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Volume 37
Number 1
September 2, 2004 |
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What’s new at Pitt?: PROVOST AREA
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The hustle and bustle that marks the beginning of each academic year is here again. But schools at Pitt have not slept through the summer months, which saw everything from major renovations to the establishment of new academic programs to the hiring and promotion of employees.
The University Times asked deans and other school officials to provide a brief look at “what’s new” in their schools. A caution to the reader: None of the summaries here is meant to be all-encompassing, but rather they are overviews highlighting school information.
Arts and Sciences
Strengthening undergraduate education and faculty teaching innovation are key themes in Arts and Sciences (A&S) this academic year, according to Regina Schulte-Ladbeck, recently appointed associate dean for Undergraduate Studies.
One new initiative in undergrad education this term is the learning communities pilot program, which features six groups of 18 freshmen enrolled in thematic blocks of courses.
For example, students in the contemporary culture learning community enroll together in courses such as political science and contemporary art. They also enroll in customized freshman studies and English composition courses with the theme of contemporary culture. “There is a hope this will enhance their connection socially and academically, so they feel comfortable working in groups and developing new social connections,” said Laura Dice, assistant dean for freshmen in Arts and Sciences. “The goal is to improve academic performance and increase retention, graduation rates and student satisfaction.”
A&S Undergraduate Studies will evaluate the impact that such learning communities have on students’ first year of college life. Administrators want to increase the number of learning communities and develop new themes for next year’s entering class.
In other developments, Schulte-Ladbeck and her staff plan to streamline the approval process for new courses. The goals are to encourage faculty to develop new courses and to achieve better faculty satisfaction.
Schulte-Ladbeck also is collaborating with A&S faculty and staff to develop a new certificate in scientific leadership program. The certificate will combine natural science courses with courses enabling students to develop the technical and behavioral skills needed to become leaders of their future research groups, academic departments, business or government offices.
A&S Dean N. John Cooper commented, “I am looking forward to an exciting new year, with a wonderful group of new students and some exceptional new faculty members joining our campus community.”
There are more than 650 faculty in Arts and Sciences, which is second only to the medical school in number of faculty. A sampling of new A&S faculty includes:
• Gordon Belot joined the University in February as an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy and fellow in the Center for Philosophy of Science with a secondary appointment in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science.
Belot taught at Princeton and New York universities before returning to Pitt, where he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy. He has held a postdoctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and a fellowship from the National Science Foundation.
Belot’s primary interests are in philosophy of physics and philosophy of science, and his recent work has been concerned with the interpretive, methodological and metaphysical implications of symmetry principles.
• Cecil Blake, former associate professor of communication at the University of Nebraska, joins Pitt as an associate professor with tenure, beginning a five-year term as Africana studies chair.
Blake has held a number of academic positions in the United States and Africa. Internationally, his experience covers an array of teaching, research and administrative experiences in four countries (Nigeria, Kenya, Japan and his native Sierra Leone). He spent six years in the United Nations University in Tokyo and a year as cabinet minister of information and broadcasting and chief government spokesperson for the government of Sierra Leone.
Blake, who holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, is a scholar of rhetoric and communication with a focus on African-American and African rhetoric and communication as central elements in the historical development of theories of African, African diasporic and pan-African identities. Blake has emphasized the ways in which Eurocentric visions for African development fail because they do not capture the cultural qualities and resources of Africa and Africans.
• Oliver Board joins Arts and Sciences as an assistant professor of economics. He comes from Amherst College, where he was a visiting assistant professor. Prior to that, Board was a university lecturer in the Department of Economics, and fellow and tutor in economics at Brasenose College, Oxford.
He earned a B.A. in philosophy, an M.Phil. in economics and a D.Phil. all from the University of Oxford.
Board’s primary field is microeconomics. His research agenda focuses on the epistemic of game theory, addressing and generalizing well-accepted concepts of rationality. Board addresses the fundamental problem of how players revise their beliefs as a game unfolds, which is central to understanding the implications of rationality in dynamic games.
• Cheris Chan was hired as an assistant professor of sociology. She is joining Arts and Sciences from Northwestern University, where she completed her dissertation.
Chan was an undergraduate and M.Phil. student at the University of Hong Kong and specializes in cultural and economic sociology, as well as qualitative methods and globalization. She has applied these approaches to a wide range of issues in Hong Kong and Chinese religious and cultural life, including the rise and fall of the Falun Gong in China.
• Assistant professor of sociology Deborah Gould comes from the University of Chicago where she was a Harper/Schmidt fellow in social sciences and a collegiate assistant professor.
While at the University of Chicago, Gould received her Ph.D. in political science and served as an instructor and the Grodzin Prize lecturer. She also spent a year as a lecturer at Roosevelt University.
Gould’s primary focus is on the development and tactics of the AIDS activist movement, ACT UP, in the United States. Her broader research and teaching interests are in the areas of social movements, American politics, human sexuality and the development of quantitative methods.
• Debra Hawhee is an assistant professor of English who taught at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She received her Ph.D. in English from Penn State. Her research focuses on composition and rhetoric and connects to her experience as a student-athlete. She was a member of the 1989 NCAA Champion Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball team.
• Margaret Judd joins the anthropology faculty as an assistant professor. She had been a curator at the British Museum.
Judd has a business administration diploma and a B.A. with honors in archaeology from Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario. She completed her M.S. in osteology, palaeopathology and funerary archaeology at the University of Bradford, United Kingdom, and received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Judd’s interests include human adaptation and health, trauma, palaeopathology and forensic anthropology.
• Alexis León is an assistant professor of economics, coming to Pitt from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a computer lab consultant.
León received his B.A. (llicenciatura) in economics from the Universitat Pompeu Fabria in Barcelona, and his Ph.D. in economics from MIT.
León’s primary fields are labor economics and applied econometrics. He also has interests in family economics and population economics.
• W. Vincent Liu, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, previously was an assistant professor and a postdoctoral fellow at MIT.
He earned his M.S. in physics from Beijing Normal University and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas at Austin.
Liu is a theorist whose work involves quantum coherence in a way that transcends condensed atomic gases as well as solids.
• Assata-Nicole Richards joins A&S as an assistant professor of sociology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she completed her doctorate and served as a teaching assistant.
Richards’s research interests include social movements, prisons, research methods, survey research, organizational theory, life course perspective, and quantitative methods and statistics. Her dissertation was a study of the U.S. prison system using the National Institute of Justice database.
• Brian Traw is an assistant professor of biological sciences, coming from the University of Chicago where he was a V. Dropkin postdoctoral fellow.
Traw received his A.B. in biology from Harvard and his Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Cornell. His research focuses on plant evolutionary ecology, looking primarily at traits that protect mustard plants from leaf-eating insects, and focusing on identifying genes responsible for basal expression and induction of defenses in the model mustard, arabidophsis thaliana.
• Erin Graff Zivin joins Pitt as an assistant professor of Hispanic languages and literatures. She has taught Hebrew, English and Portuguese.
Zivin earned her B.A. in social science, with honors, from the University of California at Berkeley. She spent a year as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar at the Universidad de Chile and returned to Berkeley to earn her M.A. in comparative literature and Latin American studies. She received her Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese from New York University.
Zivin’s area of research involves a philosophical/theoretical focus on questions of identity and alterity. Though her current research focuses on modern Latin America, she sees her work opening out into a pan-Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian framework, including medieval and early modern Spain and Portugal and their colonial empires.
Business
The new two-year M.B.A. program at Katz Graduate School of Business has introduced a “coaching program” designed to gauge and improve competencies, such as interpersonal or writing skills. Employers, professors, project teammates and others provide the basis for competency ratings for second-year M.B.A. students.
The school also contracted with the theatre arts and communication departments, as well as other academic programs, to help round out the future M.B.A.s. Students meet either one-on-one with faculty from other academic programs or in special seminars. “We’re making use of the entire campus,” said Dean Frederick Winter. He expects students to reduce class schedules this fall to accommodate time needed for coaching.
M.B.A. candidates can expect a “position coach” as well. Position coaches, such as retired executives and other seasoned professionals, will provide students with expertise from their respective specialties.
Also new for second-year M.B.A. students, the school has developed two non-credit courses, Dealing With Ambiguity and Business in the News.
The Katz school will extend its reach internationally in 2005 by adding Manchester, U.K., as a fourth location offering the international executive M.B.A. Current locations for the program include Pittsburgh, Prague and Sao Paulo.
The school welcomed two new full-time faculty this fall.
Mei Feng, assistant professor of business administration, will receive her doctorate in accounting from the University of Michigan Business School in the near future. She holds a Master of Arts in accounting from Renmin University and a Bachelor of Arts in accounting from Nankai University, both located in the People’s Republic of China.
Her interests include financial accounting and reporting, voluntary disclosure, the role of financial analysts, financial statement analysis and management compensation.
Tansev Geylani, assistant professor of business administration, completed his Ph.D. in marketing at Carnegie Mellon. He holds an M.S.I.A. from CMU and an M.B.A. from Koc University in Istanbul, both in marketing, as well as a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the Middle East Technical Unit in Ankara, Turkey. His research interests include game theoretical modeling, industrial organization and marketing channels.
The College of Business Administration joined with Pitt’s School of Engineering for a new Semester at Sea program this year. Engineering and business students studied manufacturing and the global supply chain in the Pacific Rim. This is the first program for non-marine engineering students aboard the S.S. Universe Explorer and includes site visits to manufacturing facilities, as well as lecturers by manufacturing engineers, managers and corporate executives working in the countries visited by Semester at Sea.
Education
What’s new in the School of Education includes a grant, a master’s program with an international flavor, expanded and new laboratory facilities and faculty hires.
The school recently received a $236,300 grant from The Grable Foundation to develop an electronic portfolio system supporting the preparation of teachers and school leaders. This system will permit students to learn to be stronger educators by observing and reflecting upon their teaching or school leadership activities.
Over the summer, Dean Alan Lesgold signed an agreement with the University of the Humanities (UH), Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, under which Pitt will offer a master’s degree in higher education management on the UH campus. A number of courses will be taught in Ulaanbaatar during summers by Pitt faculty, and additional courses will be offered during the academic year by recent graduates of Pitt’s doctoral program who now work in Mongolia.
“Mongolia, now coming free of the Communist era, is also seeing an expansion of universities and a huge pent-up desire for further education,” Lesgold said. With the staffing we can provide and the training we offer, we are confident that they too will be extremely successful.”
The Center for Physical Activity and Weight Management Research, directed by John Jakicic, associate professor of health, physical and recreational education, has moved its laboratory to the Birmingham Towers on Pittsburgh’s South Side. The new lab provides additional space for offices and physical activity areas.
In Posvar Hall, the Macintosh lab has been remodeled so that two classes can be held simultaneously. Each of the two labs, one for Macs and one for PCs, holds 20 computers, a podium, projector, smart board and printer. The Macintosh lab computer operating system also has been upgraded to Mac OS 10.3.
Three faculty have joined the school since January, Consuella Lewis, John Patrick Myers and Eva Shivers.
Lewis, assistant professor in administrative and policy studies, has been a third-grade teacher; dean of the Office of Black Student Affairs, the Claremont Colleges; associate dean for residential life at Spelman College, and assistant dean of students, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
Her interests focus on public policy and higher education access and retention, faculty tenure and socialization, diversity in higher education, leadership and political economy of education, and international and comparative education.
Lewis received her B.A in political science and an M.S. in counseling and development from Indiana University, Bloomington, a certificate in management development from Harvard and a Ph.D. in higher education from Claremont Graduate University.
Assistant professor Myers, previously a project research assistant at the University of Toronto, joins the program in social studies education in the Department of Instruction and Learning.
Fluent in Italian and Portuguese and with a basic knowledge of Spanish, Myers spent five months in Brazil investigating educational activism and teaching for social change. He also was part of a workshop for UNICEF on global education in Kyrgyzstan.
He received a B.A. in urban history from Haverford College, an M.A. in educational thought and sociocultural studies from the University of New Mexico and is near completion of a Ph.D. in comparative, international and development education from the University of Toronto.
Shivers, assistant professor in psychology in education, recently completed her Ph.D. in psychological studies in education at UCLA.
Her research specialties include child care policy, social and emotional development of low-income children of color, effective early education in low-income communities of color, child care workforce issues, and provider-child relationships in child care settings.
In addition to her position in psychology in education, Shivers has affiliations with the school’s Office of Child Development and with the Center for Race and Social Problems in the School of Social Work.
She received her B.A. in English literature from Arizona State University and a J.D. from Howard University.
“Over the next few years, the School of Education will be changing a lot, as we replace those who recently retired,” said Dean Lesgold. “Our goal is to become even stronger in service, teaching and research that aims directly at improving education for lifetime success and health — both regionally and around the world.”
Engineering
A new graduate computer engineering program offering both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees kicks off this fall semester. The program is housed jointly in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (formerly the Department of Electrical Engineering) and in the Department of Computer Science (Arts and Sciences).
“The creation of the graduate computer engineering program reflects the growing computer engineering industry,” said U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering Gerald D. Holder. “The strength of the undergraduate program and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will help propel the new program and attract students for in-depth computer engineering research.”
The Institute of NanoScience and Engineering will use a $5 million grant from the Provost’s office to construct a nanofabrication facility in Benedum Hall. The University-wide facility, expected to be fully operational in 2005, will support collaboration among faculty from Arts and Sciences, engineering and the medical community, according to Michael Lovell, associate dean for research at the engineering school.
New faculty at the school include Kent A. Harries, associate professor, who joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in July. Harries was an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina and a research engineer at the ATLSS Center at Lehigh University. He received his Ph.D. in structural engineering and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering and applied mechanics from McGill University in Montreal.
Harries’s research interests include the seismic design and retrofit of building structures, the design and behavior of high-rise structures, the use of non-traditional materials in civil infrastructure, applications of full-scale structural testing and the history and philosophy of science and technology.
W.K. Whiteford Professor Savio L-Y Woo, formerly of Pitt’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, joins the Department of Bioengineering. Woo’s transfer included moving the Musculoskeletal Research Center to bioengineering. Woo also is a professor of mechanical engineering and of rehabilitation science and technology, and vice chairman for research in the Department of Bioengineering’s internship/mentorship program.
Working with the Katz Graduate School of Business, the engineering school now offers a Master of Business Administration and Master of Industrial Engineering (M.B.A./M.S.I.E.) degree. The integrated 22-month program prepares students for a career in product development and management at manufacturing and service companies.
General Studies
Among the new CGS programs are:
• The graduate certificate in gerontology interdisciplinary program arms participants with an understanding of the biological, psychological and sociological aspects of aging, as well as specialized knowledge in a selected discipline. The program features specialty tracks in dentistry, law, nursing, occupational/rehabilitation therapy, public health and social work, in addition to a track that spans several disciplines.
The certificate is offered in collaboration with Pitt’s Institute on Aging and the University Center for Social and Urban Research.
• Osher Lifelong Learning Institute was established with a $100,000 grant from the Bernard Osher Foundation. The institute offers lectures and courses specifically designed for people age 55 and older. (See July 22 University Times.) The program will engage a core of Pitt emeriti faculty and community scholars as instructors. CGS staffer Judith A. Bobenage is the new coordinator.
• An endowment from CGS alumnus Tom R. Slone established the Tom Slone Scholarships program for mentors in the Big Brothers Big Sisters youth mentoring organization who enroll in CGS. For fall 2004, five $1,000 scholarships have been awarded.
• CGS and Community College of Allegheny County have entered into a new agreement — the CCAC transition year experience program — to assist students who wish to transfer to Pitt after completing two years at CCAC.
• A new joint program between CGS and Bidwell Training Center Partnership improves access to continuing education for Bidwell graduates. The program offers financial and academic support to help promote the educational welfare of Pittsburgh’s economically disadvantaged populations.
In other CGS news, John English, who has been hired as manager of credit programs, is responsible for program delivery, budgetary planning and orchestration of credit-related programs within CGS.
Long-time staffer Dean M. Julian has been named manager of recruiting, a new position focusing on recruitment of adult and nontraditional students.
Jane S. Micale, who earned a master’s in social work and a Ph.D. in administration and policy studies from Pitt, has been promoted to assistant dean of student affairs, where she serves as the ombudsperson for student-related issues, oversees the admissions and advising components of the college, works as a contributor to program development and distributes financial aid and scholarships.
Kelly J. Otter has been hired as assistant dean of academic programs, overseeing the development of new and existing majors and programs in both the degree division, which includes the University External Studies Program, and the noncredit programming areas, which include workforce development initiatives and the Third Age Learning Center.
Otter also teaches in Pitt’s Department of Communication. She holds a Ph.D. in arts and humanities education from NYU.
Erroline M. Williams, currently working toward her doctorate in administrative and policy studies in higher education at Pitt, has been named manager of workforce development. She will initiate education and training collaborations with businesses and organizations in the region.
Information Sciences
The school has established a new program on security assured information systems. The establishment of that track came with a certification by the National Security Agency as a Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education for the years 2004-2007.
In addition, SIS has added a laboratory for educational research in security assured information systems.
“We’re in the process of developing a collaborative master’s degree program in digital libraries and information with Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science, which has been approved by Pitt and it’s working its way through Carnegie Mellon,” said Dean Ronald Larsen. “Assuming approval, that should start next fall.”
Also under development is an experimental use of touch-sensitive technology in the IS Building’s lobby. The touch-sensitive wall screens, activated by I.D. tags, will be a source of information such as building navigation, maps and a directory. The technology also will provide the ability to convey messages to specific persons.
Larsen said the school also was experimenting with a new approach to distance education, offering a certificate through the systems and technology enrichment program. STEP attempts to tailor programs for businesses and industries needing technology training for their employees.
The school has hired two new full-time faculty, with a third person having a secondary appointment at SIS’s Department of Library and Information Science (DLIS).
Daqing He joins DLIS as an assistant professor. His research interests include information retrieval, web-user context learning and modeling, interactive retrieval interface design, computational linguistics, and World Wide Web log mining and analysis.
After earning B.S. and M.S. degrees at the University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Beijing, China, he earned a Ph.D. from the Division of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. Since then, he has worked as a research fellow at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, U.K., and, most recently, as a research scientist at the University of Maryland at College Park.
Glenn L. Ray has joined the Department of Information Science and Telecommunications as assistant professor. Ray’s professional and research interests include software engineering, object- and aspect-oriented analysis and design, rule-based systems, web services, formal methods, geographic information systems and distance education.
Prior to coming to Pitt, Ray was an assistant professor at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Ga. In addition, Ray has served as an analyst/architect for digital ESP, Inc., of Raleigh, N.C.; as president and owner of Capital Communications of America, a telecom and Internet services marketing firm in Tallahassee, Fla.; as a legislative coordinator for the Florida Association of Counties, and as a petroleum geologist/geophysicist for Amoco Corp. in New Orleans.
He earned his Ph.D. in earth science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of Software Engineering Science degree from Florida A&M and a B.S. degree in geology from Florida State.
In addition to his secondary appointment at SIS, Stuart William Shulman is a new assistant professor in Pitt’s University Center for Social and Urban Research.
Shulman’s research centers on emerging issues in digital government. Most recently, he examined the impact of new communications technologies, such as the Internet, on public involvement in the regulatory rule-making process, leading to more sophisticated and manageable information systems for citizen/government interaction.
Shulman was an assistant professor in Drake University’s environmental science and policy program prior to coming to Pitt.
He earned a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Oregon and a B.A. in political science and English from Boston University.
Terry Kizina is the school’s director of recruitment, admission and financial aid, a newly created position.
Law
In addition to seven new visiting professors, the School of Law hired Janice M. Mueller, who specializes in intellectual property and patent law, to the full-time faculty as professor. Mueller holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and a J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law.
A registered U.S. patent attorney and chemical engineer, Mueller spent three years litigating patent and copyright infringement cases in the civil division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Before coming to Pitt, Mueller taught at John Marshall Law School in Chicago and at Suffolk University Law School in Boston.
This year, the law school introduced a new program, the J.S.D. for LL.M. graduates who wish to pursue advanced independent study, research and writing.
The school also opened two new law clinics, the Family Law Clinic and the Community Economic Development Clinic.
This spring and summer, the Barco Law Library underwent major renovations and expansion, now complete; a five-year program renovating the school’s 14 classrooms also has been completed, according to Dean David Herring.
Herring announced this spring that he was stepping down from the deanship June 30, 2005, to return to the full-time law faculty. (See May 13, University Times.)
“As I look toward our upcoming year, I see three important challenges,” Herring said. “One is our dean’s search. Our school’s reputation is firmly established, and we have a great opportunity to hire a real leader in legal education.”
A second challenge, he said, is building on the success of the school’s student scholarship program, which has contributed to rising student qualifications.
“Third, I’m particularly excited about our new clinical programs, especially the establishment of the Community Economic Development Clinic, which takes us into transactional law, a new area for our school. The clinic will work with entrepreneurs, nonprofits and community groups, particularly in poor neighborhoods.”
Public and International Affairs
This semester the school welcomes 201 students, one of its biggest incoming classes in several years, to its largely renovated space on the 3rd floor of Posvar Hall. Approximately a quarter of the students are from outside the United States. “I am happy that international student enrollment, which declined sharply immediately after Sept. 11, has rebounded,” said Dean Carolyn Ban.
GSPIA also boasts a cohort of outstanding faculty recruits this year.
Assistant professor R. Charli Carpenter earned her Ph.D. at the University of Oregon, wrote a dissertation on the implementation of the civilian immunity norm and taught international relations at Drake University before coming to Pitt.
Her research and teaching interests include international norms and identities, gender and violence, war crimes, comparative genocide studies, human rights and humanitarian action.
Carpenter’s research focuses on the network around war-affected children’s human rights, particularly rights of children born as a result of wartime rape. She has consulted with UNICEF this summer to coordinate a fact-finding study on children born of rape growing up in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Currently, she holds a research and writing grant from the MacArthur Foundation to conduct fieldwork in the former Yugoslavia.
George Dougherty Jr., assistant professor, came to Pitt from Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy. He previously served as assistant professor and director of the Master of Public Administration program at Piedmont College and principal consultant at Evaluation Resources.
Prior to joining the faculty at Piedmont, Dougherty was a research coordinator at the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, where he provided applied research and evaluation services to state, local and nonprofit agencies.
His research efforts focus on improving developmental disability and mental health service delivery, court administration practices, and management capacity-building for small nonprofits.
Dougherty earned his undergraduate degree in management from Georgia Institute of Technology and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Georgia with specializations in public administration, public policy and international relations.
Professor Janne Nolan comes to Pitt from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. Nolan has served on the faculty of the international security program at Georgetown and is working on a book about dissent and national security.
She also has held numerous senior positions in the private sector, including foreign policy director at the Century Foundation of New York, senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution and senior international security consultant at Science Applications, International.
Her public service includes positions as a foreign affairs officer in the Department of State, senior representative to the Senate Armed Services Committee for former Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.), and member of the National Defense Panel, the Secretary of Defense’s Policy Board and several other congressionally appointed blue ribbon commissions. She has served as an adviser to several presidential and Senate campaigns.
Social Work
“This year, a number of the projects which the School of Social Work has been working on will come to fruition,” said Larry E. Davis, dean and Donald M. Henderson Professor. “Most notably, we hope to complete a state-of-the-art conference center/distance learning facility on the 20th floor in the Cathedral of Learning.”
This conference center will provide a welcome environment for discussion of current topics of concern to both scholars and members of the Pittsburgh community, he said.“By providing a place for the exchange of information and ideas, the conference center also serves to support the important goal of enhancing the intellectual climate of the school as well as the entire University.”
The school hired associate professor John Wallace in January. Wallace is a seasoned researcher on issues of race and substance abuse, as well at the role of congregations and other faith-based organizations in the delivery of social services and the holistic revitalization of communities.
In addition, Gary Koeske will assume responsibilities as the director of the doctoral program.
Koeske received his M.S. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University after completing his undergraduate work in psychology at the University of Wisconsin.
He joined Pitt’s social psychology program in 1968 and in 1974 moved to the School of Social Work, where he has taught research methodology and statistics courses in the M.S.W. and Ph.D. programs.
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