Gina Garcia, assistant professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, has been elected to the board of directors of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE).

With over 2,000 members, ASHE is a national organization for scholarship in higher education administration. Garcia’s appointment will run from 2019-2021.

Garcia focuses her research on Hispanic-Serving Institutions (not-for-profit, degree-granting colleges and universities that enroll at least 25% or more Latinx students) in post-secondary education, Latinx college student experiences and the effects of racism and microaggressions in collegiate settings. Pitt celebrated the launch of her book, “Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Opportunities for Colleges and Universities,” on Oct. 15.

Catherine Palmer, associate professor in the Department of Communication Science and Disorders at Pitt, has been approved for a $2.23 million funding award by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study hearing aids’ role in participation in senior communities.

Through this three-year award, Palmer and her team in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS) will find out if people are more satisfied with their social participation when more hearing support is available, and if people with hearing loss find their quality of life improves when they have access to hearing help more frequently.

Palmer’s study was selected for PCORI funding through a highly competitive review process in which patients, clinicians and other stakeholders joined clinical scientists to evaluate the proposals. Applications were assessed for scientific merit, how well they will engage patients and other stakeholders and their methodological rigor among other criteria.

Palmer is also director of the SHRS Audiology Program, director of the Center for Audiology and Hearing Aids at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the current president of the American Academy of Audiology. Other Pitt researchers who will work with Palmer in this study include audiology associate professor Elaine Mormer, occupational therapy associate professor Natalie Leland and physical therapy professor Charity Patterson.

Jeanne Marie Laskas, Distinguished Professor of English in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences and founding director of Pitt’s Center for Creativity, published an essay in The New York Times Magazine on her friendship with Fred Rogers.

Laskas first met Rogers after finishing graduate school and remained friends with him until his death in 2003.

“Fred Rogers’ philosophy guided me to teach in the way that I do now. He gave me the confidence to become a writer,” said Laskas, a New York Times best-selling author of eight books.

During Pitt’s Year of Creativity, Laskas said we can all learn a lot from Fred Rogers. “Fred believed that the creative process was a fundamental function at the core of every human being,” Laskas wrote in her essay.

Her essay appeared in The New York Times Magazine, on shelves Nov. 24. In addition to serving as a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, Laskas is also a correspondent at GQ. Her bylines have also appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and Esquire.

The University of Pittsburgh and UPMC have been selected to create the National Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Family Support. 

Through a $4.3 million grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), the center will serve as a national hub that leverages state-of-the-art research to improve the care, health and quality of life of all persons with disabilities and the families who support them.

The center, which builds upon 30-plus years of Pitt’s efforts in support of caregiving, is directed by Heidi Donovan, professor in the School of Nursing’s Department of Health and Community Systems; Scott Beach, interim director and director of survey research of the University Center for Social and Urban Research; and Bambang Parmanto, professor and chair of Pitt’s Department of Health Information Management in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.

“The need nationwide for this center is huge. Despite the important role that caregivers provide to our health system, there are still gaps in knowledge in the field of family caregiving,” said Gabriela Prudencio, Hunt Research Director at the National Alliance for Caregiving. “Pitt and UPMC bring over 30 years of extensive research experience in this field and have been leveraging key relationships to translate research into programs and policies.”

The University of Pittsburgh hosted 13 students from Franklin Regional School District as they participated in Disability Mentoring Day on Oct. 16. Disability Mentoring Day is a nationwide effort to promote career development for students with disabilities through hands-on career exploration. The effort began in 1999 and takes place annually on the third Wednesday of October.

The Franklin Regional students toured Panther Central, University Mailing Services and the University Store on Fifth in the morning, where they received Pitt IDs, learned how to use student mailboxes and explored the ins and outs of running and working in a retail space. In the afternoon, representatives from the Office of Human Resources, Department of Athletics and Office of Diversity and Inclusion met with the students to talk about what they do at Pitt, assist with resume building and practice mock interviews. They also enjoyed lunch together and took pictures with Roc.

The day-long event was hosted by Pitt’s human resources office. Organizers included Tom Armstrong, Veterans and Individuals with disABILITIES recruiter, and Sarah Morgan, talent acquisition manager.

“It was a pleasure to host Franklin Regional students—they were engaging, thoughtful and such a delight,” Morgan said. “We are always happy to help our community members discuss career paths and jobs at Pitt, but this particular event gave us the chance to meet students that we might not otherwise have had the chance to meet. It was a great day.”

“Disability Mentoring Day was a real opportunity to introduce the kids to the different departments at Pitt so that they can get an idea of what everyone does around the University. We were proud to be asked to participate with the rest of the organizations in Pittsburgh, and we hope to continue to develop this event in the years to come,” said Armstrong.

Lisa Bodnar, professor in Pitt Public Health's Department of Epidemiology, has been named a full member on the National Academy of Medicine's “Committee on Scoping Existing Guidelines for Feeding Recommendations for Infants and Young Children Under Age 2.”

The committee will review existing documents and resources about what to feed and how to feed infants and children from birth up to two years of age, and assess descriptions of best practices for implementation strategies to support communication and dissemination of feeding guidance. They'll then inform stakeholders about the feasibility of consolidating feeding guidelines and/or harmonizing guidance for feeding infants and children up to two years of age, and will make recommendations about communication strategies.

Bodnar’s research focuses on discovering the healthiest weight and dietary patterns for pregnant women and their children. 

Paul Leu, associate professor of industrial engineering at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, will lead a collaborative study that aims to replace indium tin oxide with metal “microgrid” conductors to improve performance of organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs.

Leu will work with Electroninks, a technology company in Austin, Texas, thanks to a $1 million award from the Department of Energy’s Small Business Innovation Research program.

OLEDs are present in smartwatches and 4K television screens. Indium tin oxide is expensive, doesn’t perform well enough for larger areas and can crack with repeated touching or swiping. By using a new metal patterning technique that prints the metal grid directly on glass or plastic, the team aims to create “microgrid” conductors that can outperform indium tin oxide at a lower manufacturing cost.

Anika Jones joined the Office of Community and Governmental Relations as the outreach coordinator at the Community Engagement Center (CEC) in Homewood.   

In this role, Jones is responsible for engaging residents and encouraging participation in CEC programs and activities. She also serves as a point of contact for University and community members interested in collaborating to offer programs. The CEC is part of Pitt’s Neighborhood Commitments, an effort to build stronger communities and a stronger University based on long-term, place-based partnerships.

Jones graduated from Pitt in 2019 with a bachelor's degree in social work and psychology. She is familiar with the Homewood community having served as a community assistant with Homewood Community Sports during the 2017-18 school year. 

The School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences’ Department of Health Information Management welcomes Elaine Devlin as department administrator. 

She has been with the University for more than 13 years. Devlin's most recent position was with the Department of Critical Care Medicine as a financial grants administrator.

Devlin is also a Pitt alumna with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree in accounting.