University Times

Bell Yung, an ethnomusicologist and professor of music at Pitt, has been named director of the Asian studies program.

He replaces Patricia Stranahan, who left to become provost at Hobart and William Smith College in Geneva, N.Y. Yung will assume his duties in January. He is on leave from the University during the fall term. Jonathan Wolff, associate director of the program, will serve as acting director during the fall term. Yung, who has been at Pitt since 1981, earned a Ph.D. in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in music from Harvard.

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The School of Nursing promoted Jacqueline Lever to executive director of Student Services and Becky Carr to director of Undergraduate Student Services.

Lever, who had been director of Undergraduate Student Services at the School of Nursing, will oversee all activities in the Student Services Office, including the recruitment, admission, retention, progression, graduation and placement of all pre-licensure, RN Options, and graduate students. Carr, who had been director of Recruitment and Placement for the School of Nursing, will oversee the academic advising for the undergraduate program.

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Eugene Myers, professor and Eye and Ear Foundation chair at the School of Medicine, received the American Laryngological Association Award and the deRoaldes Award at the 122nd annual meeting of the American Laryngological Association.

Both awards are presented to an individual in recognition of outstanding accomplishments in the field of laryngology.

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Jonas T. Johnson, professor of otolaryngology at the School of Medicine, has been elected vice president of the Head and Neck Society. He also was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the society. Johnson is a candidate for president of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation.

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Ellis M. Arjmand, assistant professor of otolaryngology at the School of Medicine, won best clinical poster for his submission "Sensorineural Hearing Loss in NICU Survivors" at the 16th annual meeting of the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology.

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Elizabeth L. Cohn, who has served as director of clinical operations for UPMC Health System's Pittsburgh Clinical Research Network (PCRN) since 1998 , has been named vice president-operations, a new position.

PCRN, which was formally launched by the UPMC Health System in mid-1998, serves as a single point of entry into the health system for industry sponsors of clinical trials, such as pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies. Cohn not only will continue to oversee all clinical operations of PCRN, but also play a central role in advancing the firm's overall business development objectives and oversee PCRN's recently created subject recruitment and retention unit.

Prior to helping launch PCRN, Cohn co-founded and directed the clinical trials program of the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine.

Cohn earned a B.A. from Smith College and a master's of public health from Pitt. She is a member of the Drug Information Association, the Association of Clinical Research Professionals and the Society for Clinical Trials.

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Holly Harbage Gallion has joined the University as a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences. Her immediate responsibility will be to build a new program as director of the National Center of Excellence in Ovarian Cancer at the Magee-Womens Hospital.

She also has dual appointments with the Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI) and University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI).

In addition, Gallion will oversee MWRI's and UPCI's ovarian cancer translational research program. Translational research targets ways to bring treatments out of the laboratory and to the bedside as efficiently as possible.

Gallion's recruitment was made possible in part because of a $1.5 million Scaife Family Foundation grant to the Magee-Womens Health Foundation last year. The grant was the establishment of a National Center of Excellence in Ovarian Cancer at Magee.

Gallion said her goals include building a screening program for women at high risk for ovarian cancer and enriching genetics counseling efforts, as well as developing a comprehensive clinical trials program for ovarian cancer patients.

She also is committed to recruiting high-quality faculty in gynecologic oncology. Specifically, she hopes to establish a fellowship program in gynecologic oncology at the University.

A graduate of the University of Kentucky School of Medicine, Gallion is a diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology with a special competency in oncology. She is a member of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists 2001 strategic planning task force and is a reviewer for publications including Gynecologic Oncology, The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and The American Cancer Society Journal.

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Scott Mest, a doctoral student in the Department of Geology and Planetary Science, has been awarded a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program Fellowship through Goddard Space Flight Center.

Mest was one of five U.S. graduate students whose research was selected for NASA support. His project is "Evolution of the Martian Highlands: Implications From Drainage Basin Characteristics and Valley Network Morphometry."