Local and national military experts are joining forces with faculty members from the University of Southern Indiana to teach future care providers about the unique challenges facing combat veterans and their families. The Veterans Interprofessional Case Competition, planned for Tuesday, April 7 at USI, will give 30 USI undergraduate and graduate students an introduction to military culture and make them aware of post-combat readjustment experiences and the often complex needs of veterans of all ages.

“Over the past 50 years, nearly eight million United States military personnel have been deployed to wars in Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Dr. Vaughn DeCoster, associate professor of social work, who served in Iraq as a clinical social worker with the Army Reserves. “Including families and friends of these troops, the quantity of people affected by these wars is staggering. Given these numbers, area healthcare providers are likely treating this population or someone affected by their war experiences. We want to give our students pursuing careers in healthcare and social service areas an introduction to dealing with war-exacerbated issues, especially as these veterans age.”

Health and social service practitioners must remain sensitive to this, and work as a team to provide coordinated, quality care for these veterans and their families. For this reason, the USI case competition is planned for students from the following disciplines: Social Work, Occupational Therapy (OT), Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) Nursing and Food and Nutrition.

The workshop will begin at 8:30 a.m. with the presentation of the colors by USI’s Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (ROTC) color guard, under the direction of Major Christopher Dalrymple, assistant professor of military science at USI.

During the workshop, Tony Sanabria, a retired lieutenant colonel with more than 25 years of active duty service in the military, will share experiences from his tours in Germany, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan and the issues many of his fellow veterans face after deployment.

Interdisciplinary student teams will also hear case vignettes presented by veterans. Each team will then create a viable intervention plan and present this plan to a panel of experts.

“This activity is unique because it combines essential knowledge of the military, combat and post-war readjustment, along with evidence-based approaches and local resources,” said DeCoster. “During this team activity, students will apply what they have learned and interact with care providers and actual representatives from the veteran patient population. This is a great opportunity for the student teams to learn assessment skills, identify key problems, develop a holistic intervention plan and problem solve possible care challenges.”

Kathryn M. Waters, professor of art, is the 2015 recipient of the Distinguished Professor Award at the University of Southern Indiana. The award will be presented during the 9 a.m. Commencement ceremony for the College of Liberal Arts on Saturday, May 2. She is being recognized for her leadership, teaching and creativity.

For over 30 years, Waters has made an outstanding and significant impact on USI and the community. Her leadership includes serving as chair and acting chair of the Art Department, interim associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts, visiting professor of art at Harlaxton College in Grantham, England, and her current positions of professor of art and director of the Kenneth P. McCutchan Art Center/Palmina F. and Stephen S. Pace Galleries.

As director of the McCutchan Art Center/Pace Galleries, Waters plans and directs implementation of five to seven shows annually. Her creativity and professionalism are evident in the quality of shows and artists who display works, including artists of international stature.

Teaching remains at the heart of what drives Waters and is evident in the energy with which she leads discussion and action in the department, and her efforts to help students be successful in their work. She develops the talents of students by showing them how to find their own aesthetic language, and supporting them compassionately and patiently as they clear a path to self-expression and fulfillment.

Waters provided leadership on the Efroymson Bridge Fellowship Committee, where she was instrumental in setting up the $10,000 post-undergraduate award and served as the mentor to the first recipient. She directed the student in advanced studies, facilitated her final exhibit, and helped her prepare for and get accepted to one of the top graduate programs in the country.

A measure of professional success among artists is achieving a one-person show in a gallery esteemed by critics, art historians and peer artists. Chicago’s Wood Street Gallery is one such venue and, in 2000, it hosted one of Waters’ one-person shows.  She participated in “Mind, Matter, Spirit,” a traveling exhibit of 12 contemporary Indiana women artists, at the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. the same year.  In 2015, she will be featured in the Master Teacher Series at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science in celebration of USI’s 50th anniversary.

Dr. Hillary Braysmith, associate professor of art and interim chair of the Art Department, described Waters’ pictures as “often striking viewers as familiar experiences; but it is a borrowed familiarity – as if they happened upon someone else’s memory of a similar but not identical moment.”

Waters contributes to the community by serving on many boards and committees including the boards of New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, the Hoosier Salon New Harmony, Alhambra Theatre, and Downtown Evansville Incorporated, on the Indianapolis Airport Art Selection Committee, Evansville Residency Committee and numerous committees at USI.

She has donated works of art to benefit the Evansville Museum, African-American Museum, Aids Resource Group, Evansville Philharmonic, Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana and the USI College of Liberal Arts.

Waters was the recipient of the USI Community Faculty Award and Phenomenal Women of USI Award in 2014, the USI Faculty Research and Creative Work Award in 2009 and 2013, the USI College of Liberal Arts Dean’s Award for Scholarship and Creative Activity in 2007, national Visual Artist Residency Fellowships including Yaddo, Ragdale and the Virginia Center for the Arts and, most notably, the 2004 Mayor’s Arts Awards Artist of the Year Award from the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana.

In 1971, she received her bachelor’s degree in art education from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, graduating magna cum laude. She then continued her education at Ohio University, obtaining her master’s degree in fine arts in 1979.

Waters and her husband, writer and USI professor of English Matthew Graham, live in Evansville.

As recipient of the Distinguished Professor Award, Waters will receive a monetary award and will select a student to receive a scholarship in her name in the coming year. She also will deliver the address at USI’s Fall Commencement in December.