HealthBeat Two named to stroke board Wintson-Salem-based N.C. Stroke Association (NCSA) has named Anita Holmes and Dr. Robert A. Yapundich to its Board of Directors. Holmes is the executive director of the Justus-Warren Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Task Force and director of the N.C. Stroke Care Collaborative. In that role, she leads this leg islatively-mandated Task Force in identifying and publicizing the burden of heart disease and stroke across the state and working with resources such as the N.C. Stroke Association in improving the cardiovascular health of North Carolinians. Yapundich is a neurol ogist in private practice since 1996 with Neurology Associates in Hickory who is actively involved in clinical research. He currently serves as the stroke direc tor at Catawba Valley Medical Center and has served as past-president of the North Carolina Holmes Yapundich Neurological Society and is currently a board member of the North Carolina Medical Society. Dr. Yapundich has been named one of the top 50 Neurologists in North Carolina by U.S. News and World Report. The Association's mission is to reduce the incidence and impact of stroke in North Carolina through collaborations to facilitate screening, education, outcome assessments and advocacy. For more information, visit www.ncstroke.org. Clean air honor for N.C. North Carolina has received a national clean air award for an innovative program aimed at improving air quality at the state's public schools during the past 18 years. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has presented one of its Clean Air Excellence Awards for the Clean School Bus NC program. a joint effort between the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources' Division of Air Quality, the N.C. i Department of Public 1 Instruction, or DPI, and local school systems across the state. The program has used a combination of policy, technology, outreach and transportation efforts to reduce students' exposure to harmful air pollu tion from cars and school buses since the mid 1990s. A key goal of the program was to reduce air emissions from older school buses, which often are powered by diesel engines that can produce harmful emissions. Nearly 800,000 students travel on buses in 115 school systems across the state. State and local agencies have used nearly $3.6 million in grants to install pol lution controls on older buses or replace them with new, cleaner models. DAQ, DPI and local systems used grants to help retrofit 1,854 buses with exhaust controls for removing harmful emissions at school sys tems across the state. The grants also helped replace or repower an additional 37 buses with cleaner-burning alternatives, such as hybrid gas-electric buses. Hi I I Council adds Gregory Dr. Sandy C. Gregory, director of North Carolina Baptist Aging Ministry (NCBAM). was recently appointed by Governor Pat McCrory to serve on the North Carolina Governor's Council on Homelessness. The Council will provide recommendations to the Governor and the Secretary of the Department ^?f Health and Human Services on issues related to the problems of per sons who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. His term will begin immediately and expire in February 2016. NCBAM is a statewide ministry that assists aging adults 65 and older. The ministry connects the aging and Gregory their families with resources to meet needs. In partnership with North Carolina Baptists (a net work of more than 4,000 churches) as well as , civic and social agencies, NCBAM strives to enable aging adults to maintain their independ- i ence and enjoy quality lives. He was the executive director for the , Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministry and the Patrick Henry Boys and Girls Plantation in Virginia. Prior to joining j NCBAM as its founding director, Gregory ( served the parent organization. Baptist < Children's Homes of North Carolina as director of development for the south-central region. ] Gregory has a long history of community | involvement. He is a member of Staunton River j MasonicS. Lodge in Virginia and First Baptist, , Church in Statesville. Gregory and his wife, i Renee, live in Statesville and have seven chil dren. , A&T researchers tackling sfinUnig problem SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE Entomologists conducting integrated pest management (IPM) research at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University have reached a major milestone in studies of the brown marmorated stinkbug. The voracious bug, which has been identified as the top invasive insect of interest by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is a major economic threat to fruit and vegetable producers and to many growers of row crops and orna mental plants. The U.S. Apple Association esti mates that in 2010 alone, the bug accounted\or $37 million lost from apple orchards in the Mid-Atlantic region, and growers of other crops are reporting similar losses. North Carolina crops that are susceptible to the insect include vegetables, fruits, nuts, berries, com and soybeans, which together are worth approximately $191 million annu ally in farm cash receipts. In addition to posing a threat to crops, the bug has also become a common household nuisance, entering homes and other manmade structures to overwinter. Drs. Beatrice Dingha and Louis Jackai, researchers in N.C. A&T's Agricultural Research Program, have developed a laboratory rearing method that has successfully produced five gen erations of brown marmorated stinkbugs. Their work was presented at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Branch of the Entomological Society of America in March, and is believed to be the first reported account of a continuous rearing method for this bug past a second gener ation in the U.S. The progress represents an important step in establishing a reli able supply of bugs for research. "Nobody to our knowledge has ever reported this, and as far as we know, this is the first time this insect has successful ly been reared through several genera tions in the laboratory in the U.S.," Dingha said. Dingha and Jackai's method involved feeding the bugs a medley of their favorite foods, including fresh tomato, carrots, green beans, com, cucumber. See Research on A9 N.C AAT Phou. Dr. Beatrice Dingha examines a brown marmorated stinkbug. ACS holding 20th anniversary annual meeting CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT AIDS Care Service will hold its annual meeting on Thursday, May 15 at Knollwood Baptist Church, 330 Knollwood St. The meeting - which will have the theme, "Looking Back/To the Future" - will begin at 5:30 p.m. with the serving of light refreshments. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. Larry Roth, one of the orig inal founders of Roth ACS and the agency's first executive director, will speak, as will School Board member Elisabeth Motsinger, a physician's assistant. New board members and officers will be elected during the meeting, and outgoing leaders will recognized for their contributions to and leadership of ACS. This year is AIDS Care Service's 20th anniversary. The very first ACS planning meeting was held, at Knollwood Baptist two decades ago. The mission of agency is to empower and serve our brothers and sisters liv ing with HIV/AIDS and to educate our community in the struggle against the disease. AIDS Care Service provides services to neighbors in Forsyth and surrounding counties and is the longest continually operating AIDS service organization serving Forsyth County. Combating Oral Cancers Submitted Photo Dr. T. D. Redd poses with Bill Johel, a product specialist for Henry Schein, at Summerfield Farms in Greensboro on Saturday, April 5. Oral health giant Henry Schein donated its cutting-edge Identafi Oral Cancer Screening System to provide free screenings to dozens of people. Dr. Redd, of Greenboro's Redd Family Dentistry, conducted the screenings. April was Oral Cancer Awareness Month. Praising All Nurses SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE Patients often recognize that a nurse is the health care professional with whom they and their families have the most direct contact. But they might not realize that nurses also are leaders in improving the quality of care and expanding access to care. That's why May 6-12 is celebrated as National Nurses Week, an annu al opportunity for communities to recognize the full range of nurses' contributions. This year's theme, "Nurses: Leading the Way," recognizes nurs es as leaders at the bedside, in the boardroom, throughout communi ties and in the halls of government. The public holds nurses in high regard and trusts them to advocate for patients. For the past 12 years, the public has ranked nurs ing as the top profession for hon esty and ethics in an annual Gallup survey. Beginning with National Nurses Day on May 6, nurses are i>eing honored as leaders who improve the quality of health care. Nurses practice in liverse roles, such as clinicians, administrators, researchers, educators and policymakers. "All nurses are leaders, whether they are in direct patient :are, administrative roles, or meeting consumers' needs in new roles such as care coordinators or wellness coaches," said American Nurses Association President Karen A. Daley. "This week, we acknowledge nurses' vast contribu tions and how they are leading the way in improving health care and ultimately, the health of the nation." Nurses are leading initiatives to increase access to care and improve outcomes by focusing on primary care, prevention, wellness, chronic disease management and the coordi nation of care among health care providers and settings. These are areas in which nurses excel given their education and experience. As the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented, nurses will be more crucial than ever, leading efforts to expand primary care at communi ty-based clinics and deliver more effi cient and cost-effective care as mem bers of collaborative health care teams. Consider that: ? Nursing is the nation's largest health care profession, with nearly three million employed profession als. ? Nursing is projected to grow faster than all other occupations: The federal government projects more than one million new RNs will be needed by 2022 to fill new jobs and replace RNs who leave the profes See Nurses on A8