Appointments
Penn State Intercom......October
3, 2002
Mitchell joins Great Valley
to lead education division 
Arlene Harris Mitchell recently was hired as head of the education division at Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies. As a member of the senior academic leadership team at Great Valley, Mitchell has been reporting to Campus Executive Officer William Milheim on academic, administrative and budgetary issues since starting the job in July.
Before then, Mitchell had most recently served as associate dean for academic affairs and associate professor of literacy and secondary language arts in the College of Education at University of Cincinnati, but she is no stranger to the Philadelphia area. She did her undergraduate work in English at West Chester University, and earned her master's and doctorate degrees at Temple and Penn State, respectively, in the areas of English and literacy education and curriculum. She also taught courses at Penn State Delaware County as a part-time adjunct instructor during the mid-1980s, and was head of the English department at Marple-Newtown High School in Delaware County.
In addition to her teaching, Mitchell has earned several awards for poetry, including an International Poet of Merit Award from the International Society of Poets, and the Editor's Choice Award for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry from the National Library of Poetry, both in 2001. She also has had dozens of articles and book chapters published, many of which deal with topics such as poetry, literacy, children's and young adult literature and multicultural education.
Mitchell said her immediate goals include creating comprehensive programs for adult career changers looking to become teachers -- especially in the areas of science and math -- and developing additional graduate offerings for teachers in urban and surrounding areas with changing demographics.
Wilkes-Barre appoints
director of Academic Affairs
Martin W. Slann has been appointed director of academic affairs at Penn State Wilkes-Barre.
In this role, Slann will represent the interests of academic affairs and the faculty at Penn State Wilkes-Barre. Included in his responsibilities are academic affairs management; faculty recruitment, assessment and development; and general administration of the academic affairs operation of the campus.
Slann previously chaired the Department of Political Science at Clemson University in South Carolina, where he was a three-time recipient of the Board of Trustees Award for Faculty Excellence. He earned his bachelor's degree in history at the University of Miami; his master's degree in political science from the University of Connecticut; and his doctorate in political science at the University of Georgia.
An expert on terrorism, Slann has authored and co-authored numerous articles and books on that subject. His textbook supplement, "The September 11 Attack on America and Its Aftermath," will appear in the introductory section of all upcoming American government and political textbooks published by Houghton Mifflin.
Repke to chair obstetrics,
gynecology at Hershey
John Repke will assume the role of chair of obstetrics and gynecology Nov. 1 at Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and the College of Medicine.
Repke comes to Hershey from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha where he has served as chair of obstetrics and gynecology since 1998 and medical director of the department's Maternal Care Program. Before that, Repke was associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Harvard Medical School from 1992-98 and was on the faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 1982-92.
Repke will helm a department that delivers approximately 1,300 babies each year and handles 34,000 outpatient visits annually. His plan is to increase deliveries to approximately 2,000 per year over the next two years.
Among Repke's other objectives as chair will be the expansion of subspecialty services in gynecologic oncology, maternal-fetal medicine and reproductive endocrinology to better serve referring physicians and their patients; and the expansion of general obstetrics and gynecology services.
Repke also will work to build on established research programs in reproductive endocrinology and oncology and create a basic science research program in maternal-fetal medicine that centers on increased collaboration with clinicians in OB/GYN.
On the medical education front, one of Repke's objectives will be to restructure the medical student and resident training program with the ultimate goal of making it one of the best in the nation. To accomplish this goal, Repke will focus on enhanced collaboration between the other clinical and basic science departments within the medical center and with the medical center's various community hospital training partners.
Repke is a graduate of Georgetown University and New York Medical College. His post-doctoral training included six years as an intern, assistant resident, resident of gynecology and obstetrics and maternal-fetal medicine fellow at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.