University Times

Associate professor James Joshi has been named lead faculty member for the track of study in Information Assurance and Security at the School of Information Sciences.

Joshi’s research interests include systems security, role-based access control, secure interoperability, distributed systems security, security and privacy of multimedia systems, security of XML documents and systems survivability.

Joshi has received a number of grants including the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. Joshi was recognized for his work on “A Trust-Based Access Control Management Framework for Secure Information Sharing and Multimedia Workflows in Heterogeneous Environments.”

He also has received funding from the NSF to develop the curriculum in Security Assured Information Systems (SAIS) and to support a scholarship program for students enrolled in SAIS, funding from the Department of Defense, and secured equipment grants from CISCO Systems.

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Bernard Goldstein, professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and former dean of the Graduate School of Public Health, has been appointed to chair a National Academies committee on the effectiveness of national bio-surveillance systems: BioWatch and the public health system. The 25-member committee was convened to respond to a congressional request to evaluate the cost effectiveness of the BioWatch program — an advanced bioterrorism monitoring system that collects airborne particles to provide early warning of the release of pathogens, alerting authorities before victims begin to show symptoms and providing the opportunity to deliver treatments earlier.

The committee will compare the BioWatch program to alternative approaches in an effort to enhance the public health surveillance system by strengthening the U.S. public health response to potential bioterrorism threats. The committee, which has been jointly convened by the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM), has received $2 million in funding from Congress for the evaluation, which is to be completed in early 2009.

Goldstein has chaired 12 other committees, including current service as chair of the NRC standing committee on risk assessment and reviews, and of the IOM Environmental Health and Toxicology Interest Group. He is an elected member of the IOM.

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Martin Greenberg, professor of psychology, was named the 2008 recipient of the Award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching and Mentoring by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. As winner of this national award, Greenberg will give a presentation on pedagogy at the society’s biennial convention.

A member of the Pitt faculty for 40 years, Greenberg received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2000.

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Kirk Bruce, who has served the Department of Athletics for more than three decades in both coaching and administrative roles, has been promoted to associate athletics director for sport administration. Bruce has served as an assistant athletics director for Olympic sports during the past decade.

In his new capacity he will have expanded oversight and involvement with the Panthers’ Olympic sports programs. He will oversee men’s and women’s cross country, soccer, swimming and diving, track and field and women’s softball, tennis and volleyball.

Bruce’s Pitt association dates back to 1971-75, when he was a standout basketball player. He was a part of the Panthers’ 1973-74 team that finished 25-4 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s East Regional finals.

Bruce was drafted by the Utah Stars of the former American Basketball Association. When the league disbanded, he returned to Pitt to begin his coaching career as a men’s team assistant.

Bruce went on to be appointed head women’s basketball coach, serving in that capacity for 13 seasons (1985-98).

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UPMC announced the appointment of Katie Taylor, a nearly 20-year veteran of General Electric Co., to a new position as vice president for business development in UPMC’s International and Commercial Services Division.

Based in Paris, Taylor will play a role in shaping and implementing UPMC’s overall international business development strategy. She also will lead the international marketing efforts for UPMC’s information technology products and services and expansion of its cancer centers.

Taylor joins UPMC’s international operations, which already employ more than 1,100 people and include a transplant hospital in Italy, an independent hospital and two cancer centers in Ireland, emergency medical services in Qatar and an information technology project in the United Kingdom.

In addition, UPMC is working with such technology partners as dbMotion Inc. and TheraDoc Inc. to sell products and services overseas.

Before joining UPMC this month, Taylor worked in a wide variety of businesses at GE, including its health care, transportation and mortgage units. Her management career included stints in Paris, Mexico City and Sao Paolo, Brazil. During the past year, she took a leave of absence from GE to serve as chief operating officer at GEMS Education, a for-profit network of about 50 international schools in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

Taylor became familiar with UPMC while working with the health system on its joint development efforts with GE. The two organizations created a $50 million co-development fund two years ago to pursue innovative products and services for the health care market. In June, this led to the launch of Omnyx LLC, a company jointly owned by GE and UPMC, which will develop and market digital pathology solutions.

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Janet L. Grady, associate professor and director of the nursing program at Pitt-Johnstown, has been accepted for fellowship in the Academy of Nursing Education.

Grady will be inducted into the academy at the National League for Nursing (NLN)’s education summit in San Antonio, where she also will deliver a keynote presentation Sept. 19.

Applicants to the academy, which is sponsored by the NLN, must show evidence of enduring and substantial contributions to nursing education, as well as visionary leadership in the profession.

Grady is an NLN research grant reviewer; a peer reviewer for the American Telemedicine Association’s international meeting and trade show, and an external advisory board member of the federally funded health information technology scholars program. She also has been appointed to the NLN task group on curricular innovation.

Grady also was recognized by the YWCA at this year’s annual Tribute to Women Awards.

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Charles Nieman, associate director of the Office of International Services, was one of seven administrators selected to participate in the international education administrators program, which was started in 1986 to promote better mutual understanding of the educational systems — especially in higher education — in the United States and Japan. The program was funded through a Fulbright Fellowship.

The participants visited a variety of educational institutions in Tokyo, Kyoto Kyushu and Hiroshima, as well as the Ministry of Education and Science and other organizations involved in international education. They met with presidents, faculty, administrators and Japanese and foreign students, ranging from elementary school through the collegiate level. They received an intensive course on Japanese education, culture and society, learning from the participants at the variety of institutions they visited.

Nieman said of the experience: “It was much more than just experiencing the educational system. One of the things I learned that will make me a better administrator at Pitt is to focus on the process as well as the target. 

“I am far more cognizant of the larger context of each interaction we have with people. Instead of seeing cases to process with speed and efficiency, I hope to enjoy the collaboration with people more, and that is such an important part what we do in OIS.”

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Valerie Watzlaf, associate professor in the Department of Health Information Management at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, recently was elected to the American Health Information Management Association’s board of directors. 

AHIMA has more than 50,000 members and provides a network of health information management professionals dedicated to improving health care through high-quality information management. Watzlaf’s three-year term on the board begins in January.

Watzlaf holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Health Services Administration at the Graduate School of Public Health. She teaches and does research in the areas of health information management, epidemiology, quality improvement, statistics and long-term care.

Watzlaf has worked and consulted in several health care organizations in health information management, long-term care and epidemiology.

She received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Pitt.

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The Health Sciences Library System (HSLS) has announced several staff appointments.

Leslie Czechowski has been promoted to assistant director for collections and technical services. In this position, she has oversight of acquisitions, collection development, cataloging and serials management for all HSLS libraries.

Czechowski earned master’s degrees from the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota. She has worked at HSLS since 2005, first as manuscripts librarian, then as collection librarian and most recently as head of collection services.

Barbara Epstein, HSLS director, was appointed to the ad hoc committee for advocating scholarly communication of the Medical Library Association.

Sean King has been promoted to catalog specialist. He will perform Library of Congress/National Library of Medicine copy cataloging for new materials in all formats, with special emphasis on electronic resources. King began working at Falk Library in 1995.

John LaDue has been appointed as HSLS knowledge integration librarian. His duties include planning and implementation of systems to improve information access for library users and/or streamline workflow for library staff. Specific responsibilities include development and management of web programs, as well as database and web server design and administration.

LaDue has been at HSLS since 2005, first as a computer and media specialist and then as lead developer. He earned an MLIS degree from Pitt in April.

Mike Yaklich has been promoted to serials manager. His responsibilities include management of print and electronic journal subscriptions for all HSLS libraries.

In this position, he processes orders and annual renewals for serials and other electronic resources, and works with serials vendors to resolve problems and billing errors. Yaklich will celebrate his 20th anniversary at Falk Library this year.

Savio L-Y. Woo, University Professor of Bioengineering and director of Pitt’s Musculoskeletal Research Center at the Swanson School of Engineering, received an honorary professorship from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA) on Aug. 14, while he was attending the Olympic Games in Beijing as a guest of International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge.

The honor was bestowed upon Woo for his contributions to biomedical engineering and dedication to education.

Woo also will serve as chair of the international advisory committee of the School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering at BUAA.

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Gail Wolfe, professor in the School of Nursing, is the recipient of the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award. This award honors an AONE member who is recognized by the broader nursing community as a significant leader in the nursing profession and who has served AONE in an important leadership capacity.

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The University of Missouri-Kansas City has selected Robert Arnold, professor of medicine in the Division of Internal Medicine, to receive its Alumnus of the Year award. One alumnus is chosen from each of the university’s 12 academic units to be recognized for distinguished professional accomplishments and for outstanding community service.

Arnold is a nationally recognized scholar, clinician and educator in medicine and bioethics. He also is a leader in palliative care and plays an active role in educating medical students and residents.

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The American College of Emergency Physicians has named three School of Medicine faculty members as Pennsylvania Heroes of Emergency Medicine. These emergency medicine physicians were recognized for dedicating their careers to their patients, their communities and their specialty.

Those honored were Bruce A. MacLeod, clinical associate professor of emergency medicine and chair of the UPMC Mercy Department of Emergency Medicine; Paul M. Paris, professor and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Pitt and UPMC, and Donald M. Yealy, professor and vice chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Pitt and UPMC.

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Joseph C. Maroon, professor and vice chair of neurological surgery in the School of Medicine, recently was selected as one of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine’s new executive officers.

Maroon is recognized as a neurosurgeon who also has made significant contributions to the advancement of preventative medicine. His recent clinical and research interests include complementary approaches to inflammatory diseases associated with aging.

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David Anderson, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Prosthodontics at the School of Dental Medicine, is a founding member of the Academy for Health Equity which was established in June.

The mission of the academy is to utilize rigorous scientific research, policy development and community advocacy to eliminate health disparities and create a social movement designed to ensure equal opportunity for health.

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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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