UW College of Health Sciences 2023 distinguished alumni and administrators are,
from left: front row, Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing Dean Sherrill Smith, Capt.
Greg Sarchet, Faith Jones, Jayne Jenkins, Jennie Price and Jason Castillo; back row,
Dean Jacob Warren, Valerie Thompson-Ebanks, director of the Division of Social Work;
Mark Guiberson, director of the Division of Communication Disorders; Derek Smith,
director of the Division of Kinesiology and Health; and Kem Krueger, dean of the School
of Pharmacy. (UW Photo)
The University of Wyoming’s College of Health Sciences celebrated distinguished alumni
from divisions and schools throughout the college during UW’s recent Homecoming.
Health care fields represented included social work, nursing, communication disorders,
medicine, kinesiology and health, and pharmacy.
During the weeklong Homecoming events on the UW campus, the distinguished alumni interacted
with students from their individual disciplines and participated in a walking tour
of the Health Sciences Building. The main event honoring the alumni was held at Laramie’s
Hilton Garden Inn, where alumni received awards for their contributions to health
education.
“It was an honor to recognize the incredible work of this year’s distinguished alumni
and to congratulate them on all of their amazing achievements,” says Jacob Warren,
dean of the College of Health Sciences. “They each represent the best of their professions,
and it is incredible to see all that they have done since their time at the University
of Wyoming.”
This year’s honorees were:
Jason Castillo, Division of Social Work
Castillo is associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Utah College
of Social Work. He holds a Bachelor of Social Work and a Master of Social Work from
UW, where he earned Dean's List recognition in 2000-01 and was a McNair Scholar during
his master’s studies. In 2007, he obtained a Ph.D. in social work from Arizona State
University. Castillo's commitment to social work extends to academia and the community.
Leading the Bachelor of Social Work program at the University of Utah College of Social
Work for six years, he also spearheaded the Substance Use Disorder Treatment Training
Certificate Program, securing a substantial $1.2 million grant to support its launch.
His achievements also include a $2.1 million Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA) Opioid Impact Family Support Program grant in 2020. His research focus encompasses
substance use, social justice, policy and the intricate dynamics of fathers’ social
networks.
Jody Cousins, WWAMI Medical Education Program
Born and raised in Wyoming, Cousins graduated from the Wyoming WWAMI (Washington,
Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) Program in 2006. She finished a year of surgery
residency in Cincinnati, Ohio, and returned to complete the UW Family Medicine Residency
Program in Cheyenne, where she graduated in 2010. From 2010-18, she served as a full-spectrum
family medicine physician, including inpatient medicine and obstetrics, at Island
Hospital in Anacortes, Wash., with Fidalgo Medical Associates. She started the Center
for Maternal and Infant Care there, which continues to offer families outpatient perinatal
counseling and breastfeeding assistance. She won the 2015 Washington State Breastfeeding
Coalition award for her advocacy and has been a speaker at several medical conferences
in this field.
In 2021, Cousins returned to Wyoming and served as a community preceptor at UW’s Family
Medicine Residency Program, later accepting a faculty position in the residency program.
She continues to pursue her combined interests in women’s health and global health,
having served five overseas’ medical missions to Peru, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and
Rwanda. Cousins plans to continue UW resident involvement in global health and educating
midwives in Uganda.
Jayne Jenkins, Division of Kinesiology and Health
Jenkins, professor emerita, joined UW’s Division of Kinesiology and Health in 1999
as an assistant professor in physical education teacher education. Leveraging her
25 years of experience as a K-12 physical educator, Jenkins built a career in academia
over the next 25 years developing the highest-quality K-12 physical educators for
Wyoming’s workforce.
A 1995 alumna of the UW graduate program in physical education, Jenkins completed
her doctoral training at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro before returning
to UW. Her cross-cutting, interdisciplinary and applied scholarship has advanced K-12
teacher effectiveness, knowledge and practice globally. Jenkins’ work also extends
to training and developing master teachers among her peer faculty at UW. She is the
recipient of 19 awards for career achievements and excellence, including the prestigious
John P. Ellbogen Meritorious Classroom Teaching Award; a presidential citation for
service and dedication to Wyoming’s physical educators; and a Meritorious Career Service
Award.
Faith Jones, Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing
Jones is the director of care coordination and lean consulting for HealthTech. She
implements care coordination programs focusing on the Medicare population and teaches
concepts related to care coordination and team-based approaches to care across the
country.
Jones began her health care career in the Navy over 40 years ago. Starting as a hospital
corpsman right out of high school, she became a licensed vocational nurse upon discharge
from active duty, continuing on to obtain her associate degree in nursing from Ventura
College in California. As a working registered nurse, Jones continued her education
to obtain her bachelor’s degree through UW and eventually completed her master’s in
nursing administration and nursing education at the University of Phoenix.
She is a past president of the Wyoming Nurses Association (WNA) and continues to be
an active member in the WNA, the American Nurses Association, the American Academy
of Ambulatory Care Nursing and the Rural Nurses Organization. She is a fellow of the
American Nurses Advocacy Institute and the ANA-PAC Leadership Society and holds a
certification from the American Nurses Credentialing Center as a Nurse Executive Advanced.
Jennie Price, Division of Communication Disorders
Price grew up in Rock Springs and, after taking a communication disorders course at
UW, her passion for speech-language pathology was ignited. In 1995, she earned her
bachelor’s degree from UW and gained experience in educational settings before earning
a master’s degree at Northern Arizona University in 2004.
With a career spanning multiple settings, including educational and outpatient, Price
spent 26 years as a school-based speech-language pathologist, aiding children ages
5-21. Pursuing leadership, she secured an administration license from Lewis and Clark
College, becoming director of regional programs and related services. Her supervision
of a diverse team of 40 professionals showcased her drive to enhance communication
services for those with disabilities. Price also teaches in Chemeketa College's Speech
Language Pathology Assistant Program and served on the Oregon Board of Examiners for
Speech, Language and Audiology for nine years.
Capt. Greg Sarchet, School of Pharmacy
Sarchet earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from UW in 2009. He is a board-certified
pharmacotherapy specialist and is credentialed as an Institute for Healthcare Improvement
professional development coach and trauma-informed care community responder. He currently
serves as the senior program manager for the Policy and Operations Branch of the Center
for Drug Evaluation and Research in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
After graduating from UW, Sarchet joined the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned
Corps as a staff pharmacist at Pine Ridge Indian Hospital in Pine Ridge, S.D. He later
transferred to the Whiteriver Indian Hospital in Whiteriver, Ariz. During the pandemic,
he led operations at Whiteriver Indian Hospital that resulted in 12,606 COVID-19 tests,
19,895 COVID-19 vaccinations and 551 monoclonal antibody treatments. In 2023, Sarchet
transferred from Indian Health Service to the Federal Drug Administration.
His impact extends beyond U.S. borders as well. He was appointed as the pharmacist
in charge of the West Africa Response Team for the National Institutes of Health Ebola
vaccine clinical trial in Liberia in 2018. During the pandemic, he consulted with
the White House Coronavirus Task Force, co-writing the third and fourth amendments
to the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act for COVID-19 Medical Countermeasures.
These amendments granted vaccine prescriptive authority to pharmacists and administration
authority to pharmacy technicians throughout the U.S.
About UW’s College of Health Sciences
UW’s College of Health Sciences trains health and wellness professionals and researchers
in a wide variety of disciplines, including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, speech-language
pathology, social work, kinesiology, public health, health administration and disability
studies. The college also oversees residency and fellowship programs in Casper and
Cheyenne, as well as operating a speech/hearing clinic in Laramie and primary care
clinics in Laramie, Casper and Cheyenne.
With more than 1,600 undergraduate, graduate and professional students, the college
is dedicated to training the health and wellness workforce of Wyoming and conducting
high-quality research and community engagement, with a particular focus on rural and
frontier populations.
