Disability Employment Awareness Month

"You're Hired! Success Knows No Limitation!" is the federal government's theme for October's National Disability Employment Awareness Month. This year marks the 59th anniversary of the law designating the first week of October as "National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week," and the 14th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is a good time to reflect on the many contributions employees with disabilities make in our workplace every day.

This year, NIH marks National Disability Employment Awareness Month with an opening ceremony on the topic, "Emergency Preparedness for People with Disabilities," sponsored by the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management. The event will be held Tuesday, Oct. 12, at the Natcher Conference Center, Conf. Rms. G1/G2 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Attendees will have an opportunity to exchange ideas and share information about the development, implementation and maintenance of emergency preparedness plans that involve people with disabilities.

Sign language interpreters will be provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate in this program should contact Carlton Coleman, (301) 496-2906, TTY (301) 480-3122, and/or the Federal Relay Service (1-800-877-8339).

Navy To Host Disaster Drill, Oct. 21

Don't get ruffled on Wednesday, Oct. 21, when our neighbors across Rockville Pike at the National Naval Medical Center conduct their first-ever joint "mass casualty exercise," which will involve some aspects of NIH, and Suburban Hospital. The event, also done in coordination with Montgomery County Emergency Management Services, will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Around 75 people will be wearing moulage, or wound-simulating makeup.

The exercise is the first step to evaluate the concept of military, federal and private emergency preparedness collaboration. It is designed to test the medical readiness and response of the Navy-Suburban-NIH "mega-plex" during a mass casualty incident with potential radiation exposure.

Mock victims will be decontaminated and treated at Navy, Suburban and NIH.

Among the features of the exercise are: 20 emergency response units from Navy, Montgomery County Fire Rescue Service, Walter Reed Army Medical Center and NIH's HAZMAT team; a portable decontamination shelter; and teams dressed in personal protective equipment performing decontamination at the disaster scene.

So if you see what looks like a crisis unfolding before you on Oct. 21, it's not an early Halloween scare or a real emergency — it's just an exercise.

STEP Session on Project Management

The staff training in extramural programs (STEP) committee will hold an Administrative Strategies forum titled, "Project Management Tools for Teams" on Tuesday, Oct. 19 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Natcher Conference Center, Rms. E1-E2.

Managing many projects simultaneously is a routine challenge. More and more, NIH must achieve its goals through interdisciplinary teams. Team projects can be simple or complex, short or long, and no two are alike. Yet how can we enhance productivity and ensure success within workplace teams? Project management tools are available for creating conditions for effective teamwork, and adapting to the strengths and weaknesses of teams. This forum introduces skills for taking advantage of team dynamics. Learn how to manage your team projects rather than being managed by them. Participation in this session will earn ESA training credits. Individuals who need reasonable accommodation should contact the STEP office at (301) 435-2769.

Renovated NLM Cafeteria Opens

With great fanfare and flourish (not to mention live music and free food), George Abbott, cafeteria manager, and Jane B. Griffith, acting deputy director of NLM, co-wielded the scissors and cut the ribbon officially opening the renovated Lister Hill Cafeteria, on the B-1 level of Bldg. 38A. The Aug. 18 event featured balloons and a cake in the cafeteria's bright new colors — purple, yellow, green and orange — plus many door prizes. Officials from the Maryland Business Enterprise Program for the Blind, which oversees the cafeteria's operations, were on hand for the gala (holding the ribbon are Anna Kim and Robert Forrester), as were NIH staff who played key roles in the cafeteria's design and renovation. The construction project began Dec. 19, 2003. Cafeteria manager Abbott's service dates back a bit further; he has run the Lister Hill Cafeteria since it opened in May 1980. In her welcoming remarks at the reopening, NLM's Griffith hailed the cafeteria as "a fixture for nearly 25 years, with the great staff and the good food that have kept us all going."

Help Define 'Bioactive' Food Components

The potential role of bioactive components in foods and supplements in health promotion continues to captivate the interests of many scientists and consumers as evident by the number of scientific and lay publications devoted to this topic. Several scientists at NIH, along with their colleagues at the Departments of Health and Human Services, Defense and Agriculture have undertaken the tasks of defining the term "bioactive components" and then exploring approaches to evaluate their significance in health promotion and disease prevention. This ad hoc federal working group is requesting written comments pertinent to defining bioactive food components, through a notice that appeared in the Federal Register on Sept. 16, 2004. NIH scientists who are interested in commenting on the definition of bioactive food components or learning about this initiative are asked to contact Dr. Leila Saldanha at saldanhl@mail.nih.gov or by phone at (301) 496-0168.

NCI Offers 'Clinical Trial Education'

Only 3 percent of cancer patients participate in clinical trials, and most cancer patients are unaware that participation in clinical trials is an option. NCI's Office of Education and Special Initiatives has created the Clinical Trials Education Series (CTES) to reduce barriers to clinical trial participation and increase awareness of clinical trials as a viable cancer prevention and treatment option.

The CTES is a complete collection of resources created to educate cancer patients, health care professionals, advocates and the public about cancer clinical trials. As NIH staff, you can adapt the materials in the series within your programs and encourage its use or adaptation with your grantees and colleagues. Since these resources have already been created, approved and pilot tested, there's no need to reinvent the wheel.

The new series consists of 13 education resources, including workbooks, slide presentations, booklets, brochures, videos and a web-based course. Most can be adapted to fit any audience and many are available in Spanish language and easy-to-read formats.

To order materials, call 1-800-4-CANCER or visit http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/learning/clinical-trials-education-series.

Wednesday Afternoon Lectures

The Wednesday Afternoon Lecture series — held on its namesake day at 3 p.m. in Masur Auditorium, Bldg. 10 — features Dr. Michael P. Rout on Oct. 20; his topic is "The Structure, Origin and Mechanism of the Nuclear Pore Complex." Rout is associate professor and head, laboratory of cellular and structural biology, Rockefeller University.

On Oct. 27, Dr. Roderick MacKinnon will give the DeWitt Stetten, Jr., Lecture on "Ion Channels: Life's Electronic Hardware." MacKinnon is 2003 Nobel laureate in chemistry, Rockefeller professor and head of the laboratory of molecular neurobiology and biophysics, and HHMI investigator, Rockefeller University.

For more information or for reasonable accommodation, call Hilda Madine, (301) 594-5595.