July People Notes

Julian Agyeman has been awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor of urban and environmental policy and planning by the Tufts Board of Trustees.

Dan Allenby has joined the Advancement Division as director of annual giving strategy and operations. He comes to Tufts from Boston College, where he oversaw all operations and marketing programs for the BC annual fund. Before moving to Boston, Allenby lived in Washington, D.C., where he worked as director of marketing during Georgetown University’s recent $1 billion campaign. He has also held marketing positions at National Geographic and American University. Allenby will be working with the Tufts Fund staffs in each of the schools to continually improve annual giving results. He will oversee the telefund operation and an expanded direct-mail capacity and will focus on growing donors, retention, fulfillment, matching gifts, average gift amount and total dollars within the annual fund.

Brooke Anderson has joined the Advancement Division as an associate director of gift planning. Anderson worked in development at the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston for nearly seven years. During the first several years, she worked with both major and planned gifts for the organization, including its library and The Christian Science Monitor. During the past couple of years, she served as a planned giving officer there. She received her B.A. in international politics and economics from Middlebury College. At Tufts, Anderson will work with the School of Engineering, the Fletcher School, the Friedman School, Hillel, interdisciplinary programs and the Parents Program.

Joseph Auner has been awarded tenure and promoted to professor of music by the Tufts Board of Trustees.

Leila Bhatti has joined the Advancement Division as assistant director of donor relations. She comes to Tufts with a great mix of fund-raising and stewardship experience from her work with the Center for Women & Enterprise (CWE) and the Boston Foundation. Most recently at CWE, a nonprofit dedicated to helping women start and grow businesses, Bhatti managed the corporate and foundation giving program.

Michelle Bowdler, director of health services, has been promoted to senior director of health and wellness services. In her expanded role, Bowdler will have administrative oversight for all health and wellness services on the Medford/Somerville campus, including an expanded role for health education and for services for students with disabilities.

Maryann Boyle has joined the Advancement Division as assistant director of corporate and foundation relations. She comes to Tufts from Children’s Hospital in Boston, where she was the stewardship officer, responsible for reporting to the hospital’s major gifts donors on the research programs conducted and the patient care provided as a result of their support. Prior to Children’s, Boyle was with the National MS Society, coordinating the volunteers needed for the organization’s fund-raising events. She has written for The Boston Globe as well as a number of local newspapers, and her freelance writing career also included working with small businesses on promoting themselves in print and online. She holds an MBA in marketing from the University of Connecticut. At Tufts, Boyle’s efforts will focus on programs and activities in the health sciences schools.

Dr. Donald Brown, a faculty member in cardiology at the Cummings School, has been promoted to associate professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences.

Torre Bydlon, who received her undergraduate degree in electrical engineering in May, and the Tufts NERD Girls won the “best alternative vehicle” award for their solar car at the “Alt Wheels” Festival at the Larz Anderson Museum of Transportation in Brookline this year. The NERD Girls continue to break stereotypes and set an example for young girls to pursue technical careers. Bydlon will be pursing graduate studies at Duke University this fall.

Dr. Hubert I. Caplan, M55, has been promoted to clinical professor of medicine at Tufts and has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Caplan has a solo practice in internal medicine and rheumatology at Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Mike Carolan, E06; Michelle Priante, E04; and Kari Jacobsen, E08, all mechanical engineering students, participated in a U.S. Department of Transportation train crash test in Colorado. The test was observed by U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and made national news for its demonstration of breakthroughs in safe train design. Key technical roles were played by mechanical engineering alumnus Dave Tyrell, E82, and Benjamin Perlman, professor of mechanical engineering.

Andrew Clark, lecturer in music and director of choral activities at Tufts, was named the permanent music director of the 120-member Worcester Chorus as of July 1. As a guest conductor, he led the Worcester Chorus in its annual performance of Handel’s “Messiah” at Mechanics Hall last December. He succeeds Gerald Mack, who served as music director and conductor from 1977 until retiring at the end of the 2004-05 season. Clark is also artistic director-designate of the Providence Singers in Providence, R.I.

John Dulac, E06, and Maura Allaire, A06, are the recipients of Fulbright Scholarships. Dulac, who received his degree in environmental engineering in May, will be a Fulbright teaching assistant in France. Allaire, a geology and economics major who worked under the direction of Andrew Ramsburg and Rich Vogel in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will work in Ghana next year.

Ioannis D. Evrigenis, assistant professor of political science, delivered a lecture titled “The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend: Negative Association and Reason of State” at the London School of Economics’ Political Philosophy Colloquium on May 2.

Sergio Fantini, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, has been promoted to full professor by the university’s Board of Trustees.

Catherine Freudenreich has been awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor of biology by the university’s Board of Trustees.

Ethan Heller, a senior mechanical engineering major, and Kyle Bradbury, a senior electrical engineering major, have been named Tau Beta Pi Scholars.

Hosea Hirata, an associate professor in the Department of German, Russian and Asian Languages and Literatures, has been promoted to full professor by the Tufts Board of Trustees.

Emma-Kate Kallevik has joined the Office of the Dean of Arts & Sciences as administrative assistant to Dean Robert Sternberg. She comes to Tufts from the events office of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Roni Khardon has been awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor of computer science by the Tufts Board of Trustees.

Dr. Carl Kirker-Head, associate professor of clinical sciences at the Cummings School, appeared on Channel 2’s “Greater Boston” to discuss the injury and treatment of the racehorse Barbaro, which broke down during the Preakness Stakes in May. He was also interviewed about Barbaro for an article in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette.

George McNinch has been awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor of mathematics by the university’s Board of Trustees.

Lionel McPherson has been awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor of philosophy by the Tufts Board of Trustees.

Jocelyn Muller, a Ph.D. student in biology, has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship for her project, “Preserving Knowledge and Biodiversity Using Zarma Ethnoecology.” She also has been awarded research funds through Annie’s Home Grown Environmental Scholarship. Her advisor is Astier M. Almedom, the Henry R. Luce Professor in Science and Humanitarianism.

Anura Patil, E06, and the Chemical Car Team of the chemical and biological engineering department won the regional competition at RPI this spring. Their successors, who will begin their senior year in the fall, will participate in the national competition in San Francisco in November.

Dr. Jeffrey Riley, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, has been named chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass., effective July 1. He attended medical school at Albany Medical College of Union University and completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Oregon Health Science Center in Portland. Prior to his appointment at Emerson Hospital, Riley served as vice chairman of ob/gyn at Tufts-New England Medical Center. He is also director of Pilgrim Shores Obstetrics and Gynecology at Jordan Hospital.

Dr. Barbara A.P. Rockett, M57, M90P, M93P, J96P, G98P, a Brookline, Mass., surgeon has been honored by her peers as the 2006 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Medical Society, the statewide organization of physicians. Rockett was the first woman elected president of the society and the only physician to serve two consecutive terms as president (1985 to 1987). She has chaired the committees on Judicial Affairs and Professional Liability. Rockett is also a director of the American Medical Association Foundation. Trained as a general surgeon at Boston City Hospital and the Boston Veterans Administration Hospital, she served as a Tufts trustee from 1988 to 2002 and is a member of the Board of Overseers to the School of Medicine. She is a past president of the Tufts Medical Alumni Association. She and her husband, Dr. Francis X. Rockett, A53, have five children. Sons William Rockett, M90, and Sean Rockett, M93, are graduates of the School of Medicine. Sean Rockett is an assistant clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at Tufts.

Dr. James N. Ross Jr., a faculty member at the Cummings School for 24, has been named Distinguished Professor of Clinical Sciences Emeritus.

Julie Ross has joined the university as the director of mental health services. She formerly worked at McLean Hospital and at the Counseling Center at Tufts before becoming the director for counseling services at Wheelock College. She has a B.A. in psychology from the University of California at Irvine and a Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University. The Counseling Center staff has combined with the Health Services staff who provide psychiatric services on the Medford/Somerville campus to become one mental health staff under Ross.

Kim Ruane has been awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor of mathematics by the university’s Board of Trustees.

Jonathan Slavin stepped down as director of Tufts’ Counseling Center at the end of June to devote more time to his private practice in Newton, Mass. He had directed the Counseling Center since 1971 and also has served as an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Tufts School of Medicine.

Dawn Geronimo Terkla, executive director of Institutional Research; Heather Roscoe, assistant director of Institutional Research; and Jessica Sharkness, a research analyst in Institutional Research, presented a paper, “Keep One Eye on the Dashboard,” at the 46th annual Association for Institutional Research forum May 16 in Chicago. At the annual awards luncheon, Terkla received the Outstanding Service Award, which recognizes “members or former members who have made an extraordinary and sustained contribution to the Association for Institutional Research (AIR).” Peggye Cohen, assistant vice president for institutional research at George Washington University, said of Terkla, “It would be difficult to find anyone who’s spent more time working with and for the IR community. In the last 20 years, there have been few, if any, AIR forums or New England AIR meetings that didn’t have Dawn Terkla on the program. Moreover, she usually makes presentations with her staff, providing them with learning opportunities. One can see the results of Dawn’s mentoring in schools throughout the Northeast. If we did a study of office origins of IR directors, Tufts would probably head the list.”

Dr. Nancy Thompson, V95, clinical assistant professor of biomedical sciences at the Cummings School, received the first Alpha Psi Faculty Award presented by the Tufts chapter of the national veterinary fraternity. She was honored for going above and beyond the call of the job of teaching and inspiring her veterinary students.

Dr. Paul F. Vinger, clinical professor of ophthalmology at the School of Medicine, received USA Hockey’s Excellence in Safety Award during the organization’s 2006 annual Congress June 7-11 in Colorado Springs, Colo. The annual meeting is an opportunity for USA Hockey’s committees, districts and employees to come together for a series of forums, workshops and award ceremonies intended to improve the organization while honoring those who have contributed so much to its success. Vinger, an adult ophthalmologist at Lexington Eye Associates Inc., is an advisor to the Safety and Protective Equipment Committee of USA Hockey, the national governing body for the sport of ice hockey in the United States.

Arthur Winston, director of the Gordon Institute at Tufts, was an invited keynote speaker for the fifth annual conference of the MIT Economic and Talent Forum on April 15 at the Sloan School of Management. The conference, “Entrepreneurship & Diaspora: Individual Role and Social Progress,” addressed global economic, technological and social development trends and the opportunities and challenges they bring to people interested in the Asia-Pacific area. Winston’s keynote address, “Developing Global Technical Leaders,” focused on the critical skills needed by global leaders in this rapidly growing and influential area of the world.