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SciPAC Meeting Minutes November 2017 Page 1 of 13
Scientist Professional Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
1200–1300 (EDT)
Toll-Free Number: 1-866-782-0573
Pass code: 2214354
Total Attendance: 114
Chief Scientist Officer and 2017–2018 SciPAC Executive Board Members
Rank Name Role Present
CAPT Sanders, Martin Chief Scientist Officer Present
CDR Toblin, Robin Chair Present
CDR Thomas, Jennifer Vice Chair; Rules & Membership Chair Present
CDR Adjemian, Jennifer Ex Officio Chairperson; Awards Subcommittee Co-Chair Excused
CDR Rodgers, Loren Executive Secretary Present
LCDR Wilken, Jason COF Liaison Present
Voting Members
Rank Name Role Present
CAPT Clayton, Mark Career Development Co-Chair Absent
CAPT Frasca, Dominic Readiness Co-Chair Present
CAPT Satterfield, Tony Mentoring Co-Chair Absent
CAPT Smith, Michael Policy Co-Chair Present
CDR Barbour, Kamil Visibility Subcommittee Chair Excused
CDR Chiaruttini, Jessica Policy Review Subcommittee Chair Present
CDR Green, Seth Awards Subcommittee Chair Present
CDR Huang, David Science Subcommittee Chair Present
CDR Purfield, Anne Recruitment and Retention Subcommittee Chair Present
CDR Zhou, Eric Category Day Co-Chair Present
LCDR Irvin-Barnwell,
Elizabeth Readiness Subcommittee Chair Absent
LCDR Ou, Oliver Website Subcommittee Chair Present
LCDR Pesce, John Category Day Subcommittee Chair Excused
LCDR Rossiter, Lana Mentoring Subcommittee Chair Present
LCDR Shumate, Alice Career Development Subcommittee Chair Present
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SciPAC Meeting Minutes November 2017 Page 2 of 13
Non-voting Liaisons
Rank Name Role Present
CAPT Elson, Diana COA Liaison Present
CAPT Moffett, Daphne SciPAC Historian Absent
CDR Michelle Tsai PSYPAG Present
CDR Nadra Tyus MOLC Liaison Present
LCDR Halldin, Cara CCWIAB Liaison Excused
LT Jeisy Scott, Victoria JOAG Liaison Present
(Vacant) Civilian Representative
Participation by Non-voting Scientist Officers: CAPT Nelson Adekoya, CAPT Drue Barrett, CAPT Laura Draski, CAPT John Eckert, CAPT Diana Elson, CAPT Aaron Fleischauer, CAPT Rosa Key-Schwartz, CAPT Mary Lawrence, CAPT Michael Murry, CAPT Douglas Thoroughman, CDR Robert Belde, CDR Marco Bennett, CDR Qiao Bobo, CDR Renee Calanan, CDR Dan-My Chu, CDR Chekesha Clingman, CDR Minglei Cui, CDR Timothy Cunningham, CDR Deborah Dee, CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor, CDR Wei Guo, CDR Brian Harcourt, CDR Arlin Hatch, CDR Frank Hershberger, CDR Emily Jentes, CDR James Kenney, CDR Mark Miller, CDR Lara Misegades, CDR Erin Nichols, CDR Ruiqing Pamboukian, CDR Sharyn Brown, CDR Cria Perrine, CDR Kenneth Phillips, CDR Tracy Powell, CDR Kathleen Ruth, CDR Sukhminder Sandhu, CDR Erin Sauber-Schatz, CDR Sharon Saydah, CDR Mark Scheckelhoff, CDR Jacqueline Sram, CDR Emily Streeter, CDR Jacqueline Tate, CDR Michelle Tsai, CDR Nadra Tyus, CDR Jeremy Wally, CDR Matthew Walters, CDR Fei Xu, CDR Ellen Yard, CDR Lauren Zapata, CDR Yi Zhang, LCDR Adam Bjork, LCDR Tajah Blackburn, LCDR Tyann Blessington, LCDR Virginia Bowen, LCDR Israel Cross, LCDR Elizabeth Edwards, LCDR Rory Geyer, LCDR Iram Hassan, LCDR Brooke Hoots, LCDR Gwendolyn Hudson, LCDR Shane Jack, LCDR Eric Jamoom, LCDR Jean Ko, LCDR Juan Lacayo, LCDR Jonathan Leshin, LCDR Terrence Lo, LCDR Neali Lucas, LCDR Shiny Mathew, LCDR Jorge Muniz-Ortiz, LCDR Eduardo O'Neill La Luz, LCDR Cesar Perez, LCDR Sara Pulliam, LCDR Luz Rivera, LCDR Leslie Rivera-Rosado, LCDR Alison Sheehan-Laufer Halpin, LCDR Scott Steffen, LCDR Angela Thompson-Paul, LCDR Tyson Volkmann, LCDR Shondelle Wilson-Frederick, LCDR Marcienne Wright, LCDR Julia Zucco, LT Francis Annor, LT Jennifer Beauregard, LT Jonathan Burgos, LT Debra Chen, LT Sharoda Dasgupta, LT Samantha Dimisa, LT Bradley Goodwin, LT Carolyn Herzig, LT Roberta Horth, LT Michelle Hughes, LT Victoria Jeisy-Scott, LT Michelle Johnson, LT Ruth Link-Gelles, LT Mary Puckett, LT Kelly Shaw, LT Jessica Tomov, LT Tanesha Tutt, LT Teresa Wang, LT Lindsay Womack, and LT Marissa Zwald Excused Absences of non-voting Scientist Officers: CAPT Karon Abe, CDR Andrea Mccollum, CDR Maroya Walters, LCDR Joanna Gaines, LCDR Cara Halldin, LCDR Kelsy Hoffman, LCDR Matthew Lozier, LCDR Leigh Miller, LCDR Erin Parker, LCDR Xinzhi Zhang, LT Patrick High, LT Alaine Knipes, LT Hilda Razzaghi, and LT Colleen Scott
Call to Order and Welcome: CDR Jennifer Thomas (CDR Robin Toblin on excused absence).
Report from the CPO: CAPT Martin Sanders
o Watch out for readiness status in new systems, especially if eligible for promotion. Readiness
checks are conducted at the end of December and end of March. If you are marked as “Not
Ready” and are having trouble contacting a DCCPR representative, ensure that everything is
documented. Go to old CCRF website to obtain readiness form if necessary.
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SciPAC Meeting Minutes November 2017 Page 3 of 13
o New CPOs have been selected for SciPAC and other categories. Will have more details within
upcoming weeks.
o Challenges with eCorps appear to be improving.
Report from the Chair: CDR Robin Toblin
o CDR Toblin is due to have her first child at the beginning of January. CDR Thomas is ready to take
over duties as needed.
o Please consider submitting a self-nomination for the Responder of the Year award, now due
December 1. We would like to see a high turnout for this award.
o Also consider submitting an abstract for Category Day. We have more slots than ever available
due to the SciTalk format and those who are speaking are more likely to receive funding to
attend from their agency. We also want to ensure a high quality agenda for all attendees!
o Thank you to the Recruitment and Retention Subcommittee, and particularly, CDR Purfield, who
rapidly screened 85 candidates, not all of whom we received documentation for at one time. 32
applicants were put forth for the next stage of the process.
o We learned from the EIS program that the incoming class of 2018 will not have any PHS officers
in it due to a decreased budget and the higher cost per officer relative to a fellow. This is a
change for the first time in decades. Historically, EIS has made up the largest proportion of our
CADs and especially in the last few years when direct commissioning has become more
challenging. Our R&R SC will work with the EIS program to try and convert those EIS officers who
stay in federal service following the program.
o Finally, the Scientist category gives a hearty thanks to CAPT Sanders who has served as our CPO
for the last 4 and a quarter years. While it would have been easy for him to fade into the
woodwork these last few months, his advocacy for our category and officers has stayed as
strong as ever. He has helped countless officers in our category behind the scenes (reviewing
upwards of 100 officers' promotion and awards packages a year) and has relayed our needs up
through DCCPR and OSG. We thank him for his service to our category and look forward to his
transition with the new soon-to-be-announced CPO.
Report from Vice Chair: CDR Jennifer Thomas
o (No update as Vice Chair)
Executive Secretary Report: CDR Loren Rodgers
o We are working on a new procedure that will automatically create a daily digest of listserv
messages. If you would like to try this, visit https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa.exe?SUBED1=USPHS-
SCIENTIST&A=1 to change your settings. You might need to create a password if you have not
already done so. Select subscription type “Digest (HTML format).” If your agency email system
does not allow HTML-formatted email, then “Digest (traditional)” or “Digest (MIME format).”
o Email CDR Loren Rodgers ([email protected]) if you’d like to reserve the SciPAC conference
line.
COF Liaison Report: LCDR Jason Wilken
o The current SciPAC balance is $1941.42, an increase of $405.00 from last month.
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SciPAC Meeting Minutes November 2017 Page 4 of 13
o PAC funds come from sale of merchandise and individual donations. This year, we are piloting
using social events for fundraising for PAC activities. Any officer interested in hosting a social
event should contact Visibility Chair CDR Kamil Barbour ([email protected]).
o Reminder to all subcommittees, funds are available to support PAC activities. The funding
request form is located at https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/documents/scipac-request-for-
funding.pdf. Send completed forms to [email protected]
o Email [email protected] for information on esprit de corps items.
Subcommittee Reports
o Awards: CDR Seth Green; Co-chairs: CDR Jennifer Adjemian, LCDR Leigh Ann Miller
– Responder of the Year Deadline for nominations has been extended to December 1st.
The period of performance remains the same. Please consider nominating if you know
of a deserving officer.
– Awards subcommittee is creating an Awards Matrix of timelines and deadlines.
– Potential award reviewers will be contacted beginning with the Responder of the Year
Award.
– Awards SOP is in under revision.
o Career Development: LCDR Alice Shumate; Co-Chairs: CAPT Mark Clayton, LCDR Tajah Blackburn
(Report given by CAPT Mark Clayton)
– Thanks to all of the officers who volunteered to review CVs and OS’s as part of the
SciPAC CV/OS review service! We have sent officer documents out for review in the past
24 hours. Please look for those documents, confirm receipt of them, and try to get your
reviews completed in the next two weeks.
– Officers who submitted documents for the CV/OS review service: if you did not receive
an email confirming that your documents have gone out for a review, please email me
as soon as possible so that we can check on your documents ([email protected]).
– We are making plans to launch the new Scientist job list soon! We are still looking for
volunteers to work as part of this team as subject matter experts, including
psychologists, laboratorians, epidemiologists, toxicologists, and scientists who work in
program management. If you’re interested in acting as an SME and identifying relevant
jobs, please contact us!
o Category Day: LCDR John Pesce; Co-Chair: CDR Eric Zhou
– Key Note Speaker Team led by CDRs Miller Mark, Qiao Bobo, and Loren Rodger has
identified the priority list of potential speakers. The team is coordinating with CDR
Deborah Dee, who is the Co-chair of the Category Day Planning Subcommittee of the
general conference, so the keynote speaker for the general conference does not conflict
with the keynote speaker for SciPAC Category Day.
– The Abstract Team led by CDR Deborah Dee has only received 2 abstracts so far. We
really encourage officers to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to share your
knowledge and experience in leadership, career development, deployment as described
in the announcement.
o Mentoring: LCDR Lana Rossiter; Co-Chair: CAPT Tony Satterfield, CDR Tracy MacGill
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SciPAC Meeting Minutes November 2017 Page 5 of 13
– Mentor Matching:
o In the last month, the team has made 4 new mentor-mentee matches, and two
existing agreements have been renewed. Three matches are currently pending
and there was one new mentor volunteer. If any officers have been recently
promoted to O-5 or O-6 and are not currently mentoring a junior officer, please
consider volunteering.
o The Mentor Matching Team has established a new email address for submission
of requests for mentors or to volunteer to serve as a mentor and it is:
o The mentor matching team has recently emailed all mentors and mentees with
active agreements to confirm that records are accurate and up to date. If you
have not received and email and you believe you have an active mentoring
relationship through SciPAC, please contact CDR Deborah Dee ([email protected])
( or call 770-337-3197) and CDR Ted Garnett ([email protected]) or
the Gmail address.
o Officers can visit the SciPAC website
(https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/mentoring-SC.aspx) for additional
information.
– Mentor Outreach Team: The team is working on summaries of 4 topics for mentors to
initiate conversations with their mentees. The guides would be distributed on a
quarterly basis with the first of these topic guides to be distributed to mentors shortly.
The team is currently editing documents based upon subcommittee leadership feedback.
– Category Day: The team is tentatively planning on hosting at least two mentoring
activities for the 2018 Category Day. The team is considering hosting an interactive
panel as well as a more personal interactive group or one-on-one event. The team will
be working with the Category Day Subcommittee on obtaining optimum slots in the
agenda for these events.
– Mentoring Guidebook: The team is currently completing an update to the guidebook
and will finalize in the next month or two and be posted to the website. Additional
updates will be made next calendar year to include updated CV guidance and eCorps
system information once information on those topics is completed.
– Agency Focused Mentoring: The Agency Focused Mentoring team is currently working
on a survey to be sent to all Agency Specific Mentors and working on a document
outlining expectations of the mentors.
o Policy: CDR Jessica Chiaruttini; Co-Chair: CAPT Mike Smith, LCDR Adam Bjork
– Policy SC has formed all teams and found leadership for each team. This year we will be
providing “Cliff notes” for policy topics of interest. If you have a topic you would like
nominate, please email CDR Jessica Chiaruttini ([email protected]).
– Draft SciPAC Social media policy is under revision.
– Last month two new issuances were posted on CCMIS. Promotion precept weights and
Exceptional Proficiency Promotion (EPP).
The promotion precept weights included the promotion board weights
previously included in the 2018 SciPAC Benchmarks. Readiness still carries no
weight (0%) but the promotion boards will begin reviewing readiness history in
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SciPAC Meeting Minutes November 2017 Page 6 of 13
PY2018. The readiness information will be reviewed and the boards “may use
this information as a factor in the score for professional contribution and
services to the Corps and career progression and potential, as well as the overall
recommendation for promotion.” Those two categories are 25% (career
progression) and 15% (service) each. There is a gradual increase in the readiness
history reviewed by the board and starting in PY2022 the board will review the
previous 5 years readiness history.
EPP issuance added new requirements to the EPP process. Officers who are not
basic ready every quarter for the past (fiscal) year will be removed from the
eligibility list sent to the Agencies by DCCPR. For this year, officers had to be
basic ready from Oct 1, 2016 – Oct 1, 2017. If they were not, they were removed
from the eligible list. Officers must have 5 and 9 years of active duty service as
an officer in the Corps for a nomination to the O-5 and O-6 grades, respectively.
This is in addition to the Time in Grade requirements that have always been in
place. An officer nominated for an EPP and subsequently promoted is required
to remain stationed at the Agency that nominated them for a period not less
than 1 year from the effective date of promotion. (Side note – be aware, most
EPPs are effective on 7/1 of the promotion year, but in some cases, the effective
date is later based on when the officer meets the TIG criteria. So theoretically, if
you were nominated in Dec 2017, successful at the Spring 2018 boards, but
didn’t pin on until April 1, 2019 you would not be eligible to transfer agencies
until April 2020).
Question from the 07 November 2017 call: Are officers required to remain at
the Agency or within the same work group?
Answer: “An officer nominated for an EPP and subsequently promoted is
required to remain stationed at the OPDIV/STAFFDIV or non-HHS organization
that nominated the officer for the EPP for a period of not less than 1 year from
the effective date of promotion.” Based on this response the officer should
remain within the same staffing position for 1 year.
o Readiness: LCDR Elizabeth Irvin-Barnwell; Co-Chairs: CAPT Dominic Frasca, LCDR Tyann
Blessington
– Response preparedness: Reviewed our workgroup’s objectives. The most pressing order
of business: upcoming Dec 5 seminar, will be on pre-deployment planning/packing. Next
seminar will be on roles of Scientists on deployment teams The list of seminar ideas are
below, but ideas for other response preparedness seminars not on this list are also
welcome
1. Pre-deployment resilience training
2. Pre-deployment planning prep (getting all your documents in order, resources
to leave with family/friends, etc)
3. Pre-deployment packing/go-bags
4. Avoiding deployment burn-out
5. Post-deployment re-integration
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SciPAC Meeting Minutes November 2017 Page 7 of 13
– One additional item that we are working on is highlighting the Scientist officers who
have recently deployed or are currently deployed.
Officer Mission Notes
David
Huang
Irma and
Maria
Deployed to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the response to
Hurricanes Irma and Maria from September 8 – 29
Cara
Hallidin
Irma and
Maria
I just returned from deployment in Florida (most of the
time spent in Miami) as part of PHS-1. I served on the
command staff as Safety Officer and fulfilled preventive
medicine roles as far as epi and infection control
Nadra Tyus Harvey and
Irma
I deployed with RDF-5 for both Hurricanes Harvey
(Houston, Tx) and Irma (FL) during August 25 –
September 15, 2017.
Alice
Shumate
Hurricane
response
Deployed to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the response to
Hurricane Maria
John Pesce Hurricane
response
Deployed to Puerto Rico
Neil
Bonzagni
Hurricane
response
Deployed to Puerto Rico
Tyann
Blessington
Hurricane
Response
Deployed to Puerto Rico
Elizabeth
Irvin-
Barnwell
Hurricane
response
Deployed to Puerto Rico
– Frasca, Dominic: Hurricanes—activated FDA EOC 24August to present (Hurricanes
Harvey, Irma and Maria)
– Health Scientists Bulletin: put together the November issue and sent it over to CDR
Rodgers on Monday so it should be hitting the SciPAC listserv soon. This month, we
included our usual sections of healthy living tips, upcoming physical activity
opportunities, and a research review for National Diabetes Month plus an extra section
recognizing a recent group APFT in AK.
– Health Optimization workgroup:
– Met with representatives from the Dietician PAC to discuss the use of the dietician PAC
weight management modules for a group. They are currently developing a similar
weight loss/weight control support group for FDA which is slated to begin in
January. Shared ideas about structure of the groups, format of lessons. Dietician PAC
reps were very supportive of our initiative and will work with us to have a Dietician
present on calls to respond to questions.
– Workgroup teleconference call held on Friday 10/27. Discussed workgroup objectives,
groundwork done so far, and dietician PAC modules for first support group cohort.
– Next workgroup teleconference: Thursday 11/30, 12-1pm. Please contact Angela
Thompson-Paul ([email protected]) for more information if interested
– The Scientist category won second place in the SG 5K run on June 9th.
o Recruitment and Retention: CDR Anne Purfield; Co-Chairs: CDR Qiao Bobo, LCDR Erika Odom.
Update provided by LCDR Erika Odom.
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SciPAC Meeting Minutes November 2017 Page 8 of 13
– There was no OBC in October
– OBC Snapshot
EIS Open Federal Total
OBC 86 2 1 0 3
OBC 87 5 1 1 7
OBC 88 1 0 0 1
OBC 89 4 0 0 4
OBC 90 4 0 1 5
OBC 91 5 0 0 5
OBC 92 0 0 2 2
OBC 93 0 1 1 2
OBC 94 0 0 0 0
OBC 95 0 0 1 1
OBC 96 0 0 1 1
OBC 97 4 0 2
Total 25 3 9 37
There are 5 boarded officers looking for a job in the Google Group
Provided information to 2 applicants.
Added 0 applicants to Google Forms (candidate pool)
Added 1 members to Google Group (boarded applicant pool)
Added 0 officers to Google Group
Reviewed 18 open-enrollment candidates
– Resources:
Google Forms https://goo.gl/forms/1KKNha2AdSV0AiCk1
Google Group https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/scipac-recruitment
– Open Enrollment
We received 85 complete preliminary applications in October from the open
enrollment period in September. A scoring rubric was developed by SciPAC
leadership to identify applicants who would have the greatest chance of
succeeding in obtaining a 1662 form and position at an HHS Agency as well as
becoming a strong Scientist officer dedicated to public health service. Seven
teams of four reviewers assessed each application and scored each application
according to the rubric. The scores were provided to SciPAC leadership for all
85 applicants and SciPAC leadership determined a cutoff value. Thirty-two of 85
were invited to submit full applications to be reviewed by the Scientist
appointment board, medical board and receive security evaluation. We’d like to
thank the dedicated reviewers who prioritize this review in an expeditious
manner.
– Peer Support Network (rebranded from peer mentoring) (LT Colleen Scott/LT Sharoda
Dasgupta/LT Rebecca Levine/ LCDR Folasade Kembi)
Team revised/developed an email announcement, flyer introducing the SciPAC
Peer Support Network, application materials for both experienced officers and
new CADs.
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SciPAC Meeting Minutes November 2017 Page 9 of 13
Email announcement was sent out to all Scientist officers via the SciPAC listserv
Individual announcements are being sent out to all the recent OBC graduates in
case they have not yet signed up for the SciPAC listserv
Team will begin the matching process in November
– New CAD Seminars (LT Ruth Link-Gells/LTSharoda Dasgupta/LT Hilda Razzaghi/LCDR
Shondelle Wilson-Frederick)
The next New CAD Seminar is scheduled for November 28, 2017 at 10:30am and
will cover the benefits and perks of Commissioned Corps (e.g., VA home loans).
Please email LT Ruth Link-Gelles at [email protected] to be added to the email list.
– Resource Team (LCDR Erin Parker/LT Tyson Volkmann/LCDR Jonathan Leshin)
Resource team reviewed resources from prior years and determine a plan for
making updates, starting with the top 10 tips, which we hope will be a useful
resource for all officers.
– Separation Survey (CDR David Huang/LCDR Erin Parker/LT Rory Geyer/ LCDR Julia Zucco)
The Separation Survey Team met to discuss past accomplishments, new
objectives for the current operational year, and next steps. Our primary next
step is to develop an exit interview for three officers who completed the
separation survey this summer and agreed to a more in depth conversation.
Development of questions for this interview will begin in November.
o Rules and Membership: CDR Jennifer Thomas; Co-Chair: LCDR Eric Jamoom
– The SciPAC Charter was approved by the OSG on October 18, and is posted to the
Max.Gov page entitled “Governing Documents” and to the SciPAC website’s “About
SciPAC” and Rules and Membership SC pages.
– LCDR Eric Jamoom is leading LCDRs Ginny Bowen and Iman Martin to revise the SciPAC
SOP. Thanks to CDR James Kenney for his thoughtful review. Executive Board will
discuss the revisions next Wed.
– A revised version of the SC SOP submission schedule was posted to SciPAC’s Max.Gov
page entitled “SC SOP Submission for EB Review and Approval”. This version has only
one minor change, allowing for the Readiness SC SOP to be reviewed prior to the
December holidays this year. Thank you to the Readiness SC for submitting their SOP
for review. We would like to remind all EB members to submit their comments and
edits on the Readiness SC SOP by next Friday, 11/17.
o Science: CDR David Huang, Co-chair: LCDR Jean Ko
– As part of our regular updates, we have a few leadership and structural changes to
announce. First of all, a special thank you to LCDR Keisha Houston for serving as the
Science SC’s new website liaison!
– Bibliography and Publications Team (CDR Andrea Sharma/LCDR Folasade Kembi): Our
Bibliography and Publications Team is transitioning from CDR Andrea Sharma to LCDR
Folasade Kembi. LCDR Houston will be working with the website SC to publish the final
bibliographies for 2014 and 2015 and draft bibliography for 2016 to the SciPAC website
shortly. An email to the SciPAC listserv will be sent once these documents are published,
and edits to the 2016 draft document will be accepted through January 31, 2018.
– Journal Club Team (LCDR Cesar Perez): No updates
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SciPAC Meeting Minutes November 2017 Page 10 of 13
– Science and Practice Team (LCDR Ginny Bowen): The Science and Practice Team is
hosting its last seminar of the 2017 calendar year on Tuesday, November 14—that’s
next Tuesday—at 12:00pm Eastern Time. CAPT Mike Murry, a Psychologist officer in the
scientist category, will be speaking about the Bureau of Prisons’ BRAVE Program and the
evolution of psychologists’ roles in the BOP. Calendar invitations with webinar
instructions have been sent to all members of the SciPAC listserv. PowerPoint slides will
be distributed the day before the presentation for those unable to utilize a webinar
platform.
– In January 2018, our Journal Club and Science and Practice Teams will be combining to
form a Research and Practice Team, with webinars alternating between what were
formerly Journal Club and Science and Practice webinars, every other month (for a total
of 6 webinars a year rather than 12). LCDR Cesar Perez has agreed to lead this
combined team.
– Surgeon General’s Priorities Team (CDR Kanta Sircar): Our NPS Team is expanding its
reach to include all of the Surgeon General’s Priorities, including the NPS. As such, it is
being renamed the Surgeon General’s Priorities Team. CDR Kanta Sircar is the new lead
for this team.
o Visibility: CDR Kamil Barbour; Co-Chair: CDR Tim Cunningham, LCDR John Leshin
– Scientist Newsletter Team: The newsletter team thanks everyone who contributed
articles for our upcoming edition. The team is currently working on final revision steps
and should be ready to publish the Fall 2017 Edition by the end of this month. A call for
articles for the Winter edition will be announced shortly.
– Atlanta Socials: On Saturday, October 14, Atlanta-area Scientists met up on the Eastside
Beltline trail. In total six Scientist Officers attended. Officers walked on the Beltline and
enjoyed brunch together at Krog Street Market.
Attention all Atlanta area Scientists! Please join SciPAC’s Visibility and
Recruitment, Readiness, & Retention Subcommittees as we co-host a Scientist
Social during the EISO Fall Course. Current and former EISOs as well as all other
Scientist Officers are invited. The event will take place on Wednesday,
November 15, 2017, beginning at 1730 at Mo’s Pizza. The address is 3109
Briarcliff Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30329. For a complete menu, please visit
http://www.mospizzaatlantaga.com/.
If you plan to attend, please RSVP to LCDR Hollis at [email protected] by Friday,
November 10, 2017. However, feel free to drop by at the last minute if you find
you have time. If you have any questions, please contact LCDR Hollis.
– DC Socials: The DC Area Social team hosted its first event of the year on Saturday
October 28th with our first (hopefully annual) Halloween Party. It was hosted by CDR
Adjemian and Toblin at CDR Toblin’s house and had about 35 people in attendance. If
you have photos from the event, please upload them to the Facebook page to the
album section. IF you are interested in helping plan next years (never too early to start
planning) please let LCDR Leshin know.
– Manuscripts Highlight: The Manuscripts Highlight Team has a strong team of 9 officers
this year. They will be actively collaborating with the Science Subcommittee this year to
help identify officer publications, and to promote noteworthy or high-impact
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SciPAC Meeting Minutes November 2017 Page 11 of 13
publications across the Scientist category. The team lead LT Teresa Wang is still in the
stages of standardizing the manuscripts search process for the upcoming year with CDR
David Huang and LCDR Jean Ko from the Science subcommittee.
– Communications:
Social Media:
Facebook group is up to 130 members
This month, we’ve used it to promote the DC area SciPAC Halloween
party, the SciPAC newsletter, an MMWR authored by a Scientist Officer,
the CV review initiative, and give updates on IDWeek.
Symposium Poster:
The Symposium theme has just been announced and the relevant data
collection has begun. A poster abstract will be drafted next.
– Conferences: ID Week. Seven Scientist officers presented on a range of topics, from
group A Strep outbreaks, to mathematical modeling, to Zika testing and more. Scientist
Officers met up at the EIS Alumni networking event and to take a group picture. It was a
great opportunity to learn what Scientist Officers do across the country, from Alaska to
DC, to Atlanta
– SciPAC Historian: Created list of all living former SciPac CPOs and I am in the process of
identifying contact information. The initial plan is to reach out and chat with these folks
about their involvement in the PAC and identify other POCs and artifacts.
– DC PACE: No events in October
– ATL PACE: No events in October
o Website: LCDR Oliver Ou; Co-Chair: LCDR Xinzhi Zhang
– See attached Website Change Request Form.
– CDR Sukhminder Sandhu has been appointed as the Career Development Subcommittee
website liaison.
– The October meeting minutes has been posted on our SciPAC website.
– In October, we created a webpage for Readiness Subcommittee, which is a new
subcommittee and chaired by LCDR Elizabeth Irvin-Barnwell, with CAPT Dominic Frasca
and LCDR Tyann Blessing serving as Co-Chairs. There are currently seven workgroups on
the Readiness Subcommittee that provide a variety of readiness and response-related
initiatives and resources. All these information is on its webpage so please check it out.
– We also uploaded the new 2017 SciPAC Charter replacing the old one on our website.
– As a reminder, each subcommittee needs to select a liaison to the Website SC. Please
submit the person your SC selected to LCDR Oliver Ou and LCDR Xinzhi Zhang. The
liaison will have several important responsibilities such as submitting all
events/deadlines for your SC, making sure the webpage for your SC is up to date,
providing announcements that you'd like to see on the homepage, and ensuring any
documents that your SC submitted to post are 508 compliance. We will train the liaisons
on how to check 508 compliance.
– One officer was asking if Team Leads can be listed on our SciPAC webpage. After
consulting our SciPAC leadership, we are happy to list your subcommittee’s Team Leads.
Please update your SC webpage and submit for posting if you would like.
DRAFT
SciPAC Meeting Minutes November 2017 Page 12 of 13
– Finally, any subcommittee is welcome to contact LCDR Oliver Ou
([email protected]) or LCDR Xinzhi Zhang ([email protected]) regarding
materials they wish to post; if any officer finds an error or broken link on the SciPAC
website, please contact LCDR Ou or LCDR Zhang.
Liaison Reports
o COA: CAPT Diana Elson
COA staff met with Maj. Gen. (ret.) Mark Inch, the new Director of the Federal Bureau of
Prisons to discuss the treatment of PHS officers assigned to the BOP. RADM Chris Bina,
USPHS, attended the meeting.
COA staff participated along with The Military Coalition’s Health Care Committee in a
meeting with Defense Health Agency officials. The topic of concern: Tricare changes,
soon to take effect, that are confusing, counter-intuitive, and costly. The Health Care
Committee recommended a protest letter to Congress, and a draft is circulating.
o JOAG: LT Victoria Jeisy Scott
– JOAG released their End of Year Accomplishments Report for 2016-2017 (see attached).
– JOAG provides junior officers with opportunities for networking, skillset enhancement,
and leadership. For these reasons, this operational year is themed- “Building Bridges and
Breaking Down Silos”! If you would like to volunteer for a position, please visit our
website and see what committee(s) may interest you most and reach out to the point of
contact directly within the attached PDF.
– The next Journeyman Speaker Series presentation will be on Friday, November 17th, 2017
at 1300-1400 EST. CAPT Candace Handler with be presenting on Building Relationships
Across a Large Organization. Dial-in: 1-302-202-1106. Code: 825385
– The current JO Voice discussion topic is: Mentoring. All responses to inquiries received
will be compiled and distributed via the JOAG listserv; highlights will be discussed during
the December 8th JOAG General Member Meeting. Dial-in: 641-715-3580. Code: 131583#
o PSYPAG: CDR Michelle Tsai
– 2017 HSPAC psychology review process completed, and we reviewed 23 applications.
HSPAC is currently working on certificates of appreciation for all application reviewers.
– We are working on the end of year report for HSPAC and will share the report with
SciPAC at next monthly meeting
– PsyPAG is open for the call for 2018 PsyPAG Executive Board nominations, which
includes the Chair Elect, Vice Chair of PAC Affairs, and Executive Secretary.
Other Business, Questions, Comments
o Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC): CDR Nadra Tyus
The MOLC Survey that sought input from Chartered Minority Advisory Group (CMAG)
membership on MOLC’s six specific focus areas has now closed. Responses were
received from 193 Officers of the four CMAGs. The data was analyzed and MOLC is now
using the results to develop recommendations for the MOLC strategic plan. These
recommendations will be submitted to the Office of the Surgeon General.
DRAFT
SciPAC Meeting Minutes November 2017 Page 13 of 13
MOLC will participate in the 126th Annual AMSUS Meeting from 28 November – 1
December 2017 at the Gaylord National Harbor in Maryland. The theme for this year’s
meeting is “Force Health Protection: From Battlefront to Homefront.” There will also be
a call for volunteers to escort foreign dignitaries who will be attending the conference.
AMSUS PHS Social – Wednesday, November 29, 2017 @ 1830 EDT
o Where: Cadillac Ranch, 186 Fleet Street, National Harbor Oxon Hill, MD
20745
o For More Information, please contact (CDR Patricio Garcia
The next MOLC meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 28, 2017 from 2-4pm
Eastern Time.
If you have any questions about the CMAGs or are interested in joining one of the
CMAGs, please email CDR Nadra Tyus at [email protected].
o Commissioned Corps Women's Issues Advisory Board (CCWIAB): LCDR Cara Halldin
– No updates to report.
Closing Remarks: CDR Robin Toblin
o Our next SciPAC call will be 5 December 2017.
NOTE: Next meeting Tuesday, 5 December 2017 @ 1200–1300 EDT
