For the Record: Cheers

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

Burt Barnow, principal research scientist at the Institute for Policy Studies, was appointed to the Vernon Prize Committee by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management; the prize is awarded for the best article of the year appearing in the Journal for Policy Analysis and Management. He also was elected to the board of directors of Career Transition Center, a nonprofit operating the One-Stop Career Center in Montgomery County, Md.

 

Bayview Medical Center

Robert Brooner, professor and director of Addiction Treatment Services, has been chosen as the 2009 recipient of the Marie Nyswander and Vincent Dole Award from the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence. The award, named for the discoverers of methadone, recognizes Brooner's achievements in substantially advancing the understanding and treatment of opioid dependence. The award will be presented on April 28, 2009, in New York as part of the annual AATOD national conference.

Dayna Finkenzeller has joined the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Finkenzeller received her medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and recently completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her interests include general obstetrics, adolescent gynecology, colposcopy and abnormal uterine bleeding.

Charles Hesdorffer, associate professor of medicine and oncology, has been named chief of the Division of Hematology. Previously he was director of Clinical Hematology for The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Before coming to Johns Hopkins, he held positions at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan and the Hackensack (N.J.) University Medical Center. Hesdorffer received his MBBCh and master of medicine degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and completed his fellowship in hematology and oncology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University.

Michael West has joined the Division of Endocrinology. He received his medical degree and doctorate from Texas A&M University System Health Science Center and completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and a three-year endocrinology fellowship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Bayview's blood drive volunteers and recruitment team have been named the LifeBoard Recruitment Committee of the Year by the American Red Cross. The team was honored for its dedication to the success of the medical center's blood drive, which boosted the number of units collected from 788 in 2007 to 976 this year.

 

Bloomberg School of Public Health

Peter Agre, director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, has been named president-elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He will assume the presidency in 2010. Founded in 1948, the nonprofit AAAS serves some 272 affiliated societies and academies of science and publishes the peer-reviewed, general science journal Science.

 

Johns Hopkins Health System

Greg Schaffer, president of Bayview Medical Center, will retire on June 30. Schaffer joined Bayview in 1995 as vice president of support services and became president in 1999. During his tenure, he developed new programs; expanded others; established centers of excellence in bariatric surgery, wound care, pelvic health and stroke; and spearheaded many community outreach programs.

 

Multidisciplinary

John T. Isaacs, a professor of oncology, urology and cellular and molecular medicine in the School of Medicine and a professor of biomedical engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering, is this year's recipient of the Society for Basic Urologic Research's Meritorious Award for his contributions in the field of prostate cancer. He was past president of this society.

Paul R. McHugh, University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine and professor of mental health in the Bloomberg School of Public Health, has been awarded the 2008 Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Award in Mental Health. The award cited McHugh for his lifetime contributions to psychiatric scholarship and clinical care. The author of numerous popular texts, including The Perspectives of Psychiatry, McHugh in his writings has explored some of the most strenuously debated topics in psychiatry and social policy, including assisted suicide, recovered memories, addictive behaviors and sexual disorders.

 

School of Education

Kimberly Ann Lewis, a doctoral candidate and the program manager for the Division of Special Education of the Maryland State Department of Education, was appointed executive director of special education for Baltimore City Public Schools. She assumed her duties on Sept. 28. Lewis is working on her EdD in special education and urban leadership.

 

School of Medicine

Ronald Cohn, assistant professor of pediatrics and neurology, has received a 2008 New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health. The award includes a $1.5 million grant to cover research costs for the next five years. Cohn, who studies such muscle-wasting diseases as muscular dystrophy, has investigated how ground squirrels preserve muscles during hibernation. He will use the grant to advance his research into the molecular mechanisms that allow the squirrels to repair and maintain muscle cells during such lengthy periods of inactivity. He aims to improve understanding of how to treat and possibly halt age- and disuse-related muscle wasting and disorders.

Elaine Freeman has been appointed vice president for communications emerita.

James T. Handa has been appointed to the Robert B. Welch, M.D. Professorship of Ophthalmology in the Department of Ophthalmology.

Frederick A. Lenz has been appointed to the A. Earl Walker Professorship of Functional Neurosurgery, in the Department of Neurosurgery, effective Nov. 20.

Bradley Phillips has been named director of Pediatric Burn Surgery and director of the Burn Fellowship Program in the Children's Center, home to Maryland's regional pediatric burn center. The center cares for all burn victims under the age of 15 in Maryland and surrounding states. Previously director of the University of New Mexico burn program, Phillips is the editor of several medical journals, including the Journal of Burns & Wounds. He also has published such books as Adult Cardiac Surgery and Heart Failure & Transplantation.

Eileen "Patti" Vining, professor of neurology and pediatrics and director of the John M. Freeman Pediatric Epilepsy Center, has received the J. Kiffin Penry Excellence in Epilepsy Care Award from the American Epilepsy Society. The award, funded by Abbott Laboratories, recognizes the major impact that Vining's work has had on patient care and the improved quality of life for epilepsy patients.

Stephen Yang has become the first Arthur B. and Patricia B. Modell Professor in Thoracic Surgery. Yang joined the faculty in 1994 and was named chief of Thoracic Surgery in 2001. He also serves as the medical student surgical clerkship and curriculum director, director of the Thoracic Oncology program and associate director of the cardiothoracic surgery residency; until recently, he was the director of the Adult and Pediatric Lung Transplantation program. He is an active member of numerous national and international societies and the recipient of many awards, including this year's School of Medicine Dean's Faculty Award for clinical teaching.

 

School of Nursing

Rachel Brewer, a traditional student in the class of 2010, is the recipient of an undergraduate transfer scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. The scholarship, which awards $30,000 per year, is given to outstanding community college students who are accepted to prestigious universities for degree completion.

Marian Grant, an alumna and senior research nurse, is the recipient of a CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Project RN scholarship through the University of Maryland, Baltimore, where she is currently working on her doctor of nursing practice degree. The scholarship provides $40,000 per year plus a living stipend.

Deborah Gross, the Leonard and Helen Stulman Professor in Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing in the Department of Community Public Health, has been awarded the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research President's Award for 2008. The award, which offers an unrestricted grant of $5,000 to support the work of nurse researchers, recognizes Gross' commitment to making a significant impact on science and mental health practice and to providing substantial mentorship to students and junior colleagues across disciplines. Gross, who has devoted 25 years to improving the mental health of children living in urban poverty, said the grant will be used to further her work related to improving children's mental health.

Sharon Kozachik, a postdoctoral fellow, has been selected as the 2008 Lucille V. Lukens, RN, American Nurses Foun-dation Scholar. Over the next year, working under the mentorship of Professor Gayle Page in the Center for Nursing Research, Kozachik will engage in preclinical research that may lead to improved sleep, decreased pain and improved quality of life for future cancer patients.

Daniel Sheridan, an associate professor in the Department of Community Public Health, has received a $29,854 grant from the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention to continue to provide two weeklong, statewide trainings to prepare Maryland nurses to be forensic sexual assault examiners for adolescent and adult rape victims. The first training will be hosted at the School of Nursing from March 16 to 20; the second will be in August.

Jennifer Wenzel, an assistant professor in the Department of Acute and Chronic Care, is one of 15 junior faculty in the nation to receive an inaugural Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar award. The three-year $350,000 grant will support Wenzel's research to address health disparities affecting rural African-American seniors who have been diagnosed with and treated for cancer.

 

Sheridan Libraries/JHU Museums

Winston Tabb, Sheridan Dean of University Libraries, has been appointed to the board of Bloomsbury Academic, a new imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, one of Europe's leading independent publishing houses. Bloomsbury Academic will publish simultaneously online using Creative Commons licenses and in hard copy format. Its first publications in the humanities and social sciences will appear in the second half of 2009.

 

University Administration

James McGill, senior vice president for finance and administration, will be moderating and presenting on cost-benefit issues for international education on Nov. 7 at the TIAA-CREF Higher Education Leadership Conference in New York City. This year's conference will focus on the critical role of higher education in strengthening worldwide economies, building global collaborations and meeting work force needs around the world.

 

Whiting School of Engineering

Tony Dalrymple, professor of civil engineering, was included on Wired's "2008 Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To." The magazine said that Dalrymple, an expert in coastal erosion, could educate our next president on what should be done to prepare for "extreme weather" in the coming years.

Fred Jelinek, the Julian Sinclair Smith Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the university's Center for Language and Speech Processing, was named by the International Speech Communication Association as one of its 12 inaugural fellows. The ISCA, the foremost international speech research organization, established its Fellows Program in 2007 to honor outstanding members who have made significant contributions to the field of speech communication science and technology and/or continued significant service to the ISCA. Jelinek was also honored by the ISCA in 1999 in being awarded its Medal for Scientific Achievement.

 

No Milestones

Because of space limitations, the Milestones feature that usually appears alongside Cheers will run instead in the Oct. 27 issue.

 
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