for our Computing program at ETSU. Thank you for all you do for our students, and I wish you all the best for a successful wonderful fall semester. Thank you for listening to Why I Teach. For more information on Professor Desjardins, the Blue Sky Institute, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu. Or you can follow me on Twitter at ETSU Provost, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to Why I Teach wherever you listen to podcasts. [Music]

Episode 32: Dr. Randy Wykoff on leadership, public health, and real-world impact

Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle sits down with Dr. Randy Wykoff, founding dean of the ETSU College of Public Health, to reflect on his decades of leadership, teaching, and service. From building Tennessee’s first accredited school of public health to preparing students for real-world challenges through hands-on learning and community engagement, Dr. Wykoff shares lessons from a career dedicated to improving health across Appalachia and beyond — just months before his retirement. Find out more:  ETSU College of Public Health: https://www.etsu.edu/cph/?utm_campaign=College-of-Public-Health [https://www.etsu.edu/cph/?utm_campaign=College-of-Public-Health] Podcast transcript:  Dr. Randy Wykoff We believe from the beginning that we had to be world-class. I think it's critical for students to see how what they've learned works in the community. So all of our public health students, environmental health students, health admin students have to do an internship. And that's basically a semester-long opportunity for them to take what they've learned and see, "Oh, wait a minute, this really does work. I really can go out and help this agency do what they're doing." Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "Why I Teach." In this episode, I speak with Dr. Randy Wykoff, the founding dean of the ETSU College of Public Health and the longest-serving dean of public health in the United States. Under his leadership, the college became the first accredited school of public health in Tennessee and central Appalachia and has tripled its enrollment since 2006. During his tenure, the college has secured more than $50 million in research funding and earned national recognition for teaching, research, and community service. A Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame inductee and recipient of the U.S. Surgeon General's Medallion, Dr. Wykoff has made a lasting impact on public health education, and practice across the region. Earlier this year, he announced his plans to retire at the end of the 2025-26 academic year. So before he retires, I wanted to make sure to feature his wisdom and his insights on "Why I Teach." Enjoy the show. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Dr. Wykoff, welcome to the show. This is a bittersweet episode for me as we're just a few short months from your retirement, which seems like a good time for reflection. You've spent more than two decades leading the College of Public Health. What originally drew you to public health, and what ultimately brought you to ETSU? Dr. Randy Wykoff No, that's a great question. Thank you for having me today. I always tell the students that your career isn't a river. It doesn't always flow in the same direction. So I started out to be a tropical pediatrician. That was my goal. That's what I ... I'd lived in Africa as a kid, and I planned on going back. And so I went to med school, did a pediatric residency, did a residency in preventive medicine and tropical medicine. I got a certificate of knowledge in tropical medicine. I got a master's in public health in tropical medicine. And in order to go to med school, I took out a National Health Service Corps scholarship. And after interviewing at various places, for reasons that I don't quite understand, they sent me to run six county health departments in South Carolina. So two aspects of my career happened at once: one, shifting from medicine to public health, and the other was into a leadership position. So after four years, I left that and went to the FDA, where I spent a decade. I spent some time on Capitol Hill and then went to an international nonprofit. And when it became clear to me that I needed to move on from the nonprofit, I had no academic experience. I had no published research. I had no funding. So I thought, "Why not become a dean of public health?" And I saw the ETSU ad, and I had never been in East Tennessee, other than briefly to travel through it. And my wife said, "Well, if we're going to live in Tennessee, we have to live on a lake." And I said, "There are no lakes in East Tennessee." That's how little I knew about it. So that's what brought me here. I just happened to see a job. I don't know that I was qualified for it, but they gave it to me. So that's it. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle When you look back at the early days of the college, what was your vision for what it could become? Dr. Randy Wykoff Well, when we were accredited, we were the 43rd school in the country. And we were the newest, the smallest, the least well-known, and actually the least respected by at least one metric. And we realized that we had to do something different. We weren't going to be Johns Hopkins South, right? We had to figure out a way that we could be small but world-class. And if you want, I'll talk about the hotel analogy and how that played out. But we believed from the beginning that we had to be world-class, because we had to compete with these other 42 schools. All but one of them was at a large private institution or a state land grant institution. Two things I did that I'm kind of proud of. One was the hotel analogy, which was this idea that schools of public health are like hotels. Your five-star hotel has a gold elevator and doorman and uniform and a Cartier distributor and a Michelin star restaurant – more than you could possibly use in any one hotel stay and at a premium price. But large schools of public health were like that. Then your mid-sized schools of public health are like conference hotels. Good facilities, nice part of town, one nice restaurant. And your small schools of public health are like Motel 6s. They have clean washcloths. They have soap in those little plastic containers. They meet all the minimum accreditation requirements. But no matter how well you run a Motel 6, it's still a Motel 6. So our idea was there's actually three ways you can be small in the hospitality industry and be world-class. One is a bed-and-breakfast, which is about relationships. One is an adventure, like a barefoot cruise or base camp. And the other is a destination, like a safari camp. And we thought, okay, we can be all three of those. We can be one that's really known for how we treat students and how we treat each other, one that allows students to do things they wouldn't do anywhere else, and then promote Appalachia. Don't hide from it, promote it. It makes us unique and different. So that was the one thing. The other thing I did that I think was the only other thing I'm proud of, I've always had this idea that once someone shows you they can do their job, the best thing you can do is let them do whatever else they can do. And you see that you see people just absolutely go well beyond what their job description is if you empower them to do things. And that's worked really well for us, especially as a small school. We had to have people that could step up and do things that we didn't expect. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. Well, two of the secrets to the success. Dr. Randy Wykoff That's right. That's all there is. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle The College of Public Health has been nationally recognized for its innovative curriculum and teaching. How do you help students connect what they learn in the classroom with real-world health challenges? Dr. Randy Wykoff I think public health is somewhat unique in that while it is an academic field, it's an applied field. And so the students from the beginning know that they're going to learn skills that will be relevant in the workplace. And my personal theory has always been that when I'm teaching, my job is to prepare the students for the career that I had. None of them will have that career. But whatever I've learned on the way is what I should be preparing them for, because anything else is a little bit artificial on my part. I know a theoretical approach, but if I talk about here's how federal advisory committees work, here's how you work with media, the skills that I had to learn along the way. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle What teaching approaches have you found most effective when preparing students to work in communities across Appalachia and beyond? Dr. Randy Wykoff I think it's critical for students to see how what they've learned works in the community. So all of our public health students, environmental health students, health admin students, have to do an internship. And that's basically a semester-long opportunity for them to take what they've learned and see, "Oh, wait a minute. This really does work. I really can go out and help this agency do what they're doing." So that's important. And then what we do at Valleybrook is, again, it's applied skills. When we're teaching students how to make a water filter or a water pump, they're probably thinking initially, "I'm never going to do this in the rest of my life." But the reality is what we're teaching them is the process, the logistics, the ability to take what you've got and get an outcome that you need. And that's really important in public health, especially when you get to disaster response and things like that. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle As someone who's mentored faculty as well as students, and since public health professionals are educators in their own right, what advice do you give educators who want to become effective teachers? Dr. Randy Wykoff That's a great question. I used to look at all the SAIs (course evaluations), and I discovered that there were three things that you always see in a positive SAI and two things that you always see in a negative SAI. The three things are know the material, care about students, enthusiastic. Everybody knows their material. If you don't care about students, you probably shouldn't be in a higher ed. And if you're not enthusiastic, you're not thinking about how cool what you're doing is. On the downside, the two that come out are disorganized and unfair. Usually unfair is, "I didn't get any grades before midterm, and now I have no way to get my grade back up," and then disorganized is what it is. But in the College of Public Health, we have great faculty. We've won the teaching award, I think, five times. It's a real pleasure to watch people take their own natural approach to life and apply it in the classroom. You have people that are very systematic. I don't know if I can mention names, like Patrick Brown with POGIL (Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning). He's very systematic. We have others who are very hands-on and applied, like Mike Stoots. And we have others that are old-school, that get up and lecture, others who have interactive. But that's less important than knows the material, cares about the student, and is enthusiastic. Anyone who can do those things works out. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle I'll mention that right after we record this podcast, you're headed to your own class that you teach. Dr. Randy Wykoff I am. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah. I'm assuming you use those approaches in the classes that you continue to teach. Dr. Randy Wykoff I do. And what I've tried – I co-teach it with Hadii Mamudu. And what we try to do is he teaches leadership from sort of the academic side. What's the literature show? I try to walk students through, again, the career that I've had. And the whole idea is to teach the application of the skills through doing. So that's my general approach. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle It's great that you continue to teach. Dr. Randy Wykoff Yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Oh, yeah. Dr. Randy Wykoff I mean, you'd be crazy to be at an institution of higher ed and not do it, right? That's the great payback, is dealing with students. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Absolutely. Dr. Randy Wykoff Not that I don't like dealing with everyone else, but students are the high point. They're the highlight. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's right. During the COVID-19 pandemic, you helped lead the creation of educational videos and public outreach. In many ways, that was teaching on a community scale. What did that experience teach you about educating the public? Dr. Randy Wykoff I think it reinforced something that is in public health and in a lot of fields. You have to speak the truth. Speak as you know it and recognize when things are unknown or evolving or changing. But with COVID, there was so much information going out. Some of it was accurate. Some of it wasn't. So I just tried to use my updates to say, this is what I believe is true at this point now. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle I think that was the way I first got to know you was through your videos, through COVID. Dr. Randy Wykoff Yes. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Do you want to tell us what the tagline was for those? Dr. Randy Wykoff Well, that was "The Most Interesting Dean." Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That one. Dr. Randy Wykoff Yeah, that was, again, it was an effort to make the messaging more fun. And what we discovered was that that ad campaign had ended in 2016. And there were a whole lot of students who had no idea what I was doing. And one of the people who works for me was like, "Why are you talking in that funny accent?" But the idea was make it entertaining, get the message out in a way that isn't offensive to people. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Yeah, it drew people in. Dr. Randy Wykoff Yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle And you were the most interesting dean in the world. Dr. Randy Wykoff For a few short weeks. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle As you prepare to retire, what reflections do you have about the impact teaching has had on your own career and life? Dr. Randy Wykoff Oh, it's been, I can't think of a better way to end your career than teaching. You're taking everything that you've learned and you're passing it on to a new generation. It's incredibly rewarding. It gets a little bit awkward because my dad said that when I became Dean, my jokes would be a lot funnier. And it is a little bit awkward that people accord you this status above and beyond what you feel you've earned. And I think teaching does keep you humble a little bit because you're sitting there and every time you're teaching, you're thinking, “What don't I know about this subject? Why am I comfortable talking about this issue?” And the same with the weekly updates. I almost always have to do some research. I can't just spontaneously do them. But it's incredible. It's incredibly rewarding to be a teacher. And it's amazing to be at a place like ETSU that has focused on this community. I talk to other deans at other schools, and many of them have no real deep relationship with their region the way we do. The President says it all the time. We were created in 1911. And we went from education to business to health to the arts. We really touch everything that matters in this region. And in public health, that's what it is. Public health is everything that helps people live healthier, more productive lives. And I wouldn't want to be a dean anywhere else. And especially at a place that values esoteric research over the difference that you make in your community. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Finally, looking back, what do you hope your former students remember the most about learning from you? Dr. Randy Wykoff I hope that they are progressively proud to have come out of ETSU. I think five, 10, 15 years from now, a lot of the hierarchy in higher ed will be falling away as people start really looking at quality and realizing that ETSU really is an exceptional place. I hope they're proud of that. I hope they believe that they were prepared for a meaningful career. And I hope some of them become wealthy benefactors in 40 years. We often say that. We're creating alums for 40 years from now. I'm not opposed to alums giving back right away. It's important that they feel that they got a good education, that prepared them for the workforce, and that they can say with pride, "Hey, I went to ETSU." Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Dr. Wykoff, thank you for joining me and for sharing your reflections on teaching, leadership, and public health. Your commitment to education and service has had a profound impact on ETSU, on your students, and on communities throughout our region and state. We're going to miss you. Dr. Randy Wykoff Well, thank you. I'm glad I'm going to stay around. I'll just have a different relationship with the university. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Wykoff, the College of Public Health, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu/provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.

Episode 31: Dr. Kevin E. O’Donnell on John Green, the ETSU Common Read, and good writing that begins with honesty

In this episode of “Why I Teach,” Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University (ETSU), sits down with Dr. Kevin E. O’Donnell, Professor of English and recipient of the 2024 Stephen L. Fisher Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Appalachian Studies Association. With more than 30 years of experience teaching literature, composition, and environmental writing, Dr. O’Donnell shares insights on storytelling, writing pedagogy, the impact of technology in the classroom, and the power of honesty in writing. He also discusses teaching The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green, Appalachian literature such as Serena by Ron Rash, and his upcoming book, The Woodlands of the Mind: Rambles Through Campus Forests. Find out more: ETSU Common Read: https://www.etsu.edu/provost/common-read.php [https://www.etsu.edu/provost/common-read.php] ETSU Festival of Ideas: https://www.etsu.edu/festival/ [http://www.etsu/ideas] ETSU College of Arts and Sciences: https://www.etsu.edu/cas/ [https://www.etsu.edu/cas/] Podcast Transcript:  [Music] Dr. Kevin O’Donnell I love John Green's writing for one thing. It's really accessible. His voice draws you in. He starts with these quirky topics. He'll be writing about Super Mario Kart. Within a few pages, he's talking about community and luck versus skill, and these bigger issues. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them: Our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us why I teach. In this episode, we will sit down with Dr. Kevin E. O'Donnell, Professor of English and recipient of the 2024 Stephen L. Fisher Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Appalachian Studies Association. A native of Northeast Ohio, Dr. O'Donnell earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and has taught at ETSU for more than 30 years. His courses include Advanced Composition, American Literature, Literary Nonfiction, and Environmental Writing. He's the author of numerous publications, including Seekers of Scenery: Travel Writing from Southern Appalachia, co-authored with Helen Hollingsworth. This year, he looks forward to the release of a new book, co-written with his ETSU colleague, Dr. Scott Honeycutt, titled The Woodlands of the Mind: Rambles Through Campus Forests. Enjoy the show. Dr. O'Donnell, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day as a faculty member at ETSU, and looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Well, it's a great question. I have to think back and see if I can remember 30 years. It's half a lifetime ago, you know. But if I could give myself advice, I would say, young Kevin, trust the process. With writing, it's so challenging. You get papers from the students, especially in the first-year classes on the first day. And they've got all kinds of issues, and the first thing you see are the problems when you read them, and you want to fix everything. But just trust the process. You know, if they've got 15 weeks, if they get four or five good writing experiences, including revision and feedback, and over the course of 15 weeks, you can do a lot. Yeah. Thank you. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Reflecting on your 30-plus years in the classroom here, how has your approach to teaching literature and composition changed over the years? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, that's kind of a related question. I don't think my philosophy has changed, but a lot of the technology has changed. I mean, I kind of developed the belief in grad school that you learn to write by having an audience, writing for audiences. But 30 years ago, typically, students would print one copy, and if you were lucky, you could circulate it, do some group work and stuff, but you couldn't publish it. And then with the development of the internet, making easier access to the internet available, I started publishing my students' work on the web, and then they started publishing their own, and you get it out in front of an audience a lot more. And that's great for writing pedagogy. And then multimedia, doing this kind of stuff, like the Whisper Room over in... We were talking about that earlier over in the Innovation Commons. Yeah. I've had my students doing that, so that's part of writing now, I think, is multimedia. You can't just think of it as words on a page. Typically, anything, it's words on a screen, and then the spoken word component, recording. So that's changed how I teach a lot. I'll have my students do an audio piece and then post it on YouTube, say. That's what they did last semester. They must enjoy that. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell The response to it was great. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle   How do you see the connection between storytelling and how we understand our environment, culture, and region? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, storytelling, I mean, it's... You could argue that all understanding is narrative. Like, people understand things in terms of people in places doing things, which is character-setting-plot, you know? So with the Environmental Studies minor, there's a required course that's environmental writing. We get students who are being trained in science, like biologists, who take that minor, and they come in and read some environmental literature, and you've got these science writers using narrative to make sense of the science. So I think it's a crucial component. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Which literary work or author has been especially rewarding for you to teach over the years, and why? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, I love that question. There's been a lot of them. I'm teaching a book this semester, a 2008 novel by Ron Rash called Serena, which is a super well-written, super fun novel, but it takes place in Haywood County, North Carolina, in the 1920s when the Smokies were being logged. So it's set against the backdrop of this huge natural resource extraction story that shaped Appalachia, the logging of the great Appalachian forest. But it's also really dramatic. It's got these tightly written chapters. There's some great villains and some shocking murders, and it's a great book. And Ron Rash is coming to our literary festival in April. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Fantastic. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell So students are reading that novel, and I've taught that four or five times over the years, and it's a great, great book for an environmental writing class. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Is he a regional author? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell He's at Western Carolina. He's down in Cullowhee. He's probably about ready to retire, but he grew up in upstate South Carolina. And yeah, he's a great writer. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle It must be great for students to connect to a book that's about the region. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, and a lot of students didn't know the story that it tells, and people know the area, recognize places where scenes take place. Yeah, so it's great. That's a good one. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Earlier this year, you presented an outstanding lecture to kick off this year's Common Read, The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. What about that book resonated with you, and why do you think it was a good fit for ETSU's campus community? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, I think it was a great fit, or it seems to be getting a good response from students. And part of it, for 15 years or more, I was a fan of the Vlogbrothers. They do their YouTube science stuff. And the format is, it's basically the essay format. You've got two, 3,000 words. I love John Green's writing, for one thing. It's really accessible. His voice draws you in. And he starts with these quirky topics. Like he'll be writing about Super Mario Kart. And within a few pages, he's talking about community and luck versus skill and these bigger issues. And so I like that they're inviting, these essays are inviting and they draw you in. They're really accessible. You can read one in 15 minutes. And the five-star review format is kind of fun. Like that, my students want to write those. You give that as a writing assignment. Here's an essay, you're going to make it ostensibly a review of something. That you're going to give five stars. So your job is to evaluate. Students like it. So I think it was a good choice. I'm excited about him. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great, yeah. I know, as you said, a lot of students are excited. They've connected to his work for a long time. Students who've said he taught them what they know about history, for instance. As you know, we are excited to be able to welcome John Green to campus in just a few days to speak at the ETSU Festival of Ideas. From your experience, how does engaging with an author and hearing them talk about their work deepen students' connections to a text compared to just reading it in a classroom? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, I think it's a big deal. It can change your relationship to the text. It sure humanizes it, you know? One thing about reading, even if you're reading for a class, reading seems like a really solitary activity. You go to your quiet space and you're sitting by yourself. But then these students are going to come together and see hundreds of other people who have also connected with the same text and see the author. It just makes it very visceral, the sense of how social reading is, even though it feels solitary in some ways it is, but it's a deeply social act. And I think one of the things I'm excited about is it's fun seeing other people who are excited about writing that you're excited about. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Right, yeah. Feels like you're in a community of readers when you watch an author talk about their work. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Right. Yeah, yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle As I mentioned in the introduction, you have a book coming out this year. Will you please share a preview of The Woodlands of the Mind and a bit about what inspired you and Dr. Honeycutt to write the book? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, thanks for asking about that. So it was really inspired by the ETSU campus. We've got, well, you know about University Woods south of the railroad bypass there. We've got 30 acres of, couple dozen at least ancient oak trees up there. And it's a really special place. And Scott Honeycutt and I, for years we'd been taking our students over there to do classrooms and to do awareness stuff and to do walks. And back in 2018, I think it was before COVID, we wrote a small grant and brought an author to class, author to campus rather, Joan Maloof, who is a biologist from Maryland who's also written some very good books, including one that Scott and I are fans of called "Among the Ancients" where she goes around and visits different old, remnant old growth forests and writes about them, but also writes about regional history and natural history. So we brought her to campus. It turns out she's the founding director of the Old-Growth Forest Network. And long story short, she came to campus, did a public nature walk with people over in the woods and then did a talk in the evening at the old East Tennessee Room and generated a lot of excitement, which led to us forming an ad-hoc committee to see if we can get the University Woods to be part of the Old-Growth Forest Network. As a community forest, Dr. Noland, our awesome president, was very supportive of this. So long story short, later that spring, Joan came back on her own dime for a dedication ceremony we did where Dr. Noland spoke and read a little poem on some other people, and we designated it as a community forest. So that experience, Scott and I to look around and it turns out a lot of universities have often old-growth remnants, which are rare attached to their property, partly because of the history of universities and land use, especially in the East. So we started learning about these places. So we thought, well, no one's written about this. So we've selected 15 places from Rome up to Maine, some small colleges, some bigger schools, like Virginia Tech and Penn State. And we split them up and we went around and wrote, kind of inspired by Joan Maloof, these travel essays with history, natural history, and we package them together and sent our proposal to the University of Georgia Press, and the editor called us back the next day and said she wanted to publish it. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Congratulations. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah, thanks. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Look forward to reading it. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Awesome. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle What books do you have on your to-read pile and do you have any favorite books or authors that you'd recommend for consideration for future common reads at ETSU? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Right. Yeah, my to-read pile is pretty big and half of them I never get to. I own a lot of books I've never read. I'm glad to hear that it makes me feel less guilty. But something about owning them, I hope that maybe I'll soak up. I don't know. And even better if you put them on your bedside table to look at you, yes, yeah. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yes, one I was thinking about that I read recently is Beth Macy who is, she wrote a book called Dopesick that the Hulu miniseries starring Michael Keaton was based on, was pretty much directly from that book. And it's a great book. But more recently in the fall, she came out with a book called Paper Girl. It's sort of a memoir she tells about growing up underprivileged in rural Ohio and then goes back there now and finds a version of herself and to look at how kids don't have the same opportunities, basically, young people. And in the process she's also talking about being a journalist and how people respond or don't respond to journalism and conspiracy theorizing has sort of moved into the vacuum where journalism has moved out of and which sounds all serious, but it's a fun book and it got a lot of attention in the fall. That one, she lives down at Roanoke. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Interesting. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell We should get her up here. That would be a good one. But my dream author would be Elizabeth Kolbert. She's a New Yorker magazine writer who probably about 10 years ago she published a book called The Sixth Extinction which won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction which is an amazing book. It's about the planet that is currently undergoing a major extinction event, which is a grim topic. But she writes these essays where she goes around and talks to people and they're really engaging. She's the best science writer I know and she's a best seller. I think there'd be enthusiasm about her. She's got a new book, which is a collection of her New Yorker essays. So Elizabeth Kolbert--I don't know if we could get her. I don't know if she does campus visits but she'd be a good get. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Great suggestions. Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Finally, what impact do you hope you've made on your students? Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Gosh, that's a big one. Been thinking about that a lot now that I'm 30 years into this. I would hope when my students leave my class they understand that good writing is about honesty. Because I think students come in and when they're supposed to do academic writing they feel like they need to adopt this persona that's the voice of authority. And they don't feel confident in that authority. So they put on a role. And that, as much as anything, leads to tangled sentences and unclear writing. But if you can be honest about your relationship to your material and your audience, and in a simple way, not like deep profound, doesn't have to be deep profound honesty, but that's honesty is what good writing is about. That's, I would hope students would leave my class with that understanding. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Dr. O'Donnell, it's been a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you for your thoughtful reflections on teaching, literature, and the Common Read experience. Thank you for the way you engage your students with literature. I'm looking forward to adding your new book to my reading list this year. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. O'Donnell, the College of Arts and Sciences, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu slash Provost. You can follow me on social media at ETSU Provost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts. (soft music)

Episode 30: Dr. Aaron Polichnowski on curiosity and discovery in the research lab

In this episode of Why I Teach, Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle sits down with Dr. Aaron Polichnowski, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at ETSU’s Quillen College of Medicine and recipient of the university’s 2025 Distinguished Faculty Award in Research. A nationally recognized expert in hypertension and chronic kidney disease, Dr. Polichnowski shares how curiosity-driven research, teaching medical students, and mentoring future scientists are deeply interconnected—and why helping students ask the right questions is at the heart of his work. Listen to more episodes of “Why I Teach,” where Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle explores stories of impact and success of ETSU faculty. Subscribe at https://why-i-teach-conversation-with-etsu-faculty.podbean.com/ [https://why-i-teach-conversation-with-etsu-faculty.podbean.com/].   ETSU College of Medicine: https://www.etsu.edu/com/ [https://www.etsu.edu/com/] Department of Biomedical Sciences: https://www.etsu.edu/com/dbms/ [https://www.etsu.edu/com/dbms/] ETSU Health: www.etsuhealth.org [http://www.etsuhealth.org] Podcast transcript: Dr. Aaron Polichnowski I like explaining how it is rewarding to be able to ask a question that no one else has asked, to design an experiment, collect interpret data, and maybe shed some light on some pathophysiological process that we didn't have a clue about before. So that is a really rewarding process. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Aaron Polichnowski. Dr. Polichnowski is an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at ETSU's Quillen College of Medicine and the recipient of the university's 2025 Distinguished Faculty Award in Research. Dr. Polichnowski is nationally recognized for his work on hypertension and chronic kidney disease. His studies have advanced understanding of how blood pressure, genetics, and environmental factors influence kidney injury and disease progression. In addition to securing nearly $2 million in external research funding, Dr. Polichnowski is deeply committed to mentoring future scientists and physicians and has directed ETSU's Medical Student Summer Research Program since 2017. Today, he joins us to share not only what he studies, but why he teaches. Enjoy the show. Dr. Polichnowski, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. And looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself? Dr. Aaron Polichnowski Well, first, Provost McCorkle, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. I would actually tell myself two things if I had to go back to my first day of teaching medical students here at Quillen. One, I'm not going to know the answer to every question they ask, and it's not going to be perfect. One of the things that I've really appreciated with the opportunity to teach medical students is they ask really good questions that push me, that push my boundaries of knowledge. I learn something new every year from the questions they ask, and I don't know the answer to all of them. So that's something I would tell myself is to relax and just let that happen. And not being perfect -- I think a lot of us in research tend to be a little bit of a perfectionist. And like everything else, teaching is a learning process. You get better at it each year. And so I would just tell myself again, relax, just enjoy the process. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you. Great advice. You built a nationally recognized research program in kidney physiology and disease. What originally drew you to teaching alongside research, and how do you think the two inform each other? Dr. Aaron Polichnowski It's a good question. And I would actually say I think it was probably my experience teaching fellow classmates when I was an undergrad student that probably drew me into research, because it's such a logical process when trying to understand something. So I do think it was my passion for learning overall that got me excited. I had a strong interest in teaching fellow classmates material we were learning, especially when it came to how the human body works. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle And that was as an undergraduate. Dr. Aaron Polichnowski As an undergraduate, yeah. But the two very much go hand in hand. Running a research lab is like running a small business. How successful your lab is is going to be how successful your team is. And a lot of that is training and teaching. Teaching them why we do this research; how to do things appropriately, correctly; following a process; teaching them techniques. And on the other side of the coin, being a researcher makes me a better teacher. I think one of the things that I like doing for medical students is providing a logical process. When I see something in a textbook that's not very clear to me, I will try to make those links for students. And my knowledge in research, I think, makes it easier for me to do that. But they really do go hand-in-hand, in my opinion. And the research makes you a better teacher in all places. For sure, yeah. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle You mentor students at every level, from undergraduate to medical students and early career scientists. What do you see as your responsibility as a mentor, and what do you hope students gain from working in your lab? Dr. Aaron Polichnowski My role as a mentor is going to depend a bit on the level of the student, undergrad, medical, someone who wants to do a Ph.D. But what I want to convey to all students is the importance, as a mentor, I think it does depend on the level of the student, the undergraduate, medical, someone who wants to do a Ph.D. But for all students, I want to convey to them the importance of what I'm doing in the lab and how it may impact patient populations, especially in this region; the importance of what I do, why I do it. But also the research process, I think it is this black box for a lot of people, including students. And so I like explaining how it is rewarding to be able to ask a question that no one else has asked, to design an experiment, collect interpret data, and maybe shed some light on some pathophysiological process that we didn't have a clue about before. So that is a really rewarding process. On the other hand, it's also very complex. Business research has a lot of moving parts. It can be frustrating. It's a slow process. A lot of the experiments we do, you're not going to lead to some groundbreaking result. They're going to be what we call negative data. And it's hard to interpret or determine where to go from results based on that study. But it's all part of the process. And the last thing I like to tell students is the value of collaboration. I would not be where I am today without collaborators here at ETSU, other institutions, and importantly, the mentors that I had. I mean, I'm so grateful that I picked labs that I did. And it was not all that happened on purpose, some of it by chance. But I am very fortunate that I worked with people I worked with. I got just spectacular training, especially in my postdoc career. I worked with clinician scientists. They were nephrologists, but also basic scientists. And that really helped me view research from a basic science to clinical perspective, translation perspective. I mean, they were asking big questions that the results could directly impact patient care. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Your research bridges basic science with real-world clinical implications. How do you help students see the connection between what they're learning in the classroom and its impact on patient care? Dr. Aaron Polichnowski This is one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching for me. Physiology is what I'm trained in, and physiology is medicine. So, you know, I think I mentioned before that if I read a textbook that I assign them, you know, I give them a section of a textbook to read. And if something's not clear to me, it's certainly not going to be clear to them. And so my knowledge of physiology research, physiology concepts, I like to illustrate things with graphs. I like to help students with their understanding and what they need to know when it comes to treating patients. And I think that's the beauty of physiology. A lot of what I teach is very translatable. That's going to be knowledge that they will absolutely use when they're treating patients. So very rewarding part of my job. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle You said that fascination with the kidney’s complexity hooked you early in your career. How do you spark that same sense of curiosity and discovery in your students? Dr. Aaron Polichnowski Yeah, in different ways. You know, I will frequently tell students, "Here's what we're doing in the lab, and this is why it matters." And again, another thing, nice thing about physiology. A lot of the things that I do in my lab are things that when we go to our annual physical, we're going to get, you know, in the report, blood pressure, indices of kidney function, indices of kidney disease progression. A lot of the things I measure in my lab are exactly what's measured with patient, you know, the patient care world. Other things I like telling students that there are things that happen, you know, to the body in different procedures that we still don't have a great understanding about. I mean, for example, when someone donates a kidney, the remaining kidney in them will take over about 70% of the kidney that was donated, not 100. What are the signals that tell the kidney to stop growing? What are the signals that tell the kidney to start growing? These are things we've known for a long time, but we don't have a good understanding. And it's those type of big picture things that I like telling students that you can go read literature about this and see what other people think about it. And the last thing is getting back to textbooks. You know, a lot of what's written in textbooks, you know, you gain a lot of knowledge from it, but it's not all fact. It's based on research that was interpreted by different people, and it may not be based on solid data. So drilling down through references and textbooks or papers and really pushing yourself to have a better understanding of why the statement is made in the textbook. I mean, those are all things you can do. I think it's just a curiosity-driven aspect of my job that I like. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle What is one piece of advice you would share with students who are considering careers in research, medicine, or academic science? Dr. Aaron Polichnowski Yeah, and this spans everybody. Be passionate about what you're doing. You're going to be doing it for the rest of your life. If it's research, if it's academic science, if it's medicine, patient, you're going to be doing it for a long time. So be passionate about it. Take what you do very seriously. Go about your job in the correct way. Learn from what you've been taught. But don't take yourself too seriously. Be humble. Don't develop a big ego. And especially in research, I mean, everybody in research is wrong a lot of the time, but you still see people with big egos and stuff. And I think it's very important to be humble, and that allows me with my collaborators to push each other, to challenge each other when we're trying to interpret data and to not feel like you're right all the time. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Finally, what impact do you hope you've had on your students? Dr. Aaron Polichnowski Yeah, I play a small part in training of medical students. For example, I hope they look back on my lectures and say, "Yeah, Dr. Polichnowski played a small part, but he was a really important part of me being successful in medical school." That's really all I can ask for. I mean, you know, it's with a Ph.D. student, I hope they go on and have a great career in research. I hope I provide them with all the skills that are necessary to have a career. But I teach a lot of medical students, and I get them for mainly the first, second year, and I get to primarily teach physiology to them, but also get to help them get involved in research. I just hope they look back and say, "Yeah, he maybe played a small but very important part in me being successful here." Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Aaron, thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing your time, your insights, and your passion for both research and teaching. Your commitment to discovery, mentorship, and student success truly reflects the spirit of ETSU and the heart of why we teach. We are grateful for the impact you make on your students, your field, and our university. Thank you for listening to “Why I Teach.” For more information about Dr. Polichnowski, the Quillen College of Medicine, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu/provost. You can follow me on social media @ETSUProvost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.

Episode 29: Dr. Kyle Leister on launching ETSU’s groundbreaking Orthotics and Prosthetics program

Join ETSU Provost Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle in this inspiring episode of the “Why I Teach” podcast as she speaks with Dr. Kyle Leister, Assistant Professor and Program Director of ETSU’s new Master of Science in Orthotics and Prosthetics program – the first in Tennessee and one of only 14 nationwide. Dr. Leister shares his unique journey into rehabilitative medicine – from treating NHL athletes with the Pittsburgh Penguins to working on Paramount Studios' medical team – as well as his passion for student mentorship and the human side of prosthetic and orthotic care. Listen to more episodes of “Why I Teach,” where Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle explores stories of impact and success of ETSU faculty. Subscribe at https://why-i-teach-conversation-with-etsu-faculty.podbean.com/ [https://why-i-teach-conversation-with-etsu-faculty.podbean.com/]. Other resources: ETSU College of Health Sciences:  https://www.etsu.edu/chs/ [https://www.etsu.edu/chs/] ETSU School of Clinical Sciences: https://www.etsu.edu/chs/clinical-science/default.php [https://www.etsu.edu/chs/clinical-science/default.php] ETSU Master of Science in Orthotics and Prosthetics: https://www.etsu.edu/chs/rehabilitative-sciences/orthotics-prosthetics/default.php [https://www.etsu.edu/chs/rehabilitative-sciences/orthotics-prosthetics/default.php] ETSU Health: www.etsuhealth.org [http://www.etsuhealth.org]   Podcast transcript:    Dr. Kyle Leister Probably the most important part of this question is why orthotics and prosthetics at ETSU. And I think that we can tie that directly back to ETSU's mission statement, the ability to be able to serve the people of the region and beyond. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I have been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us "Why I Teach." In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Kyle Leister. Dr. Leister serves as Assistant Professor and Program Director of the Orthotics and Prosthetics Master's Program at East Tennessee State University. One of just a handful of experts in the world holding both a clinical certification in orthotics and prosthetics and a doctoral degree, he brings a uniquely broad background to his role. Originally from Pittsburgh, his academic and professional journey has taken him from serving the Pittsburgh Penguins as an athletic trainer, to working on the medical team on Paramount Pictures' lot, to earning degrees from Northwestern University, University of Houston, and finally a Ph.D. from Syracuse University. Since joining ETSU in 2023, Dr. Leister has spearheaded the launch of the university's M.S. in Orthotics and Prosthetics, the first such program in Tennessee and only the 14th nationwide. Under his leadership, the Karl Fillauer Learning Center opened in June 2024, outfitted with leading-edge fabrication labs and collaborative clinical facilities at the Quillen VA campus. Enjoy the show. Dr. Leister, welcome to the show. I start my podcast with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. And looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice you would have given yourself? Dr. Kyle Leister So first of all, thank you for having me and allowing me to be a part of this. I listen to a lot of podcasts. This is actually the first time I've ever been a part of one. So thank you very much for that. Jumping right into your first question. So this is actually pretty fresh on my mind because it wasn't that long ago that we finally had students in our program and that I had the opportunity to actually get in front of them. So that day is actually pretty fresh. So I remember waking up that morning, making sure that my shirt looked good, that my socks matched my jacket, and I was ready to go out there and literally deliver the State of the Union address. I had my slides memorized, my coffee, the whole deal. So I went in and I was really focused on the time of making sure that I was nailing all my slides. I was providing all the information that the students would need. But in retrospect, I may have been forgetting about that collaborative nature, that connection that I needed to be building with the students, especially as a new program and their first time going, a lot of them going from undergrad into the master's level of learning. So while it was a valuable experience, and I think that I hopefully did a good job despite probably sweating through my shirt there at 9 o'clock in the morning, the valuable lesson that I learned from that was that it's more about the collaboration and the connection that you're building with those students, rather than the information and the depth of that information that you're trying to provide right off the bat. That will certainly come by being able to establish that initial connection is something that if I could rewind the hands of time, I would have told myself, "Try to be a little bit more focused on that than some esoteric statistic that a student may never remember whenever they go into clinical practice." So that was probably the biggest lesson that I learned and something that I wish that I could inform myself if I could rewind the hands of time. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's excellent insight. Dr. Kyle Leister Yeah, thank you. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle You've had such a fascinating journey from working with the Pittsburgh Penguins to movie sets in Hollywood. What led you from athletic training to orthotics and prosthetics? Dr. Kyle Leister Yes, so I'm sure there are listeners out there that just heard you read that description are wondering what the connections are. Yes, and it certainly is a nonlinear road that I've taken to get where I am right now. There are some central driving factors that have been present in all of my educational experiences and my clinical experiences along the way. So starting out first with my experience with the Pittsburgh Penguins, I graduated from Duquesne University in 2009 with an undergraduate degree in athletic training, as you mentioned, and I was fortunate enough that my first job right out of undergrad was with the Pittsburgh Penguins. I'm not sure how many hockey fans we have here in this part of Tennessee, but in Pittsburgh, hockey is huge. I grew up being a huge hockey fan, playing hockey and enjoying everything about the sport. To be able to land a job with a professional hockey team was a big deal. That was made even sweeter by the fact that we ended up winning the Stanley Cup in the 2008-2009 season, and it was Sidney Crosby's first Stanley Cup victory. Those of you who don't know Sidney, he's widely regarded as one of the best hockey players of all time. So to be a part of that and seeing the determination and the grit and the collaboration between the players was wonderful. It was truly inspiring. During that time, the theme that kind of became apparent to me was that no matter who you are, whether you're performing at the highest possible level, where these professional athletes were, or an individual who may have a sprained knee or something like that in your everyday daily life, there's this common link that if something is wrong, it's disrupting your ability to perform. We want to do everything that we can to get back to that baseline, back to that homeostasis. So after wrapping up my time with the Penguins, I moved out west and was performing a similar role on Paramount Pictures' lot. So I was working with a lot of the talent and the executives on that lot in a medical capacity. They had everything that you could imagine on that lot. Again, the theme remained the same, that any sort of disruption to our everyday lives in terms of injury, illness, or disability – that becomes paramount. So that fact became really, really interesting to me and something that I wanted to dive into deeper and explore at a deeper level. And that's where the human connection of orthotics and prosthetics came in around that same time is being able to work with these individuals that are performing at the most highest level. What happens whenever you have somebody that's got a profound disability and needs to get back to their baseline? So it's that human factor that really drew me into orthotics and prosthetics initially. And then once I got into the field, I realized that there's this whole other realm to it. It's the fabrication. It's the material science. It's the physics behind these devices work that really kept me in the field of orthotics and prosthetics. So I think that that was kind of a roundabout way of answering your question, but I hope I touched all of those points that you were looking to have addressed. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Absolutely. And what fascinating experiences to have just out of undergrad. Dr. Kyle Leister Absolutely. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Orthotics and prosthetics is such a specialized field. For those who aren't familiar, can you explain what these professionals do and why their work is so important? Dr. Kyle Leister Yeah, absolutely. And I think the best way to sort of start out this discussion is providing some sort of an operational definition for what is an orthosis versus what is a prosthesis. And that'll sort of set the stage. So in the practice of orthotics, we are really designing devices, whether they're custom or off-the-shelf or custom fit to the patient, that are really designed in order to supplement a weakened or injured or a deformed body segment. So the key word is that the body segment is still there. That differs from prosthetics, where we're trying to craft a custom device in order to replace a missing or a deficient limb. So that's the big distinguishing factor. We use similar biomechanical principles to guide our decisions, both in orthotics and prosthetics. But really the difference lies in is the limb there and just deformed or weakened or needing some sort of support, then we think orthotics. Or is a limb absent, do we need to replace that limb or supplement that limb? Then we think about prosthetics. So the reason why I feel this work is so important is because as orthotists-prosthetists, we are very often faced with a patient that has just gone through one of the most traumatic things that a human could ever encounter, whether it's a mother and a father that just gave birth to a child that has cerebral palsy Yeah. and needs an orthosis in order to be able to learn how to walk properly and remain mobile or a patient that just lost their limb, whether it was through trauma or some sort of a surgical procedure, we're being tasked with being able to manage that patient, as well as their caregivers, through this incredibly difficult time through an intervention that we're directly applying to them. Another thing that I think that's interesting and important about what we do is that orthotics and prosthetics is a field that we get instant gratification for the devices that we provide. We can immediately see that the tangible, the measurable outcomes that we're able to provide our patients, whether it's a patient coming in in a wheelchair and then being able to get up and walk out of that clinic because of a prosthesis that we've been able to provide them, or a patient with a spinal cord that just wants to be able to stand up and do the dishes by themselves. We can design and fabricate devices that are able to facilitate that for the individuals, and that's instant gratification whenever we see that it works properly. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Thank you for that. So we recently received the excellent news that ETSU's Orthotics and Prosthetics Program received full accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs. Congratulations. Our program is the first of its kind in Tennessee. What inspired the creation of this program and why now? Dr. Kyle Leister Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. And first and foremost, I mean, getting the initial accreditation was certainly a labor of love. Going into it just to provide a background of how the accreditation process works in O&P, students who graduate from either an MPO, a Master's of Prosthetics or Orthotics, or an MSOP, Master's of Science in Orthotics and Prosthetics, must graduate from an accredited program. So that means that if we don't have that accreditation and we make it through the two years of the program and the students matriculate and go off to do their residencies, they're not eligible to sit for their boards. So there was a great deal of, I don't want to call it pressure, but responsibility on my part to make sure that that happened for the sake of my students. It meant a lot that our initial 10 students had the faith in me that I was going to be able to do that and get that done well in time for them to be able to graduate. And that was really my motivation to make sure that I did it at the highest possible level in collaboration with the rest of my faculty as well as ETSU leadership. So now on to the second part of your question, the why, which is probably the most important part of this question is why orthotics and prosthetics at ETSU. And I think that we can tie that directly back to ETSU's mission statement, the ability to be able to serve the people of the region and beyond. So if we look at the evidence base, we're consistently seeing that people are living longer, which is going to result in the need for orthotic or prosthetic intervention just due to the natural progression of age and pathophysiology that comes along with that. But we're also seeing a rise in metabolic diseases, things like type 2 diabetes and peripheral vascular disease, which are the number one cause for amputation in a lot of the patients that we see. As a result, the demand for our services is currently far outweighing the supply. That's compounded even further in the fact of where we live in the eastern part of Tennessee, which is considered more rural than a lot of the other city centers that may have multiple O&P clinics for patients to be able to travel to in order to get their services. So I think, and I've heard this quite a few times in my time here, that this program was created to be a very mission-centric program. And I think that what that means is this program was created to give us the opportunity to sort of allow our students to go out into the community and be able to provide this service at a high level. And it's our job to make sure that we're training them in order to do that. So I think that answers the why question. Why is this program part of ETSU? And I think that by the time our first cohort graduates and then beyond, we're going to be able to serve that mission. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle So tell us a bit more about what it's like to build a program like this from the ground up. Dr. Kyle Leister Yeah, yeah. So in short, it's not an easy thing to do. And I can provide a little bit more context behind that. So looking at my timeline, rewinding the clock almost two years from now. So I finished my Ph.D. in, or I defended my dissertation on August 15, 2023. By August 20th, I had my whole life packed up, including my wife and at the time a three-year-old and a six-month-old child driving from New York to Tennessee. And by August 29, I was in my office staring at this big, empty space wondering, what am I doing? And I would be lying to say that I was 100% confident that I was going to come in and be able to knock this out of the park on my first try. Again, fortunately, I had people behind me that were willing to support me. Dr. Jeff Snodgrass, who's the current dean of the College of Health Sciences, who was instrumental to this. Dr. Lynn Williams was also a great help during this process. I've been in the field of orthotics and prosthetics for quite a while now. I've worked in a lot of different clinical scenarios, a lot of different clinics and laboratories. But those laboratories have always just been there. I never had to really worry about how to build a lab. What tools do we absolutely need? What equipment needs to be there? So that was probably the biggest hurdle that I needed to first overcome. Based on that, one of the things that I learned during my Ph.D. training and my time in clinic was by definition, the Ph.D. teaches you how to think. And when you realize that you don't know an answer to, it also teaches you how to go find those answers and be able to apply what's already been done to your scenario or your situation. And while I didn't know exactly what I was going to do right off the bat, I had the skills necessary and the resources necessary to build what we have right now. And I'm very, very grateful for all the support that we've had all the way from the top at ETSU in order to build and establish the program here at East Tennessee State University. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Well, it's amazing to think that what you've done in under two years, yeah, that's congratulations again. Dr. Kyle Leister It's pretty wild to think about that in retrospect, you know, going from, again, walking in with very little established with the curriculum, the students, the faculty, the lab space, to go from that to now having, you know, 10 very, very ambitious students in the seats progressing through this program. It is pretty wild to think about that. Our current cohort, we have students coming from across the country to be a part of this, to be a part of the program and what ETSU has to offer. It all started with an interview for most of the students. And I think after that initial interview, they were all sold on the ETSU community as well as our program. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle So you also have the opportunity to be housed on the VA campus. Can you tell us a bit about how that location may assist in program development? Dr. Kyle Leister Yeah, the VA, we look at that as being a very, very valuable asset to us and our program. So the VA, not just in a clinical standpoint, has a lot of great opportunities from a research perspective. So being able to collaborate with them in terms of patient care and research is an avenue that we definitely look to explore and very fertile ground for us. I mean, we could be in the physical therapy and the rehabilitation space within the VA in under a 10-minute walk. So we really are looking to build upon that relationship. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle ETSU's O&P program also shares a building with our occupational therapy and physical therapy programs, creating a space that's ideally suited for interprofessional education. How will ETSU's approach to interprofessional education benefit our O&P students? Dr. Kyle Leister So that's a great question. And in my time in this role, I've already given quite a few tours to prospective students, parents, people that are interested to see what we're seeing, what we're doing in our building and in our department. And one of the ways that I always start off my tours is right there in the lobby where we've got the O&P center to my right and the OTD, the occupational therapy program, on my left, and the PT program running directly above us. And that's where I always start my conversation, letting people know how unique and advantageous this is to have all three programs under one roof in such close proximity. Going back to my experience as a clinician, I worked in the clinic for about eight years before entering academia, and it was almost a daily basis that I was working with an occupational therapist or a physical therapist. And while most of the time those conversations and those relationships were great, there were instances where I found myself thinking, "I wish that we could be speaking the same language. We're all in it for the same reason, to make sure that our patients are getting optimal treatment and optimal care." But there always, not I don't want to say always, but there were times where I felt that there were disconnects between the three professions that again are very, very closely related. I see this as an opportunity now to narrow that gap, to make sure right off the bat that our students are working with the physical therapists, are working with the occupational therapists, so that when they go out into clinical practice, we are all speaking the same language. So not only does it align with this idea of multidisciplinary care and interprofessional education, but it's going to certainly translate to whenever our students go out into clinical practice, as well as the students in these other programs go out into clinical practice. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle With all the technological advances like 3D printing and AI, how is the field of orthotics and prosthetics evolving? Dr. Kyle Leister I think the short answer to that question is it's evolving very rapidly. A lot of the ways that it's evolving, we're well set up to be able to expose our students to this new technology. The first thing that you mentioned was 3D printing. Our laboratory space, whenever we were designing the initial layout, we wanted to make sure that we had an ample room, an ample space for additive manufacturing or scanning, 3D printing, and then manufacturing a device that can be provided to a patient in an educational standpoint. 3D printing, while it's not necessarily a novel technology, the things that have been coming a long way are the materials. I remember earlier on in my career when 3D printing was really starting to take off, a lot of the applications were mainly reserved for our upper extremity individuals, specifically because we didn't have materials that were robust enough to allow a patient to consistently weight bear through. For the upper extremity application, we don't necessarily have to worry about those materials failing and resulting in an injury or a fall. Well, that's all changed. We now have materials that are certainly robust enough to allow for a patient to be able to utilize as a definitive prosthesis. The sort of evolution that we're seeing now with 3D printing is that we're in a position now that our materials are commensurate with a lot of different amputee activity levels. That gives us the opportunity to be able to get in there, take a digital impression of the patient's residual limb or body segment, and then be able to print a socket and kind of cut out a lot of the extra fabrication time that typically is more of a laborious task that results in a lot of waste, a lot of things that can really slow the process. We're seeing a trend now that additive manufacturing is becoming a lot more prevalent in the field of orthotics and prosthetics. Interestingly enough, I was recently at a conference in Stockholm, a global orthotics and prosthetics conference, and I was sitting in a keynote, one of the keynote lectures, which focused on osteointegration, which is another technique that while it's been, I don't want to say commonplace, but it's been more common in European countries and places like Australia, it's starting to show a lot more in the United States as well. So in osteointegration, I'll back up one more time, the bane of every prosthetist's existence is getting that comfortable socket fit. The socket is the connection between the patient and the machine. It doesn't matter if we have the most state-of-the-art technology that the patient is walking on in terms of a microprocessor knee unit or a microprocessor foot unit. If we don't get that socket interface done and done at a high level and comfortable, that's just going to be a very, very expensive paperweight for the patient. So osteointegration is a technique where an insert or an implant is actually placed inside the long bone of the residual limb. So say if a patient has an amputation above the knee, that insert would go into the thigh bone or the femur bone, exit the residual limb, and allows an amputee then to be able to attach distal componentry right onto that insert or that implant that's exiting their skin. This completely forgoes the need for that socket. Now, there's still a great use for the prosthetist in order to be able to manage that type of patient from an alignment and a biomechanical standpoint. But this is technology that, while maybe more prevalent in other parts of the world, is definitely making a presence here in the United States more common in something that our students need to know about. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle That's great. What about AI? Dr. Kyle Leister 1. So AI definitely plays a role in orthotics and prosthetics too. And the way that I look at AI is that I want it to be our friend rather than our foe. And one of the best ways that I think that we can harness that energy and that technology is by allowing it to be able to be a part of our clinical documentation strategies. So by doing this, and of course, obviously checking whatever it's putting out, it allows the clinician then to have more one-on-one time with that individual. Because a big part of their day no longer needs to be in front of a computer in an office typing up clinical summaries. That's one way that we're leveraging AI in orthotics and prosthetics. And I think that's probably pretty similar across the board in medicine. Specifically for the opportunity to be able to decrease on the computer work and being in front of a computer in more time in front of the patient, the tools that AI is able to provide us. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle For students or listeners interested in health sciences, what advice would you give them about finding a meaningful path in a specialized field like yours? Dr. Kyle Leister So I think the best way would be for the students to ask their own questions. Obviously, what we do is not as apparent as what a physical therapist or an occupational would do. an occupational therapist would do. We're not as widespread out there. I think in the entire field, we maybe have 3,000 practicing clinicians in the United States. So as a result, students that may be aware of this field need to do a lot of their own research to determine if this is the path that they want to go through. Another way that I would recommend is reaching out to your local clinician, seeing if you can get into the clinical practice and do some shadowing hours. You don't know until you're actually in there what the day in the life of the orthotist-prosthetist looks like. One of the things that's very unique about our field is that not only are we working with amputees or individuals with limb loss or limb difference, we're also working with a myriad of individuals with a lot of different pathologies that are treated with orthotics. So being able to decipher the difference between orthotics and prosthetics and asking those questions is probably the best way to start. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Finally, what impact do you hope you've made on your students? Dr. Kyle Leister So I think that story is still yet to be written, considering how new we are as a program. But I think if I were to answer that question right now, so new into this role and with such a new program, I just hope that I'm able to relay how excited I am to be a part of the greater picture and be able to have the opportunity to train the next generation of O&P clinicians. I love this field very much. I take what I do very, very seriously. And I hope that my students are able to realize that whenever I'm trying to relay these concepts over to them. I want them to know that there will be difficult days. And what we do is very challenging. To be able to be a competent orthotist-prosthetist, you have to know a lot. And I hope that they know that I'm going to be there with them every step along the way. Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle Dr. Leister, thank you so much for joining us today on "Why I Teach." Launching a new program in a short amount of time is no small feat. I sincerely appreciate your work and wish you well as you begin your fall semester. Thanks for listening to "Why I Teach." For more information about Dr. Leister, the College of Health Sciences, or this podcast series, visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu/provost. You can follow me on social media @ETSUProvost. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to "Why I Teach" wherever you listen to podcasts.