In recent years, medical science has become central to the university’s mission. That
is on full display with the launch of the summer edition of TCU Magazine, which is now live.
“Our cover story highlights the Punching Out Parkinson’s program, which is a partnership between Chris Watts, the Marilyn & Morgan Davies Dean of the Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences, and world-champion boxer Paulie Ayala,” said Caroline Collier, editor of TCU Magazine. “Before they came together to help, people in Fort Worth who were facing a Parkinson’s diagnosis had nowhere to turn, really, as symptoms worsened.”
The story chronicles how those patients can now combat the disease in a local, legitimate boxing gym and find assistance and resources from TCU faculty members, who are quantifying how and why exercise helps reverse the neurological damage associated with Parkinson’s, Collier said.
But TCU’s impact on health care doesn’t stop there.
“A 15-person team centered at the medical school has its first FDA-approved drug trial, which is a huge deal for both the school and for Fort Worth,” Collier said. “They are testing an anti-rejection drug on severe cases of COVID-19 in hopes it will stop the immune system from damaging healthy tissue.”
Although the health care is front and center, the summer edition also includes a piece about TCU football alumnus and studio artist Marshall Harris ’79. He and his wife, June Naylor ’79, spent the fall in Paris, where a cultural exchange program allowed him to teach French kids art techniques, in addition to American rules of football.
A profile on Laura Phipps ’04, whose career trajectory has launched her to a curator position at the Whitney Museum of American Art, highlights her thoughts about who and what determines importance in the art world.
Furthermore, the magazine’s research feature on Jeannine Gailey, professor of sociology, reports about the years she has spent studying the harmful epidemic of fat shaming.
“This is a widespread phenomenon, but something I hardly ever hear discussed,” Collier said. “We hope this story will spark conversations about different forms of discrimination.”
Read the summer edition of TCU Magazine.