Mary Goldberg

Student-driven collaborations

Mary Goldberg, PhD, became Associate Dean for Interprofessional Studies in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences on July 1, 2023.

“I want students to be the drivers on what they would learn the most from other professionals by collaborating,” Goldberg says. “Things like pain management, disability studies, emergency response, adaptive technology are all very collaborative.”

She had long worked in the field as director of the Master of Rehabilitation Technology program, focusing on helping people live more independently in their homes. The program pulls together people from various disciplines including physical therapists, occupational therapists, physicians, nurses and rehabilitation aides in home health care.

She also had experience directing a training program for the military for veterans with disabilities who were returning to college.

She spent a year learning the job with David C. Beck, who is now vice dean of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and an associate professor in the Department of PA Studies. He was the inaugural associate dean for Interprofessional Studies in SHRS.

Goldberg cited the school’s Interprofessional Education Seed awards as a vehicle for encouraging the development of innovative interdisciplinary ideas.

Faculty, staff or students can submit ideas for projects that enhance interprofessional teaching and will cost $2,500 to $5,000. The winners this year included an interdisciplinary program to use mainstream smart technology like voice assistants as assistive technology; a program meant to strengthen the interprofessional service-learning in street medicine by offering curriculum-based opportunities and a program to enhance simulation skills in placing nasogastric tubes, which was a collaboration between the Dietitian/Nutritionist Program, Emergency Medicine and Physician Assistant Studies.

Goldberg hopes to create a novel interprofessional certificate that would be cross curricular. “The earliest offering would be fall of next year because it takes time for things to be approved when attached to a degree program,” she said, but it may be possible to offer a pilot program at the continuing education level, using the Pitt professional platform for alumni.