Shirley Watkins, undersecretary for the United States Department of Agriculture's Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, will deliver the keynote presentation at the 1999 Penn State Food Service Leadership Institute at 6:30 p.m., July 12, in Keller Auditorium, University Park. The 1999 Penn State Food Service Leadership Institute Conference is set for July 12-15.
Watkins also is the Penn State Walter J. Conti professor in the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Recreation Management.
As undersecretary for USDA's Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services (FNCS), Watkins has authority over the Food and Nutrition Service and the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. She oversees a budget of more than $40 billion for the USDA's food assistance programs, including the Food Stamp Program, the National School Meals Programs and the Women, Infants and Children Program (WIC).
Watkins is the first African American to be named FNCS undersecretary. She was nominated for the position by President Clinton.
Before this appointment, she was deputy assistant secretary for marketing and regulatory programs, where she oversaw 80 domestic programs and 8,000 domestic and international employees charged with protecting U.S. agricultural interests. From 1993 to 1995, she served as the FNCS deputy undersecretary.
For more information, call Fred DeMicco at (814) 863-4847 or send e-mail to FDeMicco@psu.edu
David Morrell, author of First Blood, the book that inspired three "Rambo" movies starring Sylvester Stallone, will be the keynote speaker of "Trade Secrets: A Conference for Popular Writing," on June 25-27 on the University Park campus.
A Penn State alumnus, Morrell will discuss "Why Do I Want to Be a Writer: Fiction Writing as Self-Psychoanalysis," Saturday, June 26, at 8:30 p.m. at The Nittany Lion Inn. His keynote address is free.
Morrell is the author of numerous best-selling novels and award-winning novellas. Morrell's best-selling novels include The Brotherhood of the Rose, The Fraternity of the Stone, The League of Night, The Covenant of the Flame and, most recently, Double Image.
The conference is an opportunity for aspiring writers to meet successful, best-selling authors who will discuss how to set a scene, invent exiting plots and establish believable characters. This year's speakers include Bernard Asbell (nonfiction), Martha Freeman (children's literature), Charles Hackenberry (Westerns), May McGoldrick (historical fiction and romance) and James Morrow (science fiction). Literary agent Regina Ryan also will be on hand.
For more information on the conference, call Roberta Moore at (814) 865-5466 or e-mail ACE@cde.psu.edu.
The conference Web site is http://www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/ TradeSecrets/.
The Innovations in Honors Education conference, to be held from June 24-26 at The Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus, is designed to initiate a national dialogue about honors education among leaders and eminent change agents in research universities.
John Brighton, executive vice president and provost and the conference plenary speaker, will address "The New Institutional Role of the Honors College." Keynote speakers include Joseph Novak, the author of Learn How to Learn and Learning, Creating and Using Knowledge and professor emeritus at Cornell University; Robert Zemsky, the founding director of the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Research on Higher Education and a senior editor of Policy Perspectives; and Peter Ewell, a consultant, author and senior associate at the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. Panel reactions and roundtable discussions will follow each address.
More information about the conference is available at: http:// www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/IHE/, http://www.scholars.psu.edu/and http://www.inov8.psu.edu/.
Business opportunities, housing development and economic issues will all be topics of "The Changing Face of Russia," a seminar to be held Friday, June 18, from 9 a.m. to noon in 101 Kern Graduate Building on the University Park campus.
The event is free, but anyone planning to attend is asked to register in advance by contacting Gina Giacomantonio in The Smeal College's International Programs Office at (814) 863-5737 or e-mail gmg12@psu.edu.