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April 19, 2012

People of the Times

leanaCarrie R. Leana, George H. Love Professor of Organizations and Management at the Katz Graduate School of Business, has won the 2012 Iris Marion Young Award for Political Engagement.

The annual award is co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) and the women’s studies program and honors Young, a faculty member in GSPIA and the women’s studies program during the 1990s, who volunteered and organized on behalf of peace and social justice, fair labor practices, adult literacy and children’s rights. Young died in 2006.

Leana, who holds joint appointments in GSPIA, the School of Medicine and the Learning Research and Development Center, has completed projects aimed at improving urban public schools, child care centers and nursing homes. She has studied work conditions in occupations ranging from insurance executives to police officers.

Her field research in the area of organizational behavior led to her assisting grassroots nonprofit groups. She saw that the nonprofits were vital support systems, but were starved for resources and technical expertise and had no voice in the corporate boardroom.

The American Association of Children’s Residential Centers (AACRC) will present a Lifetime Achievement Award this month to Karen VanderVen, School of Education professor emerita.

AACRC advances knowledge pertaining to therapeutic living environments for children and adolescents with behavioral health disorders.

The association is recognizing VanderVen’s decades of work in the field that have transformed the direction of these programs to focus on the quality of developmental relationships and activities.

In her 50-year affiliation with the University, VanderVen has held several administrative positions in the applied developmental psychology programs.

DeArdoAnthony J. DeArdo, William Kepler Whiteford Professor in the Swanson School of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, was named the recipient of the 2012 Adolf Martens Memorial Steel Lecture Award by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST).

DeArdo was selected for his publication, “The Microstructure of Steel, a Modern View of an Ancient Material.” His research involves composition-processing-microstructure-mechanical property relations in structural materials, especially engineering alloys such as micro-alloyed steels and stainless steels.

In October, DeArdo will present the Adolf Martens lecture, which recognizes the achievement of significant, broadly known technical accomplishments in processing and product application in the field of ferrous physical metallurgy.

AIST is an international technical association of more than 14,400 professional and student members, representing iron and steel producers, their allied suppliers and related academia.

The Martens award was established in 2010 to honor Adolf Martens, a pioneer in establishing structure-property relationships in steel and one of the first researchers to utilize optical microscopy to observe that hard steels have different features than soft steels at the microscale.

Lauren Jonkman, School of Pharmacy clinical instructor, has been elected chair of the Pittsburgh Schweitzer Fellows program advisory board.

The Pittsburgh program is one of 13 Albert Schweitzer Fellowship program sites across the United States.

Schweitzer fellows in Pittsburgh — competitively chosen from health-focused graduate student applicants in a variety of fields — have worked to address health disparities and the social determinants of health throughout the greater Pittsburgh area.

As a clinical instructor, Jonkman practices in a variety of underserved settings, including North Side Christian Health Center, Birmingham Clinic, Salvation Army Harbor Light Center and UPMC Matilda Theiss Health Center. Her research and teaching interests include family medicine, public health, global health and care for the underserved.

Ruby_ChristineChristine M. Ruby, a faculty member in pharmacy and therapeutics at the School of Pharmacy, will be awarded the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists Leadership in Education Award May 21. This award annually honors the innovative educational endeavors of one individual.

Ruby’s efforts in interprofessional geriatric education were lauded by the awards committee as being of great benefit to health care provider teams as well as to senior patients.

Ruby also is a clinical pharmacy specialist in geriatrics.

Her research interests focus on appropriate medication use in older adults and geriatric syndromes such as urinary incontinence, cognitive changes and mobility/falls. She serves as co-director for the geriatric pharmacy fellowship program, which is cosponsored by the schools of medicine and pharmacy.

Sally C. Morton, chair of the Department of Biostatistics in the Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH), has been awarded the 2012 James L. Craig Award for Teaching Excellence for her exceptional service in and beyond the classroom; translating complex material so that it is understood by students; encouraging questions, and exuding a love of teaching.

The award was established by GSPH alumnus James L. Craig. Awardees are nominated by GSPH students and selected by a committee of students and past award winners.

John M. Wallace, the Philip Hallen Chair in Community Health and Social Justice in the School of Social Work, has been named the winner of the 2012 UAA-SAGE Marilyn J. Gittell Activist Scholar Award. The award will be presented by a representative of SAGE Publications during this month’s Urban Affairs Association’s (UAA) national conference in Pittsburgh.

Wallace helped establish the Homewood Children’s Village in 2009 as a comprehensive community initiative aimed at improving the educational, health and social well-being of Homewood’s youngsters and reweaving the fabric of their community.

Wallace’s social work course on community organizing takes students into the Homewood neighborhood, where they receive hands-on experience and help advance the work of the village by assisting in research that benefits the children and their families.

The award is given to an individual who is engaged in field-based research in the host city of the UAA-SAGE annual conference.

MendeloffJohn Mendeloff, a faculty member in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), has been appointed to the board of scientific counselors at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Mendeloff was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

The 15-member board advises the director of NIOSH on the institute’s research and prevention program. The board also provides guidance on NIOSH research activities related to developing and evaluating hypotheses, systematically documenting findings and disseminating results.

Mendeloff has taught at GSPIA for nearly 20 years and also serves as the center director for health and safety in the workplace at the RAND Corp.

Winners of the 2012 Elizabeth Baranger Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching have been announced. The winners are:

Humanities: Lauren Collister, linguistics; Jennifer Jhun, philosophy; Michael Mueller, theatre arts; Molly Nichols, honorable mention, English.

Natural sciences: Christopher Jones, mathematics; George Meindl, biological sciences.

Social sciences: Kim Creasap, sociology/women’s studies program; Corinne Ogrodnik, sociology.

The Baranger award honors outstanding teaching by graduate students in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. The awards were created by the Arts and Sciences Graduate Student Organization.

The award is named for Baranger, former vice provost for Graduate Studies.

VermaKamal D. Verma, Pitt-Johnstown professor emeritus of English, scholar in residence and adviser to the UPJ president on India outreach, is the recipient of the 2012 South Asian Literary Association Distinguished Achievement Award.

Verma edits the South Asian Review, which is published annually by the South Asian Literary Association, an allied organization of the Modern Language Association of America that is housed at Pitt-Johnstown.

The association’s executive committee recognized Verma’s contribution to South Asian literary and cultural studies in India and the United States, stating: “We are inspired and impressed by the intellectual energy you use to add to your already substantial body of publications that span over four decades. You have, through your critical achievement, rendered South Asian studies a fertile field of inquiry, even as you have added a furrow to the global field of postcolonial studies.”

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The People of the Times column features recent news on faculty and staff, including awards and other honors, accomplishments and administrative appointments.

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