“Today is a historic day in the commonwealth – we are at the beginning of the end of our war with COVID-19,” said Gov. Beshear, who was at UofL Hospital as UPS delivered the vaccines. “The Pfizer vaccine, which we believe to be 95% effective, is the defense we have needed to end this pandemic, and with the highly effective Moderna vaccine likely on its way to approval soon, we are all filled with hope for the first time in a very long time. Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible. To our front-line workers: we are forever grateful for your bravery, talents and compassion.”

The Governor watched as five UofL Health doctors and nurses, who have been working on the front lines to help Kentuckians during the once-in-100-years pandemic, received their vaccinations in public and before the media. Sarah Bishop, director of infection prevention at UofL Hospital, administered the vaccinations to all five.

Dr. Jason Smith, a front line emergency and trauma surgeon and UofL Health chief medical officer was the first to receive the vaccine.

“The arrival of this vaccine demonstrates the best of medicine and our commonwealth’s collaborative spirit,” said Dr. Smith. “For the first time, we now have a tool to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in a significant way. I appreciate the leadership of Gov. Beshear and UPS working to expedite getting this vaccine to our frontline health care workers. And I am humbled by the ongoing individual sacrifices of so many Kentuckians who continue to help through social distancing and masking until the vaccine is more widely available to the general population.”

Two UofL Health nurses and two UofL Physicians were the next in line.

LaShawn Scott has worked for UofL Health for more than 20 years as an infection prevention nurse. Scott has worked tirelessly to help support our front-line staff in ensuring they have the PPE they need and know how to use it correctly and making sure the health care system has protocols in place to help the frontline staff stay safe as they battle the pandemic.

Beth Sum is an emergency department nurse at UofL Health and a nurse educator at UofL Health – Jewish Hospital. She has been instrumental at caring for and developing nursing protocols around COVID-19 care in the emergency department.

Dr. Valerie Briones-Pryor has been with UofL Health for over 16 years. She has been working with COVID-19 patients at UofL Health – Jewish Hospital since March 17, and said she lost her 27^th COVID-19 patient Monday morning.

“I did this for them, for all of my patients,” said. Dr. Briones-Pryor. “I was honored to be one of the first five to receive this vaccine.”

Dr. Muhamed Saad is the director of critical care at UofL Health – Jewish Hospital. Throughout the pandemic, he has taken care of all COVID-19 ICU patients throughout the UofL Health system.  

The initial shipment of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Kentucky on December 13, 2020.

The program, which entails a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership and learning with a health care leadership concentration track, begins this semester. Critical elements about the program include its focus on developing competencies of health care leaders and the competency-based approach, which allows students to proceed through the program at their own pace.��

“We have a whole broad expanse of individuals who have a lot of work experience in the health care field and may be close to a bachelor’s degree without actually having the credits to finish,” Bewley said. “Ultimately, those individuals need to proceed in their career development and be the manager or supervisor … we can get them there with this competency-based program.”

Listen to Bewley’s .��

The linked radio program also includes interviews with Dr. Craig McClain on the new NIH-designated center for alcohol research at UofL, and Fulbright scholar Ariel Weaver.��

Hip hop culture’s connection to kids’ curriculum

UofL’s Mark Hebert also recently interviewed school counseling professor Ahmad Washington and Cassandra Webb from the Louisville Urban League, who discussed using hip hop culture to connect with kids in school; Virginia Denny and Robbie Chitwood, promoting professional and workforce training offered by UofL; and James Chisholm and Kathy Whitmore from College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development, who are using Anne Frank to teach middle schoolers. .��