Work/Family Seminar Series
begins with talk on policies

The Penn State Work/Family Seminar Series begins Friday, Sept. 22, with a presentation by Susan Eaton on "If You Can Use Them: Work/Family Policies and Work Outcomes." Eaton will speak from noon to 1 p.m. in 102 Weaver Building on the University Park campus, with a brown bag lunch from 11:30 a.m. to noon.

Eaton, assistant professor of public policy, completed her Ph.D. in industrial relations and organization studies at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. Her research interests include work organization and human resource management, healthcare management and quality issues, work-family practices and policy, gender theory and organizational learning.

Eaton worked 12 years as a union organizer, negotiator, trainer and top-level manager for the Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO and CLC. She is an editor of the Civic Practices Network.

The other talk in the series will be led by Ellen Ernst Kossek, professor of human resource management and organizational behavior at Michigan State University's Graduate School of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Kossek will discuss "Caregiving Decisions, Well-Being and Performance: The Effects of Place and Provider as a Function of Dependent Type and Work-Family Climates," from noon to 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, in 102 Weaver Building on the University Park campus, with a brown bag lunch from 11:30 a.m. to noon.

The series is sponsored by the Department of Labor Studies and Industrial Relations, the College of the Liberal Arts and the Department of Human Development and Family Studies.

For more information, check the Web at http://www.la.psu.edu/lsir/workfam/, call Robert Drago at (814) 865-0751 or e-mail Drago@psu.edu.

Neurological disorders
topic of Sept. 12 life
sciences colloquium

Dr. Ronald McKay, chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the Basic Neuroscience Program of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health (NIH), will speak on "From Stem Cells to Synapses in the Brain" in the Life Sciences Consortium's Sept. 12 Colloquium.

The colloquium will be videoconferenced from Lecture Room D at the Hershey Medical Center to 108 Wartik Laboratory, University Park, at
4:15 p.m.

Before his position at NIH, McKay was at MIT, Oxford University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. for work in nucleic acid chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. His recent work has focused on the stem cells of the central nervous system.

In a 1988 paper, McKay provided the first clear proof that neuronal precursors could be identified. These studies have generated a series of important insights into the properties of stem cells in the developing and adult nervous system. They challenge the textbook view that the differences between brain regions are irreversibly imprinted on cells.

Stem cell biology is currently a major research area in neuroscience. McKay has consistently brought new methods and concepts to this field.

Mars exploration chief to speak at Erie

Engineer and educator Donna Shirley will discuss her experiences as manager of the Mars Exploration Program at a presentation at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13, in the Reed Union Building Commons at Penn State Erie. Her presentation is the first in the 2000-2001 "American Dream in the New Millennium" Speaker Series at the campus.

Shirley has an M.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California, a B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Oklahoma and a B.A. in journalism, also from the University of Oklahoma.

She has 30 years of experience in aerospace and civil systems, including 20 years in management. Shirley served as the manager of the Mars Exploration Program and leader of the team that built the Sojourner Rover, and recently completed her autobiography about the experiences.

All speaker series presentations are free to the public. For more information, call (814) 898-6000.

Talk to help guide
success of initiatives

Anna Griswold, assistant vice provost, Division of Enrollment Management and Administration, will lead a Quality Advocates' Network discussion on how administrators can help ensure the success of improvement initiatives in their units. The discussion will take place from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 15, in 404 Old Main on the University Park campus.

Griswold has served as both a team sponsor and team leader, and sponsors continuous improvement initiatives in the Office of Student Aid. Effective team sponsorship is one of the most critical factors supporting the successful outcome of an improvement initiative. Team sponsors typically work to initiate the improvement of a process, support the team, implement the team's solutions and recognize the team's accomplishments.

To participate in the Sept. 15 meeting, register by Monday, Sept. 11, by calling the Center for Quality and Planning at (814) 863-8721 or sending e-mail to psucqp@psu.edu.

The Quality Advocates' Network is an informal, bi-monthly gathering of those interested in improvement and change, providing an opportunity to exchange information and experiences. To participate via PicTel, call or e-mail the Center for Quality and Planning.

Textual scholar to kick off new series

David C. Greetham, distinguished professor of English and interdisciplinary studies at the City University of New York Graduate School, will give a lecture on electronic textuality at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14, in the Lawrence G. and Ellen Foster Auditorium in Pattee Library on the University Park campus.

His talk, based on his paper "Genderblending, Metalising, Talkboxing, Timewarping and Other Electronic Identity Crises," kicks off a new series devoted to issues in electronic textuality co-sponsored by the University Libraries and the Department of English.

Greetham is founder of the Society for Textual Scholarship and a former editor of TEXT: An Interdisciplinary Annual of Textual Studies. He also is the author of Textual Scholarship: An Introduction, Textual Transgressions: Essays Toward the Construction of a Bibliography and Theories of the Text.

The lecture is free to the public. For more information, call Robin Schulze at (814) 865-9932 or e-mail rgs3@psu.edu.

Inaugural Rio Preisner
lecture to be Sept. 18

As part of the annual Delta Phi Alpha national German Student Honors Society initiation ceremony, Peter Demetz, Sterling Professor emeritus, Yale University, will deliver the first Rio Preisner Lecture at 4 p.m. Sept. 18 in The Nittany Lion Inn Alumni Fireside Lounge on the University Park
campus.

The lecture, which is honoring Rio Preisner, former Fellow of the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies and professor emeritus of German, will focus on "Prague and Its Poets" and is open to the public.

For more information, call Gerhard F. Strasser at (814) 865-5481 or e-mail gfs1@psu.edu.