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October 28, 2004

Pitt Honors Legacy Laureates

This year’s class of Legacy Laureates, 11 Pitt alumni who were recognized for their outstanding personal and professional achievements, were honored last week on Legacy Laureate Day, part of homecoming activities. The laureates also participated in “Pathway to Professions,” a career networking event for Pitt alumni.

Pitt’s Legacy Laureate program was launched in 2000 as a way to honor outstanding graduates. Following are biographies of this year’s group.

* Doreen Boyce has been president of the Buhl Foundation since 1982 and is a noted regional philanthropic leader. She earned her Ph.D. in administration and international education in 1983 at Pitt’s education school. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Oxford University.

Boyce began her career in higher education as a lecturer and tutor in economics at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa and subsequently became professor of economics and chair of the Department of Economics and Management at Hood College. Boyce also served as provost and dean of the faculty at Chatham College.

The Buhl Foundation established a chair in Boyce’s name at Pitt’s School of Information Sciences to honor her long and distinguished career in higher education and her dedication to improving the quality of life for citizens of the region and beyond.

* Mounzer R. Fatfat is U.S. senior consultant to Ambassador John Negroponte and for the Ministry of Youth and Sport in Iraq, and, from 1999 to 2003, he served as United Nations Minister of Youth for Kosovo.

Fatfat served as liaison between Ambassador Paul Bremer and the Iraqi Minister of Youth and Sport in 2003-2004, when he supervised some 3,000 employees in the ministry and oversaw the attempted refurbishment of 161 youth centers and 230 sports centers. Fatfat also helped in getting Iraq readmitted to competition in the Olympic Games. He continues his mission to bring students from war-affected areas of the world to study in the United States as a consultant for LaRoche College, where he established a program for 80 students from Kosovo to receive four-year scholarships to that institution.

Fatfat holds three degrees from Pitt: a 1982 B.S. in computer science from Arts and Sciences and two graduate degrees from the School of Education – a Master of Education (1996) and a Ph.D. in administration and policy studies (1998).

* Hilda Pang Fu has amassed a distinguished public service record as founder, leader and supporting player in regional development, violence prevention, nonprofit media and education.

In addition, she is a dedicated civic volunteer for many organizations and academic institutions in western Pennsylvania and, in 1999, was recognized by Pittsburgh Magazine as one of the “100 Pittsburghers of the Century.” Currently, she serves as director of summer programs for Point Park University and is on the advisory boards of the Katz Graduate School of Business Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence and the Sara Fine Institute for Interpersonal Behavior and Technology in the School of Information Sciences.

Fu, who earned a B.A. in political science and history at the University of Hong Kong and the Master of Public Management degree at Carnegie Mellon, received a Master of Library Science degree from Pitt in 1976.

* Donald W. Grimm earned a B.S. in Pharmacy and a Master of Business Administration degree at Pitt in 1963 and 1970, respectively. His career spans the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries.

Grimm has held a number of management positions with Eli Lilly and Co., including vice president, medical devices and diagnostics division, and chair, president and CEO of Hybritech, Inc., a subsidiary of Eli Lilly. During Grimm’s tenure with Hybritech, he orchestrated the development of prostate specific antigen (PSA), the most significant new cancer diagnostic test developed for men.

He also served as president and CEO of Telios Pharmaceuticals and is the founder, chair and president of Strategic Design.

Grimm has devoted much of his time to such San Diego-area organizations as the San Diego Children’s Museum, the San Diego County Economic Advisory Board and the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. He has supported the establishment of the Elmer H. Grimm Sr. Pharmacy Museum in Pitt’s School of Pharmacy in honor of his grandfather, a 1919 School of Pharmacy alumnus.

* Since 1999, John B. Hibbs has served a distinguished professor and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah. Under his guidance, the division provides consultation and care for the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases.

Hibbs’s primary research interests are biochemistry and immunology. In 1987, he was the head of the team of researchers who found that immune cells known as macrophages release nitrous oxide as a toxic defense against tumor cells. He has devoted his career to investigating macrophage chemistry; this has led to the expanded understanding of its role in controlling inflammation and immune responses.

Hibbs has been honored with the Outstanding Teacher Award from the University of Utah’s internal medicine house staff in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2002. In 1993, he received the William S. Middleton Award for outstanding achievement in medical research from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Hibbs holds an M.D. from Pitt, earned in 1962.

* As chief technology officer of Network Solutions and manager of the Internet’s master root server during the late 1990s, David H. Holtzman not only oversaw the growth of the commercial Internet from 500,000 domain names to more than 20 million, he also led the way in imagining and inventing a world in which technology affects every facet of human life.

Holtzman began his career in the field of technology with the United States Navy as a cryptographic analyst and submarine crew member and at the Defense Special Missile and Astronautics Center as an intelligence analyst. Holtzman’s main area of interest today is understanding the nexus between technology and society. As editor of the monthly publication GlobalPOV, he collaborates with business, technology and political leaders from around the world to clarify the specific ways that technology is changing concepts like privacy, identity and intellectual property.

Holtzman earned a B.A. in philosophy from Pitt’s College of General Studies in 1980 and holds a B.S. in computer science from the University of Maryland.

* David P. Hunter received a Master of Public Health degree from the University in 1970. Since that time, he has devoted his career to the health care arena – specifically hospital administration. From 1978 to 1985, Hunter served as president, CEO and executive vice president of affiliates of Burlington County Memorial Hospital/Nexus Healthcare Corporation, a New Jersey not-for-profit health system. He then served as head of another not-for-profit health system, Voluntary Hospitals of America.

In 1987, Hunter co-founded The Hunter Group, a nationally recognized health care consulting and management company, and he served as the CEO of that company until it was sold to Navigant Consulting, Inc., in September 2002; he remained with Navigant until March 2004.

In 2002, he was named to Modern Healthcare magazine’s inaugural list of the 100 most powerful people in health care. Hunter has been an active alumnus of Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH): He has spoken at GSPH’s Health Policy Institute events and served as a member of the GSPH Department of Health Policy and Management’s national advisory committee.

* Harris N. Miller, who earned a B.A. in political science at Pitt in 1972, became the president of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) in 1995. The ITAA is the largest and oldest information technology trade association, representing more than 500 leading software, services, Internet, telecommunications, electronic commerce and systems integration companies.

Miller also is president of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance, an “association of associations” representing 46 high technology trade groups around the world. Recently, he has been named to the Board of Directors of ITT Educational Services, Inc., and New2USA.com.

In addition, Miller has served the federal government in a variety of capacities, including legislative director to former U.S. Senator John A. Durkin and deputy director of congressional relations for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. He was also appointed to the Governor’s Research and Technology Advisory Commission by Mark Warner, governor of Virginia.

* Pearl F. Moore received a B.S. in nursing degree in 1968 and a master’s degree in medical surgical nursing in 1974, both from Pitt. Moore is the CEO of the Oncology Nursing Society, a private health and allied services professional organization that supports oncology nursing research.

In addition, she has served as an adjunct assistant professor in Pitt’s School of Nursing since 1983.

At Pittsburgh’s Montefiore Hospital, Moore was one of the first oncology clinical nurse specialists in the United States and the first coordinator of the Brain Tumor Study Group, part of a groundbreaking national consortium conducting clinical trials. She is a member of such numerous professional nursing and medical associations as the American Academy of Nursing, the International Union Against Cancer, Friends of Cancer Research and the Nursing Economics Foundation.

In recognition of her leadership and community service, Moore was named one of Carlow College’s Women of Spirit for 2004.

* Helen Northen is an emeritus professor at the University of Southern California School of Social Work. Northen earned an M.S.W. at Pitt in 1944 and a doctorate in social work from Bryn Mawr College.

In 1999, Northen was awarded the Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Southern California and, in 1998, the Knee/Wittman Award for outstanding achievement from the National Society of Social Workers. She also was named a distinguished practitioner of social work by the National Academies of Practice, and, in both 1979 and 1982, received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Heart Association.

In her career as a social work educator, clinical practitioner and author of numerous learned texts, Northen has devoted her talents to helping at-risk children, ethnic minorities and patients with chronic or catastrophic illnesses.

In addition, Northen has contributed to several journals in the fields of social work, public welfare and sociology, and she is an editorial board member of several publications.

* William B. Trice received both his degrees from Pitt – a B.S. from the College of Arts and Sciences in 1951 and the Doctor of Dental Surgery degree in 1953. His research interests in the field of dentistry include electrosurgery, management of oral tissue with electrical imaging, and experimentation with various types of liquid bandage materials.

Trice has served on the Pitt School of Dental Medicine’s board of visitors, executive board and Alumni Association board. He also is a member of Pitt’s Alumni Association, the Pitt Club Leaders and the Erie Pitt Alumni Club. His numerous Pitt awards include the Bicentennial Medallion, the 1988 Pitt Volunteer of the Year and the 1991 Distinguished Alumni Award.

As a community leader, Trice has been an active fundraiser for the American Heart Association and is past chair of the Pennsylvania Heart Association. He has been honored with the Thomas P. Hinman medallion and was the 1990 recipient of the Pennsylvania Dental Association’s annual award.

Filed under: Feature,Volume 37 Issue 5

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