Oklahoma State University: OSU-CHS Awarded Bandura Award For Crucial Conversations Research

Press release from Oklahoma State University:

2022-03-08

Crucial Learning, a learning company with courses in communication, performance and
leadership, awarded the 2022 Albert Bandura Influencer Award to Oklahoma State University
Center for Health Sciences.

Named for Bandura — world-renowned psychologist — the award recognizes organizations,
leaders, and scholars who have advanced both scholarship and practice in enabling
self-directed human change. The award was founded under the premise that human behavior
is a direct cause behind the world’s most pervasive and significant challenges. As
a result, the health, peace and prosperity of humanity hinges on organizations and
individuals learning the science behind influencing human behavior.

OSU Center for Health Sciences trained its faculty, students and residents in Crucial
Learning’s Crucial Conversations course. In a formal analysis after implementing Crucial Conversations, OSU faculty found improvements in the areas of teamwork climate, safety climate, job satisfaction, stress
recognition, perceptions of management and working conditions.

“We are honored to receive the Albert Bandura Influencer Award,” said Dr. Jason Beaman,
a clinical assistant professor and the department chair of psychiatry and behavioral
sciences at OSU-CHS. “Communication in the health care industry is more vital than
ever, and our leadership and faculty are committed to helping Oklahoma State students
and residents shine as examples of professionalism and expertise in the field.”

Dr. Mo Som, professor of internal medicine at OSU-CHS, said she recognized that Crucial
Conversations could revolutionize how interpersonal communications and professionalism
is taught in an academic setting.

“To improve health care, it has to start with communication. We at OSU Center for
Health Sciences and OSU Medicine are proving that every single day and I think Crucial
Conversations has a big role to play because we know how to have difficult conversations.
We know how to focus on the things that are important, which at the end of the day,
is the individual’s health care,” Som said.

Since 2010, Crucial Learning has recognized outstanding influencers, including Dr.
Mimi Silbert, the founder of the Delancey Street Institute who has changed the lives
of 18,000 hardened criminals; David Levin, cofounder of KIPP, the Knowledge is Power
Program that has helped 20,000 at-risk youth graduate high school; and The Carter
Center, which eradicated guinea worm disease.

“Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences is a bright example of an organization
changing lives for the better,” said Joseph Grenny, cofounder of Crucial Learning.
“We are thrilled to recognize Oklahoma State and their efforts to positively influence
their students, residents and the patients they serve.”

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Media Contact:
Sara Plummer | Communications Coordinator | 918-561-1282 | sara.plummer@okstate.edu

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry Joshua Muia, Ph.D., is hoping his research into
two tiny enzymes can help identify and possibly treat a rare blood disease as well
as the most common form of heart disease.

Dr. Muia joined the faculty at OSU Center for Health Sciences’ School of Biomedical
Sciences in 2020, and not only did he start a new job at a new institution in the
middle of a pandemic, but he also applied for a national research grant, not an easy
feat.

Muia was recently awarded a five-year $1.67 million grant from the National Institute
of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.

“Applying for a grant takes a long time and a lot of work,” he said. “Getting a grant
isn’t easy, especially an NIH grant.”

Muia’s research is focused on two enzymes in the ADAMTS (A Disintegrin and Metalloprotease
with ThromboSpondin motifs) family — ADAMTS13 and ADAMTS7.

The ADAMTS13 enzyme works to regulate how blood cells called platelets attach to blood
vessels and control blood clotting.

This press release was produced by Oklahoma State University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.