Foundation Announces Endowment Awards

The Radford University Foundation has announced four award winners for the 2006-07 King Endowment Fund, which supports RU faculty initiatives toward improving mental well-being. 

This year's award winners are professors Richard Bay, Beth Deskins, Alan Forrest and Janet McDaniel.

Bay's award will be used to fund art therapeutic interventions for 12 survivors of brain injury. The art professor will conduct 10 artistic therapeutic classroom sessions during the 2006-07 academic year. The completed art will be on display during a two-week exhibition at RU with opening activities for the survivors and their immediate families. Brain Injury Services of Southwest Virginia will serve as a community partner in the project.

Deskins is the Community Resource, Adoptive, and Foster Family Training Western Area Coordinator and works in RU's School of Social Work. Her Life Story Project will provide a therapeutic group setting to explore issues commonly experienced by middle school children who are raised by grandparents. Ten Pulaski County middle school students will work with an art teacher and a child therapist to create autobiographies that will include narrative, poetry, art works and photographs. The project will run in cooperation with the Pulaski Community Partners Coalition and their Grandparents Raising Children Support Group.

Forrest will work with the Mental Health Association of the New River Valley in the development of a program that will introduce clergy to mental health symptoms, treatment and practical techniques for preparing their congregants to help others dealing with daily tragedies. Forrest will receive assistance from faculty in the RU Counselor Education department and the School of Social Work.

McDaniel, director of RU Family Clinics, will use her award to support year-two funding for a cognitive behavioral therapy course for nurse practitioners. The project trains nurse practitioners to incorporate depression and anxiety screenings and cognitive behavioral therapy into their primary care services. McDaniel serves as project director.

The King Endowment is named for Dr. James P. King, Sr., who served as medical director of Saint Albans Psychiatric Hospital from 1936 until his retirement in 1976. The endowment was established in his memory through a gift to the RU Foundation from the Saint Albans Foundation.

Funding from the King Endowment supports mental health interventions and professional development training between RU faculty and community partners.  Contact Catherine Van Noy at 540-831-6715 for further information.