University Times

Three faculty members from the Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) and the corporate secretary and assistant counsel for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) are among the experts serving on Gov. Ed Rendell’s transition team.

Named to the transition team’s health committee were Bernard Goldstein, dean of GSPH and a leader and professor in the field of environmental and occupational health; Judith Lave, a prominent health economist and professor and interim chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at GSPH, and Stephen Thomas, the Philip Hallen Professor of Community Health and Social Justice and director of the Center for Minority Health at GSPH.

Lisa Pupo Lenihan, corporate secretary and assistant counsel for UPMC, was named to the transition team’s medical malpractice task force, a group consisting of physicians, lawyers, insurance executives and representatives from organized labor and the business community.

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William I. Brustein, director of the University Center for International Studies (UCIS), recently has been named to two positions in international education.

He has been selected to serve on a task force on international education by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC).

According to NASULGC President C. Peter Magrath, the task force will “examine our universities’ commitment to international programs, including such matters as curricula, exchange programs, faculty development, international students and campus activities.”

The task force will make recommendations to NASULGC and its member institutions for appropriate actions “aimed at building global competence.”

Brustein also has been named to the executive board of the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA). His three-year term begins next month.

Formed in 1982, AIEA’s institutional membership includes those individuals designated by their college or university as principal international education administrators.

AIEA exists to provide an effective voice on significant issues within international education at all levels, to improve and promote international education programming and administration within institutions of higher education, to establish and maintain a professional network among international education institutional leaders and to cooperate in appropriate ways with other national and international groups having similar interests.

In addition to directing UCIS, Brustein is on the faculty in the Department of Sociology.

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Two emergency medicine faculty members from Pitt’s School of Medicine received awards at the National Association of EMS Physicians 2003 annual meeting, which was held last month in Panama City, Fla.

The National Association of EMS Physicians is an organization of physicians and other emergency professionals who provide leadership and foster excellence in out-of-hospital emergency medical services.

Theodore R. Delbridge, assistant professor of emergency medicine at the medical school and director of emergency services at UPMC Presbyterian, received the Keith Neely Award given for outstanding contribution to emergency medical services.

James J. Menegazzi, re-search professor of emergency medicine, received the Best Scientific Presentation Award for his abstract, “Scaling Exponent Utility During Ventricular Fibrillation of Brief and Moderate Duration: Defining When to Shock First.”

Ventricular fibrillation is a condition in which the heart’s electrical activity is disrupted and the heart begins to flutter rather than beat. Collapse and sudden cardiac death usually follow ventricular fibrillation if it is not immediately treated by trained bystanders or emergency first responders using an automated external defibrillator (AED).

Delbridge received the Keith Neely Award for his work on “Emergency Medical Services (EMS): Agenda for the Future,” a publication for federal and local authorities who make decisions on how to improve the nation’s EMS system.

Delbridge also is assistant medical director for the City of Pittsburgh EMS and senior medical adviser of STAT MedEvac, the region’s leading provider of air medical transport for individuals with critical illnesses and injuries.

Menegazzi’s research focuses on advanced cardiac care by using information contained in electrocardiographic (ECG) signals to estimate how long the heart has been stopped and to predict if the use of AEDs will succeed or fail. By using the ECG signals, Menegazzi hopes to identify which patients should receive shock treatment with an AED or cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and/or drugs before a shock is attempted.

“We envision that future AEDs will have the ability to advise rescuers with more detailed voice prompts than today’s models, on whether to deliver a shock or continue doing CPR until paramedics arrive,” Menegazzi said.

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Sara H. Aros, an M.B.A. candidate in Pitt’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, has been awarded a Marshall Memorial Fellowship by the German Marshall Fund (GMF) of the United States.

GMF is an American institution founded in 1972 through a gift from Germany in honor of post-war Marshall Plan assistance. Its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas and cooperation between the United States and Europe in the spirit of the Marshall Plan.

GMF gives grants for the study of international and domestic policies, sponsors fellowships that support comparative research and foster debate, and promotes information sharing that strengthens broad understanding of transatlantic issues and perspectives.

Aros is among 63 people selected from 18 states to receive the award. The fellows will spend three weeks in Europe examining European institutions and exploring European and transatlantic economic, political and social issues.

Aros will receive her M.B.A. from Katz in August. She also is scheduled to complete a master’s degree in global political economy at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs in August 2004. Aros earned a B.A. in English and creative writing at Dickinson College in 1990.

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Richard Schulz, director of Pitt’s University Center for Social and Urban Research, has been named recipient of the 2003 Developmental Health Award from the American Psychological Association (APA). The award will be presented at the APA annual meeting in August in Toronto.

The APA awards this biennial honor to recognize individuals who have made significant scholarly contributions to research in the area of health in later life. Schulz, also a professor of psychiatry, epidemiology, sociology, rehabilitation sciences, and behavioral and community health at Pitt, is a national leader in research on the effects of late-life illness and disability on patients and their families. Through his research, Schulz has shown how caring for disabled relatives compromises the health and well-being of family caregivers. He also has developed intervention strategies to improve the well-being and functioning of older disabled persons and their families, and has explored the relationship between physical illness and depression later in life.

Schulz earned an A.B. degree in psychology and German from Dartmouth College in 1970 and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Duke University in 1974.

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Two 2003-2004 Global Academic Partnership (GAP) grants have been awarded through the University Center for International Studies (UCIS). GAP is a program launched in fall 2001 to strengthen interdisciplinary research and curriculum development regarding global themes at Pitt, while enhancing the international scholarly ties and profile of the University. The program supports international research conferences and workshops on global issues on the Pittsburgh campus.

GAP projects must relate to one of six issue areas of UCIS’s global studies program: sustainable development; globalized economy and global government; changing identities in a global world; communication, technology and society; international security and conflict resolution, and global health. Awards include administrative support and funding up to $20,000.

One of the grants was awarded jointly to Paul E. Griffiths, a professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, and Jeffrey H. Schwartz, a professor of anthropology, for a workshop titled Representing Genes.

The workshop will examine the different uses of the term “gene” in different fields of contemporary biology and their impact on interdisciplinary communication and public dissemination.

With additional funding from the National Science Foundation, the workshop, scheduled for January 2004, will involve participants from Germany, Israel and the United Kingdom, as well as from universities across the United States. The project will enhance the communication, technology and society theme of the global studies program.

A second GAP grant, sponsored by the International Business Center of Pitt’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, was awarded to a team led by John Prescott, professor of business administration; Ravindranaht Madavan, associate professor of business administration, and Frank Giarratani, professor of economics and director of the Center for Industry Studies. Collaborators from Belgium, Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom will join their team.

The team’s workshop, Global Knowledge Agents and the State of Globalization in the Steel Industry, will strengthen the global studies program’s theme on globalized economy and global governance. The workshop will be held in spring 2004.

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Terry L. Schwinghammer, professor of pharmaceutical sciences in Pitt’s School of Pharmacy, will be installed as chair-elect of the Council of Faculties of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) at the organization’s 2003 annual meeting in Minneapolis this summer.

Schwinghammer has served as secretary and chair to the Section of Teachers of Pharmacy Practice, has been a member of the AACP’s Academic Section Coordinating Committee, the New Investigator Review Panels and House of Delegates.

Schwinghammer also has organized several special AACP programs at the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists mid-year clinical meetings devoted to attracting young practitioners to an academic career.

Additionally, Schwinghammer was one of the authors of the recently published “Pharmacotherapy Handbook, 5th Edition,” a pocket-sized reference book covering more than 80 diseases.

He was named Teacher of the Year by the School of Pharmacy’s graduating classes of 1994, 1996 and 2000.

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Three Pitt studio arts department faculty have received recognition recently.

Associate professor Edward Powell received the Purchase Award from the collection of Purdue University for his work exhibited at “60 Square Inches,” a national small print exhibit at the Purdue University Art Galleries in 2002.

Michael Morrill, studio arts department chair, exhibited his work for six weeks at the “Artist Image Resource: 2002 Projects Exhibition” at the Foreland Street Gallery. Morrill exhibited a suite of 12 digitally enhanced prints composed from shadow images that he had photographed as source material for his abstract paintings.

Delanie Jenkins received a 2003 fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, awarded in the Visual Arts for Sculpture/Installation works category. Jenkins is an assistant professor.