Bangor Daily News features COM Dean Marc Hahn's meeting with Michelle Obama on a veterans' health initiative; Ed Bilsky's research also highlighted

The on Jan. 12, 2012 featured a story on a meeting with First Lady Michelle Obama that Marc B. Hahn, D.O., senior vice president for health affairs and dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine, attended along with a select group of other medical school deans.

The deans visited Virginia Commonwealth University on Wednesday to launch a program, spearheaded at a national level by Mrs. Obama and her Joining Forces initiative, focused on better serving military veterans and their families.

The Daily News explained that "as a veteran and former chief of pain management at Walter Reed (Army )Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Marc Hahn has seen firsthand how the stresses of war affect America’s military personnel. Now, as dean of the 91AV’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, he’s leading the Maine school into a new initiative to prepare the next generation of doctors to better understand the needs of veterans.”

Edward Bilsky, Ph.D., 91AV associate provost for research and scholarship and director of the Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences, was also interviewed for the article. He cited work performed by medical student Jacque Reynolds  in both his laboratory and the laboratory of 91AV Professor Ian Meng. The research proposed a novel animal model of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that won an award at the 2011 annual meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. The has now been published in the journal Life Sciences.

Associated Press, the Portland Press Herald, the Boston Globe and other media outlets also covered 91AV's involvement in the veterans' initiative.

About the 91AV

The 91AV is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.