Name Droppers: Davisite earns medical degree, Air Force promotion

Tarra Wasilchen, a 1998 graduate of Davis High School, and her husband of almost two years, Glen Olson, graduated on May 19 from the Medical School of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda/Washington, D.C., receiving promotions to U.S. Air Force captain along with their M.D. degrees.

While the academic rigors are among the toughest in the nation, they simultaneously were required to perform as active-duty military officers while also pursuing their M.D. degrees.

They will be together for a yearlong internship at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.

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Shekema McCarthy of Davis has graduated from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore., with a bachelor’s degree in integrative physiology. Pacific University enrolls more than 3,300 students.

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Emilie Moroski, a graduate of Davis High School and daughter of Mike and Cathie Moroski of Davis, received bachelor’s degrees in psychology and human studies from Union University on May 19.

Located in Jackson, Tenn., Union University is a liberal arts-based university affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention.

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Carolyn Wesnousky, a member of the class of 2012 at Connecticut College and a resident of Davis, has been named to the dean’s high honors list for the 2012 spring semester.

At Connecticut College, dean’s honors recognize students who have earned a grade-point average of at least 3.66, and dean’s high honors recognize students who have earned a grade-point average of at least 3.78.

Situated on the coast of southern New England, Connecticut College is a private liberal arts college with 1,900 students from across the country and throughout the world. The college is known for its combination of interdisciplinary studies, international programs, funded internships, student-faculty research and service learning.

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Sarah Hoover, a graduating senior at UC Davis, has been named one of 15 winners of the 2012 Gilder Lehrman History Scholar Award. Selected from candidates across the country, the award recognizes outstanding graduating college seniors who have demonstrated academic and extracurricular excellence in American history or American studies.

The awardees traveled to New York City last week for a series of presentations in their honor, including meetings with scholars, behind-the-scenes tours of historic archives and an awards dinner. Stops were at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Historical Society and Museum of the City of New York, with talks and discussions led by Kenneth T. Jackson, David Blight, Carol Berkin and Thomas Lannon.

Since 1994, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has promoted history education through an array of national programs. In 2012, the institute developed this new award program to recognize the scholastic achievements of undergraduate American history students throughout the nation.

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Kaisha E. Johnson of Davis was named to the dean’s list at Bucknell University for outstanding academic achievement during the spring semester. A student must earn a grade point average of 3.5 or higher on a scale of 4.0 to receive dean’s list recognition.

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Joy Melinikow and Kenneth W. Kizer, physicians at UC Davis Health System and national leaders in health policy and research, have been appointed to the Let’s Get Healthy California Task Force, a group established in response to Gov. Jerry Brown’s executive order to develop a 10-year plan to make Californians healthier.

The task force and expert advisers will work together to gather, evaluate and prioritize the best ideas and practices and organize them into a 10-year plan to improve quality, control costs, promote personal responsibility for individual health and advance health equity.

Melnikow is a professor of family and community medicine and director of the UCD Center for Health Care Policy and Research, which brings together a multidisciplinary team of researchers who work to improve health outcomes by conducting research on health-care access, delivery, outcomes and costs.

Kizer is director of the UCD Health System’s new Institute for Population Health Improvement and a distinguished professor at the School of Medicine (Department of Emergency Medicine) and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

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Alfred Konuwa, vice president of Woodland Community College, has been selected to participate as a fellow in the 2012 Class of the E. (Kika) De La Garza Fellowship Program.

The fellowship is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Hispanic-Serving Institutions National Program and offers faculty and staff from HSIs the opportunity to work collaboratively with USDA to gain insight and understanding of the federal government.

Konuwa was selected as an executive fellow. The executive fellowships last for one to three weeks depending on the needs and availability of the selected applicant. Executive fellows take part in a dynamic and tailored experience designed to provide connections and knowledge useful to the operation of their institutions.

Konuwa holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Liberia, a master’s degree in economics and public administration from Sacramento State University, and a Ph.D. in public administration from the University of Southern California.

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Army Pvt. Kyle E. Williams has graduated from the Fire Support Specialist Advanced Individual Training course at Fort Sill, Lawton, Okla. The field artillery specialists serve in intelligence activities including target processing in field artillery, cannon battalions, division artillery, artillery and maneuver brigade and headquarters and fire support elements.

The course is designed to train students to establish, maintain, and operate radio and wire communications and speech security equipment, including encoding and decoding messages. They also must prepare and maintain daily staff journals, fire support situation maps, charts and other fire support and target processing procedures, records, and documents.

In addition, students assist in initiating requests for field artillery, mortar, naval gunfire, and aerial delivered munitions, and emplace, maintain, and assist in the operation of laser range finders, target designation and night observation devices.

Williams is a 2011 graduate of Wolfskill High School in Winters.

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Louisiana State University recently named Suzanne L. Marchand, formerly of Davis, a Distinguished Research Master. Marchand, a professor in the department of history at LSU’s College of Humanities & Social Sciences, received her bachelor’s degree in history from Berkeley and a master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

She is author of “German Orientalism in the Age of Empire,” a title recently honored both by the American Historical Association’s prestigious George L. Mosse Prize and the American Library Association’s “Outstanding Academic Titles of 2010” list. In it, she challenges Edward Said’s influential theory that modern studies of the Orient are all rooted in Western imperial hubris.

Marchand also is the author of “Down from Olympus: Archaeology and Philhellenism in Germany, 1750-1970,” and is co-author or editor of “Proof and Persuasion: Essays on Authority, Objectivity”; “Evidence”; “Worlds Together, Worlds Apart”; and “Germany at the Fin de Siècle,” as well as approximately 40 articles and book chapters.

Currently vice president of the German Studies Association, where she will serve as president in 2013-14, Marchand also serves on the American Historical Association’s Committee on Committees, and is the first U.S. representative on the German history executive board.

She was previously selected as an LSU Rainmaker, received a prestigious summer fellowship at Collegium Budapest, received an American Council of Learned Societies Burkhardt Fellowship for associate professors, and received many other honors, fellowships and awards within her field.

She is the daughter of Betsy Marchand of Davis.

— Do you know of someone who has won an award or accomplished something noteworthy? Send it, preferably by email, to newsroom@davisenterprise.net, or to Name droppers, The Davis Enterprise, P.O. Box 1470, Davis, CA 95617.

Enterprise staff

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