Appointments
Penn State Intercom......June
20, 2002
Health Services names clinical
director of general medicine 
Bruce Jansen has been appointed clinical director of general medicine at University Health Services, the student health service at University Park campus.
In his new leadership position, he is responsible for the supervision of a clinical staff that includes 14 clinicians and 14 nurses. He will oversee the daily operations and quality improvement initiatives of the General Medicine and Urgent Care departments.
Jansen joined the University in 1998 as a University physician and was named interim clinical director of General Medicine in November 2001. Since 1999 he also has provided clinical supervision of medical residents in his role as an associate clinical professor of medicine in the College of Medicine at Hershey Medical Center.
A graduate of Boston College, Jansen earned his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and served an internship and residency in family practice at St. Margaret Memorial Hospital in Pittsburgh. Jansen was in private practice in Pittsburgh from 1992 to 1998. He is board-certified by the American Board of Family Practice.
Associate director appointed
to Transportation Institute
Lily Elefteriadou, associate professor of civil engineering and a transportation research associate, has been named associate director of the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, effective July 1. Her responsibilities will include managing educational programs, information technology and library/publications for the institute
Elefteriadou, a Fulbright Scholar, recently returned from the Technical University of Delft in The Netherlands. She studied the traffic operational analysis methods developed and used in the Netherlands as well as other European countries. She plans to compare her studies abroad with work conducted to improve traffic conditions in the United States.
Elefteriadou teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in traffic operations and traffic flow theory. She joined the civil and environmental engineering faculty in 1994, and she has more than 10 years of experience as a transportation researcher directing a wide variety of projects.
Elefteriadou received her graduate diploma in surveying and environmental engineering from the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. She obtained her master of science degree in civil engineering at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., and her doctorate in transportation and planning at the Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Moses named Ferree professor
in middle-American history
Wilson Moses, professor of history, has been named the Ferree professor in middle-American history in the College of the Liberal Arts.
The Ferree professorship was endowed to recognize professors who illustrate outstanding scholarship, drive and teaching ability.
Moses is the author of five books and editor of three books on leading African-American intellectuals such as W.E.B. DuBois, Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. Currently, he is examining other American intellectuals such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.
The Ferree professorship was endowed by the late Walter and Helen Ferree, both University alumni. Walter Ferree, who had a fascination with Martin Van Buren and collected the former president's papers, had taught American history as a faculty member at Penn State Abington and was later named professor emeritus of history.
Manager of research and
administrative services named
The School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) has named Betzy A. Wilson the manager of research and administrative services.
In her new role, Wilson will oversee IST's efforts to obtain grants for faculty research and other key programs. Her duties will range from notifying researchers of potential funding opportunities to the preparation of proposals to assuring that ongoing projects are in compliance with grant regulations and procedures. Wilson will report to David Hall, associate dean for research and graduate programs.
She joins IST after having served with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering for 21 years as administrative assistant.
Wilson has been active in numerous committees within the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and a member of the University Planning Committee for Expo 2002, Center for Quality and Planning.
Risley appointed head
of Department of Journalism 
Ford Risley, associate professor of communications in the College of Communications, has been named head of the Department of Journalism, effective July 1. Risley succeeds Robert Richards, associate dean for undergraduate education, who served as interim head of the department for the past three years.
A member of the department since 1995, Risley earned his doctoral degree at the University of Florida, his master's degree at the University of Georgia and his bachelor's degree at Auburn University. Before teaching, he spent nine years as a reporter at several newspapers, including the Florida Times-Union and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His free-lance work has appeared in the Dallas Morning News and The New York Times.
Risley's teaching specialties include mass media history, reporting methods and online media. Earlier this year, he earned the Alumni Society Board of Directors Excellence in Teaching Award. His research focuses on the 19th-century American press, particularly newspapers during the antebellum and Civil War periods. He is completing a book on newspaper editorials during the Civil War to be published by Greenwood Press.
New head named in
the Department of Kinesiology
Philip E. Martin, professor and chair of the Department of Exercise Science and Physical Education at Arizona State University, has been appointed head of the Department of Kinesiology in the College of Health and Human Development, effective July 1.
Being appointed department head is a homecoming for Martin, who received his doctorate in biomechanics from Penn State in 1983. He also was a visiting professor in the College of Health and Human Development Biomechanics Laboratory in 1988 and received the College's Emerging Professional Award in 1989.
Martin has held various administrative positions in the Department of Exercise Science and Physical Education during his 19-year career at Arizona State.
Martin's research focuses primarily on the mechanics and energetics of locomotion tasks. He is the author of more than 50 scientific journal articles and with his colleagues has presented research findings at more than 150 conferences and meetings throughout the world.
As department head, Martin will be responsible for overseeing the daily activities of a department with nearly 30 tenure or tenure-track faculty and more than 500 undergraduate and 65 graduate students. The department has three affiliated interdisciplinary research centers: The Center for Locomotion Studies, the Noll Physiological Research Center and the General Clinical Research Center.
Smeal MBA Program
announces new assistant dean
F. Robert Wheeler III has accepted the position of assistant dean and director of the MBA Program in The Smeal College of Business.
He will assume this new role on or about July 15. Wheeler is currently the assistant dean and director of admissions at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, a position he has held for the past three years.
The Smeal MBA Program is a full-time residential program at University Park. In addition, there is a 22-week Executive MBA Program that is taught by the same faculty who teach in the full-time program.
Wheeler holds an MBA from Georgetown and a J.D. degree from Syracuse University's College of Law. Before joining the Georgetown MBA program, he served as the administrator for three Washington, D.C., law firms and as a securities and corporate attorney.
Soil microbiologist named
head of Crop and Soil Sciences
David Sylvia, professor of soil microbiology at the University of Florida, has been appointed head of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences in the College of Agricultural Sciences, effective June 21.
Sylvia has been professor in the University of Florida's soil and water science department since 1993. He served as administrative intern for academic programs in the university's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences from 1996 through 1997 and was a visiting research fellow at the Biological Laboratory of the University of Kent at Canterbury, United Kingdom, in 1993. He was associate professor at the University of Florida from 1989 to 1993, assistant professor at the university from 1984 to 1989 and research associate there from 1981 to 1984.
Sylvia's research examines the microbial ecology of the rhizosphere -- particularly mycorrhizal fungi -- with the goal of incorporating mycorrhizal technology into sustainable agriculture practice. He has edited three books, contributed chapters for 16 others, authored 57 refereed papers and abstracts and delivered invited lectures at numerous state, national and international research symposia.
Sylvia received his bachelor's degree in forestry from the University of Massachusetts in 1975 and a master's degree in plant pathology from the same institution in 1977. He earned his doctorate in plant pathology from Cornell University in 1981.