San Antonio Rotary - The Wheel - Archive (Jul 15, 2009)


Volume #98	July 15, 2009	No. 3
	Featured Speaker:
	Dr. Ronald Stewart Medical Director of the Surgical/Trauma ICU Sharon Smith Executive Director The National Trauma Institute Chair of the Day: Mike Bennett

Dr. Ronald Stewart completed his medical degree and residency training at UTHSCSA in 1991. He then completed an additional two years of fellowship training in trauma surgery and critical care before returning in 1993 to establish the Trauma and Emergency Surgery service at University Hospital. He is board certified in general surgery and surgical critical care. Dr. Stewart is the Medical Director of the Surgical/Trauma ICU at University Hospital and serves on its Executive Committee as well as numerous other national and regional organizations. His interests include continued development of the regional trauma system in South Texas and the epidemiology of injury. Dr. Stewart was named Interim Chair of the Department of Surgery at UTHSCSA in October, 2008.

Sharon Smith is Executive Director of the National Trauma Institute (NTI) and has over 25 years of experience as a hospital/health care administrator.Prior to joining NTI, Ms. Smith was responsible for originating TRISAT (Trauma Institute of San Antonio, Texas) which matured and expanded to become the National Trauma Institute. Her prior positions have included: CEO, Humana Women’s Hospital – South Texas; CEO, Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital; Chief Operating Officer, Pysquel, Inc.; and Administrator of the Trauma Division, Department of Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center. As a healthcare consultant, Ms. Smith has developed joint ventures between multi-hospital health care systems, managed hospital and clinic construction projects, and written strategic plans for hospital and health care organizations and agencies.

The National Trauma Institute originated and keeps its headquarters in San Antonio. San Antonio is the home of NTI because of its earlier origins as a local military/civilian trauma program collaboration, working with the Level 1 trauma and burn programs at Brooke Army Medical Center, the US Army Institute of Surgical Research, Wilford Hall Medical Center and the University of Texas Health Science Center/University Health System. This non-profit organization’s purpose is to generate public and private funds, to then be awarded to researchers across the US for trauma and burn research in both military and civilian populations.

A message from Jim Rice, Youth Mentoring, Committee Chair

Dear Fellow Rotarians,

The Youth Mentoring program at our Rotary has four years under its belt. This program mentors the Diploma Plus students. Under this program Rotarians volunteer to meet with one designated D+ high school senior for the fall and spring semesters. The meetings are held on the school campus and during school hours. The meetings are suggested to be held once a week; if not possible, every other week. Keep in mind as a mentor you receive credit for talking time to meet with your assigned student in lieu of attending the Wednesday Rotary meetings. Each mentor listens to the student and offer advice. There is no tutoring involved. Rotary simply wants to provide these intelligent, young adults with someone who will listen and provide some basic guidance.

The youth mentoring program did not have enough Rotarian mentors for the school year 2008-2009. We were especially sort of female mentors. The committee has learned from these four years, so for those Rotarians who mentored in the past and experienced any difficulty with the mentoring process, please consider this program again.

Diploma Plus has gathered the students who will receive the financial aid. The youth mentoring committee will gear up shortly to provide mentoring to these students. The mentoring meetings between the Rotarians and the students will not begin until the schools, students and high school counselors are all set and running for the year. This means we will need our Rotarians to begin their mentoring work with the students in September.

If you have any interest in this great program, please call or email me soon. There is a screening process Rotary must go through to approve mentors each year. That process takes some time as well as the time needed to match the student to the best mentor. The sooner you let us know of your desire to mentor, the better. If you have mentored before, I don’t need to tell you how spiritually rewarding it is. If you have not mentored before, you will be grateful you did. Rotarians benefit just as much as the students from the mentoring process. We can provide some training for those who have not mentored before.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Jim Rice, Youth Mentoring Chair

Email: jprice@ssacpa.com

Phone: 210-384-8000

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