After 23 years in private practice Dr. Spogen came to the University of Nevada School of Medicine to become faculty in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. In 2 years as director of medical education he helped start OB & Sports Medicine Fellowships, METRIC, and faculty development sessions. He is also assistant student clerkship director. In October 2006 he became Chair of the Department.

Education and Research

BA in Biophysics from Occidental College, Los Angeles, California. MS in Biomedical Engineering form the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Research for Master's Thesis involved design of a totally implantable intracranial pressure transducer for monitoring patients with hydrocephalus. Medical degree from University of Southern California. Published research entitled, "A Matched-Controlled Study on Developmental and Physical Outcome Regarding Low Birth weight Infants Requiring Phototherapy." Residency in Family Medicine from Glendale Adventist Medical Center, Glendale, California.

Professional Experience

While in California, Dr. Spogen was involved in Sports Medicine and was the team physician for La Canada High School football team. He also coordinated a class entitled, "Preparation for Parenthood," that focused on pediatrics and well-child care. He worked as medical staff in an alcohol rehab program through Glendale Memorial Hospital. However, since that time in California, Dr. Spogen has been in private practice, practicing Family Medicine in the Reno/Sparks area. That time amounted to 22 years of clinical practice which included obstetrics and hospital privileges in all three of the major hospitals in the area and, in fact, he was Chief of Staff of Northern Nevada Medical Center 1995-1997. He was acting Residency Director of the University of Nevada School of Medicine 1987 through 1989, but chose to go to full-time private practice until April of 2005 when he took the position of Director of Medical Education at the University of Nevada. During that interlude, Dr. Spogen continued his love of teaching. He was volunteer preceptor for 1st - 4th year medical students, he taught a colposcopy workshop for medical residents, he taught a suture clinic biannually and a procedure workshop that included stress tests, echocardiograms and pulmonary function testing. He also is the main faculty advisor for the Student Outreach Clinic, which is a free clinic run by first and second year medical students. For the last 18 years he has been the Family Medicine Interest Group liaison to the Nevada Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Spogen has been active in the Nevada and American Academies of Family Medicine. He was elected to the NAFP Board of Directors in 1984, became president in 1989, alternate delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates from 1989 until 1994 and delegate since. He was elected to the Commission on Education 2001, became Chair of the Subcommittee on International Family Medicine in 2001 and then Chair of the COE 2003-2004. Dr. Spogen has also been involved in bioethics. He was, until recently, the chair of the Bioethics Committee at Northern Nevada Medical Center and is still a member of the committee. He authored a case study entitled, "Ethical Concerns Involving Delay of Treatment in a Patient with Changing Mental Status."

Trudy Larson, MD, is the Director of the School of Community Health Sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno. She was appointed following an impressive 27 year career at the University of Nevada School of Medicine where she served as a professor, former chair of the Department of Pediatrics, and also served as an associate dean.

As a pediatric infectious disease specialist, she has spent her career focusing on HIV/AIDS and immunizations and has contributed to both fields in research, education and service. She is one of the founders and is the current Medical Director of the HOPES clinic providing medical services to those with HIV/AIDS. In her capacity as co-Medical Director for the AIDS Education and Training Center at the University, member of the Northern Nevada Immunization Coalition and medical consultant to the Washoe County District Health Department, she has taken the lead in speaking to professional audiences and the general public on topics such as AIDS, vaccination, disease outbreaks, bioterrorism, sex education, just to name a few.

"Dr. Larson's background in medicine and public health is impressive. She brings a strong ability to connect and collaborate between all disciplines in the field," said Denise Montcalm, Ph.D., interim dean for the Division of Health Sciences. "Under her leadership the school will continue to grow and position itself well in all facets of public health research and teaching."

Larson was selected following a national search. An eight member search committee participated in the process and included representatives from university faculty, staff, students and the community.

Larson has actively served at UNR as faculty senate chair, chaired a section for the UNR accreditation, served on the Biomedical IRB committee, and has participated in numerous searches as member and chair. She served as NSHE Assistant Chancellor for one year. Her professional affiliations include serving as member and chair of the Nevada Public Health Foundation, as member of the Nevada State AIDS Advisory Task Force and as the former chair of the Nevada Immunization Advisory Committee and the Nevada Medicaid Advisory Committee. She has served on national committees for HIV/AIDS programs.

Recognized for her numerous achievements, Dr. Larson has been awarded many medical and professional honors including induction in Nevada Women's Fund Hall of Fame in 1996, receiving the Distinguished Physician award from the Nevada State Medical Association in 1999 and was honored as a Healthcare Hero for Lifetime Achievement in 2008 for her work in HIV/AIDS.

Larson received her medical degree from the University of California, Irvine. She completed an internship in Pediatrics at the University of California Davis Medical Center where she was named chief resident of pediatrics followed by a fellowship in pediatric infectious disease at UCLA.

Dr. Wei Yang joined UNR in 2007 as a Professor and the Director of Nevada Center for Health Statistics and Informatics (NCHSI). Through an approach known as "Centralized Health Data Warehouse", NCHSI extends health statistics beyond simply using statistics and computers as tools for computation to a process of knowledge acquisition, storage, retrieval, linkage, analyses, and representations of health, human and other related data. Dr. Yang and his team provide technical capacity and collaborative opportunities for researchers on statistical methodology, sophisticated database design, data collection and data analysis in the areas of behavior risk factor surveillance and environmental epidemiology.

Before joining UNR, Dr. Yang worked for seven years as a Physician and Clinical Epidemiologist in Occupational Medicine, and served ten years as the Nevada State Chief Biostatistician and Director of the State Center for Health Data and Research at Nevada State Department of Health and Human Services.

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Dr. Dahir has been at the University of Nevada, Reno for over 18 years, both professionally, and as a graduate student, and she currently holds a joint appointment. She is both the Manager of Research Services for the Center for Research Design and Analysis (CRDA) under the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation and a Grants and Projects Officer for the College of Liberal Arts (CLA). In her capacity as a Grants and Contracts Officer for CLA, she assists faculty and graduate students with grant and contract proposal development for city, state, county, private, and federal sponsors. She works jointly with the CLA faculty, staff, and students and the pre-award staff in the Office of Sponsored Projects Staff to ensure more efficient, accurate, and timely processing of proposals.In her role as the Manager of Research Services for CRDA, Roni is responsible for management of both the survey lab and statistical consulting lab, as well as a number of state and national research projects, including the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health (Health Division).Roni has more than 15 years of experience with grant proposal development, research and survey design, program evaluation, and project management for local, regional, and national projects. She is also an adjunct faculty member for the Judicial Studies Program, Justice Management Program, and the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Social Psychology and serves on many thesis and dissertation committees for graduate students in these academic programs. An example of one course she teaches is Judicial Studies 718 “Scientific Research Methods for Judges.” Her main research interests include jury and judicial decision-making and the use of digital visual evidence in the courtroom.What's this item about? What makes it interesting? Write a catchy description to grab your audience's attention...

Dr. John Packham is the Director of Health Policy Research in the Office of Statewide Initiatives and Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine. He administers the Nevada Rural Hospital Flexibility Program (Flex) and Nevada Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program (SHIP) that support technical assistance to Nevada’s rural and frontier hospitals. He also oversees health workforce research, applied health services research, and health policy analysis undertaken by the Office of Statewide Initiatives. Dr. Packham received his BA and MA degrees in sociology from the University of Oklahoma, and a PhD in sociology from Johns Hopkins University in 1992. He was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the Örebro County Council, Örebro, Sweden in 1993. He is the co-author of numerous health-related reports, including “Health Workforce Supply in Nevada” (March 2016), “Physician Workforce in Nevada” (March 2016), “Nevada Rural and Frontier Health Data Book – Seventh Edition” (January 2015), “Physician Workforce in Nevada” (March 2016), “Registered Nurse Workforce in Nevada” (May 2014), “The Contribution of the University of Nevada School of Medicine” (April 2014), “Health Care Careers in Nevada, 2016-2017 Edition” (February 2016), and “Health Workforce in Nevada” (March 2013). Dr. Packham is the Past President of the Nevada Public Health Association (NPHA), Chair of the NPHA Advocacy and Policy Committee, and Nevada Affiliate Representative to the American Public Health Association’s Governing Council. He currently serves on a number of statewide advisory boards, including Access to Healthcare Network, Nevada Public Health Institute, Health Services and Medical Care Sector Council, and the Nevada Insurance Commissioner’s Network Adequacy Advisory Council.