Behind the Blue University of Kentucky Public Relations / UK HealthCare

 LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 25, 2024) – This year marked Kentucky Gymnastics 50th season. Fans were able to watch some incredible talent during the historic season, including the incredibly decorated Raena Worley. 
 The 2024 SEC Floor Co-Champion graduated in May with a dual degree in Communications and Kinesiology. She is now an assistant coach for Kentucky Gymnastics.
Worley is the second-most decorated gymnast in the history of U-K’s program with a long list of accolades. Some highlights include earning five perfect tens this past season of competition — four on floor exercise and one coming on the uneven bars.  
Worley also qualified as a national championship individual competitor this year and finished as runner-up on the floor exercise. 
Now, the world turns its attention to the Paris Olympics and once again gymnastics will be a must-watch event.  
On this episode of “Behind the Blue” we pick Worley’s brain about competing at such a high level and see who she’s eyeing in the competition. 
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email BehindTheBlue@uky.edu or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page. 
To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 18, 2024) – The University of Kentucky Alumni Association started the Great Teacher Award program in 1961 to honor excellent teaching at the university. There have been more than 300 teachers honored since that first year. Nominations may only be submitted by current students.
To receive the award, a candidate must:
Hold the rank of full-time lecturer or above and have been a member of the faculty for the past three years at UK. Have superior knowledge of the subject matter. Have original and innovative classroom presentations. Demonstrate concern for students, both inside and outside the classroom setting. Not have been a recipient of the award for the past 10 years. A committee of the UK Alumni Association Board of Directors and a representative from the student organization Omicron Delta Kappa select the recipients based on objective rating and ranking of the eligible nominations submitted.
This episode of Behind the Blue spotlights one of the six Great Teacher Award winners for 2024. Jordan Brower is an assistant professor of English where he primarily teaches film and media studies. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English at Amherst College and his Ph.D. in English and film and media studies from Yale University.
Before coming to UK in 2019, he was a lecturer in the interdisciplinary history and literature program at Harvard University and, as a graduate student and then adjunct, at Yale University.
In his research, Brower studies the ways artists — writers of fiction and screenplays, directors, stars — understand their positions within the increasingly complex and chaotic media industries in which they work. His first book, “Classical Hollywood, American Modernism: A Literary History of the Studio System” (Cambridge University Press, 2024), charts the entwined trajectories of the Hollywood studio system and literary modernism in the United States.
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university. 
For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email BehindTheBlue@uky.edu or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page. 
To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 11, 2024) – [THIS IS AN ENCORE EPISODE.] Dr. Kenneth Campbell is the director of translational research in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in the UK College of Medicine. His work, to help map out an important part of the heart on a molecular level was part of a study published online in the prestigious journal Nature in 2023.
Campbell says the study is important for discovering new drug therapies for heart disease, the leading cause of death in Kentucky. According to the CDC, Kentucky is among the top 10 states with the highest death rate from the disease.
On this episode of ‘Behind the Blue’, Dr. Campbell talks about this important research and how the development of the Gill Cardiovascular Biorepository has helped drive heart muscle research around the world.
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.
To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 4, 2024) – [THIS IS AN ENCORE EPISODE.] The Kentucky Appalachian Rural Rehabilitation Network (KARRN) is a collaborative team that advocates to empower communities impacted by disability. Their focus is improving the quality of life for all. The organization is directed under the University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences and led by Patrick Kitzman, PT, Ph.D.
Each year Kitzman and his team take on multiple projects to help those who need it most. Projects include refurbishing equipment such as wheelchairs and walkers, providing adapted toys to children and fundraising for the Grace Jones Fund.
KARRN also has an undergraduate student club on UK's campus led by Clara Bond, a junior in the College of Health Sciences. Their purpose is to assess campus for accessibility and suggest changes where needed. They have also provided education to children in various schools across the Fayette County school district. 
This year during One Day for UK, the University's annual giving day, all donations to the College of Health Sciences will go directly toward the Grace Jones Fund.  
This fund is used to help people with physical disabilities, caused by conditions such as strokes, as well as their families. Funds can be used to pay for adult day care, medical equipment, therapy services (such as PT, OT, or Speech), transportation costs related to attending disability support services, short-term respite care, program development, education, assistive technology and marketing.
On this episode of ‘Behind the Blue’, Kitzman and Bond talk about the important work of KARRN, the collaboration the network has helped inspire, the culture shift they see happening both on and off campus, and more.
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page. 
To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 27, 2024) – In February of this year, we published an episode of Behind the Blue that previewed the UK College of Pharmacy’s ‘Everything is Science’ event. ‘Everything is Science’ is a speaker-series festival that unfolds across various venues throughout Lexington. The idea behind it is to take a large and intimidating topic and make it relatable and accessible in a fun and interactive way. One of the goals of the series is to help people feel more connected to the world they live in.
The theme of this year’s ‘Everything is Science’ festival was ‘Make it Make Sense!’, where attendees would embark on a sensory journey, with the focus on the five remarkable human senses: touch, vision, taste, hearing, and smell. 
On this episode of ‘Behind the Blue’, we’re featuring one of the presentations from this year’s festival. Lou Hirsch, Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology in the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment gave a talk entitled “Fungal Feasts: Fungi are all around us — and tasty!”.  
This presentation has been slightly edited for time and clarity. 
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university. 
Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.
To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 20, 2024) – For Keith Wynn, UK’s assistant director of Transfer Recruitment, the journey to higher education wasn’t a traditional one. From dropping out of high school and working various jobs to earning his GED and eventually taking the ACT, his perseverance led him through multiple schools and changes in majors before earning his degree in 2007.
Wynn’s experiences have shaped his passion for helping others, especially transfer students, find their own paths in higher education. Those qualities of resilience and dedication are now ones he instills in the students he supports. As an admissions counselor, he discovered a deep-seated passion for guiding students through their educational journeys, emphasizing that non-traditional paths are just as valuable and impactful.
On this episode of ‘Behind the Blue’, Wynn talks about how he encourages students to break through self-imposed limitations and seize opportunities available at UK, including understanding their own potential and the breadth of possibilities awaiting them.
You can find more information about transfer admission here.
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.
To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.