November 20, 2003
Health Sciences News Briefs
Named to commission
Dr. Pat Wahl, dean of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, and Dr. Alonzo Plough, director of Public Health—Seattle & King County, have been named as two of the 18 members of a newly formed Commission on Community-Engaged Scholarship in the Health Professions. The group is being convened by Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, a nonprofit organization, with funding by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The new commission has the goal of creating a more supportive culture and reward system for health professional faculty involved in community-based participatory research, service learning and other forms of community-engaged scholarship. For more information, see the CCPH site at http://futurehealth.ucsf.edu/ccph
President-elect
Dr. Peter H. Byers, professor of pathology and medicine, will serve as president-elect of the American Society of Human Genetics in 2004 and become the president in 2005. The group, with a membership of more than 8,000 scientists and trainees, is the leading research and public education society for human genetics. Byers, also adjunct professor in genome sciences and in oral biology, was editor of the Society’s American Journal of Human Genetics from 1993-1999. At the UW, he is director of research in the Department of Pathology, directs the Medical Genetics Residency Program, and is also director of the Medical Genetics Clinic. He is internationally known for his work on inherited connective tissue disorders and was chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Collagen in 2003. He has been at the UW since 1974.
City councilman
Walter Neary, assistant director for media and community relations in Health Sciences and Medical Affairs News and Community Relations, was recently elected to the Lakewood City Council. Neary commutes on the bus between the UW and Lakewood, a city of about 60,000 people located between Tacoma and Fort Lewis. Before he joined the UW staff, Neary worked for 15 years as a newspaper reporter and editor. He was the editor of the weekly newspaper in Lakewood in 1995 when citizens voted to incorporate.
GHC boardmember
Dr. Bobbie Berkowitz, professor and chair of the School of Nursing’s Department of Psychosocial and Community Health, was elected to Group Health Cooperative’s Board of Trustees last month. She is one of four new members of the 11-person board and will serve a three-year term beginning Jan. 1.
Award for program planning
Dr. Robert Kalina, professor and former chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, has received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Eye Institute, recognizing seven years as a member of the National Eye Health Education Program’s Planning Committee. Kalina has worked primarily on campaigns for education on diabetic eye disease and low-vision rehabilitation. The national program, which has about 60 public and non-profit partners, focuses on large-scale information, education and applied research programs. The National Eye Institute is one of the National Institutes of Health.
Science Educator Award
Dr. Eric Chudler, research associate professor of anesthesiology, received the Science Educator Award from the Society for Neuroscience at the organization’s annual meeting earlier this month. He was recognized for several efforts, including visits to school and developing projects for students. He is perhaps best known as the developer and webmaster for the “Neuroscience for Kids” Web site, which is supported by a Science Education Partnership award from the National Center for Research Resources. See the site at http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html
