Troiani-Sweeney Endowed Fund Lecture Series on October 26 Focuses on Alzheimer’s Disease

Dr. Nicole Rogus-Pulia

Posted by: Elizabeth Richardson on October 9, 2023, No Comments

Yvonne Troiani-Sweeney ’78 always had passion for the well-being of her patients. She dedicated her life to her nursing career that spanned 30 years after earning her bachelor’s degree in nursing from East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania (ESU) and a graduate degree in nursing from Villanova. Her colleagues and patients became her second family. Nursing led her to leadership roles at what is now the Lehigh Valley Health Network, Franklin Square Hospital in Maryland, Albert Einstein Medical Center, and the Geisinger Health System. Wherever her occupation led her, she became an inspiration to others for the incredible level of care she delivered every day.

All of that changed 12 years ago for Sweeney and her family, who live in Mountain Top, Pa. Diagnosed with a form of early onset dementia called posterior cortical atrophy, she set aside her career and focused her energy on the daily challenges she faced, alongside her loving husband, Chris, and her two sons, Christopher III and Michael.

Support came in many ways from Sweeney’s family. Her sister, Linda Niedbala ’83and Linda’s husband, Sam Niedbala ’82, started the Troiani-Sweeney Endowed Fund Lecture Series at ESU, which kicked off in March 2014. The Niedbalas wanted this initiative to be a lasting tribute to Sweeney’s devotion to others while making a significant contribution to the education of health care professionals and the community-at-large about the cognitive impairment associated with dementia and other diseases of a similar nature.

The lecture series will continue, for the 11th year, on Thursday, October 26 with a keynote address by Nicole Rogus-Pulia, PhD, CCC-SLP, titled “Preserving the Joy of Eating: Advances in Dysphagia Care for Persons with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias.”

Dr. Nicole Rogus-Pulia is an assistant professor in the Departments of Medicine, Surgery, Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Additionally, she is the director of the Swallowing and Salivary Bioscience Laboratory in the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital as well as director of the multi-site Veteran Health Administration’s (VHA) Intensive Dysphagia Treatment (IDT) program.

The goal of Dr. Rogus-Pulia’s research program is to systematically identify and characterize factors underlying dysphagia in older adults and patients with dementia with the goal of translating these findings into novel, evidence-based treatments for prevention of pneumonia onset.

Dr. Rogus-Pulia has received grant funding from the Veterans Health Administration, the Wisconsin Head and Neck Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE), the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support this work.

The Troiani-Sweeney Endowed Fund Lecture will take place in the Niedbala Auditorium located inside Warren E. ’55 & Sandra Hoeffner Science and Technology Center at 6 p.m. A reception will follow the presentation. The event is open to the general public at no cost.

“This endowed lecture series is a tremendous gift to the university and to our medical community,” said ESU President Kenneth Long.

To register for the event, please visit https://www.esufoundation.org/troiani-sweeney-lecture-series-2023, or call 570-422-3332. Space is limited for this event. For more information about the lecture series, please contact the College of Health Sciences at (570) 422-3425 or swerkheis4@esu.edu. Those interested in making a gift to the Troiani-Sweeney Endowed Fund Lecture Series may contact the ESU Foundation at https://www.esufoundation.org/give-now or call (570) 422-3333.