University Times

A memorial service will be held March 15 for Piera Kost, longtime clinic coordinator in the Graduate School of Public Health, who died Feb. 27, 2013, of cancer. She was 62.

Kost joined the Department of Epidemiology in 1985. In 2005 she was named clinic coordinator of the Health Studies Research Center, overseeing 20 studies and 10,000 study participants.

Most notably, Kost served as coordinator for the Health, Aging and Body Composition (ABC) Study, a National Institutes of Health-funded research project designed to understand the decline in function of healthier, older persons.

For the study, she utilized a variety of technical skills including bone density and pulmonary function testing, metabolic studies and performance testing of strength, balance and gait.

Colleagues say it was not only her professional expertise, but her warmth and personal touch that they will remember.

“She was such a lovely and kind person, and was particularly engaging with older adults,” said Anne Newman, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and principal investigator of the Health ABC Study. “She was personally connected to each and every one of the 1,501 people in the study.”

Other colleagues remember how Kost would ensure visitors were treated to a welcoming environment. As she would escort participants down the hallway at the end of their clinic visit, Kost would say to each one, “Take good care!”

Kost graduated from Allegheny College with a degree in education. Early in her career she was a teacher, and later she employed her passion for education by becoming a certified instructor of pulmonary function testing. Research sites nationwide looked to Kost for staff training on accurate strength and balance testing.

She is survived by her husband, John; two children, John and Cristina; five grandchildren; her mother, Agnes Prato, and her sister, Gina DeSanti.

The memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. March 15 at Riverside Community Church, 401 Allegheny Ave., Oakmont.