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OSU hires new HR leader

June 20, 2011

Ohio State names new vice president and chief human resources officer

By Adam King

Kathleen McCutcheon has built a career on bringing disparate organizations with little in common under a “one human resources” umbrella. The Ohio State University deemed her skill set invaluable as it continues its own culture transformation and hired McCutcheon to be vice president and chief human resources officer.

In her new role, McCutcheon will oversee a staff of more than 150 professionals — along with a dotted-line reporting relationship with human resources leaders in colleges and vice presidential units — who maintain the human resource functions for more than 27,000 faculty and staff.

McCutcheon, who last worked as senior vice president, human resources for American International Group’s Retirement Services (AIGRS), will begin her appointment June 27 pending approval by the Board of Trustees, which meets June 24.

“With more than 25 years of experience leading the human resources efforts of large organizations, Kathleen will bring particular expertise to Ohio State’s ongoing commitment to supporting our academic mission, enhancing our culture, simplifying and streamlining our processes and systems and refining and implementing our talent strategy,” said Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee, who added McCutcheon was hired after conducting a national search.

McCutcheon said she is thrilled with the opportunity to help a world-class university reach a preeminent level.

“There is always a component of excitement and the unknown when a new leader comes into the organization, and I’m looking forward to meeting each person in the Office of Human Resources, understanding what they do, listening to their ideas and making the university a great place to work, not only in human resources but overall,” she said. “I am honored to be able to lead a human resources team of the quality of Ohio State’s, and the sky’s the limit.”

While with AIGRS from 2002-10, McCutcheon was first vice president, human resources before being named senior vice president. In that latter role, she was the executive leader for all global strategic and operational aspects of human resources policies, practices and programs. Working with the senior leaders of AIGRS, McCutcheon and the human resources organization were able to successfully unify multiple diverse units relative to policies, procedures and culture while allowing the companies to retain their uniqueness to be successful in their particular industries.

For McCutcheon, coming to Ohio State is a bit of a coming-home party. She grew up in Cleveland and attended Cleveland State University and the University of Dayton for her undergraduate degree in psychology.

“It’s nice to come home again, and you don’t get to do that often in life,” she said.

The question she has been asked most by family, friends and colleagues is why would she give up a successful career track in the private sector to work at a public institution.

McCutcheon, who has worked in the insurance, financial, medical and aerospace industries, said her career choices have never been industry-specific. Instead she looks for the opportunities where she believes she can be most effective.

“The first challenge is supporting the university as an organizational leader, the second one is creating a preeminent human resources organization to support Ohio State and third would be supporting the continuing cultural transformation to One University from an enterprise and functional level,” McCutcheon said. “I hold human resources to a very high standard of walking the talk instead of just spouting policy.

“What I’m strong at is the ability to craft a vision for the organization from an HR standpoint based on the business goals of the greater enterprise,” she said. “I have been successful in coaching the HR organization and developing the organization to be able to deliver relative to those goals, being proactive, innovative and sharing vision across the function.”

Asked to describe herself, McCutcheon said she was very honest, direct and down to earth.

“And I enjoy people,” she said. “I like that there are very few people that I don’t see the good in. People are kind of a puzzle to figure out, and I genuinely enjoy doing that. My ability to coach people and get them to a better place and better performance, that’s how I get a kick out of my job.”

McCutcheon was director of human resources from 2000-02 for AIG’s Personal Lines Division. Prior to that she had stops at CIGNA, The St. Paul Co., AlliedSignal Corp., SmithKline Beecham and Citibank. During her career, she spent significant time working with her various companies’ international divisions, including Puerto Rico, Italy, Canada, Brazil, India and Japan.

McCutcheon replaces interim Vice President for Human Resources Kim Shumate, who temporarily took over the Office of Human Resources after Larry Lewellen was named vice president of care coordination and health promotion in the Ohio State Medical Center.

“I want to acknowledge the exceptional work of Kim Shumate, who has served as interim vice president for Human Resources since March,” Gee said. “During the past few months, she has effectively combined her deep legal knowledge and leadership abilities to advance key human resources initiatives.”

McCutcheon has been married for 20 years to husband Paul and has two children, Emily, 17, and Scott, 13. She counts herself an OK golfer, an avid reader and an outdoor sport enthusiast (water and snow skiing, fishing, hiking, swimming and boating). Also in the family are dogs, cats, birds and fish.

“We are so looking forward to coming up there and sleeping with the windows open,” said McCutcheon, who currently lives in Sugar Land, Texas. “Ohio weather is not the tropical heat it is down here.”

A healthy dose of realism

June 15, 2011

College of Nursing’s moulage guru gives students a safe, if gross, environment for learning

By Jeff McCallister

Stephanie Justice has one of the most interesting jobs at Ohio State: Part artist, part nurse and part mad scientist.

“I feel like I have the best job in the world,” said Justice, whose title in the College of Nursing is lecturer, though she does not lecture in any sense of the word.

“It seems like I come to work most days to play. It doesn’t feel like work when you enjoy what you’re doing, and when you get to feel like you’re really helping all these students, I guess that makes it even better.”

Justice’s unofficial title is moulage guru, which means she simulates everything from heart attacks to vomit to amputations to give nursing students a taste of what they might find in the world they’re aspiring to enter.

Continue reading ‘A healthy dose of realism’

Have history, will travel

June 15, 2011

New mobile app provides a walking tour of OSU’s campus

By Adam King

Standing on the Oval, one can sense the history of The Ohio State University, from the majestic trees to the unique architecture in the buildings ringing the pathways. But to know the history, one has to trek to the library or search online for each iconic tidbit.

The OSU Libraries, however, have turned a time-consuming endeavor into an adventure with a new smartphone and tablet app called Buckeye Stroll. Launching in July with another university-related app to take advantage of computing that is going increasingly mobile, the Buckeye Stroll pinpoints more than 60 places on campus, gives a short history about each location and shows a selection of historical photos.

Continue reading ‘Have history, will travel’

Bravo to you!

June 15, 2011

Medical Center recognition program strives to instill pride, performance in the workplace

By Adam King

It was humbling enough for Wendy King to receive an award for the work she does every day as a physical therapist in the Department of Neurology. When Steven Gabbe, CEO of the OSU Medical Center, and other top administrators showed up to the quarterly awards luncheon in December 2008 to honor her and the other recipients, she felt an even greater sense of pride for where she worked.

Continue reading ‘Bravo to you!’

Never a dull moment

June 15, 2011

Development staffer says his hobby sharpens skills and focus

By Julia Harris

Frank Clover is a soft-spoken, unassuming guy who spends 40-plus hours a week behind a desk in the air-conditioned offices of University Development, where voices are hushed and everyone is polite to each other.

When he’s out of the office, however, he’s not quite so “civilized.”

“I throw tomahawks — well, one tomahawk — for fun and relaxation,” said Clover, who works in the Office of Planned Giving.

Clover insists his hobby is not as unusual as it may sound. “I don’t dress up like Tecumseh and yell when I throw it,” he said. “It’s not a big ‘zen’ kind of thing. It was just something I wanted to see if I could do, a way of competing against myself and disciplining myself.”

He got the idea last summer after coming across a tomahawk in a shooting sports catalog, he said, and ordered it on impulse. He found a website with instructions on how to build a wooden target and set up a makeshift throwing range in his mother’s backyard (he lives in an apartment).

He stands about 20 feet from the target, which is a rough-hewn cross-section of a tree trunk bolted to a tripod of two-by-fours. Using a technique he found online, he holds the tomahawk lightly by the handle and aims straight at the target, timing the release so the blade revolves in an arc and embeds itself into the wood.

“I miss more often than not,” he confessed, but said his misses don’t endanger any nearby creatures such as dogs or neighbor children.

“There’s not that much force used per throw, so even when it misses the target, it just goes past it or underneath it maybe five feet. That’s why I like this instead of, say, archery, because it’s something you can do within the city limits.”

Clover, who claims he’s “not that great with my hands” and not particularly interested in outdoor sports, nonetheless finds a great deal of satisfaction in his hobby, especially as he hones his skill. “At first I was just basically trying to get the tomahawk in the general direction of the target, then trying to hit it, then trying to hit it more than once per session,” he said.

While he’s the first to acknowledge that there’s no real practical application for his pursuit, he also says it’s an important first step toward his real goal: Knife throwing.

“This is kind of a proto-hobby rather than a full-fledged hobby. Throwing a tomahawk is a lot easier to learn than throwing a knife, which I think is really cool.” He grinned. “I learned fairly quickly that throwing the tomahawk doesn’t require a whole lot of movement or action, so it fits my current fitness level. Plus it gets me outside, which is always good.”

His foray into tomahawk throwing has piqued his interest in other ancient arts, such as flint knapping (the art of making your own arrowheads and spear tips) and making his own bows. He’s also interested in finding out more about atlatls, ancient spear-throwing tools that predate the bow and arrow.

“I’m not an expert in any of this stuff — I’m just improvising here, doing it on my own — but I figure I can be good enough,” Clover said.

The leading edge

When Frank Clover first purchased his tomahawk, it was rather dull, which made it harder to throw successfully. So he went in search of someone to sharpen it up.

“I’d heard about this mobile sharpening service, a woman in town who has a van and goes around to different hardware stores and events, sharpening tools, hatchets, shovels, etc.,” Clover said.

He ended up at the Chadwick Arboretum Open House, where his tomahawk was sharpened and admired by Rebecca Lyon, owner and operator of Sharpening on Site.

Lyon, an Ohio State graduate and former researcher in plant pathology, says her new business (she took over ownership of the company in 2010 from founder Louise Radanovich), gives her the opportunity to do what she loves.

“I’ve always wanted to be my own boss, make my own schedule and be able to give people a great service. I love to fix things and restore heirloom tools and scissors,” she said.

In addition to scheduled appointments at both residential and commercial locations, Lyon gets walk-up customers and stops at public events like the Chadwick open house. And while she says Clover’s is not the only tomahawk she’s sharpened, she says it’s still somewhat unique.

“We have sharpened several tomahawks besides Frank’s, but I think the others use them camping. At least that’s what they tell me.”

Boehner wins over crowd as OSU’s largest class gets degrees

June 15, 2011

By Jeff McCallister

In line with his reputation, John Boehner welled up a few times as he delivered the commencement address to nearly 10,000 Ohio State graduates (the largest class in OSU history, June 12 at Ohio Stadium.

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, a Republican from West Chester, fought back tears twice as he recalled the help and support given to him by his parents, and again near the end of his speech as he advised graduates to sit down with pen and paper and write an actual note of thanks (“no e-mail, not Facebook and certainly not Twitter”) to whomever helped them to reach this point in their lives.

Continue reading ‘Boehner wins over crowd as OSU’s largest class gets degrees’

Ohio State leads Big Ten in faculty work-life policies

June 15, 2011

Ohio State ranks first in the Big Ten Conference for policies that support faculty career flexibility and work-life integration, according to a recent article in the Journal of Women’s Health.

The investigators, all faculty at Indiana University School of Medicine, aimed to shed light on the policies that disproportionally affect women faculty and contribute, in part, to gender disparities in promotion and advancement rates among medical school faculty.

“At Ohio State, we care about our faculty and staff as whole people and recognize they have important lives outside of work,” said Kim Shumate, interim vice president for Human Resources. “We continually review our policies and practices to give our faculty and staff the best work-life balance possible. This is just one way we are creating an engaging employee experience grounded in a culture of well-being and optimal performance.”

The article compares the flexibility of the following policies for institutions with medical schools in the Big Ten Conference: Family leave (maternity, paternity, adoption and elder care), extension of the tenure probationary period, part-time appointments, part-time health care benefits, child care options and lactation policies. Each institution received three scores indicating the flexibility of their family leave policies, part-time policies and overall flexibility.

“Ohio State has worked very hard to develop strong work-life policies,” said Hazel Morrow-Jones, associate provost for Women’s Policy Initiatives and director of The Women’s Place. “These are the kinds of things that mark an institution as a great place to work and they contribute to the creation of an inclusive, supportive environment in which all people can make their full contributions. In turn, that helps Ohio State attract and retain the best people.”

The results of the study revealed that the top three institutions in overall score were Ohio State, Michigan State and Wisconsin.

Common drug makes liver cancer cells commit suicide

June 15, 2011

By Emily Caldwell, Research Communications

The anti-inflammatory drug celecoxib, known by the brand name Celebrex, triggers liver cancer cell death by reacting with a protein in a way that makes those cells commit suicide, according to a new study.

Researchers also found that the combination of celecoxib with each of two chemotherapy drugs killed more liver cancer cells in culture, making those combinations more effective than either drug on its own.

Continue reading ‘Common drug makes liver cancer cells commit suicide’

Fisher’s Accelerator program puts $200,000 up for grabs

June 15, 2011

The state of Ohio and Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business have selected 10 teams of young entrepreneurs who moved to Columbus this summer to participate in the Ohio’s New Entrepreneurs (ONE) Fund pilot program. The program, funded through the Ohio Third Frontier, is designed to attract the best and brightest technology entrepreneurs to Ohio for an 11-week “boot camp” to potentially turn their great ideas into commercially viable technology start-up companies.

“These teams represent the type of talent we want to attract and keep in Ohio to allow our economy to flourish,” said Mark Kvamme, director of Job Creation for the state. “This is just the beginning of what is hopefully a long career for them as top entrepreneurs. I look forward to seeing their progress.”

The ONE Fund, administered by the Fisher College of Business’ Center for Entrepreneurship, is a competition that focuses on the professional development of young technology entrepreneurs as they learn what it takes to start a business in Ohio. The group consists of 10 competitively selected two- to five-person teams that will receive $20,000 for business and living expenses and will work under the guidance of seasoned entrepreneurs, industry experts and investors to prepare technology concepts and business models.

At the conclusion of the program, the concepts will be presented to investors. In fact, NCT Ventures, a Columbus-based venture capital firm, has already committed $200,000 in follow-on venture funding to an entrepreneurial team of its choice that completes the program.

“The Ohio Third Frontier is extremely excited to invest in the futures of these outstanding young entrepreneurs,” said James Leftwich, director of the Ohio Department of Development and chairman of the Ohio Third Frontier Commission. “This will be a tremendous learning experience for the participants and is an important step to retaining and attracting top talent for the state of Ohio.”

There were 118 applications received during the 2 1/2-week application window and 25 semifinalists presented video applications. The winning participants; from Ohio, neighboring states and even the United Kingdom; have agreed to live in Columbus for the duration of the program, and any company formed through the program will be set up in Ohio.

The teams will have access to all the resources provided by the Center for Entrepreneurship’s New Venture Accelerator (10x) and will meet regularly with some of the top entrepreneurs in the country. The administrators of the ONE Fund will maintain an ongoing relationship with the entrepreneurs to track their success following the program.

“It was very challenging selecting the top 10 entrepreneurial teams for the 2011 ONE Fund/10x program,” said Michael Camp, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. “We received so many applications from energetic young entrepreneurial teams working on very exciting new ideas. We are confident that the entrepreneurial teams that make up the top 10 are among the best around.” The ONE Fund session began June 13 and ends Sept. 1, with a New Venture Showcase for participants to pitch their ideas to dozens of Ohio and national venture capital and angel investors. For more information, visit 10xelerator.com.

The top 10

The following teams have been selected to participate:

• Acceptd – is a web-based tool that simplifies the video application process for university programs. Uploading and managing application videos, audition tapes and highlight films using Acceptd will streamline the process and save time and money for applicants and program directors.

• adEvo – is a loyalty and analytics platform for websites that rewards users for their online contributions. The platform will give online publishers the ability to reward users with points for visiting a website, commenting, sharing articles and growing a social network.

• Biena Tech – will produce carbon neutral fuel cells that generate clean energy while operating at room temperature and using CO₂ as a conducting source. The technology has a wide variety of market applications in the residential, portable, industrial, transportation and aerospace sectors.

• Edifuneral – will connect families in need with funeral homes in their area that meet their specific requirements. More than a listing service, Edifuneral provides specific information to families that helps streamline their decision-making process.

• Flare Code – allows individuals and organizations to aggregate all of their digital content into a collection of mobile-optimized widgets that can be accessed quickly and directly by scanning a code. Flare Code allows the community to interact with the code by posting photos and comments to a special section. Imagine a code in a newspaper you can scan every day to discuss stories and view news clips from a local television station, or a band poster with music videos and fan photos. Flare Code turns objects into digital communities by connecting them with digital context.

• Kout – is an e-commerce platform aimed at micro merchants, which are sellers who do not need a front-end store. Merchants receive a unique checkout url for each product, which links to a simple checkout page, designed to reduce checkout abandonment and provide a seamless experience for the customer. Merchants also will be able to accept credit cards directly through Kout’s checkout without the need of a merchant account and payment gateway, providing less hassle, less fees and a quicker setup.

• LyoGo LLC – was formed to develop and commercialize a novel drug delivery system for lyophilized (freeze dried) drugs. LyoGo provides a safer, easier, more convenient and cost-effective method of administering complex biologic drugs.

• RenterCenter – is a new online service to revolutionize the rental housing market by aggregating the demand (i.e., potential tenants) and making it easy and affordable for landlords to locate, evaluate and engage potential tenants.

•Rewardster – is an automatic rewards platform that links directly to your credit card and provides consumers with targeted loyalty rewards based on spending habits across Rewardster’s merchant network.

• SampleShop – provides free samples for a very low monthly fee to customers who would like to try new products. SampleShop charges the company for launching and introducing their products and, in exchange, helps them to get feedback and surveys from customers.

Peter Mohler, director of Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute

June 15, 2011

How does the heart beat?

The heart is a remarkable organ that functions as a large pump to provide nutrients to the cells (over 10 trillion!) throughout our bodies. The average human heart rate is between 60-80 beats per minute. This translates to approximately 2 1/2 billion beats over the course of a human life, with little to no margin for error. The human heart has four different chambers that are tightly synchronized to pump precise amounts of blood at exact time intervals. The upper two heart chambers (right and left atria) help fill the lower two larger chambers (right and left ventricle) with blood, and the ventricles, in turn, circulate blood throughout the body. Similar to the wires in the walls of your house, the heart has an intricate electrical network that not only synchronizes the contraction of the different chambers of the heart, but also the overall rate of the heart. The intrinsic rate of the heart is controlled by a small bundle of cells located in the right atrium termed the sinoatrial node. This “pacemaker” region initiates the contraction of the atria. Following activation of the pacemaker cells, electrical signals travel to the atrioventricular node, or the “AV node” that is located between the atria and the ventricles and acts as a “gatekeeper” to control the speed of electrical conduction throughout the heart. Finally, a group of specialized electrical cables termed the His-Purkinje Network is activated, resulting in the rapid spread of electrical signals throughout the ventricles, ultimately leading to activation and synchronous contraction of the ventricular cardiomyocytes allowing the heart to pump blood.

What is a cardiac arrhythmia?

A cardiac arrhythmia is a defect in either the heart rate (how many times the heart contracts each minute) or the heart rhythm (the pattern in which regions of the heart are activated). While we often hear of arrhythmias where the heart contracts too quickly (termed “tachycardia”), arrhythmias also are associated with reduced heart rate (termed “bradycardia”). Notably, arrhythmias are not always associated with simply the speed of the heart. Extra beats or even missing beats may also be associated with arrhythmia. While arrhythmias can be harmless, prolonged arrhythmia may result in decreased blood flow throughout the body, resulting in damage to the heart and brain. In some cases, cardiac arrhythmias may even be fatal.

Is there active research into cardiac arrhythmia?

Ohio State is a national leader in human arrhythmia research. The OSU Ross Heart Hospital has dedicated physicians, specifically trained in the detection and treatment of both common and rare forms of human arrhythmia. Additionally, teams of translational and basic scientists work each day at The Dorothy M. Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute (DHLRI) to identify and solve the molecular and cellular mechanisms responsible for these potentially fatal events. In fact, current collaborative efforts of Raul Weiss in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Amy Sturm in the Division of Human Genetics and our research group in the DHLRI are actively pushing to define new cellular pathways responsible for rare but severe forms of human arrhythmia.

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