Appointments
Penn State Intercom......January 30, 2003

Shenango hires director
of Continuing Education

Penn State Shenango recently hired Kathleen L. Cowles as the campus' director of Continuing Education.

In her new position, she will be responsible for the implementation, administration and operation of a variety of continuing education and outreach programs at the Shenango campus.

Before joining the Shenango campus, Cowles held the position of director of planning and development for Pittsburgh Action Against Rape. As senior development officer to one of the nation's largest rape crisis centers, she designed and successfully executed an annual development plan of more than $2 million.

Before being promoted to director, Cowles held the position of education and training department coordinator at the rape center. In this position, she directed the development and implementation of education and training programs for schools, hospitals, human service agencies, community groups and other community-based settings.

Previously, as supervisor for a City of Pittsburgh Parks and Recreation Office, Cowles worked with a variety of businesses, nonprofit organizations and neighborhood groups to produce educational programs in the communities.

Cowles graduated with a bachelor of science degree in environmental education (public communications) from Michigan State University with highest honor in 1980. She went on to receive her master of arts degree in adult and community education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, graduating summa cum laude in 1995.

Jensen named director of the
Population Research Institute

Leif Jensen, professor of rural sociology and demography, has been appointed to serve as the director of the Population Research Institute.

Jensen received his doctoral degree in sociology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and joined the Penn State faculty in 1989. His funded research has focused on such issues as the circumstances of immigrants and their children, underemployment in rural and urban areas, the economic coping strategies of the rural poor, and children's work and schooling in Latin America.

Jensen also has played a key role in graduate training for the institute's dual-title doctoral degree program in demography and has taught many of the institute's demography students about poverty in the United States, the sociology of development and the problems of children and youth in developing countries.

Jensen is editor of the Rural Studies Series published by Penn State Press. In 1997, Jensen was a Fulbright Scholar with the Comparative Research Programme on Poverty located at the University of Bergen, Norway.

Assistant director of programs
named at Worthington Scranton

Leon S. John Jr. has been appointed to the position of assistant director of programs, unions and student activities at Penn State Worthington Scranton.

John will be responsible for co-curricular and cultural programming, student government and club activities, and leadership and adult student development. The position also includes coordination of orientation programs and special events.

Before his appointment, John served as an admissions counselor at Marywood University. He was employed as a resident assistant at Marywood University and teleservice representative with Fleet Bank and also served as an intern in the advertising and sales department at the Scranton Times/Tribune.

John is currently pursuing a master's degree in communication arts from Marywood University. He holds a bachelor's degree in communication arts with a specialization in advertising and public relations from Marywood University.

Penn State Berks
welcomes new staff members

Penn State Berks has announced the appointment of several staff members:

* Cynthia Johnston has been hired as transfer admissions counselor. Johnston earned her bachelor of arts degree in criminology with a minor in Spanish and her master's degree in counselor education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is certified in Pennsylvania as a secondary school guidance counselor. Before accepting this position, she was the ETOP academic/career counselor at Agere Systems via a grant through Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley.

* Mark Groff is the newest member of the Police Services staff. He is a graduate of the Reading Police Academy and has completed all state-mandated training. He received an associate degree in business from Penn State Berks and holds a bachelor's degree in public administration from Penn State Harrisburg.

* Blandine Mballa-Fonkeu has joined the staff as statistical analyst in the Institutional Research and Assessment Department. Her responsibilities include data warehouse requests, database management and statistical analysis of research projects. She earned a master of science degree in mathematics/statistics at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. While she has acquired most of her work-related experience overseas, her most recent employment was with Adecco Agency in Edison, N.J.

Worthington Scranton hires
director of enrollment management

Penn State Worthington Scranton announces the appointment of Anne Farmer Meservey to the position of director of enrollment management.

Meservey will be responsible for developing, coordinating, directing and implementing campus enrollment management activities. The position includes student recruitment and market analysis, admissions, and counseling.

Meservey holds a master's degree in philosophy from Columbia University. She earned a master of arts from Rutgers University and a bachelor of arts from Barnard College/Columbia University.

Before her appointment, she served as assistant vice president for student recruitment and outreach at the San Francisco Art Institute, where she managed recruitment, admissions, testing, placement, registration and international student services. She also has held positions including director of enrollment management at La Guardia Community College/City University of New York; executive director for enrollment services at Avila College, Missouri; and director of admissions at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, New Jersey. Meservey also has been employed as a bilingual Italian/English teacher in East Boston, Mass., and corporate program developer and free-lance public relations liaison/interpreter, writer in Rome.

Yale professor selected
to head School of Nursing

Paula Milone-Nuzzo, professor and associate dean for academic affairs for the Yale University School of Nursing, has been named associate dean of the College of Health and Human Development and director of the School of Nursing effective Oct. 1.

Milone-Nuzzo, a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and of Hospice and Home Care, has been a member of the Yale faculty since 1989. During her tenure, she has served as director or chair of several programs within the School of Nursing. She became chair of the master's program in 1998 and was named associate dean for academic affairs in 1999.

Milone-Nuzzo's professional and research interests include home-health care, exercise and health promotion, emergency room recidivism in the elderly and work-force issues.

Milone-Nuzzo graduated magna cum laude from Boston College with a bachelor's degree in nursing and earned her master's degree in community health nursing from the University of Connecticut. She also earned a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Connecticut and has completed postdoctoral studies with the Hartford Institute Seminar on Gerontological Research.

Faculty member named
distinguished professor

An internationally known faculty member from the College of Communications has been recognized with the academic title of distinguished professor.

Jorge Reina Schement, distinguished professor of communications and co-director of the Institute for Information Policy, who also holds a courtesy appointment in the School of Information Sciences and Technology, was recognized by the Office of the President because of his exceptional accomplishments in the areas of teaching, research and service.

A member of the faculty since 1996, Schement teaches telecommunications and information policy. His research interests focus on the social and policy consequences of the production and consumption of information, especially as they relate to ethnic minorities.

Schement is editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Communication and Information (2002, MacMillan Reference USA), a three-volume compilation that offers comprehensive historical content and up-to-date coverage of the evolving field of communication and information. He has published more than 90 journal articles and has many book credits.

A former associate dean in the college, Schement has received numerous awards for his policy scholarship and has served on many advisory and steering committees.

Before his arrival at Penn State, Schement served as a faculty member at Rutgers University, the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Southern California. Schement began his academic career at the University of Texas in 1976, and was tenured in 1979.

Schement earned his doctoral degree in communications from Stanford University in 1976 and his master's degree in marketing from the University of Illinois in 1972. He earned his bachelor's degree in management from Southern Methodist University in 1970.

2 named to new roles
in the College of Medicine

Luanne E. Thorndyke and Tracy Allgier-Baker have been named leaders in the Office of Continuing Education and Outreach in the College of Medicine.

Thorndyke, formerly assistant dean for continuing medical education, has been named associate dean for professional development. Allgier-Baker has been named director of continuing education and outreach.

In her new role, Thorndyke assumes responsibility for a subset of activities including faculty development, mentorship, postdoctoral fellow/scholar development, targeted study and sabbatical leave for medical center faculty members, faculty awards and honors, and the educator's portfolio. Thorndyke also is responsible for the area of Faculty Public Service and Outreach in the College of Medicine.

Thorndyke attended the University of Nebraska College of Medicine and completed her internal medicine internship and residency in Philadelphia. She joined the faculty of the College of Medicine in 1993 as assistant professor of medicine and director of Hershey Internal Medical Associates, the first off-site internal medicine practice. In 1996, she was named assistant dean of continuing medical education.

As director of the Office of Continuing Education and Outreach, Allgier-Baker's responsibilities include management and supervision of the office, budgetary and fiscal management, new program initiation and implementation, and accreditation compliance.

Allgier-Baker joined the College of Medicine in 1984 as publications coordinator in continuing education. She moved up the ranks as supervisor of publications and information services, and most recently as the interim director. She is a 1979 graduate of Lebanon Valley College.

Vannice appointed to
chair in chemical engineering

M. Albert Vannice, professor of chemical engineering, is the first recipient of the William H. Joyce chair in chemical engineering.

Vannice received his doctoral degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University in 1970 and joined the chemical engineering faculty in 1976 following five years with Exxon's Corporate Research Laboratories.

He has been a leader in the field of catalysis for more than two decades. His initial study of carbon monoxide hydrogenation over Group VIII metals to produce fuels from natural gas and coal, performed during his tenure at Exxon, resulted in the first quantification of specific activities for this reaction.

At Penn State, he subsequently determined that interactions between the metal and the support surface can significantly influence catalytic behavior. Vannice's discovery of this metal-support interaction behavior allowed him to demonstrate that both activity and product selectivity could be enhanced to improve catalyst systems.

His current work involves designing and investigating new catalytic systems; studying the effect of metal-support interactions on these catalysts; and developing and applying new techniques to characterize supported metal catalysts. Of particular note are his environmental catalysis investigations, which have focused on decreasing nitrogen oxides emissions from combustion processes.

The William H. Joyce Chair is presented to a distinguished faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering. The chair honors Penn State Distinguished Alumnus William H. Joyce, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1957.

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