November 30, 2018 Vol. LXX, No. 24 stopped by NIH’s table at Hiring Our Heroes, staffed by the Office of Human Resources’ corporate recruitment unit. There he met Dr. Tim Puetz, an operations officer at the IN SERVICE Clinical Center and, like Gillman, an Army Gillman Pushes Past veteran who was planning to switch agencies. Hardships to Help Other Vets Gillman now holds Puetz’s previous position at NIH. BY DANA TALESNIK “Tim helped me get this position,” said A year ago, Jake Gillman attended a career Gillman. “I’d really like to keep contributing fair as a veteran looking for a new opportu- to helping other veterans, just giving back, Jake Gillman, a veteran, helps NIH hire vets. kind of paying it forward, from what Tim had nity. In September, he attended the same PHOTO: DANA TALESNIK Hiring Our Heroes event at Nationals Park, done for me.” this time as an NIH contractor. speaking with other vets out there, it takes Gillman served in the Army National “I went to the Nats Park hiring event a really long time for vets to translate their Guard for 10 years, from 2006 to 2016, [this year] so I could help forward veterans’ skills to the working world,” Gillman said. “I starting out as a truck driver while training résumés to hiring officials,” said Gillman, a believe veterans have a strong work ethic and to teach hand-to-hand combat. Even early scientific program manager at the Center for [most] have a core base values system that on, as a private, he was busy helping his Cellular Engineering in the Clinical Center’s makes them work harder at their positions. fellow soldiers, managing platoon training department of transfusion medicine. That’s why I try to help as many vets as I can and preparing information they needed to “When I first started going to [veteran when I get the opportunity.” get promoted. recruiting] conferences, [I realized] after A year earlier, Gillman fortuitously SEE GILLMAN, PAGE 4 NIH Honors Legacy of Adult Care Resources Are Pioneering Cancer Scientist Available to NIH’ers Rabson NIH clinical research nurse Martina BY SARAH SCHMELLING Lavrisha knew something was wrong when her mother—a devout Catholic who attended Colleagues, friends services daily for most of her 98 years— and family of Dr. started talking about not going to church. Alan S. Rabson Her hearing, she complained, was too poor to gathered at hear the priest, so what was the point? Natcher Bldg. Oct. The unexpected change alarmed Lavrisha 30 to celebrate and her eight siblings. “This woman has gone Like no other warehouse in HHS. See p. 5. the life of the to church every single day for her entire life,” distinguished she explains, noting that her mother also had ALSO THIS ISSUE physician-scien- trouble identifying family members because Briefs ....................................2 tist, who provided she could not see or hear who was entering more than a her home. “We had been talking with her NIH Celebrates PA Week . 3 half-century of about getting hearing aids, but it’s hard to get NIMH Addresses Strategies for service to NIH. a consensus.” Suicide Prevention ........................5 Katie Couric at Their stories, While the challenges of aging were hitting ceremony honoring Digest ....................................9 Dr. Alan S. Rabson anecdotes and home in a new way, Lavrisha was familiar memories of with the topic. Throughout her nursing Milestones ...............................10 Rabson, who passed away in July, were of a career, she worked primarily with senior Volunteers ................................11 brilliant, dedicated and, above all, kind man patients and, at the beginning of 2018, began Safra Family Lodge Gets Makeover .........12 SEE RABSON, PAGE 6 SEE ADULT CARE, PAGE 8 BRIEFS Author Holds Q&A on Eunice Kennedy • Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) Program - Kodokan judo in which the principles and tech- Shriver, Dec. 6 in Lipsett To enroll in an FSA for 2019, you must use the niques of judo lead to development of the mind Join NICHD director FSAFEDS website at www.fsafeds.com or call and the body [and] carry over to all aspects of daily Dr. Diana Bianchi for 1-877-372-3337 (TTY 1-866-353-8058). Note that living. The formal phase of the initial course will a Q&A session with your current enrollment will not automatically con- include judo exercises, methods of breaking falls Pulitzer Prize-winning tinue into next year. If you want an account in 2019, and selected throwing and grappling forms.” journalist and author you must enroll during the Open Season. Open Season elections will be effective on Jan. 1, 2019. Today, for beginners, the NIH Judo Club follows the Eileen McNamara same format with some modifications as students about her latest book, If you have questions, email AskBenefits@nih. learn judo techniques, train for competition and Eunice: The Kennedy gov or your benefits contact, who can be found at work toward earning their first belt-rank. Who Changed the https://hr.nih.gov/contacts/benefits. World. McNamara The club will reserve 10 slots for beginners from is director of the NIH. Inquiry for admission to the introduction to journalism program at Enrollment Open for NIH Leave Bank judo course in January 2019 (starting Tuesday, Brandeis University. Fall open enrollment for the NIH Leave Bank runs Jan. 8) is now open and will close on Dec. 15. The The session will be held until Dec. 10. The membership period will begin on course material will be covered over four Tuesday Thursday, Dec. 6, from Jan. 6, 2019. classes; attendance at all four Tuesdays in January 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in is mandatory for admission to the class. Lipsett Amphitheater, The Leave Bank is a pooled bank of donated annual Eileen McNamara If you are interested, visit http://nihjudoclub. Bldg. 10. and restored leave available to eligible members. It acts like insurance for your paycheck and amounts com and contact the club at info@nihjudoclub. McNamara’s book chronicles the life of Eunice to paid leave for members who have exhausted all com. There will be other months that the club will Kennedy Shriver, including her efforts to get her of their own sick and annual leave and are affected offer an introductory course to celebrate the 40th brother President John F. Kennedy to create an NIH by a personal or family medical condition. anniversary. institute dedicated to understanding and improving child health, maternal health and the health of The Leave Bank differs from the Voluntary Leave Transfer Program (VLTP) in that the bank is a Webinar on Open Data, Place-Based people with disabilities. All are welcome. Those Research, Dec. 6 who bring their copy of the book can have it signed depository of leave; leave is distributed to members by the author. who are approved to be leave recipients. The VLTP, The Office of Disease Prevention will hold a on the other hand, requires a direct donation from Methods: Mind the Gap webinar with Dr. Stephen donor to recipient. An advantage of the Leave Bank J. Mooney on constructing measures of place from Federal Benefits Open Season, Til Dec. 10 is that eligible members may receive leave to cover secondary data. The event will occur on Thursday, The Benefits Open Season began on Nov. 12 and time out of the office without awaiting donations Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. from coworkers. runs through Dec. 10. Don’t miss this opportunity. Mooney will discuss If you plan to make an Open Season election, To become a Leave Bank member, access the approaches and now is the time to do it. Unless you experience a Integrated Time and Attendance System (ITAS) useful tools for Qualifying Life Event during the year, the annual during open enrollment and enroll under “Leave constructing Open Season is your only chance to enroll, cancel Bank Membership.” If you are a 2018 Leave Bank measures of place your enrollment or make a change to your enroll- member, your membership will automatically from secondary ment for the participating programs. continue into 2019, unless you opt out. The yearly data, including For detailed information about the Federal Benefits membership contribution is one pay period’s “ecometrics” (using Open Season, visit https://hr.nih.gov/benefits/ worth of annual leave accrual. The membership psychometric change-open-season/benefits-open-season. contribution will automatically be waived if you lack techniques to build sufficient leave. place-based scales), The three participating programs are: spatial interpolation For more information, visit http://hr.nih.gov/leave- • Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) and assessing bank or contact (301) 443-8393 or LeaveBank@ and correcting for Program - To enroll, cancel or change your FEHB od.nih.gov. enrollment, you must use myPay at https://mypay. sampling biases in dfas.mil/mypay.aspx. Open Season elections will be crowdsourced data. effective on Jan. 6, 2019. Your current enrollment NIH Judo Club’s 40th Anniversary Class Begins Jan. 8 Mooney is acting will automatically continue into next year if you assistant professor Dr. Stephen J. Mooney do not take any action. (Exception: If you will be January 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the in the department retiring between now and Jan. 5, 2019, do not use NIH Judo Club. This is a special time and opportu- of epidemiology at myPay to make your Open Season change. Instead, nity for members of the NIH community to begin the University of Washington. He has a background you must submit a hard-copy Health Benefits judo as the club celebrates 4 decades of teaching, as a computer programmer and recently obtained Election Form, SF 2809, along with your retirement learning and practicing the sport.