June 22, 2009
Cheers: June 2009
Cheers is a monthly listing of honors and awards received by faculty, staff and students plus recent appointments and promotions. Contributions must be submitted in writing and be accompanied by a phone number.
ACADEMIC CENTERS AND AFFILIATES
Brian A. Nelson, an English instructor for the Center for Talented Youth, is the author of The Silence & the Scorpion: The Coup Against Chavez and the Making of Modern Venezuela, published in May by Nation Books. Nelson, who has lived in Venezuela, had unprecedented access to government ministers, diplomats and military leaders, and conducted interviews with opposition marchers, Chavez loyalists and journalists. The Silence & the Scorpion is the only book about the 2002 Venezuelan coup to have been published in English.
Harshad Sanghvi, vice president and medical director of Jhpiego, has received the 2009 Award for Best Practices in Global Health from the Global Health Council. Sanghvi, an OB/GYN physician from Kenya, was recognized for his work in addressing the issue of postpartum hemorrhaging. The award was presented May 28 at the council’s 36th Annual International Conference on Global Health, held in Washington, D.C. In his position at Jhpiego, Sanghvi is responsible for providing leadership and oversight for technical and clinical approaches, leading strategic thinking and pursuing innovative opportunities.
BAYVIEW MEDICAL CENTER
Richard Bennett, executive vice president and chief operating officer, received the 2009 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association. The award is one of the highest honors that can be presented to a member of the Johns Hopkins family and is given to an alumnus who has made innumerable contributions to his or her alma mater, profession and community. Bennett, a graduate of Dartmouth, received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins, trained in general internal medicine at Baltimore City Hospitals (now Johns Hopkins Bayview) and completed a clinical and research fellowship in geriatric medicine at Johns Hopkins. He joined the School of Medicine faculty in 1987 and now holds the Raymond and Anna Lublin Chair in Geriatric Medicine.
George Bigelow, professor of psychiatry and scientific director of the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit, has received the 2009 Mentorship Award from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. Bigelow, head of the BPRU postdoctoral training program for more than 25 years, was honored as an exemplary mentor to developing researchers in the field of drug abuse and addiction. More than 50 scientists have been trained in his program and gone on to successful careers as independent researchers and leaders in the field.
Nisha Chandra-Strobos, Michael Fingerhood, William Greenough III, Jonathan Sevransky, Leah Wolfe and Roy Ziegelstein have been chosen by their colleagues and an external review board to be the inaugural inductees in Bayview’s new Miller-Coulson Academy of Clinical Excellence. The inductees were honored for achieving a level of mastery in communication, interpersonal skills, professionalism and humanism in patient care.
Samuel Durso, associate professor of medicine, has received the 2009 Dennis W. Jahnigen Memorial Award from the American Geriatric Society. The award, named for a former president of the society, recognizes Durso’s significant contributions to the progress of geriatrics education through his leadership and teaching skills.
Bruce Leff, associate professor of medicine, has received the School of Medicine’s David M. Levine Excellence in Mentoring Award for the guidance and support he provides to colleagues to advance their professional development. Levine is a professor and associate head of the Department of Medicine.
Gregory Schaffer, president, has been named 2009 Hometown Hero in the American Red Cross’ Greater Chesapeake and Potomac Blood Services Region. Schaffer, who will retire from Bayview at the end of June, has served on the Red Cross’ Life Board for more than a decade and has been a force behind the blood drives of what he calls Team Bayview. Under his leadership, last year’s blood drive exceeded the medical center’s goal by 34 percent.
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview has received a three-year approval with commendation and a New Program Outstanding Achievement Award from the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons. The commission’s approval is awarded following a rigorous evaluation process that confirms that the recipient provides the highest level of quality cancer care.
JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE
The Office of Marketing and Communications has received three gold Aster Awards for excellence in medical marketing from Creative Images, an internationally recognized firm specializing in health care marketing. The awards, announced in Marketing Healthcare magazine, recognized the office’s Johns Hopkins Medicine innovation booklets, the US Family Health Plan re-branding campaign and a nursing open house held at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, all projects from 2008-2009.
KRIEGER SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Jonathan A. Bagger, vice provost for graduate and postdoctoral programs and special projects and also a Krieger-Eisenhower Professor in Physics and Astronomy, has been elected to the board of directors of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. NSBRI is a NASA-funded consortium of institutions studying the health risks related to long-duration space flight and developing countermeasures to mitigate the risks.
P.M. Forni, professor of Italian literature in the Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures and director of the Civility Initiative at Johns Hopkins, has received the Association of Image Consultants International’s highest industry accolade, the IMMIE Bravo Award. Previous winners of the IMMIE-which stands for Image Makers Merit of Industry Excellence-include TV personality Oprah Winfrey, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Target Stores. The award, presented at the worldwide organization’s annual conference in Los Angeles, honors Forni’s “recognition of his connection to Los Angeles and his tireless work in spreading civility.” Forni was studying for his PhD at UCLA when he was struck by how friendly and open the passengers were toward the city’s bus drivers, something he hadn’t seen in his native Italy. That realization led to two books and a lifetime of advocacy for civility. At the conference, AICI announced it was launching a “Civility Epidemic” and encouraged members to “spread the word.”
Jaime L. Waters, a doctoral student in Near Eastern Studies, has been selected to receive a 2009 Fund for Theological Education Renewal Doctoral Fellowship. A renewal fellowship is awarded to fellows who have successfully completed the first year of their studies and will continue the second year in fall 2009. As an FTE Doctoral Fellow, Waters will receive a stipend of up to $18,000 for expenses from the Fund for Theological Education and was invited to attend a leadership event, held this month at Vanderbilt University, called Religion, Social Justice and the Post-Civil Rights Era: The 21st-Century Challenge. FTE supports rising young scholars from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups who aspire to teach religion and theology in theological schools and universities. The fellowships aim to improve representation of diverse groups, accelerate the recipients’ successful completion of PhD degree programs and provide professional development support.
Undergraduates Natalie Draisin and Harvir Kaur shared the 2009 Abell Foundation Award in Urban Policy, which includes a $2,500 check for each. Co-sponsored by the Abell Foundation and the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, the competition is open to full-time undergraduate and graduate students at 11 colleges and universities in Maryland and was created to encourage students to become more knowledgeable about and involved in the challenges facing the city. The prize was awarded only once previously to an undergraduate, who was a senior at Johns Hopkins. Draisin is majoring in public health studies and expects to graduate in 2010. Her paper was titled “A Lighter Future for Baltimore City: Using Schools in the Fight Against Childhood Obesity.” Kaur, a political science major expecting to graduate in 2011, wrote a paper titled “State of Emergency: Providing Oral Health Care Services to Low-Income and Medicaid Populations in Baltimore City.”
The Department of Biology presented its Danny Lee Award, for outstanding undergraduate research in biomedical sciences, to Jayati Jain and its William D. McElroy Award, for meritorious research conducted by an undergraduate in the biological sciences, to Ishrat Ahmed.
PEABODY INSTITUTE
Hajime Teri Murai, director of orchestral activities, and the Peabody Symphony and Concert orchestras received second place in the collegiate category at this month’s presentation of the 2008-2009 ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming. The awards were presented at the annual conference of the League of American Orchestras in Chicago.
On his new CD, The Jewish Soul, faculty artist Amit Peled performs works for cello-by Ernest Bloch, Max Bruch, Mark Kopytman, Joachim Stutschewsky and other composers-with pianist Eli Kalman.
Andrea Trisciuzzi has been appointed associate dean for development and alumni relations. The Severna Park resident was previously vice president for institutional advancement at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Prior to that, she spent six years at St. Bonaventure University in western New York State, where she directed a 150th anniversary campaign that surpassed its $90 million goal. She also held development positions at the 92nd Street Y and Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City and the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Conn. She earned her bachelor’s degree in art history from Brown University and her BFA in music, summa cum laude, from Purchase College, State University of New York.
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Mary Ellen Beaty-O’Ferrall has been promoted to associate professor in the Department of Teacher Preparation. Beaty-O’Ferrall has served as an assistant professor since 1999 and has been the coordinator of the Dunbar-Hopkins Professional Development School, a partnership funded in part by the Maryland Higher Education Commission and the Maryland State Department of Education.
Michael Rosenberg, professor of special education and chair of Doctoral Studies, has been appointed associate dean for research. Rosenberg will be responsible for centralizing the coordination of doctoral programs and providing support in the development of grant proposals. He also will disseminate research/funding opportunities to faculty and serve as the central point of contact for agencies seeking research, evaluation and technical assistance.
Mavis Sanders, associate professor in the Department of Teacher Development and Leadership, has been promoted to full professor. Sanders, whose research interests include school, family and community collaboration, has written extensively on strengthening school-community partnerships in urban school districts.
Marc Stein will be joining the faculty on Aug. 1 as an assistant professor in the Department of Teacher Development and Leadership. Stein is completing his doctoral studies at Vanderbilt University, where he has focused on leadership and policy studies, with an emphasis on quantitative research methodologies.
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Steven Chang, a resident in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, has received the 2009 Best Resident Basic Science Paper Award from the American Head and Neck Society. A 2005 graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Chang received the award for his study “Chronic Cigarette Smoke Extract Induces Apoptotic Dysfunction and Mitochondrial Mutations in Minimally Transformed Oral Keratinocytes.”
Bert Vogelstein, the Clayton Professor of Oncology, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Genetics and Therapeutics at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, received the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Science of Oncology Award at the group’s annual meeting, held this month in Orlando, Fla. Vogelstein was selected for his decades of research, uncovering the specific genes and mutations responsible for colorectal cancer and for establishing a genetic model for how all cancers form and progress. He discovered the APC gene, which controls cell growth in the colon, and has made significant contributions to understanding the role of the p53 gene in the development of cancer.
M. Christine Zink, professor and director of the Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology, was selected as the recipient of the 2009 Outstanding Woman Veterinarian Award by the Association for Women Veterinarians Foundation.
At the school’s convocation on May 22, awards for teaching went to Roy Ziegelstein, professor of medicine and cardiology, vice chair of Medicine and associate director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program (George J. Stuart Award); Khalil G. Ghanem, assistant professor in Medicine, and Jon R. Lorsch, associate professor in Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry (W. Barry Wood Jr. Award); Daniel Munoz, cardiology fellow in Medicine (House Staff Award); Rajini Rao, professor in Physiology (Graduate Student Teaching Award); Sarah L. Clever, assistant professor in Medicine (Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award); Rao, Janet R. Serwint, professor in Pediatrics, and Peter J. Pronovost, professor in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Surgery and Health Sciences Informatics (Professors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching); and Nancy McCall, History of Medicine (Ranice W. Crosby Distinguished Achievement Award).
SCHOOL OF NURSING
Patricia “Patti” Abbott, Cheryl Dennison, Hae-Ra Han and Jo Walrath, all of Health Systems and Outcomes, have been promoted to associate professor. The four were honored at a reception at the school.
Christina Cardella, MSN student, has been awarded a Graduate Scholarship in Cancer Nursing Practice from the American Cancer Society. The award comes with a $10,000 annual stipend for two years.
Nancy Glass, associate professor in Community Public Health, and Marie Nolan, associate professor in Acute and Chronic Care, have been named fellows of the American Academy of Nursing. Glass and Nolan join an elite cadre of nurses who are leaders in education, management, practice and research. They will be inducted with 98 other nurse leaders on Nov. 7 at the academy’s 36th Annual Meeting Conference in Atlanta.
Eugene Mobley, an officer with Johns Hopkins Protective Services, is the inaugural recipient of the School of Nursing Staff Performing Over the Top Award, known as STOP, for consistently living with the SoN values (accountability, respect, diversity, excellence and integrity), being the “first face at the School of Nursing” and helping people before they know they need help.
Phyllis Sharps, professor and chair of Community Public Health, was selected as an Emerging Leader by the board of directors of Associated Black Charities. Sharps’ achievement was recognized at the organization’s annual fundraising gala, held June 6 at the BWI Marriott Hotel. The event’s theme was “Excellence in Contemporary Practice: Paying Tribute to Maryland’s Philanthropic African-Americans in Medicine.”
Jennifer Wenzel, assistant professor in Acute and Chronic Care, has been awarded a $729,000 Mentored Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society to help rural African-American elders obtain quality care for cancer. Wenzel manages the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing Center for Collaborative Intervention Research, which promotes interdisciplinary studies to develop, test and evaluate cost-effective interventions to improve health outcomes.
The Returned Peace Corps Fellows Program received a 2009 Student Outreach Resource Center’s Student Group Community Service Award. Lori Edwards, an instructor in the Department of Community Public Health, received the SOURCE Faculty Award, and MSN/MPH student Meghan Greeley received a SOURCE Student Award. These awards are presented to individuals and groups that have dedicated their time and skills to community involvement.
SHERIDAN LIBRARIES/JHU MUSEUMS
Winston Tabb, Sheridan Dean of University Libraries and Museums, has been elected to the board of the Council on Library and Information Resources; he is one of two library directors representing the Digital Library Federation. Tabb also has been reappointed to a final two-year term as chair of the Committee on Copyright and Other Legal Matters of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, a position he has held since 2003.
UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION
Aris Melissaratos, senior adviser to the president of the university for enterprise development, is the recipient of the 2009 Maryland Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Supporter of Entrepreneurship Award. He will receive the honor on June 25 at an awards banquet at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel.
WHITING SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
Aleksander S. Popel, professor of biomedical engineering, has received the 2009 Eugene M. Landis Research Award from the Microcirculatory Society. This annual award, the highest honor bestowed by the society, was established in 1969 to recognize an outstanding investigator in the field of microcirculation.
Russ Taylor, professor in the Department of Computer Science, has been named a fellow of the School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo.
The Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute has been re-designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education for academic years 2009-2014.
With funding from the Vredenburg scholarship, the Office of Engineering Advising is supporting travel abroad this summer for 13 students who will work on a research or service-based project, or an internship. The recipients and their destinations are Marvel Ang, Hong Kong; Jessilyn Dunn, Madrid; Michelle Harran, Beijing; Alexander Hoogland, Copenhagen, Denmark; Judy Qiu, Beijing; Max Rich, Germany; Vishwam Sankar, Heidenheim, Germany; Joel Scaria, India; Sarah Schrier, Rome; Jinesh Shah, Tanzania; Nadia Shobnam, Bilbao, Spain; Gregory Shultz, Aachen, Germany; Steve Wang, Beijing.