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March 31, 2005

PEOPLE OF THE TIMES

UPMC physical therapist Laura Morris received the Award for Clinical Excellence in neurology last month at the combined sections meeting of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA).

Morris is the facility director of the Centers for Rehab Services, Raymond E. Jordan Balance Lab, Eye and Ear Institute at UPMC. She is an APTA board-certified neurologic clinical specialist and has clinical certification in neurodevelopmental treatment. Her specialty is in neurology and her practice focuses on brain injuries, balance and gait disorders and vestibular dysfunction.

Established in 1996, the APTA annual award honors an outstanding practitioner whose professional involvement is in the practice of neurologic physical therapy.

To be considered for the award, candidates must be engaged in full-time clinical practice for at least five years, be involved in disseminating clinical expertise in a mentoring situation and have contributed to the development of the neurologic physical therapy field.

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Ronald D. Stall, an internationally known HIV risk behavior researcher from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has been named director of the Multidisciplinary Master of Public Health (MMPH) program and professor of behavioral and community health sciences at Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH).

Stall, who has served as chief of the prevention research branch of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention with the National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention of the CDC since 2000, will assume his new role in Pittsburgh in May.

The MMPH program at GSPH addresses the needs of a growing number of health science professionals who want to work in a public health or community-based setting where data-based concepts, preventive medicine, health promotion, public health and evidence-based practice will be of benefit.

A pioneer in the field of identifying HIV risk behaviors, Stall established several key areas for HIV prevention through his recognition of the issue of relapse in HIV risk behaviors, the influence of alcohol on sexual risk behavior and his newest area of inquiry: the relationship of drug use, depression and poverty.

Stall published some of the first papers on topics such as non-intravenous drug use and HIV, the epidemiology of AIDS and HIV risk among older Americans, the first national probability sample of gay men, and the first study to use empirical data to demonstrate the importance of maintaining safe-sex behaviors.

Stall served on the faculty of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California-San Francisco for 15 years, and in the Department of General/Internal Medicine for one year, before joining the CDC in 2000.

He has been the author or co-author of more than 100 journal articles and book chapters on AIDS-related issues. He also has authored several official government reports, including “Changes in Sexual Risk for Infection With Human Immunodeficiency Virus Among Gay and Bisexual Men in San Francisco” for the World Health Organization, and “AIDS as an Age-Defined Disease: The Social Epidemiology of AIDS Among Older Americans” for the National Institute on Aging.

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Elena Baylis, Pitt professor of law, was elected to the executive board of the Brother’s Brother Foundation (BBF), a not-for-profit charitable organization dedicated to relief and humanitarian assistance efforts throughout the world.

BBF’s mission is to promote international health and education through efficient and effective distribution of donated pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, textbooks, educational supplies, food, clothing, seed and other resources. BBF connects resources with needs within less developed and developing countries in partnership with U.S.-based and in-country non-governmental organizations.

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Pitt law professor Lawrence Frolik has been reappointed as an associate editor of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys law review, The NAELA Journal. He also is chair-elect of the Association of American Law Schools employee benefits section.

His term as chair begins in January 2006.

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Doreen E. Boyce, president of the Buhl Foundation in Pittsburgh and co-founder of Microbac Laboratories Inc., which has a division in Bradford, will address the 2005 graduating class at the May 1 commencement exercises at Pitt’s Bradford campus. The ceremony will be broadcast over the Internet and will be accessible on Pitt-Bradford’s web site: www.upb.pitt.edu.

Boyce has been president of the Buhl Foundation since 1982. The foundation contributes millions of dollars each year to various agencies and organizations, particularly in the fields of education, social services, and the arts and humanities.

In 1998, the Buhl Foundation endowed the Doreen E. Boyce Chair in Library and Information Science in the School of Information Sciences.

Boyce earned her doctorate from Pitt, and was named a distinguished alumna in higher education in 1984. She received the Bicentennial Medallion of Distinction in 1987 and, in 2004, she was named a University Legacy Laureate.

Boyce began her career in higher education in 1960, when she was appointed lecturer and tutor in the Department of Economics and Economics History at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Upon her arrival in Pittsburgh, she joined the faculty at Chatham College, eventually being named to the Mary Helen Marks Chair as professor of economics. She became provost and dean of the faculty in 1974.

After two years at Hood College, Maryland, she assumed her current position as president of the Buhl Foundation.

Boyce has served on the board of directors of the Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania and was elected its first president in 1984. She is a past chair of the board of trustees of Franklin and Marshall College and is a member of the board of directors of the Council of Independent Colleges and of the Carnegie Science Center.

In 1985, she received the Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Universities Distinguished Service Award, and in 1996 was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania by then-Gov. Tom Ridge. She also received the International Women’s Forum “Women Who Make a Difference” award.

With her husband, A. Warne Boyce, she is co-founder of Microbac Laboratories Inc., a nationwide group of microbiological and chemical testing laboratories, which is located in Bradford.

Boyce earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degrees from the University of Oxford, where she attended Somerville College and specialized in development economics.

She is an honorary fellow of Somerville College.

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Linda Wharton Boyd, chief operating officer of The Wharton Group and a Pitt alumna, last week was installed as president of Pitt’s African American Alumni Council (AAAC).

In 1990, Boyd founded The Wharton Group, a communications and management-consulting firm in Washington, D.C. With more than 20 years of experience and expertise in organizational management and communications, she has served academic, government, private, faith-based and nonprofit communities.

Boyd has played a role in such events as the Million Man March, the Million Family March and the Redeem the Dream 37th Anniversary March on Washington, which attracted more than 500,000 people from across the country. She has traveled extensively throughout Africa, serving the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication in Liberia and, at the invitation of the president of Sudan, as a peace ambassador to bridge relations between Christians and Muslims.

Boyd will work to enhance the visibility and viability of AAAC through strategic planning and organizational development, African-American alumni support, student partnerships, stronger relationships with the University and community service.

Boyd earned a B.A. in political science and speech communication, an M.A. in speech communication and a Ph.D. in communication, all at Pitt.

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Malorie Kosht-Fedyshin, director of the physical therapist assistant program at Pitt’s Titusville campus, was selected as a winner in the Florence Kendall Essay Contest.

She will receive an autographed copy of the new edition of “Muscles, Testing and Function with Posture and Pain” along with a $50 prize.

Florence Peterson Kendall is one of this country’s foremost physical therapists. Her book, “Muscle Testing and Function,” was first published in 1949 and remains the “gold standard” for musculoskeletal assessment.

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Several members of the Pitt community were honored as Health Care Heroes by the Pittsburgh Business Times.

Receiving the top honor in the lifetime achievement category was Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and associate vice chancellor for cancer research at Pitt and UPMC Cancer Centers.

Finalists in the lifetime achievement category included Edward Curtiss, associate dean for admissions and financial aid in the School of Medicine, and James Zuberbuhler, professor of pediatric cardiology.

This year’s honorees also include the following Pitt people: in the provider-physician category, awardee Robert Kormos, professor of surgery, medical director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and director of the artificial heart program; and finalists Joel Nelson, professor and chair of the Department of Urology, and Basil Zitelli, professor of pediatrics; in the educator category, finalist Thomas Medsger, professor of medicine; in the innovation/research category, finalists Stephen Badylak, director of the Center for Pre-Clinical Tissue Engineering in the McGowan Institute, Mark Lovell, Pitt associate professor of orthopedic surgery; in the provider-nonphysician category, finalist Madelyn Fernstrom, associate professor of psychiatry, epidemiology and surgery and director of UPMC’s Weight Management Center.

Judges for the Business Times Health Care Heroes awards included Samuel Friede, manager of governance initiative in the Health Policy Institute at the Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH), and Stephen Thomas, Philip Hallen Professor of Community Health and Social Justice in GSPH and the School of Social Work and director of the Center for Minority Health within GSPH.

The Business Times honor roll appeared March 18.


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