Photo: The Campbell University Health Center, where funds from the Baggett Wellness Institute will be used
BUIES CREEK — The Baggett Wellness Institute, housed within Campbell University’s College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, awarded two faculty members from the Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine with $5,000 grants. Brian Kessler, DO, associate dean for clinical affairs, and Nicholas Pennings, DO, Campbell University Health Center’s director, will receive their grants over the span of two years for their individual project proposals.
Kessler will use his grant to create a free clinic run by Campbell University health professional students in an interprofessional setting. The clinic is slated to be open to uninsured residents of Harnett County and this grant funding will be used to cover medical supply expenses.
“A team of medical students in the inaugural class, Daniel Moses, Phillip Deal, James Hooper, Mark Lorenzini, Anthony Parker, Jeffery Pennings, and Elizabeth Willis, worked diligently throughout their first year of medical school on the business plan for the clinic and presented it to the Dean in the spring of 2014. The receipt of this grant provides a significant step forward to the clinic becoming a reality in early 2015,” said Kessler.
Pennings will use his grant on behalf of the Campbell University Health Center to promote a Campbell University smoking cessation program. The funds will be used to help provide nicotine replacement therapy to participating students and employees.
“The program is a coaching program where students from the medical school and College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences will coach participants through a quitting process; the program will provide education for students on how to guide tobacco users through the cessation process while assisting the participants with obtaining their goal of being tobacco free,” said Pennings
The John and Joseph Baggett Wellness Institute was established in 2000 with the purpose of providing health prevention education and services to middle school aged children, health professionals, people with diabetes, and general consumer education. This year the Baggett Wellness Institute established a grant program to promote programs and initiatives for the advancement of health education, wellness and prevention by the Campbell University faculty.
“We are excited that the Baggett Wellness Institute has awarded funding for these two outstanding proposals,” said D. Byron May, PharmD, chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Baggett Wellness Fund Grant committee. “The winning proposals will further the purpose of the Institute to promote health outreach and improve the wellness of Campbell University employees.”