October 21, 2002

Appointments
Noemi Reyes Bond has been promoted to police sergeant at the Health Center. Bond joined the Health Center Police Department in November 1998. She has worked for various state agencies, including the Governor's Security Detail.

Gail Melingonis has been named director of Patient Access at the Health Center. The newly created office includes the merged departments of Central Registration and Financial Counseling, as well as the Department of Precertification and Referral. Melingonis has been with the Health Center since 1988. For the last four years, she has been manager of precertification and referral.

Dr. Anthony Peluso has been appointed chair of the Department of Anesthesia at the Health Center, and program director of the Integrated Residency in Anesthesia.

Philip "PJ" Roche has been promoted to Fire Captain at the Health Center. Roche has been a fire lieutenant with the Health Center Fire Department since 1993.

Dr. Catherine Weber has joined the Office of Faculty Development as assistant dean for educational resources. Weber, who joins the Health Center from Weill Medical College of Cornell University, will also hold a faculty appointment in the Department of Family Medicine.

Articles & Chapters
Joan Seliger Sidney, English and Judaic Studies, had two poems published: "Betrayal", in the Louisville Review, Spring 2002, and Witness", in the Connecticut River Review, Winter 2002.

Awards & Honors
David Camaione, Sport, Leisure & Exercise Sciences, emeritus, received a commendation from Gov. John G. Rowland on his retirement from the Governor's Committee on Physical Fitness in May, thanking him for 22 years of exceptional service.

Olivanne Pannone, Laboratory Medicine, Health Center, was one of 10 winners in the Connecticut Hospital Association's essay contest, "Healthcare Heroes." The contest asked healthcare workers to express why they chose healthcare as a career or why they believe they made the right career choice in entering the health care field.

Angela Rola, Asian American Cultural Center, received the Higher Education Faculty of the Year Award from the State Department of Education, during the Seventh Annual Connecticut Conference on Multicultural Education, held Oct. 16 in Farmington. Rola is the founding director of the Asian American Cultural Center.

Philip Yeagle, Molecular & Cell Biology, received the Special Award of the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research at a recent meeting of the Society in Torino, Italy.

Books
Barbara Pine, Social Work, Anthony Maluccio, Social Work, emeritus, and Elizabeth Tracy, Social Work Practice with Families and Children, (Columbia University Press, 2002).

Presentations
Dr. Felix Bronner, Biostructure & Function, Health Center, emeritus, organized and co-chaired a symposium titled "Epithelial Calcium Channels: From Identification to Physiology and Pathophysiology" at Experimental Biology 2002, a large multi-society meeting held in New Orleans recently. At the symposium, Bronner presented "Principles of Intestinal Calcium Absorption."

Brinley Franklin, University Libraries, presented "Networked Electronic Services Usage Patterns at Four Academic Health Sciences Libraries" at the 75th conference of the International Federation of Library Association in Glasgow, Scotland, on Aug. 22. The paper, co-authored with Terry Plum, is published in the September 2002 issue of Performance Measurement and Metrics: The International Journal for Library and Information Services.

Michael Mazaik, Health Center, Pharmacy, presented "Correction Facilities Pharmacies" at the annual National Pharmacy Technician Association convention in Las Vegas, June 30-July 2.

Amii Omara-Otunnu, UNESCO Chair in Comparative Human Rights, gave a presentation on "Human Rights and Development in Uganda," at an ambassadorial seminar on Uganda organized by the State Department in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 4. He also gave the keynote presentation on "The Significance of Human Rights in Today's World," at the annual meeting of the Connecticut chapter of UNIFEM-USA (the United Nations Development Fund for Women), the CT United Nations Association-USA, and the CT American Association of University Women, held at the Stamford campus on Oct. 16.

Linda Pescatello, Allied Health, presented "The Acute Effect of Exercise on Blood Pressure," as part of a symposium on the acute effect of exercise on cardiac risk factors, at the American College of Sports Medicine meeting in Baltimore, Md., on May 31. She also led a round-table discussion on Chronic Disease and Disability at the American College of Sports Medicine Josephine L. Rathbone Memorial Breakfast.

Dr. Paul Epstein, Health Center, Pharmacology, and Li Song, graduate student, Cellular & Molecular Pharmacology, presented "Exisulind and its Derivatives Inhibit Jurkat Cell Proliferation by an Apparent Non-cGMP Dependent Mechanism," at the Gordon Research Conference at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass. Epstein also chaired a session at the conference and served as one of the judges in selecting the 10 best posters from the meeting.

Dr. Richard Stevens, Community Medicine & Health Care, Health Center, was a participant in a plenary session panel discussion "Are Scientists Asking the Right Questions About Breast Cancer?" at the National Breast Cancer Coalition annual meeting in Washington, D.C., recently. He also conducted a workshop on "Advanced Topics in Epidemiology: Light at Night."

Other Activities
Dr. Richard "Rick" Fortinsky, Gerontology, Health Center, is serving as chairman for the NIH Study Section Social Sciences, Nursing, Epidemiology and Methods through June 30, 2004.

Joan Seliger Sidney, English and Judaic Studies, received a full fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center from the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, to write non-fiction. She also read in the Cheney Hall Invitational Poetry Marathon for the second consecutive year, in May.