CURRENTS

Bruce Jacobs to lead national grad school organization

Bruce Jacobs, vice provost and dean of graduate studies, has been elected vice president/president-elect of the Association of Graduate Schools (AGS). He will serve two years for the association, one as vice president and one as president.

Bruce Jacobs

The association, which addresses doctoral education issues and serves as an advisory body to the Association of American Universities, is made up of graduate school deans from the 62 member universities of the AAU, a select group of public and private research universities.

In his new role, Jacobs hopes to find accurate ways to measure the quality of graduate programs. The graduate education community, he says, has reached a consensus on some measures such as faculty
appointments for graduates, but universal measures have yet to be established. “We need to know how well we are doing relative to other schools. Just as important, students considering our doctoral programs should have at least some valid data upon which to base their decisions.”

University Provost Ralph Kuncl applauds Jacobs’s leadership role in the AGS and other prestigious professional organizations. “This new post reflects Bruce’s commitment to the best in graduate education as well as the respect other foremost universities have for Rochester.”

Ashok Shah, professor of medicine in the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Unit, has been awarded a Mastership by the American College of Gastroenterology. Mastership is a rare honor conferred upon physicians who have demonstrated distinguished service to the college and to the field of clinical gastroenterology, patient care, and education. Shah was one of four honored this year and is the only recipient from western New York.

Time Cites Bird Flu Vaccine as Top Medical DevelopmentTime magazine cited the approval of a bird flu vaccine earlier this year as one of the top 10 medical developments in 2007. Key testing of the vaccine, the first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to prevent bird flu, was done at the Medical Center.

Frederick Jefferson, professor emeritus who oversees the Leadership and Organizational Development program initiative in the Warner Center for Professional Development and Education Reform, has been recognized locally for his outreach to the community. Preferred Care honored Jefferson for volunteerism that exemplifies living well, and the Charles Settlement House paid tribute to Jefferson’s work in improving settlement houses and serving other local organizations.

Valeria Sinclair-Chapman, assistant professor of political science, won the 2007 Ralph Bunche Award from the American Political Science Association along with co-authors for the book, Countervailing Forces in African American Civic Activism 1973-1994. The work presents the first longitudinal study of black civic participation in the post-civil rights era and examines how economic distress in African-American communities stifled activism.

Seven employees completed the United Way African American and Latino leadership development programs. Both programs identify, train, and place local Latinos and African Americans in policy making roles in community organizations in the Rochester area. The participants from the University are: Michelle Thompson-Taylor, Venessa Mitchell, Berlin Bermudez, Felicia Garcia, Jessica Guzman, Maricela Guzman, and Alvin Ruiz.

Rochester musician Mitzie Collins, a faculty member of the Eastman Community Music School, has been named the recipient of the 2007 Artist Award for Music by the Arts and Culture Council for Greater Rochester. A performer of Celtic and traditional American folk music, Collins is known as a virtuoso player of the hammered dulcimer.

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