Tag: University of Vermont

Two University of Vermont-affiliated research teams have been awarded SPARK-VT grants by the university to help commercialize their work and move it a step closer to the marketplace.

UVM Ph.D. alumnus Ryan McDevitt; his doctoral advisor, Darren Hitt, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences; and Patrick Lee, an assistant professor in the department, won for the cost-effective propulsion system for small satellites they have developed, which is poised to address the coming revolution in the miniaturized satellite market. A second team, led by Jason Botten, an assistant professor of medicine in UVM’s Larner College of Medicine, was recognized for its work to create the first therapeutic for preventing and treating a life-threatening disease caused by hantaviruses.

At UVM’s annual SPARK-VT competition, faculty pitch their commercialization ideas to a panel of experts who challenge them with questions, then deliberate in private before announcing the winning teams, who each receive a $50,000 award.  

“Congratulations to both teams for submitting high quality entries that have a great deal of promise,” said Richard Galbraith, UVM’s vice president for research. “This year, as in past years, the winning projects show a high degree of sophistication, both in their underlying science and in their grasp of the realities of the marketplace.”   

“The growth of SPARK-VT from one participating department in 2012 to 14 today is evidence that a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship is taking root at UVM,” said UVM provost David Rosowsky. “Each year, we see a growing number of faculty interested in commercialization of their work. By providing strong support mechanisms for translating their work into commercial application, we will continue to be able to attract outstanding faculty working in areas with the greatest potential for commercialization and societal impact. This year’s winners, and our previous SPARK-VT winners, demonstrate the power and the potential of this important element of our academic ecosystem.”

The project proposed by McDevitt, Hitt and Lee outlines their plan to develop a precision, cost-effective microthruster for small satellites that will enable them to make small adjustments to their position and orientation in orbit. The work complements a project the team received a SPARK-VT award for last year. That proposal was focused on a high-performance thruster for small satellites that would allow them to transfer into new orbits (or de-orbit at end-of-life). Both microthruster projects are being developed by a company co-founded by McDevitt called Benchmark Space Systems (formerly GreenScale Technologies). One of the largest technical challenges facing constellations of small satellites is the ability to maintain relative orientation, a $1 billion market opportunity within the emerging $6 billion small satellite market.

Botten, who has studied hantaviruses for more than 20 years, has assembled an international multidisciplinary team of virologists, clinicians, immunologists and industry partners to develop an effective therapeutic against cardiopulmonary syndrome caused by hantaviruses (HCPS), for which there are no FDA-approved treatment options or vaccines. Their therapy has the potential to be a first-line antiviral for the treatment or prevention of hantavirus disease in the Americas.  Climate change has brought rodent populations into closer contact with humans, increasing the risk of infection with hantavirus. HCPS is responsible for killing roughly 40 percent of afflicted patients.

SPARK-VT is designed to help bridge the divide between research and the marketplace by bringing promising researchers together with business innovators and biotech leaders. The program offers frequent workshops to faculty interested in commercializing their research on topics ranging from intellectual property to market analysis to the art of the pitch. A select group of faculty who’ve submitted SPARK proposals are invited to make presentations to a panel of 12 leaders from biotech, pharmaceutical, business, engineering, finance and legal fields. Panel members ask questions, challenge presenters on the details of their plans and offer suggestions. The $50,000 seed funding comes from UVM’s Office of the Vice President for Research and Office of the Provost.

Since its launch in 2012, SPARK-VT has funded 16 faculty proposals. It has spawned two start-up companies with three more in development and has been a factor in prompting faculty to submit 18 grant applications in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs of the federal government. Half of the proposals were funded, a high rate of success. 

Source: UVM News

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation has awarded a three-year, $1.8 million grant to James J. Hudziak, a professor of child psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, to determine if the UVM Wellness Environment, or WE, in concert with a health promotion and disease prevention app he developed will promote wellness among college students, in the process reducing their use of alcohol and other drugs.

The grant will also be used to test the effectiveness of the S-BI-RT (for screening/brief intervention/referral to treatment) model designed to help students who are abusing alcohol and other drugs adopt healthier behaviors.    

“We’re grateful to the Hilton Foundation for supporting the University of Vermont’s deep commitment to promoting health and wellbeing in college students during a period in their lives when their developing brains put them at risk,” Hudziak said. “Our hope is that the research program will provide educators around the country with evidence they’ll find useful in promoting health and reducing alcohol and drug use on their own campuses.”

“We are pleased to partner with the University of Vermont Foundation to strengthen the evidence regarding the value of integrating SBIRT into a student wellness community,” said Alexa Eggleston, senior program officer at the Hilton Foundation. “We are confident that this work will help promote health and wellness and reduce youth substance use in the university environment.”

The UVM Wellness Environment is an incentivized health promotion, substance-free community located in two UVM residence halls that motivates students to engage in a range of healthy behaviors and requires them to take a neuroscience course taught by Larner College of Medicine faculty showing the impact of healthy and unhealthy behaviors on the brain. 

Hudziak launched the WE program two years ago. Its enrollment has grown from 120 in the fall of 2015 to over 1,200 today.

The WE app, initially developed for participants in the WE community, enables students to benefit from a series of health promotion activities in mindfulness, yoga, fitness, nutrition, hydration and sleep. It also includes a nightly survey that captures information about their daily habits – how much they slept, exercised, meditated; how healthy their food choices were; if they used alcohol, other drugs or cigarettes and in what quantity; and how much time they spent on the Internet, for example. The survey also asks students to note their dominant mood of the day. Students use their iPhones to take the survey.

The study will compare a sample of 1,000 students living in WE using the app with 1,000 UVM undergraduates using it who are not in the program.

The study has two goals, Hudziak said. For the first group, it will test the effectiveness of the WE program in concert with the app in promoting greater student engagement in health, potentially reducing their use of alcohol and other drugs as a result. For the non-WE students, it will gauge the effectiveness of the app alone in achieving those objectives.   

The results of both groups will also be compared with the overall UVM student population in areas like retention, alcohol and drug violations and grade point average. 

In addition to funding the sophisticated data analysis Hudziak plans, the Hilton Foundation grant will also help support upgrades to the app and help the WE program purchase apparel and other items that are used to incentivize healthy student choices in the program. 

Hudziak is the Thomas M. Achenbach chair of Developmental Psychopathology at UVM’s Larner College of Medicine and is the director of the Vermont Center for Children, Youth, and Families. Known internationally for his work in the psychiatric genetics and developmental neuroimaging of child and adolescent behavior, Hudziak has published over 180 peer-reviewed papers and is the creator of a health promotion and illness prevention treatment program called the Vermont Family Based Approach.

The Conrad Hilton Foundation was created in 1944 by international business pioneer Conrad N. Hilton, who founded Hilton Hotels and left his fortune to help the world’s disadvantaged and vulnerable people. The Foundation currently conducts strategic initiatives in six priority areas: providing safe water, ending chronic homelessness, preventing substance use, helping young children affected by HIV and AIDS, supporting transition-age youth in foster care, and extending Conrad Hilton’s support for the work of Catholic Sisters. In addition, following selection by an independent international jury, the Foundation annually awards the $2 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to a nonprofit organization doing extraordinary work to alleviate human suffering. In 2016, the Humanitarian Prize was awarded to The Task Force for Global Health, an international, nonprofit organization that works to improve health of people most in need, primarily in developing countries. From its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than $1.5 billion in grants, distributing $109 million in the U.S. and around the world in 2016. The Foundation’s current assets are approximately $2.6 billion.

Source: UVM News

A new breed of business student – one more concerned with solving the world’s sustainability issues than just turning a profit – is showing up at MBA programs across the country. These so-called “impact students” have college career counselors reeling when it comes to finding them jobs that don’t fit within the traditional corporate mold.

That’s not the case for the University of Vermont’s one-year Sustainable Entrepreneurship program (SEMBA) in the Grossman School of Business, which is composed of nothing but impact students. Matching graduates with opportunities focused on sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship has been SEMBA’s sole focus since its inception in 2014.

“Traditional MBA programs dedicate maybe one of 10 counselors to deal with these pesky impact students,” says SEMBA Co-Director Stuart Hart, who previously served on the faculties at the University of Michigan, University of North Carolina and Cornell. “This is all we do. We’ve developed a customized system and built the largest, most robust network in this space globally because we’re totally committed to it.”

Hart, a world-renowned expert on how poverty and the environment affect business strategy, and SEMBA Co-Director David Jones plan to launch a new career management system designed to propel students into careers within SEMBA’s condensed 12-month format in renewable energy, clean tech, affordable health care, inclusive business, entrepreneurship within larger companies, start-ups, and other innovative ventures.

Bolstered by a $145,000 gift from Vermont Works, an independent investment firm supporting Vermont’s job and economic development, the new four-phase system called “Launch” will be implemented in time for the SEMBA class of 2017-2018.

Four-phase system designed for SEMBA’s condensed 12-month format  

The initial Discovery phase has students draft a professional vision and identify one of five career pathways: mission-based companies; larger corporations in a sustainability or corporate innovation role; joining or launching a start-up or other venture; impact investing (venture capital or private equity); consulting; or working in a “4th sector” at a non-profit focused on leveraging the private sector in sustainable innovation.

“It’s a systematic approach to help students identify career paths through assessment tools and career counseling starting on day one,” says Jones, a leading scholar on the positive effects of community involvement by employees and sustainable business practices. “Students receive career coaching and attend more than 60 panels and networking events where they are exposed to business leaders and entrepreneurs within this space.”

In the Focus phase, students receive career coaching; mentoring from professionals within the identified pathway; skill development; and begin to hone potential employment opportunities. This includes access to the SEMBA Changemaker Network – an ecosystem of more than 125 companies and individuals focused on sustainable business – and support from SEMBA’s Advisory Board of business leaders and alumni.

The Customize phase has students work with employment experts on tailored job pitches, resumes, personal branding, and a further narrowing of potential employers. Students begin interviewing in the Launch phase often with mission-based or B-Corp certified entities. Some interview with companies they partnered with like Ben & Jerry’s, Seventh Generation and Facebook to complete their SEMBA practicums – a capstone experiential project to address issues such as poverty, climate change, and the environment.

“We’ve created a system whereby individuals can customize their way into a network that increases the possibility that they find something that helps them realize their personal and professional dreams,” says Hart.

SEMBA’s increase in rankings, class size warranted new program   

The need for Launch has increased along with SEMBA’s reputation as one of the nation’s top sustainable entrepreneurship business programs, resulting in an increase in applications. SEMBA was ranked No. 2 on The Princeton Review’s “Best Green MBA” list; made CEO Magazine’s list of top MBA programs in North America; and was ranked the 10th best “Better World” MBA program globally by Corporate Knights. Approximately 35 students are expected to enroll in the SEMBA class of 2017-18, an increase of more than 30 percent over last year’s cohort.

Although Launch won’t be in place until the fall of 2017, some students have benefitted from elements of the program that were already in place. Vinca Krajewski, a 2016 SEMBA graduate and member of SEMBA’s Advisory Board, landed a job at Seventh Generation as an Associate Brand Manager on the Personal Care Team after conducting her practicum with the Burlington-based company.

Caitlin Goss ‘17 enrolled in SEMBA after working at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Bain & Company in hopes of landing a job at a company where she could positively impact the lives of its employees. She was recently hired at Rhino Foods, where she will get that opportunity as Director of Human Resources with a focus on talent and culture.

“One of SEMBA’s greatest strengths are the countless opportunities students have to engage directly with businesses and leaders in this network,” says Goss, who learned about her job opening while on a SEMBA tour of Rhino, owned by UVM alumnus Ted Castle ’74. “The Launch program will give students who are engaged in an intense 12-month program more structure and opportunities to seek out jobs. It will institutionalize the job search process so students have those touch points like I did with Rhino and can follow-up.”

Source: UVM News

The University of Vermont will launch a new season of its popular historic tours on July 1. Led by UVM emeritus professor William Averyt, the free, weekly tours will take place Saturdays from 10 to noon through October 14 (no tour September 9).

Founded in 1791, the fifth oldest university in New England, the University of Vermont boasts both an array of historic buildings, including more than a dozen on the National Register of Historic Places, and a collection of fascinating personalities.

The architectural highlights of the tour include the Old Mill, completed in 1829, whose cornerstone was laid by the Marquis de Lafayette; the Billings Library, completed in 1885, which leading 19th century architect H.H. Richardson considered among his finest buildings; and Grasse Mount, a brick Federal style mansion built in 1804 by a local merchant, which later served as the residence of Vermont governor Cornelius P. Van Ness.

Tour guide Averyt also brings to life the fascinating personalities who animate UVM’s long history. Founder Ira Allen, for instance, was both a revolutionary war hero and sometimes slippery real estate speculator. UVM’s third president, James Marsh, inspired Emerson and Thoreau, invented the modern university curriculum, and made Burlington the intellectual capital of America during the 1820s and 1830s. Professor Royall Tyler, a member of Vermont’s Supreme Court in the 18th century, is said to be the model for the villain of Nathanial Hawthorne’s House of Seven Gables, Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon. And 1879 alumnus John Dewey, whose grave is on campus, is considered one of American’s greatest philosophers.

“UVM’s history is a great story to be sure, but it also resonates with significance,” said Averyt. “Through figures like Marsh and Dewey, the university played an important role in shaping modern American thought.” 

Register for the tour online or call 802-656-8673.

Source: UVM News

Jason Stockwell, an associate professor in the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and director of the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to France to study the impact of storms on lake systems around the world. The announcement was made by the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Stockwell will conduct research at the Freshwater Ecology Lab on Lake Geneva at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, or INRA, a French public research institute. In partnership with a team of investigators at INRA and other institutions, Stockwell will study storm impacts on 25 lakes in Europe, Asia, South America, and North America.

“The research will enable us to put Lake Champlain in context, to see where we are on the spectrum of how storms impact lakes,” Stockwell said. “We’ll contribute to knowledge in this area, but also be able to take new insights from the work and apply them to Lake Champlain.”

Stockwell will conduct the Fulbright research from January to June 2018 while he is on sabbatical. 

“We are very proud of Jason’s accomplishment and recognition as a Fulbright Scholar,” said Rubenstein School Dean Nancy Mathews. “Through his research, he has established himself as an internationally renowned scholar on lake ecology and climate resilience. His leadership of the Rubenstein Laboratory has advanced the ability of faculty and students to engage in transformative research.”

Stockwell is one of over 800 U.S. citizens who will teach, conduct research and/or provide expertise abroad for the 2017-2018 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement as well as record of service and demonstrated leadership in their respective fields.

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to build lasting connections between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program, which operates in over 160 countries worldwide.

Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has given more than 370,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists, and scientists the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas, and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

Fulbrighters address critical global issues in all disciplines, while building relationships, knowledge, and leadership in support of the long-term interests of the United States. Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in many fields, including 57 who have been awarded the Nobel Prize, 82 who have received Pulitzer Prizes, and 37 who have served as a head of state or government.

Source: UVM News

When Ben Teasdale arrives at Stanford’s medical school in the fall of 2018, he’ll throw himself into learning anatomy, genetics, cell biology, and the other critical scientific underpinnings of becoming a competent physician. But Teasdale, a 2015 graduate of UVM’s Honors College, believes there’s another essential component to becoming a great doctor: an understanding of how history and culture are just as much a part of the medical landscape as the science.

To that end, Teasdale will enter medical school with experience as a Fulbright scholar in Nepal, which he just completed, and a master’s in philosophy from Cambridge’s Medicine, Health and Society program, which he begins this year as a Gates Cambridge Scholar — one of the most competitive and generous international scholarships available.

Why the circuitous route around the world and through the humanities for this biochemistry major? “I want to go into medicine more because of what’s problematic than what’s working,” Teasdale says. “In my career, I’m going to see things that will frustrate me if I don’t feel I have the power to change them, and when you’re trying to change something having a foot outside is beneficial. The Gates Cambridge Scholarship program is a lot about giving people this perspective, preparation and support.”

It’s a path that’s been followed before. Neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi, author of the New York Times bestseller When Breath Becomes Air, also graduated from the Cambridge History and Philosophy of Science Department before attending medical school. Inspired by physician authors and their ability to both participate in and observe and document the practice of medicine, Teasdale turned to the bios of writers like Kalanithi, Atul Gawande and Oliver Sacks to see how their path set them on an interdisciplinary approach to medicine.

The art and the science of medicine

Since his first year as a UVM Honors College student in history professor Ian Grimmer’s course “The Pursuit of Knowledge,” Teasdale has kept alive this passion for learning across the sciences and humanities. Even as he was working on a senior thesis in pathology, he was turning to Grimmer as a mentor and taking his upper-level class on “History and Social Theory” alongside history graduate students.

“I was often struck by how well-rounded he is as a thinker,” Grimmer says. “Ben clearly does outstanding work in fields like biochemistry, but he is equally at home in the humanities and social sciences.”

Outside of class, Teasdale spent time as president of MEDVIDA, a UVM community service organization that is devoted to social justice in global public health, education and development.

“At UVM, I got the exposure to these academic areas and a culture of defining solutions or careers or lifestyles in a way that might be off the beaten path,” Teasdale says. “So when I had the time to reflect, I could link those aspects of my UVM experience together.”

Spending 10 months in Nepal, in the village of Chapagaun, teaching English to first-, second- and third-graders, gave Teasdale ample time to reflect. “Lights would go out at 8 p.m.,” he remembers. “I would have hours to read every night and hours to think.” 

“The most important thing that Nepal did was allow me to take a step outside,” says the Williston, Vermont, native. “It gave me the perspective that comes from living with people who don’t have the same background as you.” From that vantage point, he says, it becomes easier to see how systems are at work in our lives.

It’s that outsider perspective that Teasdale hopes to maintain, even as he undergoes the rigorous and demanding training of a medical student. The Fulbright years and the master’s in philosophy, he says, “are going to influence how I attend med school and how I become a physician.”

And with this incredible foundation, Teasdale will enter the medical profession prepared to change it.

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Teasdale found support for his application to the Fulbright program and the Gates Cambridge Scholarship from UVM’s Office of Fellowships Advising. Learn more about this student resource.

Source: UVM News

The Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation (GBIC) has given its highest recognition award to John Evans, special advisor to the University of Vermont president, president of the Vermont Technology Council and former dean of UVM’s Larner College of Medicine.

GBIC presented Evans with the 2017 C. Harry Behney Lifetime Economic Development Achievement Award. The award was made at GBIC’s 63^rd annual meeting on June 21 at the Echo Leahy Center on the Burlington waterfront. Approximately 300 members of the northwest Vermont community attended. 

Given each year since 1995 in honor of past GBIC president C. Harry Behney, the Behney Award recognizes Vermont leaders for their significant contributions to advancing the state’s economic wellbeing and promoting a climate that enhances the economic vitality of the state of Vermont. 

GBIC honored Evans for advancing innovation, entrepreneurship and dynamic economic development in the region and the state. He is one of the founding members of the Vermont Technology Council and is the founder and creator of VCET, the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, where he continues to serve on the VCET Board of Directors. Evans is also a member of the GBIC Board of Directors and is a professor emeritus at the Larner College of Medicine.

“GBIC recognizes Dr. Evans for his incredible leadership in research, innovation and entrepreneurship in our region and in Vermont,” said GBIC president Frank Cioffi. “As the founder of VCET, Dr. Evans blazed the trail to advancing innovation & technology based economic development in our state. We honor and thank Dr. Evans as one of Vermont’s most outstanding leaders in advancing economic development. His contributions have been so transformational to Vermont and Vermonters.”

Source: UVM News

The University of Vermont was one of three institutions of higher education whose work to address high risk drinking and other substance misuse was honored with a Prevention Excellence Award at the ninth annual Campus Prevention Network Summit in Boston on June 12. The award was presented by EVERFI, Inc., a leading technology innovator.  

The Campus Prevention Network is a nationwide initiative of over 1,700 institutions dedicated to creating safer, healthier campus communities.

“While there is more work to do, the clear progress we’ve made in reducing high risk drinking at UVM, an issue that challenges all of higher education, is cause for celebration,” said Tom Sullivan, president of the University of Vermont. “I want to thank our staff, faculty and students for their hard work in bringing this important and prestigious award to our campus.”

To be eligible for the award, colleges and universities in the Campus Prevention Network completed the Alcohol Diagnostic Inventory, a comprehensive research-based assessment of an institution’s prevention programs and practices grounded in a decade of peer-reviewed literature on best practices in prevention.  

Awardees were selected based on their Alcohol Diagnostic Inventory scores, Campus Prevention Network staff interviews with campus professionals and a careful review of each institution’s effort.

The final three awardees were chosen from a field of 85 schools who filled out the ADI – placing UVM among the top 3.5 percent of all those who applied. Villanova University and Endicott College were also honored in the high risk drinking and other substance misuse category.

Combination of programs leads to clear progress

UVM’s efforts to reduce high risk drinking have resulted in progress in a number of areas:

• Binge drinking rates, defined as five drinks for males or four drinks for females within a two-hour period, declined by approximately a third over the last five years.  
• The number of students requiring medical attention as a result of excessive drinking declined by over fifty percent during the same period.
• Calls for service for issues including noise, intoxication and disorderly conduct by the Burlington Police Department to traditionally student neighborhoods declined by one third over the last three years.

“We’ve seen that a combination of factors – including transparency in naming the impact of high risk drinking on the safety, health and successful engagement of our students; determination; and using interventions grounded in science – can result in real progress on this issue,” said Dr. Jon Porter, director of UVM’s Center for Health and Wellbeing.

“While it’s gratifying to see this progress, we’re also clear about the importance of continued focus and hard work over the long term,” Porter said.

Actions UVM has taken over the past five years aimed at reducing high risk drinking include the following, organized by constituent group: 

University-wide

• Joining the National College Health Improvement Project, a group of higher education peers who shared strategies and interventions to reduce high risk drinking.
• Creation of the President’s Committee on Alcohol, Cannabis, and Other Drugs, composed of 70 staff, faculty, students and community partners. The group developed an action plan for addressing drug and alcohol use on campus and established a data collection/analysis infrastructure.

Parents

• Engaging parents in addressing students about the impact of high risk drinking and substance use on the quality of life at college. Parents are informed about high risk drinking as an important issue affecting their student’s safety and engagement and are encouraged to have a conversation with their student about choices related to alcohol.

Students

• Aggressive institution of alcohol-free programming for students during higher risk events/weekends.
• Review and revision of UVM’s judicial sanctions for violation of alcohol/cannabis policy in accord with best educational practices.
• Institution of BASICS (Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students), initially for mandated students and now being used proactively with specific student groups.   
• Reduction of the turnaround time from violation of alcohol policy to adjudication in campus judicial system.
• Institution of universal screening for the misuse of alcohol and other substances (SBIRT) in the University’s primary care office. Placement of a behavioral health position in the primary care office, designed to ensure a “warm handoff” from clinician to further evaluation or referral for treatment.
• Launch of the Wellness Environment in 2014, a substance free on-campus residence hall and learning community that incentivizes healthy student choices. Enrollment has increased from 80 to 1,200. 

Faculty

• Survey and focus groups carried out by dean of the Honors College to assess faculty perspective on alcohol, cannabis and other drug abuse.
• Revision of academic calendar to move reading days to the weekend and assist in maintaining academic focus during finals.

Burlington community

• Mapping of five types of Burlington Police Department “calls for service” related to alcohol in the city’s Area C, where the highest density of students resides. 
• Weekly review of data, visits to residents of problem units, houses, streets by a team consisting of BPD, UVM, code enforcement.
• Communication with landlords of problem units reminding them that they are accountable for issues caused by tenants. 

“With so much recent emphasis on the shortcomings in campus prevention and response efforts, EVERFI aims to shift the narrative by highlighting campuses doing exemplary work,” said Rob Buelow, EVERFI vice president of prevention education.

“The Prevention Excellence Awards give us the opportunity to share and celebrate the tremendous commitment institutions are making and continue to make in comprehensive, data-driven, evidence-based and researched informed prevention efforts to build communities that encourage students to thrive,” he said.

Source: UVM News