University of Wyoming College of Health Sciences

09/14/2026

https://www.uwyo.edu/news/2026/09/fay-w-whitney-school-of-nursing-celebrates-75-years-at-uw.html

Come celebrate with us! 🥳

09/11/2026

The Rural Health Institute has started a new initiative to assist Wyoming health professionals to become certified as lactation consultants.

https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/health/2026-09-04/wyoming-could-get-more-lactation-consultants-thanks-to-a-uw-initiative

The new program will help pay for tuition at a University of California program. The goal is to offer more breastfeeding support in rural areas.

09/10/2026

Wyoming has become the 50th state to join the maternal care alliance! The Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health is an initiative that supports best practices for safer births and improve maternal health.
https://wyofile.com/wyoming-becomes-50th-state-to-join-maternal-care-alliance/

Participation was announced at inaugural maternal care summit in Laramie, where health and policy experts gathered to discuss closing care gaps for moms and babies.

09/09/2026

Are you a sonographer who needs CME credits? Join us in Casper, WY on Oct. 10th & 11th for our second Ultrasound Conference!
Register here: https://gopokes.formstack.com/forms/ultrasound_conference_2026
Please reach out to Anna Hargens for details about room blocks and any other conference related questions at [email protected].

06/25/2026

The University of Wyoming’s Rural Health Institute welcomes an associate research professor who specializes in policy research studying women’s health and maternal health through a reproductive justice lens and whose published work this month focuses on the current state of women’s health research and demystifying the use of vaccinations involving newborns.

Gabriela “Gaby” Alvarado, a physician who joined the Rural Health Institute in spring of 2026, part of the UW College of Health Sciences, is a policy researcher dedicated to advancing reproductive justice and health equity. Her career bridges medicine, public health, anthropology, and policy analysis, with a central focus on the experiences of women, youth, and underserved and rural communities in the United States and Latin America.

“Wyoming felt like a natural fit for the kind of work I care most about,” says Alvarado. “Rural communities hold a very special place in my heart. Having lived and worked in rural Costa Rica and Alaska I came to understand firsthand how the realities on the ground shape what is actually feasible, and that experience made me deeply attentive to developing policy and public health programming that is grounded in the lived conditions of the communities it’s meant to serve.”

06/22/2026

Hi! I'm Paul Hesco, I am the new Recruiting and Retention Coordinator for UW's College of Health Sciences. I have been in the position for 5 months, but I have been at UW for over 20 years.

We are looking to bring together the recruiting efforts across the College and increase enrollment in many of our programs.

On a personal note, my wife Carrie also works at UW, and my son Garrett graduated from LHS in 2025 and is currently attending the Colorado School of Mines.

06/16/2026

A second-year resident at the University of Wyoming’s Family Medicine Residency Program in Cheyenne is the recipient of the Very Important Person (VIP) Award given each quarter by Cheyenne Regional Medical Center.

Chyanne Brown, a resident physician who will pursue a fellowship in obstetrics/gynecology after completing her residency, received the award during a ceremony May 26. She was nominated for her diligence, dedication and care given to a patient in labor.

“Residents are often busy during their hospital shifts,” says Evan Norby, program director for the UW Family Medicine Residency Program in Cheyenne. “Rarely do they have the physical time or mental space to be there for patients in the way Dr. Brown was for this patient. When these times do happen, they serve as an internal validation that reinforces the human parts of medicine missing in many aspects of modern-day medicine. I am so happy that Dr. Brown was able to attend to her patient’s needs that night. It is nice to see her practice style recognized by others. Thankfully, Dr. Brown’s patients get to see it with each interaction.”

Read more at UW News! https://www.uwyo.edu/news/2026/06/uw-cheyenne-residency-physician-receives-vip-award-for-aiding-maternal-delivery.html

06/09/2026

The University of Wyoming’s Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing recently hosted a training session to create a model for helping healthcare professionals better understand the needs of patients with disabilities, especially focusing on deaf, blind and deaf-blind patients in emergency care situations.

Also, adding to the success of the project were several important pieces of assistive technology equipment donated by the Wyoming Institute for Disabilities (WIND)’s Wyoming Assistive Technology Resources (WATR) lab. This specialized technology enhances speech-hearing and visual communication skills for individuals with disabilities in these areas.

The vision for the Deaf and DeafBlind project is to create realistic healthcare scenarios inside an exam room or emergency room simulation setting that demonstrates how proper communication training for healthcare providers can improve outcomes for deaf, hard of hearing, blind and deafblind patients. These scenarios would be recorded and made available for training current and future healthcare professionals.

06/05/2026

A longtime faculty member with the University of Wyoming’s School of Pharmacy is the recipient of this year’s Shepard Symposium on Social Justice Faculty Award.

Melissa Hunter, far left, director of the school’s Drug Information Center and a faculty adviser for a pharmacy student organization -- the National Community Pharmacists Association -- and the Canterbury Fellowship was honored at a symposium ceremony May 11 at the Canterbury House, the Episcopal campus ministry at UW.

She also serves as a pharmacist at the Downtown Clinic, where she helps meet the medical needs of many people in the Laramie community.

“I get to learn, share and grow with students at Canterbury Fellowship, and I’m so proud of the community we have developed,” Hunter says. “The Downtown Clinic is an amazing place to serve, and I’m grateful to get to be a part of a community of healthcare providers focusing on the health of those with no other access to medical care.”

Find out more here: https://www.uwyo.edu/news/2026/06/uw-school-of-pharmacy-faculty-member-honored-at-shepard-symposium.html

06/03/2026

A University of Wyoming associate professor with the Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing recently presented research focused on a newly understood phenomenon affecting cancer patients’ experiences for the Association for Netnographic Research (ANR).

Jennifer Stephens presented her research, titled “Using Netnography in Nursing Research: The Example of Cancer Ghosting,” to the ANR, a registered nonprofit corporation dedicated to advancing netnographic research globally.

“Up until our presentation at the Oncology Nursing Society Congress in 2025, oncology nurses and providers were only marginally aware of this phenomenon,” Stephens says. “Our study has helped give a voice to those who have been ghosted and has increased awareness of ghosting in the cancer healthcare provider community.”

Continue this story at UW News! https://www.uwyo.edu/news/2026/06/uw-college-of-health-sciences-faculty-and-student-research-explores-cancer-ghosting.html