Selena Ahmed, a postdoctoral scholar in the Orians Laboratory in the Department of Biology, was featured as a “Heroine for the Planet” in an interview on the Eco-Chick website in May.
Hanna Bae, an assistant professor of prosthodontics and operative dentistry, received a 2013 Tufts School of Dental Medicine-Nobel Biocare Research Grant. Her project is “Comparing Fracture Strength of a Conventional and a Novel Implant Restoration,” and she will be the principal investigator. The TUSDM-Nobel Biocare Research Grant program seeks to identify, stimulate and expedite innovative research with the goal of advancing the field of implantology through research and technology. Awards were peer reviewed and selected based on criteria including significance and approach. Co-investigators are Clinical Professor Nopsaran Chaimattayompol, Associate Professor Dongwoo Park and Assistant Professor Jong il Park.
Alexandra Bassett, D14, has been chosen as a Boston Schweitzer Fellow, one of 15 graduate students, four of them from Tufts, who will spend the next year learning to address the social factors that impact health as well as developing leadership skills. For her project, Bassett will work to enhance the current dental assisting partnership between Madison Park High School and the School of Dental Medicine by creating a structured mentorship program between dental students and high school assisting students. The Boston Schweitzer Fellows join some 220 other 2013–14 Schweitzer Fellows nationwide. Founded in 1992, the Boston Schweitzer Fellows Program is the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship’s oldest program. Fellows have contributed nearly 100,000 hours of service to vulnerable populations in Massachusetts since the program began.
Rishikesh Ram Bhandary, a doctoral candidate at the Fletcher School and a junior research fellow at its Center for International Environment and Resource Policy, has written a new policy brief titled “What Was New at Rio+20? An Analysis of the Future We Want,” which summarizes the key achievements of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development known as “Rio+20.” The brief is informed by an analysis he conducted that traced the language of the conference’s outcome document, The Future We Want, to previous international agreements.
Nancy Bigelow, head coach of the Tufts women’s swimming and diving team, has received the Steadman Award from the College Swimming Coaches Association of America. The annual award recognizes a coach who “has done the most to spread happiness in Coach Steadman’s beloved sport of swimming and diving.” Steadman was a former president of the association. Bigelow has coached college swimming for 37 years, the last 31 seasons at Tufts.
Alison Brown, N14, has been chosen as a Boston Schweitzer Fellow, one of 15 graduate students, four of them from Tufts, who will spend the next year learning to address the social factors that impact health as well as developing leadership skills. For her project, Brown will offer a nutrition workshop series for low-income women and child members of Healthworks Community Fitness in Boston. The six-week program, “Keeping it ‘Real’: Better Food for Better Health,” will focus on helping participants to take charge of their health and that of their families through better nutrition in the home.
Shuchi Dhadwal has been named interim director of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Oral Medicine and Craniofacial Pain. Dhadwal will also assist Robert Mier, the new program director of the School of Dental Medicine’s craniofacial residency training program.
Ronald Dunlap, M73, a physician with South Shore Cardiology in Weymouth, Mass., and a member of the School of Medicine’s alumni board, was elected president of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He took office in May, after serving a year as president-elect. Dunlap is a long-time leader at the society, which is the largest organization representing doctors in Massachusetts. He began his career as a biomedical engineer before earning his medical degree at Tufts. He is also an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and board member at the malpractice insurer Coverys.
Julie C. Ellis gave a presentation titled “Addressing Wildlife Health in the Northeast through a Cooperative” as part of a special symposium at the 69th annual Northeast Fish & Wildlife Conference, held in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on April 9.
Kevin P. Gallagher, F99, F03, a senior researcher at the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE), was quoted in three articles about Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo becoming the next World Trade Organization director-general: Reuters on May 1; Bloomberg on May 7; and the New York Times on May 8. The South American periodical Revista Gestion made use of the research from the Spanish-language version of “New Banks in Town,” by Gallagher, Amos Irwin, F12, and Katherine Koleski, F13, in an article titled “China: ¿el nuevo acreedor de Sudamérica?” [PDF]. On April 26, Gallagher spoke on a podcast titled “The Dragon’s Tango: China’s Growing Engagement in Latin America”—a production of the University of Melbourne. Gallagher joined with colleagues from the Pardee Center Task Force to release its second report, “Capital Account Regulations and the Trading System: A Compatibility Review,” which he presented at the Vale Center at the Columbia School of Law on April 24. See PowerPoint slides from his presentation and listen to a podcast that the Pardee Center produced.
Justin Hollander, A96, an assistant professor of urban and environmental policy and planning in the School of Arts and Sciences, was invited to deliver a module as part of the first-ever urban planning MOOC, TechniCity, which ran during the first week of May. Hollander’s module was titled “Immersive Planning Techniques: Using 3-D Environments.” The course was launched with over 15,000 participants.
Yong Hur, an assistant professor of periodontology, received a 2013 Tufts School of Dental Medicine-Nobel Biocare Research Grant. Hur’s project is “Comparison of d-PTFE Membrane and Titanium Mesh in Vertical Ridge Augmentation,” and he will be the principal investigator. The TUSDM-Nobel Biocare Research Grant program seeks to identify, stimulate and expedite innovative research with the goal of advancing the field of implantology through research and technology. Awards were peer reviewed and selected based on criteria including significance and approach. Co-investigators are Assistant Professor Yumi Ogata; Irina Dragan, a postgraduate student in periodontology; Associate Professor Qisheng Tu; Professor Paul Stark; and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Nadeem Karimbux.
Emma Johnson has joined the School of Dental Medicine as the communications special projects coordinator. Before coming to Tufts, she was an operations assistant for Emmanuel College’s Department of Graduate Studies. On the weekends, she works as a film critic for Blast Magazine. She graduated from Northeastern University in 2009 with a degree in journalism and a minor in cinema studies.
Chie Kotake and Elizabeth Shuey, both doctoral candidates in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, have received a Doris Duke Fellowship for the Promotion of Child Well-being. They are two of only 15 recipients nationally. The fellowships, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, are designed to develop a new generation of leaders interested in creating practice and policy initiatives that will enhance child development and improve the country’s ability to prevent all forms of child maltreatment. Kotake’s research focuses on the role of parents’ mental health in the social and emotional development of young children facing adversity. For her dissertation, she will examine maternal depression as part of a larger evaluation of the Healthy Families Massachusetts newborn home-visit program. Shuey’s dissertation will expand on existing research on immigrant families’ child-care constraints and preferences.
Megan Lehnerd, N14, has been chosen as a Boston Schweitzer Fellow, one of 15 graduate students who will spend the next year learning to address the social factors that impact health as well as developing leadership skills. For her project, Lehnerd will address obesity and food insecurity by establishing a market-to-pantry program that connects unsold produce from farmers markets in underserved Boston neighborhoods to food pantries in those same communities. By repurposing the fresh fruits and vegetables, she aims to minimize food waste from the markets and to maximize health benefits for those accessing the pantries. Additionally, Lehnerd hopes to promote local farmers markets as healthy community spaces for all residents and to assist SNAP recipients in utilizing their benefits to purchase market produce.
Jessica K. Levine, A12, and Robert A. Levine, E77, received third place for a poster titled “Epidemic of Thyroid Nodules: How Are They Being Found?” at the 22nd annual Scientific and Clinical Congress of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists on May 4. At that same meeting, Robert Levine, a physician who directs the Thyroid Center of New Hampshire in Nashua, N.H., received the H. Jack Baskin, M.D., Endocrine Teaching Award. Jessica is a post-baccalaureate student at Tufts.
Amy Navin has been promoted to department manager of the Department of Environmental and Population Health at the Cummings School. She joined the department as budget coordinator in 2008. Prior to coming to Tufts, she was executive director of the Community Harvest Project, a local farm that uses volunteer labor to educate people about sustainable agriculture and feed the poor by donating all its produce to the Worcester County Food Bank.
Julie Nelson, a research fellow at the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE), has been selected to receive the Thomas Divine Award for lifetime achievement from the Association for Social Economics. She will receive the award at the association meeting in Philadelphia in January 2014.
Carole Palmer, G69, professor of diagnosis and health promotion at the School of Dental Medicine, is the 2013 recipient of the Excellence in Nutrition Education of Health Professionals Award, which she will receive at the Nutrition Educators of Health Professionals meeting in Houston in October.
Evangelos Papathanasiou, an assistant professor in the Department of Periodontology, received a 2013 Tufts School of Dental Medicine-Nobel Biocare Research Grant. His project is “Peri-implant Diseases and Periodontitis: A Cross-sectional Study,” and he will be principal investigator. The TUSDM-Nobel Biocare Research Grant program seeks to identify, stimulate and expedite innovative research with the goal of advancing the field of implantology through research and technology. Awards were peer reviewed and selected based on criteria including significance and approach. Co-investigators are Adjunct Assistant Professor Andreas Paraschis, Clinical Assistant Professor Natalie Jeong, Associate Professor James Hanley and Professor Paul Stark.
Aruna Ramesh, an associate professor in the Department of Diagnosis and Health Promotion at the School of Dental Medicine, received a 2013 Tufts School of Dental Medicine-Nobel Biocare Research Grant. Her project is “Accuracy of Linear Measurements in Two Different CBCT Machines: In vitro Study,” and she will be principal investigator. The TUSDM-Nobel Biocare Research Grant program seeks to identify, stimulate and expedite innovative research with the goal of advancing the field of implantology through research and technology. Awards were peer reviewed and selected based on criteria including significance and approach. Her co-investigator is Assistant Professor Rumpa Ganguly.
Adam Rogers, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Tufts School of Medicine, has been elected to the Emory University Board of Trustees. A retina specialist at the New England Eye Center, he holds undergraduate and medical degrees from Emory and is a trustee of the Paul and Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation.
Morton Rosenberg, D74, A09P, professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery, was re-elected treasurer of the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology at its annual meeting in Palm Beach, Fla., in April, when he also presented programs on pediatric sedation and managing anesthetic complications.
Naomi Rosenberg, A09P, dean of the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, has been named chair-elect of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Graduate Research Education and Training group, which fosters innovation in Ph.D., M.D./Ph.D. and postdoctoral training.
Allen Rutberg, director of the Center for Animals and Public Policy and research assistant professor in the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health at the Cummings School, gave a presentation titled “From Horses to Horseshoe Crabs: Insights from Some Terrestrial Wildlife Conflicts,” at the Mass Audubon Horseshoe Crab Conference at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary on April 13. He also spoke on the use of contraception for the management of deer populations at the Deer Management Forum, sponsored by the Weston Conservation Commission in April.
James Schwob, the George A. Bates Professor of Histology and chair of anatomy at Tufts School of Medicine, has been appointed to the National Institutes of Health’s Council of Councils, which advises the NIH director and makes recommendations on emerging areas of scientific inquiry, rising public health challenges and knowledge gaps that merit further research.
Mabi Singh, DI07, associate professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Oral Medicine and Craniofacial Pain, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Oral Medicine.
Joe Sullivan returned to Tufts in late March as the new web developer for Digital Communications (the new name for Web Communications). In this role, Sullivan will work closely with members of the Digital Communications team and occasionally with clients outside the department to create graphic interfaces for websites and applications that enhance the online experience for university audiences. For the past year Sullivan worked as a developer for Velir, a web development and design firm located in Davis Square, on projects for the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation.
Carroll Ann Trotman will join the School of Dental Medicine on Sept. 1 as chair of the Department of Orthodontics. She comes from the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, where she is currently a professor of orthodontics and associate dean for the Office of Academic and Student Affairs. A native of Trinidad, Trotman received her B.D.S. degree from the University of Dundee, Scotland; a certificate in orthodontics and M.A. (oral biology) degree from Columbia University; and an M.S. in clinical research from the University of Michigan. She has also completed fellowships in craniofacial anomalies and clinical research and is a diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics. Trotman has had an active research program throughout her career; her current National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)-funded research focuses on the functional outcomes of cleft lip surgery. She has published extensively and has served on several NIDCR panels and study sections.
Timothy A. Wise, G05, research and policy director at the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE), participated in the panel discussion that followed the Boston Film Festival screening of a new documentary about Guatemala’s Marlin Mine, which was the subject of a widely acclaimed GDAE report, “Searching for Gold in the Highlands of Guatemala.” In late May, Wise was a co-author, with Frances Moore Lappé at the Small Planet Institute, of “Framing Hunger: A Response to ‘The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012’ ” [PDF], a critique of the FAO’s hunger measurement.
Morgan Younkin, M16, has been chosen as a Boston Schweitzer Fellow, one of 15 graduate students, four of them from Tufts, who will spend the next year learning to address the social factors that impact health as well as developing leadership skills. Younkin is working to strengthen a community-based English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program in the Upham’s Corner neighborhood of Dorchester, where he will teach as well. He will continue to work with other community volunteers to increase community awareness of the program, as well as solidify the program’s organizational and curricular structure.
