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topJones named Rural Health director
Judy Jones, a lawyer, journalist, and long-time advocate for rural Kentuckians, has been named the new director of the University of Kentucky Center for Rural Health in Hazard, Ky. The appointment, subject to approval by the UK Board of Trustees, was made by UK College of Medicine Dean Emery Wilson, who cited Jones’ exceptional leadership during her year-long term as interim director of the center. “Ms. Jones has spent her career advancing the health, education and economic prospects of rural Kentuckians,” Wilson said. “She is a thoughtful and passionate spokesman for the rural parts of our state.” Prior to being appointed interim director in April 2002, Jones served as director of the Kentucky State Office of Rural Health, also located at the Center for Rural Health. “Rural Kentuckians have the ability to solve their own problems,” Jones said. “UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. has asked for our help in his effort to eliminate the ‘Kentucky uglies,’” she added. “Rural Kentuckians are fully capable of being effective partners with the university in addressing needs which impact the rural parts of the state more heavily than the urban areas,” Jones continued. “The Center for Rural Health provides a platform for demonstrating the creativity and intelligence of rural people.” Jones has spent her career living and working in rural Kentucky and Tennessee. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from UK and graduated from the UK College of Law in 1992. As a law student, she served as president of the national champion Moot Court Board and was a law journal editor. She has done rural public policy work for the Ford Foundation, the Frontier Nursing Service, and city and county agencies throughout rural Kentucky. Jones also was a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Owensboro Messenger Inquirer, and the Daily News in Bowling Green. She has received state and national recognition for her reporting on rural education and health. She served as a member of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. Her creative writing was recognized in 2001 by the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which supported her efforts to publish a series of personal essays about an Appalachian woman’s transition from a rural coal mining background to becoming an attorney in contemporary Kentucky. The UK Center for Rural Health in Hazard employs 120 people across rural Kentucky in the health professions, education, research, outreach and public policy. This year U.S.News & World Report ranked UK’s rural medicine program in the top 10 in the country, with the center as a keystone of the College of Medicine’s rural work. The center houses the national model for the federal Community Access Program and has been honored for its innovation in improving access to health care by the Pew Health Professions Committee. The center was honored by the National Rural Health Association in 2000 as the Outstanding Rural Health Program in the nation, and the center’s Kentucky Homeplace Program was named a semifinalist for the Innovations in American Government in 2001, sponsored by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Staff Report topArnold named School of Music director
Ben Arnold, a University of Kentucky graduate who has been on the faculty of Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., for the past 16 years, has been appointed as the new director of the School of Music in the UK College of Fine Arts. Arnold replaces Harry Clarke who has been music director at UK for the past 14 years. Clarke retired June 30, and Arnold will assume his new duties at UK Aug. 1. The new music director is a native Kentuckian who grew up in Lancaster, Ky., and earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees at UK in music and musicology. In making the appointment, College of Fine Arts Dean Robert Shay said, “We are delighted that Dr. Arnold has agreed to come back to his old Kentucky home and guide this already highly prestigious program to even greater heights. UK will benefit immeasurably from the experience he has gained at Emory.” While at Emory, Arnold served two terms as chair of the Music Department (1994-2000) and as the first director of Graduate Studies in Music (1991-1994). In addition to teaching required courses on 19th and 20th century music, he created several new courses: “Wagnerian Opera,” “The Diva and Virtuoso in Classical Music,” “Apocalypse Now and Then,” “Shakespeare and Music,” “Music in England” (taught at University College, Oxford), and a week-long opera course in New York City, “Emory-at-the-Met.” Arnold said leaving Emory was a difficult decision to make. “There are not many reasons to leave a distinguished university like Emory,” Arnold said, “but having the opportunity to work for UK is certainly one of them.” Arnold has published extensively on the music of Franz Liszt, including writing for and editing “The Liszt Companion” (2002). He authored the book “Music and War” (1993) and has published many articles related to the subject of the book in professional journals. His research and collection of war music material led to the founding of the Emory University Archive of Music and War. He has presented professional papers at many conferences in the United States, Canada, Italy, Sweden and Australia, and has been a frequent lecturer for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra pre-concert lecture series, the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta, and the Highlands Chamber Music Festival. topInaugural seminar honors gift and memory of Harry E. Wheeler
When University of Kentucky plant pathology researcher Christopher Schardl stepped to the podium in late March to begin his seminar on tall fescue endophyte, it was a special moment. Schardl’s presentation had the distinction of being the inaugural seminar of the Harry E. Wheeler Endowed Chair in Plant Mycology. The endowed chair was created by a $500,000 gift to the College of Agriculture by Wheeler, a distinguished scientist and retired UK faculty member who died in 1999. “Dr. Wheeler’s generous gift was matched by the state, so funds actually total $1 million,” said David Smith, plant pathology department chair. “An endowed chair provides funding flexibility to an outstanding faculty member – in this instance Dr. Schardl, who was appointed to the Wheeler chair in 2001 following an international search.” Under an endowment plan, money is securely invested to provide a steady return. Research funds derive from the interest generated by the investment. The Wheeler endowment supports basic research and hiring, such as graduate students for plant mycology projects. An example is UK’s research on tall fescue endophyte, which can cause reproductive problems in cattle. “We’ve been trying to modify tall fescue endophyte to remove the compounds it produces that can be toxic to animals,” said Schardl. “This modified endophyte might be useful to farmers in their forage production by improving the stand and longevity of the fescue while not harming the cattle.” Wheeler’s sister-in-law, nephew, and two nieces were present for Schardl’s inaugural seminar. “Harry would be thrilled to see what the university has done to further what he devoted his life to,” said nephew Bill Wheeler of Clinton, Miss. “The research he did had an important influence on the school, and we can now see that his influence still continues to benefit agriculture,” said niece Mary Anne Smith of Creedmoor, N.C. Prior to Schardl’s seminar the memories of Wheeler and his wife Naomi, who preceded him in death, were honored. “Naomi was an accomplished artist, and Harry was a world-class scientist, scrupulously honest and an individual who had the courage to stand up for his principles,” said Thomas Pirone, retired UK plant pathology faculty member and friend of Wheeler. “The graduate students and postdoctoral students who studied under him experienced tough and demanding appraisals from him, but those who heeded those appraisals became better scientists as a result.” Wheeler was professor of plant pathology at UK from 1967 until his retirement in 1984. His many honors included being named a Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society (APS), a delegate to the Tenth International Botanical Congress, and a John Guggenheim Fellow. His work was widely known and was the subject of a 1956 Time magazine article. Haven Miller topTwo awarded for lifetime achievementsCarl Leukefeld, professor and chairperson, Department of Behavioral Science, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, and director, Center for Drug and Alcohol Research (CDAR), has been selected as the recipient of the Knee/Wittman Lifetime Achievement Award for 2003 from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Foundation. The Knee/Wittman Awards recognize individuals who are models of excellence and have made significant contributions in the field of health and mental health. The Lifetime Achievement Award, in particular, is presented to a professional social worker who has made exemplary contributions in health and mental health practice. H. Spencer Turner, director of University Health Service at the University of Kentucky, recently received the American College Health Association’s (ACHA) Lifetime Achievement Award. In ACHA’s 80-year history, this is only the third Lifetime Achievement Award conferred by the association. With a career spanning more than 30 years in college health, Turner is known as a leader in the field. He spent over 10 years as director of The Ohio State University student health service. Following his tenure at OSU, and after several years in private practice, Turner became director of University Health Service (UHS) at UK in February 1991. Turner will retire from UHS in August. Staff Report topLewis named Edwards Research Professor
John Lewis, who has taught mathematics at the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences since 1971, has become the first UK Edwards Endowed Research Professor. The professorship is for $5,000 per year for three years. Lewis, who joined the UK faculty as an assistant professor in 1971 and became a full professor in 1981, was appointed to the new professorship by Provost Michael T. Nietzel. The professorship was established with a gift from Ralph E. and Norma L. Edwards of Baltimore, Md. Mrs. Edwards grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and decided to attend UK because it was the only university at the time that would accept her since she was only 14 years old. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from UK in 1933. A native of Atwood, Kan., Lewis was also a UK Research Professor in the fall of 1990 and the spring of 1991. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from Kansas Sate University and his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Illinois in 1970. Lewis is the author or coauthor of more than 60 mathematical papers in complex analysis, harmonic analysis and partial differential equations. In 1971, he spent a postdoctoral year at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Maryland and at the Mittag-Leffler Institute near Stockholm, Sweden. topSmart appointed to Barnstable-Brown Chair in diabetes research
Eric Smart, associate professor and vice chair of research, Department of Pediatrics, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, has been appointed to the Barnstable-Brown Chair in Diabetes Research. The endowed chair will provide funds to support Smart’s research on complications of diabetes, work that is crucial to the health and well-being of Kentuckians. As obesity rates surge, in Kentucky and elsewhere in the United States, so have cases of diabetes, and as the number of obese children increases, so do pediatric cases of type II diabetes. “Diabetes is a devastating disease, particularly for children, and an increasingly important health care issue for Kentuckians,” Smart said. “The ultimate goal of our diabetes research program is to cure or prevent development of diabetes; until that goal is achieved, we will continue to work on ways to improve the health of patients with diabetes.” Smart and a team of 13 scientists, research associates, and technicians use novel approaches to understand the mechanisms behind diabetes, namely how the disease causes high blood pressure and inflammation and makes insulin ineffective, thus increasing illness and causing death. Smart’s group also is investigating a new class of drugs in the treatment of diabetes. Such research is extremely meaningful to the Barnstable-Brown family. Five years ago, twin sisters Patricia and Priscilla decided to pledge $100,000 a year for five years to UK and the University of Louisville to forward diabetes research at both universities. The state provided matching funds through the Research Challenge Trust Fund (RCTF) to establish endowed chairs at UK and U of L. The family fulfilled its original commitment last year; they plan to make other pledges in the future. Much of the funding is generated through the family’s famous Kentucky Derby party held in Louisville on Derby Eve. “I am honored to have been appointed to the Barnstable-Brown Chair in Diabetes Research,” Smart said. “The generosity of the Barnstable-Brown family allows for the advancement of our research program as we seek a cure for diabetes.” top
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 Dan Adkins Gatton College Dean Richard W. Furst, center, talks with Stan Dickson (at left) and Bill Gatton at Furst's retirement dinner June 17. |
Twenty-two years after taking the reins of the University of Kentucky Gatton College of Business and Economics, Richard W. Furst retired as dean on June 30. Thirteen days earlier, nearly 300 people gathered at the Marriott Griffin Gate Resort to celebrate his impact on the college and UK.
“He’s just a good, genuine man, characterized by total honesty and integrity,” said Carol Martin “Bill” Gatton, an alumnus of the college that bears his name. Furst won Gatton’s commitment for a $14 million gift to the college in 1995, a gift – the largest in UK’s history – that prompted the UK Board of Trustees to rename the college.
UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. noted in testimonial remarks at the dinner that the college had no endowment when Furst took office on July 1, 1981. Today, the Gatton College’s endowment stands at $67 million.
The college had no endowed chairs or professorships when Furst arrived. The Gatton College now has 12 endowed chairs and 27 endowed professorships, Todd said.
Furst also oversaw the startup of scholarship endowments, which now stand at $5.2 million, Todd said.
Todd recalled he did not know Furst when the president was ending his days as a UK faculty member in the early 1980s, leaving to pursue his entrepreneurial career.
Years later, Todd said, at an event attended by Furst, “I stood up and bemoaned the fact that it took me seven years to raise money for DataBeam. When I sat down, he leaned over and said, ‘You should have come to see me first.’”
Todd also said he is pleased Furst will continue to be a campus presence since he will maintain a faculty position as a finance professor.
Michael Tearney, the college’s associate dean, cited Furst’s work ethic as an outstanding character trait. “I travel with him a lot, and I’ve seen situations come up where he’ll say, ‘I need to think about that before I respond.’
“He’ll stay up half the night, then click, click, click off the answers and best ways to confront the problem,” Tearney said.
Former UK President Charles T. Wethington Jr. said Furst understood the importance of building alliances and relationships both on and off campus. “He showed hard work, perseverance and a willingness to involve himself with the community as well as the university. He built strong relationships with the business community.”
At his dinner, Furst, instead of basking in the praise, asserted his success resulted from the efforts of the members of the UK Business Partnership Foundation, a group he organized to help guide the college and its fund-raising efforts.
 Photo Provided Thomas D. Clark, Kentucky’s Historian Laureate, will celebrate his 100th birthday at a gathering on July 9. |
On July 14, 1903, Kentucky Historian Thomas D. Clark was born in Louisville, Miss. On July 9, 2003, the University of Kentucky will celebrate Clark’s 100th birthday, honoring the magnificent career of Kentucky’s Historian Laureate for Life at a special birthday celebration from 2 until 4 p.m. in the William T. Young Library. The celebration, which is being hosted by UK President Lee T. Todd Jr., First Lady Patsy Todd, the Office of the Provost, the Department of History, UK Libraries, and the University Press of Kentucky, is open to the public.
“We certainly hope the UK community will join together as we celebrate this milestone in Dr. Clark’s life,” President Todd said. “Dr. Clark is certainly a University of Kentucky treasure.”
Clark, who received his master’s degree in history from UK in 1929, served as a professor and department chair in the UK College of Arts and Sciences Department of History. He has written numerous books, including “The Emerging South;” “Pills, Petticoats, and Plows: The Southern Country Store;” “The Greening of the South;” “The Southern Country Editor;” “Kentucky: Land of Contrast;” and “A History of Kentucky,” which the Lexington Herald-Leader called “a watershed text that served the state for more than a half century.”
Clark’s awards have been numerous and varied. In 1969, he received an honorary doctorate from UK. The Kentucky State Legislature named him Commonwealth Historian Laureate for life and designated him “a state treasure” in 1990. That same year, he was awarded the first UK Library Medallion for Intellectual Achievement. The University Press of Kentucky has named both its Limestone Street building and its foundation for Clark.
A special book from the University Press “Thomas D. Clark of Kentucky, An Uncommon Life in the Commonwealth,” will be on sale for the first time at the celebration on July 9.
He’s a hit
John Cohen, whose career includes success as a player and assistant coach in the Southeastern Conference and as a head coach at Northwestern (La.) State, was introduced to the media as the new head baseball coach at the University of Kentucky by UK Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhartin late June. Cohen comes to UK from Florida, where he served a record-setting term the last two years as hitting coach for the Gators. In 2002, Cohen's offense led the SEC in nine team offensive categories, while leading the nation in hits (825) and ranking second nationally in three other categories. |
 Mickie DeMoss |
University of Kentucky women’s basketball coach Mickie DeMoss has been elected as the 19th president of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) by the organization’s active membership, WBCA CEO. DeMoss’ six-year term on the WBCA Executive Committee begins September 1, 2003. She will serve as vice president for two years (2003-2005), followed by a two-year term as WBCA president (2005-2007), and will conclude her term on the Executive Committee as past president (2007-09), in accordance with WBCA organizational by-laws. As vice president, DeMoss will maintain leadership continuity by performing the duties of the board president in their absence. Prior to being elected as vice president, DeMoss served on the WBCA Board of Directors as a representative of the Assistant Coaches Committee.
After serving 18 years as the Tennessee Lady Vols top assistant, DeMoss recently stepped into the role of head coach of the Kentucky women’s basketball team.
DeMoss has 26 years of collegiate coaching experience that began in 1977 as an assistant at Memphis State. After receiving her master’s degree in education, she went on to become the first full-time coach for women’s basketball at Florida from 1979-83. She compiled a 45-68 overall record with the Lady Gators before leaving to join the nationally ranked Auburn Tigers under the direction of Joe Ciampi.
Two years later, DeMoss was hired by Pat Summitt as the top assistant at Tennessee and has become one of the most highly visible assistant coaches in the game. Under DeMoss’ tutelage, the Lady Volunteers compiled an impressive 549-76 (.878) record, an unprecedented six NCAA Women’s championship titles and 12 Women’s Final Four appearances.
“It is an honor to be given the opportunity to serve the game in this capacity,” said DeMoss. “I am elated about my tenure and working toward promoting our sport.”
“Coach DeMoss will be an awesome addition to our leadership,” stated WBCA president and Old Dominion head women’s basketball coach, Wendy Larry. “We are honored to have a coach of her caliber on our team.”
Founded in 1981, the 5,000-member WBCA promotes women’s basketball by unifying coaches at all levels to develop a reputable identity for the sport and to foster the development of the game in all of its aspects as an amateur sport for women and girls.
Susan Lax
Charlie
Solomon, Medical Center Information Services, was reelected
as president of the SSI National User Group (which has 1,200 member
hospitals) at its annual meeting in New Orleans. This group is
comprised of users of health care billing software from The SSI
Group Inc.
of Mobile, Ala. Prior to his two terms as president, Solomon served
a three-year term on the group’s
advisory board.
John
van Willigen, professor of anthropology at UK since 1974
and a former chair of the Department of Anthropology, recently received
the 2003 Sol Tax Distinguished Service Award of the Society for Applied
Anthropology at the Society’s recent annual meeting in Portland,
Ore., and the Omer C. Stewart Memorial Award of the High Plains Society
for Applied
Anthropology at its conference at Estes Park, Colo.
•House
for sale, 485 West Second Street, minutes from UK. 2,600
sq. ft, 3BR, 2.5BA, LR, DR, home office, den, newly renovated, state
of the art kitchen, 2 working fireplaces, central air, beautiful
yard, hot tub, $329,500. Call
Mark, 396-6397.
•House
for lease, 3332 Lyon Drive, oversized lot, 4+BR, 4BA, large office,
4000+ sq. ft., $2300/mo. Available mid-August for up to two years. Located in
Rosa Parks/Beaumont/Dunbar school district with shopping and
airport close by. Call 219-3071.
•House
for sale, Winchester, Ky., 3.8 acres, 3BR, 2.5BA, brick, 1,850 sq. ft.,
full basement, 2-car garage, $195,000. Ten minutes from I-75. Call 257-4305 or
509-1235. E-mail lapowe03@uky.edu.
•Looking
for house or condo to rent, visiting professor and his wife from Kagoshima
University, Japan, from Sept. 1, 2003, through March 31, 2004. For information,
call Dr.
Yan at 257-7410 or e-mail hyyan00@uky.edu.
•Henrietta
Bada, Pediatrics, $404,100, Infant Intensive Care.
•Lisa Cassis, Pharmaceutical Tech, $387,468, Angiotensin:
A Link Between Obesity and Hypertension.
•P. Crowley, Tracy Farmer Center for the Environment, $200,000,
Bluegrass Savanna Woodland Restoration.
•Don Gash, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Systems Center, $120,000,
Siemens MRI Postdoctoral Support.
•B. Hennig, AES/Animal Sciences, $110,509, Superfund NIEHS-Core
A.
•Judy Jones, Center for Rural Health, $170,000, State Office
of Rural Health.
•Judy Jones, Center for Rural Health, $1,860,000, Kentucky
Homeplace.
•Craig Jordan, Internal Medicine, $100,000, Mechanism Controlling
Apoptosis of Leukemia Stem Cells.
•Jacqueline Kearns, Interdisciplinary Human Development Institute,
$257,500, Statewide Alternate Portfolio.
•Donald Linebaugh, Program for Archaeological Research, $116,330,
Archaeological Testing and Monitoring in Historic Section of Mammoth Cave.
•John Littleton, Molecular and Biomedical Pharmacology, $367,291,
Hippocampal Neurotoxicity Induced by Ethanol Withdrawal.
•Charles Mabry, Pediatrics, $149,000, Metabolic Services.
•Sabire Ozcan, RCTF-Biochemistry, $146,916, Regulation of
Insulin Gene Expressionin Liver Cells.
•Joseph
Chappell and co-inventors Kathleen R. Manna, Joseph P. Noel,
and Courtney M. Starks received a patent for “Synthases.” #6,559,297.
•Robert C.
Haddon and co-inventor Mark A. Hamon received a
patent for “Method of Solubilizing Carbon Nanotubes in Organic Solutions.” #6,531,513.
•Tom Robl, Center for Applied Energy Research, and co-inventor
Jack Groppo received a patent for “Technology and Methodology for the Production
of High Quality Polymer Filler and Super-Pozzolan from Fly Ash.” #6,533,848.
