University Times

Marshall W. Webster has been named by the boards of the University of Pittsburgh Physicians (UPP), UPMC Health System and Pitt to become the new president and CEO of UPP.

Webster is the Mark M. Ravitch Professor of Surgery and the executive vice chairman of Pitt's Department of Surgery. He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Pitt's general and thoracic surgery residency programs.

Virtually all of Webster's postgraduate career has been at Pitt and UPMC Health System.

Webster has been a member of the surgery department's faculty since 1973 and at various times has served as vice chairman, executive vice chairman and interim chairman.

Webster succeeds Richard L. Baron, who was named chairman of the Department of Radiology at the University of Chicago.

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Alan DeGennaro, former assistant strength and conditioning coach for Pitt's Department of Athletics, has been appointed director of the Sports Performance Program, housed in the indoor training center at the UPMC Sports Performance Complex.

The program provides individual conditioning and fitness training for athletes of all levels as well as non-athletes.

As a certified strength and conditioning coach at Pitt for one year, DeGennaro supervised strength and conditioning for the Pitt men's and women's soccer and tennis teams and men's baseball team. He also assisted with strength and conditioning programs for the football team and taught related courses at Pitt's School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.

Prior to joining the Pitt staff, DeGennaro was a graduate student assistant for the strength and conditioning program at the University of Tennessee, where he worked with football, basketball, baseball and track and field athletes. He also was a personal trainer and fitness specialist at St. Mary's Health and Fitness Center in Knoxville.

DeGennaro earned his B.S. in athletic training at Pitt in 1998 and his M.S. in kinesiology/sports medicine at Tennessee in 1999.

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Director of the University Child Development Center Sherry Cleary last month began an 18-month term as president of the National Coalition for Campus Children's Centers (NCCCC), an international organization that promotes service, teaching and research in programs for young children in communities of higher education.

The organization has members that represent some 400 campuses across the country and Canada, holds an annual conference, creates publications, provides technical assistance to colleges and universities and advocates for national public policy.

NCCCC is responsible for introducing and supporting the enactment of the CCAMPIS (Child Care Access Means Parents in School) grants which have funded programs across the nation over the last three years with more than $40 million.

Additionally, Cleary received a $127,000 grant from a private funder through The Pittsburgh Foundation to operate a third year of intensive assistant group supervisor training for child care teachers, to introduce a leadership speaker series and to develop and implement six modules in early childhood education administration, which will be offered by the School of Education's Department of Instruction and Learning.

Last winter, Cleary was invited by the Child Care Action Campaign to participate in a think tank to determine how to help the country address policy issues regarding young children over the next 20 years. The group included economists, public policy consultants, editors, labor representatives, educators and the president of National Organization for Women.

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Steven T. DeKosky, chairman of the Department of Neurology at Pitt's School of Medicine, has been elected to the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN).

One of the 24 member boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties, ABPN is an independent non-profit organization that certifies doctors practicing psychiatry and neurology, as well as their subspecialties. Its mission is to serve the public interest by promoting excellence in the practice of psychiatry and neurology.

DeKosky joins a group of eight neurologists charged with administering written and oral certification examinations for neurologists and setting standards for who becomes board certified. He has been an oral examiner for the ABPN since 1981 and has served on the written examination committee for 10 years.

At Pitt, DeKosky has been professor of psychiatry and neurology since 1990. He also holds secondary appointments as professor of neurobiology in the School of Medicine and of human genetics at the Graduate School of Public Health. He has directed the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center since 1994, and from 1992 through 2001 he directed the Division of Geriatrics and Neuropsychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry.

DeKosky chairs the executive committee of the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Cen-ter. He serves as vice chairman of the National Board of Directors of the Alzheimer's Association and has served as chairman of the Alzheimer's Association's National Medical and Scientific Advisory Council.

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Julius S. Youngner, Distinguished Service Professor from the School of Medicine's Department of Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, was named chairman of the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) board of trustees. ATCC, a Manassas, Va.-based bio-resource center, provides the largest repository for cell and tissue cultures for research purposes in the world.

Youngner has served for 11 years on the ATCC's board of trustees and with the organization's Scientific Societies Advisory Council.

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Marilyn Alberter has been named registrar at the Johnstown campus. Alberter joined the registrar's staff in 1985, and was appointed assistant registrar in 1996. Since March she has served as acting registrar.

Alberter earned her B.A. in business from Pitt-Johnstown in 1997, and also holds a certificate in business from UPJ.

She is currently serving on the President's Diversity Working Group and is a member of the Student Services Software Procurement Project. Alberter also is a long-standing member of the Campus Association and an external group, the Women's Information Network. She is a member of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers and the Middle States Association of College Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

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Pitt's School of Social Work has hired Stephanie Eckstrom to coordinate its new Master of Social Work Program at Pitt-Bradford, which begins this fall.

As coordinator of the program, she will be responsible for marketing, recruiting students, assisting them in the application process and identifying potential faculty for the program's curriculum. She also will be responsible for identifying and working with local agencies to provide field instruction to the graduate students.

The program will be taught at the Bradford campus by adjunct faculty members from the School of Social Work and through interactive television by professors from the Pittsburgh campus.

Eckstrom, who has taught undergraduate courses in sociology at Pitt-Bradford and social work courses at the School of Social Work, also will serve as a faculty member in the program and will act as the liaison between the two campuses.

She previously held social work positions at Meridian Multi-Medical in Towson, Md., Hoffman Homes for Youth in Gettysburg and Dickinson Mental Health Center in Ridgway.