HIGHER EDUCATION NOTES: UND faculty member joins national panel ... Formal wear sale at UND ...

UND’s Parks named to panel

UND School of Law faculty member and alumna Michelle Rivard Parks has been appointed to the newly formed U.S. Department of Justice’s Violence Against Women Federal and Tribal Prosecution Task Force.

Parks graduated from the law school in 1999 and serves as an adjunct faculty member. She also is the associate director of the university’s Tribal Judicial Institute and serves as the Spirit Lake Nation’s tribal attorney.

The new task force fulfills a pledge made by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder during the department’s Tribal Nations Listening Session in October 2009. The task force includes six assistant U.S. attorneys and six tribal attorneys, in addition to a group of advisers and liaisons that includes health care professionals and law enforcement officials.

Within a year of convening, the group is directed to produce a trial practice manual on the federal prosecution of violence against women offenses in Indian Country.

UND to host formal wear sale

The third-annual formal wear sale on the UND campus will be held next month, giving Grand Forks area high school students a chance to buy affordable, gently used prom attire.

The event, hosted by the university’s Nonprofit Leadership Student Association, will take place at the Hughes Fine Arts Center on the UND campus from 4 to 8 p.m. Feb. 25 and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 26.

Dresses are priced from $10 to $75, and this year’s sale also will feature a boutique of higher-end dresses priced at $150 or less.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Nonprofit Leadership Student Association and St. Vincent De Paul of Grand Forks, a nonprofit organization founded after the 1997 flood to coordinate social services provided by Grand Forks Catholic parishes.

PA students get white coats

More than 50 health professionals have begun the clinical portion of their studies to earn the Master of Physician Assistant Studies degree at UND’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The 57 students come from a wide variety of professional health care disciplines to go through the studies to strengthen their ability to return to their rural clinical sites as primary care providers.

The physician assistant program admits health professionals who have experience working as nurses, clinical laboratory scientists, paramedics, respiratory therapists, dietitians, military health care providers and other related fields.

The current group of students averages 12 years of previous professional health care experience, with students coming from throughout the U.S. But more than half the students come from North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota, and age from 24 to 60 years old.

The new class was presented with their white coats during a Friday ceremony at the medical school.

Students spend their first four weeks in Grand Forks before returning to their home communities, where they will receive most of their training under the supervision of physicians. Over the next two years, the students will return to UND several times for additional education and training.

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