Debra J. Hanson, PhD, OTR/L ’79, has been elected to a position on the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Commission on Education (COE). The COE is a visionary group that identifies, analyzes, and anticipates issues in education. It generates education-related policy recommendations, works in conjunction with the Education Special Interest Section, and has interactions with the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education. Hanson will be representing academic fieldwork on the COE.

Rup Nagala, MD, Family Practice Residency ’78, is the National Rural Health Association’s 2010 Practitioner of the Year. Nagala is a physician at Southeast Medical Center in Oakes, N.D., and a clinical assistant professor at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He helped establish a network of seven rural clinics, sponsored the education of nine physician assistants to staff the clinics, and provided leadership in the construction of the area’s first assisted living center in 1996, a new hospital in Oakes in 2007, and a dialysis center in Oakes in 2008.