Message from the CNHS Intercultural Excellence Director
Welcome to Spring 2026. Happy New Year to you all. I am grateful you are here. As we begin the year, our focus at UVM, and within CNHS, is clear: strengthening the infrastructures that allow our faculty, staff, students, and partners to work together more effectively, especially in a time of limited capacity and increasing need.
Across campus, we continue to see the same challenge surface again and again. Meaningful work is happening every day, but because we often work in silos, coordination remains difficult, time consuming, and often invisible.
During this year’s January meeting for the Directors of Intercultural Excellence (DOIE), we were reminded that we will continue shifting terms, not values, as we work to advance dialogue and democracy using our Intercultural Excellence skills. Guided by our Common Ground values of respect, integrity, innovation, openness, justice, and responsibility, UVM is prioritizing intentional collaboration, dialogue, and sustainable systems that reduce duplication and administrative burden. This will allow all of us (faculty, staff, students, and partners) to focus on advancing and deepening the values in our Common Ground as we serve our students effectively.
This is a time, both individually and departmentally, to reflect on UVM’s values and how we will intentionally operationalize them in our everyday activities. In times like these, I am always reminded of the importance of meeting people where they are rather than remaining isolated and hoping they will come to us. As we navigate this landscape together, I have been reflecting deeply on some lingering questions we might engage with during these days. Questions such as:
How do we find opportunities to integrate the four pillars into our college’s strategic plans?
How do we encourage those around us to embrace the new normal rather than view Intercultural Excellence efforts as additional or unnecessary work?
If disability is truly a public health and human rights issue, and if we are all aging into disability (especially for those still in the denial stage), and if internalized ableism continues to create physical and attitudinal barriers to full participation for people with disabilities, how might we connect ADA compliance to cross cultural compliance, recognizing both as essential?
Is there a way to associate Intercultural Excellence work with FTE or similar structures?
How can we bridge the gap between DEI and IE to achieve shared goals?
The important thing is this: we are all figuring it out. No one perfectly understands the rules, but we can find greater clarity when we join hands with others, just as we do with LCOM. Below is a great example of CNHS represented during the fleece blanket making event at LCOM. It was wonderful to see so many people from across campus participating.
(Photo above: CNHS Representatives at the LCOM Fleece Blanket Event: Sefakor, Alan, Aiden, and Laura)
With this background of collaboration and dialogue shaping our new normal, I am honored to share that I was nominated by International Partnerships and Programs, along with six other faculty members from across UVM, to participate in the Collaboration Online International Learning (COIL) program. This platform connects classes, students, and faculty across institutions, languages, cultures, geographies, and disciplines through intentional, collaborative online pedagogy.
COIL brings UVM classrooms into engagement with students and faculty from international contexts around shared curricular content mediated through digital interactions. It enhances global learning, cross cultural understanding, and at times cross disciplinary perspectives for both faculty and students.
During this month-long training, we are preparing to establish COIL at UVM. Through this program, our students will advance skills that employers seek both domestically and internationally: communication, teamwork, leadership, professionalism, intercultural communication, knowledge sharing across socioeconomic backgrounds, technology competency, and entrepreneurial thinking. At UVM, we must expand our horizons and develop methodologies that unlock dialogue. It is clear we will be blending autonomous, competitive systems with collaborative ones at their intersections. If you agree that the future belongs to the most trusted, and not merely the most powerful systems, then we must think collectively and act collectively. Ubuntu. Watch for more updates on COIL.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the incredible commitment of the leadership, coordinators, parents, and girls in the New America Youth on the Rise (NAYR) program. Their dedication keeps this program running despite financial constraints. On January 24, we endured extreme arctic cold, with temperatures plunging well below zero, a dangerous cold snap that required everyone to take precautions against frostbite. Yet, because of the vision and commitment of this community, parents still brought their children to the program, and we had a very successful day.
The girls learned about the brain and disabilities arising from brain injury. I was honored to lead them through the social model of disability and the development of disability pride following an injury. This kind of dedication reflects a deep, grassroots commitment that extends far beyond professional or financial obligation. It is rooted in cultural ethos, especially Ubuntu (I am because we are), and in the shared necessity of overcoming systemic challenges. Kudos, Bravo, Akpe, and Thank You to all NAYR members. You Rock. Below are pictures of me working with COIL and NAYR.
I wish you all a very happy and successful year.
Sefakor Komabu Pomeyie, Ph.D. Director of Intercultural Excellence / Lecturer
What Has Been Done:
The LCOM/CNHS Tie Fleece Blanket Making Event was held.
Message from the Chair of the CNHS Committee on Intercultural Excellence
Dear CNHS staff, students, and faculty,
As we hopefully take part in this month's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. symposiums, I wanted to pause and reflect on the deeper meaning of Dr. King’s work—not just his most familiar quotes.
Dr. King named discrimination in health care as one of the most unjust forms of inequality. He was clear in his writings that these inequities are not accidental; they are created and maintained by unjust and racist systems. The health disparities that exist are because broader systems decide who is valued, who is heard, and who receives care.
As faculty, staff or future health professionals in nursing and health sciences, this reminder matters. Our work puts us in a position to both recognize these systems and help change them through what we teach, how we practice, how we prepare students, how we learn and how we show up in our communities. Dr. King’s words challenge us to remember that injustice anywhere truly does affect justice everywhere.
Thank you for your continued work and dedication to a healthier world,
Noah
Staff Corner
The CNHS Staff Intercultural Excellence (IE) Committee met on December 2 to share celebrations, review ongoing initiatives, and identify future activities. Highlights included a well-received Ethiopian-themed catered event hosted by Laura Selin for BHSC faculty and staff, and Laura’s popular 30-Minute Mid-Day Yoga, which will continue next semester.
Committee members reviewed the current IE mission statement and confirmed that no updates are needed at this time. Collegewide activities included the CNHS IE Food Drive, which accepted donations through the end of December, and a CAT ECare training for staff scheduled for January 16.
To support organization and collaboration, the committee continues to use a shared Google Sheet to track action items and now has an active CNHS Staff SharePoint folder. Members can add information to the SharePoint link to OneDrive for easier access.
Mary Hong UVM Department of Nursing
Wellness Corner
The Wellness Committee is responding to the survey we conducted that identified CNHS employees wanted more information on wellness resources available through UVM Employee Wellness. Your names have been added to the UVM Employee Wellness listserv. All relatively new employees are already on the listserv. If you have been here longer, you would have needed to opt in.
If you are already receiving these emails, nothing will change. If you were not, you will now receive emails from Employee Wellness with offerings for your health and well-being. If you prefer not to receive these emails, simply unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the email.
Sincerely, The CNHS Wellness Committee
Faculty Corner
Dr. Laura Lewis is developing a workshop on connection and intimacy for Autistic young adults and working on a project geared toward understanding the health stories of Autistic adults with complex medical needs. She is now also Co-Chair (alongside an Autistic community partner) of the UVM Autism Collaborative, an organization of Autistic and non-Autistic UVM scientists, health care providers, students, and community partners conducting autism-related research together and dedicated to improving quality of life for Autistic people.
Dr. Elise Tarbi’s current research focuses on using telehealth to increase access to and reduce disparities in rural cancer care, including specialty serious illness care such as palliative care. Her current work seeks to address this gap by exploring the influence of communication on the experience of connection in telehealth serious illness conversations with rural-dwelling patients with cancer.
Student Corner
Kaleidoscope is back after winter break! We have some new changes for this upcoming semester. Our weekly meetings will be held on Thursdays from 4:20 to 5:00 p.m. in the meeting room on the third floor of Rowell 301. We are also trying to add an option for people to check in virtually to make this club more inclusive. Our plan for this semester is to continue creating the constitution and registering through SGA while also focusing on community-building activities, with fun events coming up. Join us to bring your great ideas to the table.
If you love having fun and making new friends in our UVM community, please contact Sefakor G.M.A. Komabu-Pomeyie at sefakor.komabu-pomeyie@med.uvm.edu to add your email to the list!
The portal for summer internships with U.S. Senator Peter Welch is now accepting applications. Information about internship opportunities and how to apply can be found at Internships | Senator Welch (senate.gov). The deadline is March 23 at 11:59 p.m.
An Intercultural Excellence Workshop for CNHS Staff is scheduled for March 24 from 12–1 p.m. with facilitator Sherwood Smith.
The Office of U.S. Senator Peter Welch seeks a dependable, organized, friendly, and highly motivated individual with strong interpersonal and writing skills for an entry-level position in the Burlington office. Duties include administrative tasks such as answering phones, greeting visitors, processing mail, supervising interns, drafting constituent correspondence, supporting casework, and assisting with other projects. Applicants should have a strong desire to assist Vermonters with federal programs and agencies. This is an in-person, full-time position (40 hours per week). The salary is $55,000.
