FALL 2021 INSIDE TALK DR. SHERITA HILL GOLDEN PG 16 MAYO CLINIC Q & A PG 24 DR. JEENA GEORGE PG 25 Health Issue Dr. Margaret Larkins-Pettigrew Featuring2 | TALK MAGAZINE • FALL 2021 INSIDE TALK PUBLISHER’S NOTES The word today is VOTE! Every person eligible to Vote should Vote! Ten years ago, we had one or two black mayors in Pennsylvania. In 2020, we had 12 black mayors in Pennsylvania. As Citizens of the United States, we are successful when we exercise our right to Vote. All Citizens in Pennsylvania Voting will increase minority mayors to over 20 across Pennsylvania in 2021. It’s Your Vote That Counts. On October 16, 2021, we were delighted to host a Memorial for Political Icon Clifton Pitts with over 120 people from the Mon-Valley and his family. Politicians, ward leaders, his family and many of his friends joined to remember and honor this outstanding, dedicated man. Talk Magazine will continue to work with the new Mon Valley leadership to turn out the vote in every election. Many people helped make this event possible and we would like to say Thank You. In October, Talk Magazine held a GOTV Rally for Pittsburgh Committee People and Black Ward Chairmen. Speakers included candidates for Allegheny County Common Pleas Judges Wrenna Watson, Nicola Henry-Taylor, Tiffany Sizemore, Chelsa Wagner, Jessel Costa, Elliot Howsie. PA State Commonwealth Court Candidate David Spurgeon spoke about the duties of this important statewide court. Last but not least Ed Gainey, Candidate for Mayor of Pittsburgh. Each of us must remember the importance and responsibility of our Citizenship. Remember, for Democracy to survive, we must Vote in every election. Our future is in our hands with our Vote. We must start looking at all elected offices, including local school boards, council seats, state offices auditor general, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general. Where can you fit in? We can all make a difference! The LJS Group / Talk Magazine / TMAG Luther J. Sewell, Jr. / Publisher Roxanne N. Sewell / President & Editor theLULAdesigns / Graphic Design & Layout Tené Croom / Contributing Writer Fiordaliza White / Contributing Writer PO Box 143 Monroeville, PA 15146-0143 (P) 412.823.4007 info@talkmagazineonline.com www.talkmagazineonline.com 4 College News 6 Talk Across PA 8 Business News 10 Latino News 21 Dr. Margaret Larkins-Pettigrew 16 Health News College Health Care pg 21 Mayo Clinic Q & A pg 24 FALL 2021 Richard E. Ashby Jr. pg 264 | TALK MAGAZINE • FALL 2021 COLLEGE NEWS GENEVA Therrell continues to strive at Geneva College Guam's Hanna Therrell and her fellow Geneva College golf teammates are on a roll, sitting undefeated in regular competition and gearing up for next week's Presidents' Athletic Confer- ence Championships at Squaw Creek Course in Vienna, Ohio. Against Waynseburg University, Therrell, a sophomore, posted a 93 - one of the top five players on her team. At the Saint Vincent Invi- tational, hosted at the Arnold Palmer Latrobe Country Club, Geneva placed second behind Westminster College, who has been the top team this year in PAC competition. At the Saint Vincent Invitational on Sept. 28, Therrell carded a 98, tying for 12th place with her teammate. Geneva's head coach, Andrew Fee, wasn't too happy with the outing, despite placing in the top two overall. Recognizing the importance of the PAC championships, he said it's crucial the team elevate their play going into the two-day tournament. "We didn't play well enough today," Fee said. "We need to manage the course better while we are out there. We need to raise our standards over the next couple weeks as we prepare for the conference tournament." The Guam Daily Post caught up with Therrell after her Sept. 23 match against Waynseburg, getting a feel for how the Academy of Our Lady of Guam alumna is balancing the rigors of colle- giate competition. "The course was quite tough as it was soaked due to a storm the previous night adding the high 40s to low 50s temperatures and on and off rain," the sophomore said. “My main goal was to finish as fast as possible but still ending on a positive note." The game had its ups and downs. "From almost making an eagle from 170 yards to missing a few putts here and there," she recalled. “I've been working on my long game recently and it really showed on the course." Therrell was among Geneva's top five players in the Waynesburg game. In retrospect, she said she thinks she needs to practice her short game now. She added that the expectations for this game were pretty standard: play your best, but don't crumble from the pres- sure. LA ROCHE La Roche Introduces Center for Lifelong Learning and Fall Pilot Courses Adults of all ages and backgrounds now have opportunities to expand their minds and social circles through La Roche University's Center for Lifelong Learning. Established this year, the Center for Lifelong Learning empowers learners of all ages by offer- ing high-quality, flexible and adaptable programs to serve and meet the needs of Pittsburgh and its surrounding communities. The Center offers a variety of engaging and interactive classes, workshops and community programs for both retirement-aged individuals, youth and profes- sionals at various stages of their careers. Sister Candace Introcaso, CDP, Ph.D., pres- ident of La Roche, said, “The development of a vibrant Lifelong Learning Center holds great poten- tial for La Roche. With an ever-growing population of retirees in the North Hills who are searching for educational and social enhancements to their lives, creating an intergenerational community has the potential to reap benefits to both retirees and the University community." This fall the Center will launch pilot courses as part of Adventures in Lifelong Learning, a membership-based program for adults 50 and better. Members can learn for the fun of learning in a relaxed environment without assignments, exams or grades. The following courses, ranging from art and history to fitness and philosophy, will kick off starting this October, Mondays: Oct. 18-Nov. 15 Folk Art 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. LINCOLN by Ryan Pivoney Continuing a decade-long trend, Lincoln University's enrollment for the fall semester fell about percent from last year. Lincoln's total headcount for the fall 2021 semester is 1,793 students, which is broken down by 1,690 undergraduate students and 103 graduate students, according to the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment. The university's total enrollment last year was 2,012 students - 1,892 undergraduates and 120 graduate students. Interim President John Moseley said he was personally expecting enrollment to be down again this semester. "With everything that's been going on for the last 18 months, for us it's certainly a challenge," Moseley said. "But I feel like the university has put measures in place to start to reverse the trend." LU has seen a decline in enrollment every year since 2014, but it's enrollment issues start a few years earlier. In 2011, the university had its highest en- rollment since the mid-1990s at 3,388 students. The following year enrollment dropped to 3,205 students and then 3,043 in 2013. Enrollment increased to 3,117 students in 2014, but has tumbled every year since. Darius Watson, interim dean of admissions and enrollment, said the COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on enrollment this year. "COVID has impacted everything from our ability to engage new faculty hires to existing faculty and their ability to operate normally within edu- cational environments," Watson said. "Basically, we have not been able to engage in traditional recruitment for almost a year and a half - and I mean that in a pretty literal sense. Unless it was an online or virtual college fair, we just didn't have the opportunity to even engage schools we had a longstanding history with." He said the university's enrollment situation would have been worse if not for quick action under the new administration. "When you consider where our enrollment was heading in, say, March versus now, we're actually doing much better in terms of attempting to turn things around in an extremely short period of time," Watson said. MILLERSVILLE Millersville University has been awarded a $79,874 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. It's part of $11.6 million in grants to educate workers, employers on workplace safety and health. The grants go to fund education and training on hazard recognition and prevention, and on rights of workers to safe workplaces and the responsibilities of employers to provide them. Derived from the Susan Harwood Workplace Safety and Health Training Program, the grants awarded by OSHA are in the Targeted Topic Training, Training and Educational Materials Development, and Capacity Building categories. The grants are a critical part of OSHA's effort to educate workers and assist employers. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their LOCKED IN: Hanna Therrell, an Academy of Our Lady of Guam graduate, posted a 93, leading her Geneva College Golden Tornadoes to a win against Waynseburg University. Sistem Itrocaso President of La Roche WWW.TALKMAGAZINEONLINE.COM | 5 COLLEGE NEWS employees. The university has secured a new testing ven- dor through a continuation grant from Testing for America or TFA, who facilitated a partner- ship with Delaware State University and New Castle County to create a local testing laboratory, Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory or MDL, to expedite results in the Northeastern region. Faculty, staff, and student will have the ability to upload information related to their coronavi- rus vaccination and activate their profile to re- quest a COVID-19 test through health services. MDL will provide Lincoln University with an end-to-end, on-site COVID-19 testing service, which will include: HIPAA-compliant user registration, on-site sample collection, labora- tory testing, and confidential results reporting. Lincoln University’s Office of Health Services will have access to the results of the test and are available for any questions. MDL will commu- nicate positive test results to the Chester County Health Department as required by law. The version of MDL’s test is a saliva-based test and is a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based test designed to detect the virus that causes COVID-19 in respiratory specimens. The official portal used to consent to testing and indicate one’s vaccination status is https://lucovidtesting. lincoln.edu/login.php. Weekly Testing Requirements We require all members of the campus community to be tested weekly based on their vaccination status. Vaccinated: Once (1) per week Unvaccinated: Twice (2) per week Testing Sites To achieve this new requirement, we have strategically identified 3 testing sites within the campus community: Health Service’s (Wellness Center) Student Union Building (SUB) Mario Rivera Hall, Room 220 (Athletics’ De- partment Only) On a given test day, a Lion will proceed to one of the three locations; provide your Lincoln email address; retrieve a sample collection kit; provide 0.5 ml of saliva and return it the testing staff. Results will be communicated via email from lucovidtesting@lincoln.edu. MERCYHURST Mercyhurst University announces new presi- dent. A member of the Board of Trustees at the Uni- versity says this inauguration marks an import- ant change to the administration because it's been almost 50 years since a woman has led the university. "Chair of the Board of Trustees, speaking for the Trustees, that we have the right leadership in place and it's very exciting because we really are delighted to have found Dr. Getz to lead Mercyhurst forward. It's also a very important moment to mark the change in the administration here and the new direction for the university," said Joseph NeCastro, Chairman, Mercyhurst University Board of Trustees. MANSFIELD The Mansfield University women's basketball program has a new Head Coach as the Moun- taineers named Amy Senefelder as the new leader of the program on Monday. Senefelder has spent 4 seasons with Division III Hilbert College where she went 63-20, led the program to 2 conference championships and NCAA Tournament bids, and she was also the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Coach of the Year in 2018-19. Before leading the Hilbert College program, Senefelder spent time as an assistant at Ancilla College, Muskingum University, and the Univer- sity of Alaska Fairbanks before getting the Head Coaching job at Mercyhurst North East. In the 2017-18 season, Mansfield clinched the program's first-ever conference postseason berth, and in the 2019-20 season, the Mountaineers finished 3-25 overall and 1-21 in conference play. CCAC Community College of Allegheny County Southeast Region President Charlene Newkirk is Community College of Allegheny County Southeast Region President Charlene Newkirk is a 2021 Women of Influence award winner continued on page 28TALK ACROSS PA 6 | TALK MAGAZINE • FALL 2021 PITTSBURGH UPMC announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously selected Leslie C. Davis to succeed Jeffrey Romoff as President and CEO, effective Aug. 1, 2021. During her 17 years at UPMC, Ms. Davis has demonstrated a commitment to both clinical excellence and building relationships with pa- tients, doctors, employees, leaders, and commu- nities. This experience leaves her exceptionally well-qualified to lead a large organization like UPMC to future success and growth at such a critical time for the health care and insurance industries. BRIDGEVILLE Mayor Copeland was chosen as “Mayor of the Year for 2021” by the Pennsylvania State May- ors' Association (PSMA) at their 50th annual banquet, held July 17th, 2021 at the Sheraton Square Hotel. She is the 1st African-American and only the 4th Woman to win the award in its illustrious history. Both the family, Borough government and the residents of Bridgeville are extremely proud of this achievement. She will be honored twice in the near future for winning the award: • August 24th, 5 PM at an Allegheny Coun- ty Council Meeting where Tom Duerr, the local County Council representative will be presenting Mayor Copeland with an award for winning the “Mayor of the Year;" • Monday, Sept. 13th, 7 PM at the Bridgeville Borough Council Meeting at the Borough Building in Bridgeville where she will receive the actual plaque from the PSMA for winning the "Mayor of the Year". PHILADELPHIA The superintendent of the Philadelphia School District has announced that he will be leaving the post next summer. Superintendent William Hite Jr. said in a vid- eo released to staff that "after much reflection" he had decided not to seek renewal of his contract when it expires in August 2022. He said leading the district of 120,000 students in more than 200 schools had been a "tremendous honor and privilege" and vowed to support the board in its search for a new superin- tendent. "I'd asked the board, 'Let's put this conversation off until we were able to get young people back into schools. That was the most important thing." Hite said. YORK State Rep. and Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus Chair Donna Bullock, D-Phila., was joined by members of the PLBC, LGBTQ+ Cau- cus, Latino Caucus and Equity Committee today to denounce the banning of books on diversity from schools in the commonwealth. This action was spurred in part by the overturning of a year-long book freeze in a York County school district and the new push by Republican state lawmakers to ban critical race theory, which is not taught in any district in the state currently. Two students who led the protest on the book freeze in Central York School District, Edha Gupta and Christina Ellis, spoke at the news conference. "Banning books on diversity is the direct result of this Republican manufactured crisis on critical race theory." Bullock said. “This fearmongering has parents and school districts scrambling to stop something that doesn't exist. Part of the negative effect of this overreaching response is children are kept from reading books that reflect their diverse school community and world around them. If we continue to allow groups to pedal this misinforma- tion, this ban will only be the tip of the iceberg. We owe our children more than that and we are calling out districts that minimize or restrict information through book bans or perpetuate this made-up crisis that is merely a political platform." Pennsylvania is one of a growing list of states trying to enact a CRT ban, working on enacting one or that have local school boards who criticize CRT including Arkansas, Idaho, Oklahoma, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Kentucky, Utah and New Hampshire, Iowa, Arizona, Florida and Virginia. "The idea of a list of banned books in a school is dystopian and antithetical to the pursuit of knowledge, especially when those books are aimed at dismantling the power structures of racism," said state Rep. Brian Sims, D-Phila., co-chair of the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus. "Condemning and villainizing teachers for giving their students a well-rounded and informed look at the world is profoundly unjust and has no home in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Even the thought of allowing ourselves to shield our young minds from having the opportunity to learn about our diverse and sometimes divisive past goes against the core values of our society," said state Rep. and PLBC Secretary Carol Hill-Evans, D-York. "We should be investing in an educational system that allows for honesty and value in everyone's experienc- es so the next generation expands on the American ideal of freedoms of thought and speech." "We're at a moment now where we're talking about U.S. history through the lens of these authors from different backgrounds, and the people who oppose them don't even know how the contributions of all these folks and the folks they're talking about influence their ancestors, their legacies and journeys in this country," said state Rep. Chris Rabb, D-Phila. "Cultures are interwoven, they evolve and they involve all people. When someone says, I'm colorblind, I say, 'I'm so sorry. If you're colorblind you can't see people of color". "As a Pennsylvanian, as a legislator and a dad, I'm so proud of the students in York County who spoke out against the recent book ban," said Rabb, founding member of the House Democratic Eq- uity Committee. "They inspire me to continue my advocacy for shared prosperity and justice for all." YORK by Isabella Grullón Paz and Maria Cramer Hundreds of students, parents and residents in York County, Pa., protested limits on books told from the perspective of gay, Black and Latino Leslie C. Davis Named UPMC President and CEO Mayor Copeland was chosen as “Mayor of the Year for 2021”. Superintendent William Hite Jr.TALK ACROSS PA WWW.TALKMAGAZINEONLINE.COM | 7 children. Edha Gupta and Christina Ellis, two high school seniors in York County, Pa., were fu- rious when they read last month in a local paper that their teachers had been effectively banned from using hundreds of books, documentary films and articles in their classrooms. The list, which was created in 2020 by a diver- sity committee in the Central York School Dis- trict, was meant to serve as a resource guide for students and teachers as they grappled with the racial and social turmoil that followed the murder of George Floyd. It included a documentary film about James Baldwin and a statement on racism by the state's association of school administrators. It also included children's books like a "A Boy Called Bat," about a third grader with autism, "I Am Rosa Parks," and "Cece Loves Science," about a curious girl who loves experiments. But what began as an effort to raise awareness somehow ended with all of the materials on the list being banned from classrooms by the district's school board in a little-noticed vote last November. Some parents in the district, which draws about 5,000 students from suburban townships sur- rounding the more diverse city of York, had objected to materials that they feared could be used to make white children feel guilty about their race or "indoctrinate" students. The debate came to a head with the return to in-person classes at the start of the current school year. The Sept. 1 article in The York Dispatch quoted teachers who were aghast at an email from the high school's principal listing the forbidden materials. "In 19 years of teaching, it was the first time one Central York High School educator had ever received an email like it: a list of banned books, movies and other teaching materials," the story began. "I was ready to go to battle," said Ms. Ellis, 17. "I read the first sentence and that was enough." That same week, she and Ms. Gupta, 17, recruited other students to wear black T-shirts to school in protest. Over the weekend, they created signs that read “Di- versity is our strength" and "Our story matters. My voice matters." They handed the signs out to their classmates, who began protesting every day at 7:15 a.m. before school. Soon, the students were writing letters to the editor and reading excerpts from the banned books on Instagram. The controversy dominated the headlines in The Dispatch and its rival paper, The York Daily Record, and soon drew national media attention. Bernice King, the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., posted a message on Instagram supporting the students, and some of the authors whose books were on the list voiced support. In solidarity with the students, one local woman created a free library outside her house featuring many of the books. "Every day it seemed to get bigger and bigger," Ms. Ellis said. MEDIA Pennsylvania Department of Education Secre- tary Dr. Noe Ortega visited Erie to highligh how students in the region are staying healthy and safe during an unprecedented new school yea and finding success in unique educational opportuni- ties leading to multiple career pathways. During the event, Sec. Ortega visited McKin- ley Elementary School, where he read the book "A Germ's Journey" to a first-grade class. The book, written in 2011 by Thom Rooke, MD and illustrated by Tony Trimmer, teaches children the importance of good hygiene practices like wash- ing their hands and covering coughs and sneezes. "Pennsylvania's schools are working diligently to pro- tect students and teachers from getting sick, and 'A Germ's Journey' serves as a timeless reminder-during a pandemic or not—that there are simple, easy things we can do each and every day to keep each other healthy and safe,” said Sec. Ortega. Following that visit, Sec. Ortega toured McDowell Manufacturing, a collaborative partnership between the Millcreek Town- ship School District and the Northwest Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center (NWIRC), which gives qual- ifying students at McDowell High School the opportunity to participate in a manufac- turing enterprise that is mak- ing actual parts, delivering services and adding value as part of the supply chain for local manufacturers. Through the program, students learn about and per- form different job functions in manufacturing develop es- sential skills, utilize advanced manufacturing technologies, and build relationships with local companies. "Today, on National Manu- facturing Day, I can't think of a more fitting place to visit than McDowell", said Sec. Ortega. “Partnerships like this demonstrate the possibil- ities available when we work together, giving students the chance to learn critical skills through hands-on learning and apply them in a real-world setting while helping to support the commonwealth's manufac- turing industry." Next >