May People Notes

Leena Bitar, D04, has launched the "Smile, Share and Care" program at the Wang YMCA in Chinatown with a $2,800 grant from Tufts' University College of Citizenship and Public Service. Dental student volunteers regularly go to the Y to teach 3- to 6-year-olds about oral health and give them toothbrushes, toothpaste and booklets. Parents are encouraged to read the booklet with their children. Bitar says she wants to involve Tufts undergraduates in the program. top

Jeffrey Blumberg, associate director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) and chief of its Antioxidants Research Laboratory, has been appointed to the editorial advisory board of Arbor Clinical Update web newsletter. top

Sarah Booth, assistant professor of nutrition and a scientist in the HNRCA's Vitamin K Research Laboratory, collaborated on a paper titled "HPLC and GC/MS Determination of Deuterated Vitamin K (phylloquinone) in Human Serum After Ingestion of Deuterium-Labeled Broccoli," published in the March issue of the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. top

Dr. Daniel Carr, professor of anesthesiology, recently testified at a workshop on the development of pain drugs, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration for government agency officials. top

Dr. Lauro Cavazos, professor and chair of family medicine and community health and former U.S. secretary of education, participated in an Education Leadership Summit at Duke University in March along with several other former secretaries of education. The proceedings will be published as a book. top

Shu Chen, Paul Olson and Ethan Danahy, all graduate students in electrical engineering and computer science, presented papers at the 2002 Advanced Simulation Technologies Conference in San Diego, Calif., April 12-18. The students' co-authors and advisers are Karen Panetta and Stephen Morrison, faculty members in the department. top

Lorraine Cordeiro, a doctoral student in nutrition, has been selected as a 2002-2003 Boston Schweitzer Fellow. As a fellow, her responsibility is to carry out a direct community service nutrition project that addresses the unmet health needs of underserved individuals and communities. top

John DiBiaggio, Tufts' president emeritus, will serve as the new chairman of the International Leadership Committee of the Applied Developmental Science Institute of the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development. The leadership committee works with the institute to help faculty, students and staff best pursue the vision of integrating excellent science and service for the diverse youth and families of the communities served by Eliot-Pearson and Tufts University. DiBiaggio succeeds Barry Dym, president of WorkWise Inc., a Boston-area consulting firm. top

Deborah Digges, associate professor of English, received an award from the Faculty Research Awards Committee and was given a semester off to research the life of Sarah Pardee Winchester, about whom she is writing a book. top

Carol Duffey, formerly of Harvard Medical School, is the new registrar for the School of Medicine. Chris Adamson has been promoted to assistant registrar. top

Jane Friedman, president of Artists International Representatives, a public relations management agency that handles musicians and artists, has been named to the Board of Overseers to the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Friedman, who has been in the music entertainment business for nearly 30 years, is the niece of Dr. Gerald J. Friedman and the director of the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman New York Foundation for Medical Research. The nutrition school at Tufts is named for the Friedmans, and an endowed chair at the School of Medicine is named for the Friedmans as well. top

Dr. Andrew S. Greenberg, assistant professor of nutrition and director of the Obesity and Metabolism Research Program at the HNRCA; Gerard E. Dallal, associate professor of nutrition and a scientist in the HNRCA's Division of Biostatistics; and Martin S. Obin, assistant professor of nutrition and a scientist in the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research at the HNRCA, collaborated on "Modulation of Hormone-Sensitive Lipase and Protein Kinase A-mediated Lipolysis by Perilipin A in an Adenoviral Reconstituted System, published March 8 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. top

Whitney Harrelson, a student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, is the recipient of the David Patrick O'Brien Internship Grant for summer 2002. Harrelson will be interning at Fundacion Paraguaya, an affiliate of ACCION International. Fundacion is a nonprofit, micro-finance organization that aims to alleviate poverty and empower individuals through the micro-finance services it provides to the extreme poor of Paraguay. The grant is named for the first graduate (1997) of the joint degree program between the nutrition and Fletcher schools. While researching famine in India after graduation, O'Brien contracted a respiratory ailment and died at age 29. top

Larry Hunt, executive director for employee relations in Human Resources, left Tufts in April after 17 years to take a senior HR position with the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. top

Paul Jacques, associate professor of nutrition and chief of the Nutritional Epidemiology Program at the HNRCA; Dr. Irwin H. Rosenberg, dean of the Friedman School; and Jacob Selhub, professor of nutrition and chief of the HNRCA's Vitamin Metabolism Laboratory, collaborated on a paper, "Total Homocysteine Lowering Treatment Among Coronary Artery Disease Patients in the Era of Folic Acid-Fortified Cereal Grain Flour," which was published in the March issue of Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. top

Ronna C. Johnson, lecturer in English and American studies, is the author of " 'You're Putting Me On': Jack Kerouac and the Postmodern Emergence" in The Beat Generation: Critical Essays (Lang, 2002), edited by Kostas Myrsiades. top

James Joseph, chief of the HNRCA's Neuroscience Laboratory, chaired a symposium on "Turning Back the Ravages of Time," and gave a talk titled "Nutrition and Brain Aging" at the Winter Conference on Brain Research in January in Snowmass, Colo. He also spoke on "Fruit Polyphenolics and Brain Aging" at the International Developmental Neuroscience Meeting held in Sydney, Australia, January 31 to February 4. top

Dr. Lawrence J. Kleine, associate professor of clinical sciences at the School of Veterinary Medicine; Dawn Geronimo Terkla, director of institutional research; and Grayson Kimball, a research analyst in institutional research, published "Outcomes Assessment at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine" in the spring 2002 issue of The Journal of Veterinary Medical Education. top

Richard M. Lerner, Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, delivered a talk, "Building Healthy Communities for Adolescents: Individual and Ecological Assets and Positive Youth Development," at the annual meeting of the Society for Adolescent Medicine March 9 in Boston. On April 4, Lerner gave a talk on "Applying Developmental Science: The Sample Case of Promoting Positive Youth Development" at the New York University Developmental Colloquium. From April 9-14, he attended the annual meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence in New Orleans, where he was a discussant on the topic "Minority Adolescents of Immigrant Families: The Importance of Context." On April 26, Lerner gave a talk on "Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Community-Based Programs: The Importance of Youth Workers" to the Somerville After School Program. On May 10, Lerner will deliver a talk, "Teen Brains: Integrating Culture, Morals and Civic Engagement," at the Learning and the Brain Conference in Cambridge, Mass. top

Alice Lichtenstein, director of the HNRCA's Cardiovascular Nutrition Research Program and the Stanley N. Gershoff Professor in Nutrition Science and Policy, has been appointed to the editorial board of the Frontiers in Nutritional Science books series. She presented a seminar titled "Soy Protein and CVD Prevention: New Insights" at Northwestern University in Chicago on March 6. top

Dr. William Lobel, assistant clinical professor of restorative dentistry, gave two presentations at the Yankee Dental Congress in Boston in February: "Achieving Excellence in Removable Prosthetic Impressions" and "Precise, Customized Complete Denture Prosthetics," a hands-on course given with Dr. Jose Camilo Segura, assistant clinical professor of restorative dentistry. top

Archana Mani, D04, earned second place in the American Association of Public Health Dentistry's Dental Student Merit Award for Outstanding Achievement in Preventive and Community Dentistry for her project "A Study of Oral Health Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Parents of Developmentally Disabled Children." The award was presented on April 29 at the association's annual meeting in Danvers, Mass. top

Natanya Maracino, D05, won a summer fellowship to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in Bethesda, Md. top

Sam Merabi, D05, has received an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship to work with special needs children at the Franciscan Children's Hospital in Brighton, Mass. top

Dr. Mohsen Meydani, director of the HNRCA's Vascular Biology Research Program, discussed "Polyphenols of Green Tea and Oats on Prevention of Angiogenesis and Atherosclerosis" and recent findings in nutrition and aging at the University of Tokushima in Tokushima, Japan, March 12-15. Meydani was invited to serve on the USDA NRI "Improving Human Nutrition for Optimal Health" grant review panel, April 8-12 in Washington, D.C. top

Dr. Simin Meydani, chief of the HNRCA's Nutritional Immunology Laboratory, has been appointed program director for the Cell and Molecular Nutrition Program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She spoke on "Vitamin E and the Immune Response" at the Oxygen Club of California World Congress in Santa Barbara on March 7. top

Richard Morse has joined the development staff at the School of Medicine as associate director of major gifts. He previously was major gifts officer at Beth Israel Deaconess. He is a graduate of UMass-Amherst and received his MBA in health care management from Boston University. He is former vice president of managed care contracting and of network development at Mariner Health Group in Framingham, Mass. He also held health care-related management positions at Tufts Associated Health Plans, Boston University Medical Center, John Hancock Financial Services, where he was responsible for hospital and physician network development and provider relations in Massachusetts, and was administrative manager of the Department of Pediatrics at NEMC's Floating Hospital for Children for a decade. His late father, Dr. William J. Morse Jr., was a 1938 graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine. top

Sanjay Nakhwa and Olga Vayena, graduate students in mechanical engineering, received outstanding teaching assistant awards from the department. Graduate student Edward Chan was named an outstanding research assistant. top

Donna Newcomb has joined the Development Division as associate director of development at the School of Dental Medicine. She has more than 30 years' experience in health care and higher education, serving as a development consultant and as vice president or director for development for several institutions, including Suffolk University, Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Hallmark Health, Tobey Davenport Co. and WBGH. She holds a psychology degree from the University of Massachusetts and is a fellow of the Association for Health Care Philanthropy and is certified by the Association for Fund-Raising Professionals. Newcomb has published articles in two fund-raising journals and was the recipient of a Special Presidential Citation from the New England Association for Hospital Development in 1984 and 1985 and the Zonta Club of Medford's Woman Achievement Award in 1995. top

Dr. Lonnie H. Norris, dean of the School of Dental Medicine, was elected vice chair of the Council of Deans at the annual meeting of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) in San Diego in March. Carol Marshall, the school's director of administration and finance, became chair-elect for the ADEA's business and financial administrators section, and Eva Heroux, director of dental development, was elected secretary of the development, alumni and public relations section. top

Matthew Rand, D03, has been awarded an unprecedented three dental research awards: The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research Summer Dental School Student Award, the Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-NIH program (HHMI-NIH). Rand was the only dental school student in the country who was interviewed for the CRTP and the HHMI-NIH awards this year. He is only the second dental school student ever to be offered the prestigious HHMI basic science award, one that for the biomedical community, is the equivalent of a Rhodes scholarship. top

Michael J. Rogan has been promoted from associate librarian to librarian at the Tisch Library. He remains the music librarian. Rogan received an M.S. in library science and an M.A. in historical musicology, both from Columbia University. He has been at Tufts since February 1999, and was formerly head of the music library at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass. He is a member-at-large on the Board of Directors of the Music Library Association. top

Dr. John Rush has been promoted from associate professor to professor of clinical sciences at the School of Veterinary Medicine. top

Dr. David Russell has been promoted to associate dean for clinical affairs at the School of Dental Medicine. top

Dr. Ernst J. Schaefer, chief of the HNRCA's Lipid Metabolism Laboratory, participated in the GRAS Panel Meeting for DHA Oil in Toronto, Canada, February 27. He discussed "Triglyceride-Rich Lipoproteins and CHD" at Boston University Medical Center's Medical Grand Rounds February 20, and spoke on the "Effects of Age, Gender, Genetics and Lifestyle on Lipid Metabolism" at the Cardiology Grand Rounds at Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center on February 22. Schaefer gave an update on lipid lowering therapies at the Metabolic and Genetic LDL-C Lowering Variability in Dietary Response meeting in Beltsville Md., on March 5, and he discussed "Mechanisms of Action of Drugs Affecting Lipid Metabolism" at the U.S.-Italy Symposium on Pathophysiology and Therapeutic Approaches for Vascular Remodeling in Atlanta on March 14-16. He participated in the Metabolic Syndrome and Atherosclerosis meeting in Lille, France, March 27-29. top

Katherine Tucker, director of the HNRCA's Dietary Assessment Research Program, spoke on "Dietary Magnesium and Bone: Epidemiologic Evidence" at the Gordon Research Conference on "Magnesium in Biochemical Processes and Medicine" February 7 in Ventura, Calif. top

Dr. Xian-Dong Wang, associate professor of nutrition and a scientist in the HNRCA's Gastrointestinal Nutrition Laboratory, was invited to present a paper at the May conference on "Functional Food: Safety Aspects" organized by the Senate Commission on Food Safety. His presentation is titled "Potential Adverse Mechanisms of Beta-Carotene Supplementation." Wang presented another paper, "Advances in Retinoid Research: Mechanisms of Cancer Chemoprevention," at a conference on experimental biology April 22 in New Orleans. top

Richard J. Wood, associate professor of nutrition and chief of the Mineral Bioavailability Laboratory at the HNRCA, will deliver a presentation on "The Role of Vitamin K in Calcification of Bone and Coronary Arteries" at the spring conference of the American College for Advancement in Medicine in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in May. The conference will explore "New Advances in Complementary Medicine." top

Dr. Henry H. Wortis, professor of pathology, has been named chairman of the department of pathology at the School of Medicine. top

Christopher Wright has joined the development office at the School of Medicine as associate director of major gifts. He moved back to Boston from New York City, where he has most recently been manager of development operations and previously manager of institutional advancement program development at the Stern School of Business at New York University. Wright was involved during NYU's Centennial Capital Campaign in prospect tracking, major gifts solicitations and corporate and alumni relations analysis. Previously, he was director of development services at the New School University in New York. He is a 1989 graduate of Bates College, and his father, Dr. Alan Wright, is a 1961 graduate of Tufts School of Dental Medicine. top

Linell Yugawa, director of the Asian American Center, gave a presentation on the center's Peer Leader Program at a pre-conference panel, "Asian Americans Revolutionizing Higher Education," at a conference of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators held in Boston in February. top