Teenager with Visual Impairment Finds Freedom Behind the Wheel and Help From the WesternU Eye Care Institute

Jacob Santiago was born into a car family. He appeared in a car show when he was a couple of weeks old. His grandfather works on cars in a home garage. Jacob began saving money for a car when he was 5.

“One thing I can say about the Santiago-Thomas families is, it’s all about the cars,” Jacob said. “If you have a car you have freedom.”

But Jacob began having vision problems around the age of 12. He was diagnosed with cone-rod dystrophy, a genetic disease that is robbing him of his sight. He also has stationary night blindness, so he has poor vision in low-light situations.

Click here to read the complete story: https://spark.adobe.com/page/M68EkniKb9wmx/

“It was a pure MASH unit”

Dr. Dale Carrison got a phone call, threw on his scrubs and headed to the University Medical Center (UMC) Trauma Center in Las Vegas, knowing he was headed into carnage.

It was shortly after 10 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017 when the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) called College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP) alumnus Carrison, DO ’87, and told him about a mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival in downtown Las Vegas.

Read more of my story here: https://news.westernu.edu/westernu-alum-recounts-trauma-center-scene-following-las-vegas-shooting/

Nymphaea spp. black and white

Department of Physical Therapy Education Alumna Nika Ghassemikia, DPT ’16, teaches WesternU SHPEP students about goniometry

Department of Physical Therapy Education Alumna Nika Ghassemikia, DPT ’16, teaches WesternU SHPEP students about goniometry.  #WesternUSHPEP #SHPEP #Pomona #westernuway #PhysicalTherapy #Goniometer #abc7eyewitness #futurehealthcare @westernu_shpep

A post shared by WesternU (@westernunews) on Jul 12, 2017 at 2:44pm PDT

From OPSC Rookie of the Year to President

From OPSC Rookie of the Year to President As president of Osteopathic Physicians & Surgeons of California (OPSC), Brian Loveless, DO ’02, says the organization will face two major challenges in the coming year: finding continued growth for osteopathic physicians in the single Graduate Medical Education (GME) accreditation system, and determining how looming changes to the Affordable Care Act will affect California.  Loveless, College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP) assistant professor of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine/Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (NMM/ OMM), has been president-elect of OPSC for the past year, and will be installed as president on Feb. 18, 2017, during the group’s 56th annual convention President’s Banquet in San Diego. Task No. 1 for OPSC will be “to make sure that osteopathic physicians retain their distinctiveness while integrating into this new (GME) system,” Loveless said. “Two, what is the Affordable Care Act going to look like over the course of this year? I think we are going to see some fairly rapid changes, because the Republican majority needs to do those changes quickly. How is that going to affect our state?” Loveless, a COMP alumnus from the Class of 2002, became an active member in OPSC during his second year in residency at Chino Valley Medical Center, through encouragement from mentor and fellow COMP alumnus James Lally, DO ’93. Loveless eventually joined OPSC’s education committee, was named the association’s OPSC Rookie of the Year in 2009, became chair of the education committee, and became a board member of OPSC before becoming president-elect. In the past 10 years, Loveless has provided osteopathic manipulative therapy education to more than 2,000 students. After graduating from COMP, he served as a preceptor in private practice and returned to campus to teach NMM/OMM, then was hired at WesternU in 2011. #OsteoMed #OsteopthicMedicine #Osteopathic #ACGME #SingleAccreditationSystem #AffordableCareAct #California #CaliforniaDO @comp_pomona

A photo posted by WesternU (@westernunews) on Feb 9, 2017 at 11:57am PST

He jumped over Cuban ideology & cleared the biggest hurdle of his life when he left Cuba @WesternUPharm #WesternUWay https://t.co/ZtISEl5hZr pic.twitter.com/cqY7yum7QT

— Jeff Malet (@jmalet) November 4, 2016

Interprofessional Health Fair

A video I did for work of some students and faculty providing free health screenings to patrons at the LA County Fair. It's a shortie!

Dr. Ethan Allen shares his wisdom

Check out the current issue of Academic Pharmacy Now. The College of Pharmacy made the cover story in the Winter 2013 edition. The story showcases the College’s involvement in the “Pharmacy is Right for Me” initiative aiming to inspire and foster the next generation of pharmacy leaders in the United States. The cover and inside photos by me highlights COP faculty teaching Palomares Academy of Health Sciences ninth graders how to compound non-medicated toothpaste.

Fontana Police Kiss

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Originally uploaded by jagmalet

An old photo of mine from when I worked at the newspaper.

Give Kids A Smile event at WesternU

WesternU provided free dental care to more than 230 children as part of the Give Kids A Smile initiative Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012 at the WesternU Dental Center in Pomona, Calif. College of Dental Medicine faculty and students provided free dental exams, sealants, fluoride treatments and cleanings. Here is a gallery of some of my images.
Give Kids A Smile slideshow

Jeff's Lunchtime stroll

I'm beginning a new project -Jeff's Lunchtime Stroll- and will be looking for a new photo to take while walking around Downtown Pomona's Antique Row and the area nearby. I work at a great graduate health professions university called WesternU, which is close by. Check out my first post of my project, which comes with a little story on Cassie's new restaurant.




Cassandra (Cassie) Edwards, originally from Mississippi, is now proud owner of Cassie's Soul Food Kitchen at 200 E. First Street, on the back north side of Antique Row in Downtown Pomona. I came across her and her newly opened restaurant after taking a walk on a break from work. She has been open for about three weeks and moved in after her son Tayari opened up Groom City Barbershop next door. Cassie moved into what used to be the Pomona Baking Company, which closed sometime in early 2010 and was a favorite of many who worked and attended Western University of Health Sciences, where I work. Cassie says they have the best banana pudding, best peach cobbler, best smothered pork chops, best fried chicken and best anything you want southern style. I tried the banana pudding and the chicken spaghetti, shown in a picture, and both were very tasty. She says she has been making the chicken spaghetti, made with a family secret sauce, for about 15 years. She offers lunch specials and dinner, with limited outside seating. Check out Cassie's Soul Food Kitchen Facebook fan page.

Veterinary medicine student fights to protect pets

My WesternU colleague Rodney Tanaka wrote this great story and I took a few photos of Lisa, a veterinary medicine student, and her dog Max. Lisa started an online petition in support of Molly's Bill at www.change.org. The bill would provide an exemption from the vaccination requirement that any dog whose life would be endangered due to disease or other considerations, as determined by a licensed veterinarian on an annual basis. Here is a link to the the gallery and here is a link to the story on our website . Plus the local newspaper published it, here.

My "monorail" cat now likes the chair

My cat is cool. Mine has this look, this "kick-back" look that I enjoy photographing. Here are a few images of Clifford hanging out on a chair - chillin'. He also likes what one of my friends tabbed as the "monorail," but not today.

From Highland Looking West

In January the moon was fantastic. The day before this photo, I saw the moon at an even better spot. I tried for that the next morning and it never materialized. Instead I got this shot. I guess I'm on the lookout for the shot I really wanted.

Highland hit hard by weather, floods

This past Wednesday I was on my way out to the doctors office but could not get passed my main street of Baseline Road on Dec. 22, 2010. The road was flowing with water, mud and debris - looking like a fast moving dirty river you see in movies. By chance I grabbed my camera before leaving and got all muddied-up taking pictures. The community pool and path were severely covered in mud. The pool, tot pool and playground were completely buried. See some images in a gallery from day one here. In this blog post, I have some follow-up photos from Friday Dec. 24, 2010 of a neighborhood south of where of live, which is considered an original part of east Highland. Residents, neighbors and close friends helped clear out some of the Old Greenspot Road area. Residents also looked for lost pets, one finding a cat, and tried to recover items from shelves and walls. Unfortunately, much was lost, including Christmas gifts. Many homes were caked in a sea of mud up to 3 to 4 feet high. Prison hand crews from San Diego also were on hand clearing cars and roads and preparing for the next session of rain, which weather specialists say is coming Wednesday. The crews were still working on these roads Monday, Dec. 22. Here are some photos and a gallery gallery link to more photos.

Inspired by Strobist

I had the aspiration to take some more photos of my cat Clifford this weekend. He can be a pretty good model, often looking at me on queue or looking off-camera with that perfect glare. Plus, I like to practice what I read from one of my favorite blogs -- Strobist. I took out my speedlight flashes and my Nikon D300s. There are two SB-900's (Both at 1/2 power) and one older SB600 (used a bungee ball to hold white paper to bounce the flash). I used the SB-600 to trigger the other two flashes, but do have an inexpensive wireless trigger that I just didn't bring out . I moved them around a bit to get the right photo. That's what's great about digital cameras - you can chimp.

On Halloween I was also inspired by Strobist, but only had two flashes. I put one on a stand and hand-held the other. They were both pointed toward my daughter as the sun was setting. By the way, I use manual mode. I would say the one on the stand was at 1/2 power and the one in my hand was at 1/8 power. As you can see my daughter was modeling her costume, in true scary roaring fashion - as a leopard. She looks great, huh!

We came across a brown praying mantis

After hitting the ball around on the local tennis courts today, my daughter asked if we could stop at the playground for a bit. My thought was this sounds like a good idea. After all she hit tennis balls with me, I could hang with her at the playground. First thing we notice when we get there was this large brown insect on the metal railing along the pathway. It got our attention! I'm sure it saw us coming too. Gabby told me it was a brown praying mantis and that she had seen one on Friday. I thought, that's so cool she knows what this insect is. We looked at it and Gabby took a twig and lightly touched it. I had to get my cell phones camera out - of course. I have had my misses with this camera phone, often getting weird bands and wavy looking light trails in it and of course it's not very sharp, so I often get misses. I took several pictures of just the praying mantis, and then Gabby came around and looked at it. There was already a nice light on it from this direction, so I capitalized on her being a background and took a few pictures. I think I got a pretty good one too.

A little Americana

Last week my neighbors had a yard sale. In my neighborhood "they" let us have one a couple times a year. This year, my neighbors got cute and Americana with some signs. A shirt, vest, cut-out head and hands with a finger pointing the way. They placed ones similar to this one down the street in a couple different spots. As I looked up and down the street, it was obvious these were the best and catchiest signs. They also were very busy. Cars were parked blocking driveways, parked nonchalantly and haphazardly along the curb, making for a busy morning of haggling. Way to go neighbors!

Beautiful Day

After five days of heavy rain, Saturday gave way for some beautiful scenery near my house in Highland. Snow-capped mountains, clouds, blue sky and left over water contrasted with rocks and a desert terrain make a nice view. I found this spot near the Santa Ana Wash on my way home from working an assignment in Pomona. About 60 students from where I work gave free health care to underprivileged local residents, so I saw some great things today.