MSU Today with Russ White

Mark Patishnock is the director of MSU's Counseling and Psychiatric Services.

“If someone Googles MSU CAPS, they might see an advertisement to buy a baseball cap,” Patishnock quips. “Actually it's what we're commonly known as. Counseling and Psychiatric Services is the primary mental health service for all MSU students. We are charged with being accessible and providing quality care to all 50,000 plus enrolled students. We have a bevy of resources, and we're here for students and faculty.”

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. And here to help us all be more aware, are three scholars from Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine.

Claudia Finkelstein is the Director of Wellness, Resilience and Vulnerable Populations. Jennifer Johnson is the C.S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health and Professor of OB/GYN, Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine. And Julia Felton is Assistant Professor in the Division of Public Health and Pediatrics and Human Development.

Kirk Mayes is the CEO of Forgotten Harvest in Detroit. He's a 1999 graduate of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences. Forgotten Harvest is a nonprofit organization that fights hunger and food insecurity by rescuing surplus food that would otherwise be thrown away and they donate it to families in need.

Michael Kazanowski is a 2012 MSU graduate and co-founder of High Five Spirits and Gypsy Vodka. Not only can he give you a recipe for a killer quarantini, but his company now makes hand sanitizer by the gallon in its Petoskey-based storefront.

Michigan State University has announced the appointment of Mónica Ramírez-Montagut as director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum (MSU Broad). Ramírez-Montagut currently serves as the director of the Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University in New Orleans and will assume her new role at the MSU Broad on July 1, 2020.

LaDonna Mask is the principal at Kendon Elementary in the Lansing School District and is one of 19 educators from across the country selected for the PBS Digital Innovator All-Star Program. She’s a 2020 PBS Digital Innovator All Star and was supported and recommended by WKAR. Mask's career in education has spanned 40-plus years within the Lansing School District.

Norman J. Beauchamp Jr. M.D. is Michigan State University's Executive Vice President for Health Sciences and he's supporting MSU's community response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He talks with Spartans Athletic Director Bill Beekman about MSU’s collaborative ethos and the university’s low barriers for researchers to work together to fight COVID-19. He explains the process involved in developing a vaccine, too.

Legendary WKAR reporter, producer, host, anchor, and journalist Scott Pohl has retired after an award-winning 35-year career at MSU’s WKAR Public Media.

Pohl talks about what it feels like to retire, and he describes his path to MSU as a student and then to WKAR five years after graduation. And he says there are two interviews that stand out to him over his career.

Michigan State University president, Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D., has named Dr. Teresa K. Woodruff as the university's next Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. She's currently Dean of the Graduate School and the Associate Provost for Graduate Education at Northwestern University.

Spartans Athletic Director Bill Beekman provides an update on all things MSU Athletics on MSU Today.

Most of us are in our sixth week of working remotely, and in many ways it feels much longer for a lot of people. So much has changed in that relatively short period of time. Beekman keeps the safety and health of MSU student athletes at the forefront of all the decisions he’s making as he prepares for a future where information and the situation constantly change.