2 chancellor’s affirmative action awards presented
Breaking from the tradition of selecting one recipient for the annual Chancellor’s Affirmative Action Award, Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg recognized two Pitt areas — the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the career education and enhancement for health care diversity (CEED) program — in presenting the 2014 awards at Senate Council’s June 11 meeting.
CEED
Quinten Brown and Kaleab Abebe accepted the award for the career education and enhancement for health care diversity (CEED) program.
“The University has long recognized the critical need to develop strategies to recruit and retain members of underrepresented groups to pursue careers in teaching and in research,” Nordenberg said in highlighting CEED’s work.
Thirty-five scholars have completed the program since its start in 1997. Initially designed for fellows, postdocs and junior faculty members, CEED expanded in 2012 to include students in the School of Medicine.
CEED participants take part in a 12-month professional and research development program that includes coursework through the Institute of Clinical Research Education, opportunities to network and connect with senior faculty and partnerships with faculty mentors who help participants set and meet goals.
CEED scholars also learn to draft successful grant applications, “something that we well know is critical to those seeking to pursue a career in funded research,” Nordenberg said.
“The CEED program is helping to broaden the pool of future researchers, a development that will work to our shared advantage,” Nordenberg said, citing the words of faculty member Hernando Gomez of critical care medicine.
Gomez was among multiple CEED scholars to write in support of the program’s nomination.
The chancellor said that Gomez credited CEED “with providing him with the funding that allowed him to devote 50 percent of his time to jumpstart a career in academics and research, in an environment that allowed him to grow his ideas, subject him to peer review and ‘learn the nuts and bolts of the ever-confusing funding process.’” Gomez also praised CEED as a “life-changing program that helped me to craft my voice and my path and that gave a Colombian in Pittsburgh a real opportunity to participate in the University, in the development of science and the generation of knowledge.”
Physical medicine and rehabilitation
Amy Houtrow and Michael Boninger accepted the award for the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
The Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, “is a very worthy recipient of recognition, given all that it has done to improve the lives of patients with mobility issues so that they can lead fuller lives,” Nordenberg said.
“The department develops individualized treatment for patients facing the many challenges of living with limited mobility due to trauma, illness or disease. Its commitment to patient care has grown to include serving as advocate for their patients, many of whom come from socioeconomically disadvantaged and underrepresented groups,” the chancellor said.
“In terms of research the department has received funding to investigate the impact of gender on recovery after traumatic brain injury; to look at how race and income impact the provision of wheelchairs regardless of insurance coverage, and to examine how raising a child with disabilities influences family dynamics, finances and health.”
Nordenberg said members of the department also are involved in the community as volunteers at the National Veteran’s Wheelchair Games and in leading the formation of the Mighty Penguins sled hockey team.
“The department extends this concept of inclusiveness to its recruitment of faculty and staff,” Nordenberg said, citing department chair Michael L. Boninger’s observation that “more than half of the department’s members are women, one-third are from underrepresented groups and a significant percentage are persons with disabilities.’”
Nordenberg continued: “‘The department takes great pride in the fact that it has created an atmosphere in which all individuals are treated equally and respectfully so that they have the opportunity to ensure that others have these same opportunities.’”
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The award, which includes a $2,500 prize, is given annually to an “outstanding University program area or individual that has made a significant contribution in affirmative action,” defined as the “increase of access to and full participation in all aspects of University functions by minorities and women and those who have been declared members of protected classes by executive orders, legislation or court decisions.”
—Kimberly K. Barlow