Hunter News & Events

Cyclists in New York City Disobey Traffic and Helmet Laws, a New Hunter College Study Finds; Raises Concerns Given Significant Increase in City Bike Riders

A new study released today, November 19, 2008, by Hunter College found that as New York City is seeing an upsurge in cyclists, many of them do not obey traffic and helmet laws. Children under the age of 14 years are required by law to wear a helmet while riding a bike, however almost 50 percent do not. The same law applies to commercial cyclists such as messengers and delivery workers, and only 27 percent of those cyclists observed were wearing helmets. A noticeable sex disparity in helmet use was also evident. Approximately one-half of the females use helmets compared to just a third of the males. These results are found in a Hunter College study co-authored by Peter Tuckel, a Professor in the Department of Sociology, and Bill Milczarski, an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning. Abundant research has been carried out on obedience to traffic laws by city drivers. Surprisingly, though, few systematic studies have been conducted on the behavior of urban cyclists.

Cyclists, too, must obey the traffic laws: stopping at a red light, riding in the same direction as traffic, and not riding on sidewalks. Only 43 percent of cyclists observed stop at red lights. Overall, about 13 percent of cyclists were observed riding against traffic, and children under the age of 14 were the most likely to ride in the opposite direction of traffic at 26 percent. Children under the age of 14 were disproportionately found among those who pedaled on sidewalks at almost 56 percent. Altogether, almost 13 percent of cyclists were observed riding on sidewalks.

Professors Tuckel and Milczarski collaborated with Hunter students in their Introduction to Research Methods course in the Department of Sociology, and a graduate course entitled, “Urban Data Analysis” in the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, respectively. The results are based upon observations of 2,928 bicyclists at street intersections, bike lanes, and bike paths at 69 different locations in New York City from October 1-29, 2008.

“Given the findings presented in this study that the overwhelming majority of cyclists in the city are not wearing helmets and the attendant risks of injury or even death, it is important that greater efforts be expended by governmental agencies and other responsible parties including parents, schools, cycling clubs, and sport retail outlets to encourage greater helmet use,” said Professor Tuckel.

“Greater adherence to these traffic laws would not only help to safeguard the well-being of cyclists but at the same time would reduce the increasing tensions between cyclists, motorists and pedestrians. Recently, several accounts from cities across the country have surfaced of conflicts between cyclists and motorists,” said Professor Milczarski.

The student researchers were also tasked with observing cyclists at a street with a bike lane, and nearly 14 percent did not use the designated lane while an additional 5.7 percent used both the designated lane and another street lane. Children under the age of 14 were the most likely not to use the bike lane, however, many children ride their bikes on the sidewalk. After controlling for “riding on the sidewalk,” delivery workers were found to be the most likely group not to ride in the designated bike lane followed by general riders, 15.2 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively.

Hunter Model UN Team Stacks up Even More Awards

Hunter College’s Model UN team is on a roll.

At Yale's 31st Annual Security Council Simulation, Hunter College's Model UN team competed on 14 different committees, some current and some historic, and David Hunter Walsh took home a coveted Outstanding Delegate award for representing Lithuania on the Council of the European Union.

Evgeniya Kim, who arrived at Yale to represent Panama after winning the tennis championship for Hunter College said, "This is our version of varsity debating, and we are champions."

Jakub Walko, Hunter's Head Delegate, who represented Col. Witold Sieniewicz on the KGB Committee said, "The Hunter team was so well-versed on all the panels, working around the clock for weeks and it paid off. We learned about negotiations, coalition building and public speaking, in addition to the substance of the

issues."

This triumphant trip to New Haven comes on the heels of the team taking home an Honorable Mention and a Verbal Accommodation at the third annual Columbia Model UN Crisis Simulation.

Competing against schools as formidable as Harvard and UPenn, Hunter's Jared Greenfield came away with an Honorable Mention Award for his role in the committee, Allied Supreme War Council: San Reno Conference 1920. Lauren Vriens, acting as Rex T. Shelby in the committee, Enron's Board of Directors in 2000, was given a Verbal Accommodation.

"The Hunter College team took away prizes at both Columbia and Yale and is gearing up for the U.N. Headquarters simulation," says Professor Falk, the team's faculty advisor, "Hunter is rightfully beaming about their team."

NIH Awards Hunter $1.3 Million Grant For Pioneering Project in Quantitative Biology

Hunter has received a five-year $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop its quantitative biology project, an innovative program that will prepare students in biology, chemistry, computer science, and mathematics and statistics to master the advances taking place in 21st-century biomedical science. Hunter is one of only nine institutions in the country to receive this grant.

Titled “Curricular and Pedagogical Innovations in Quantitative Biology,” the project, which was launched in July and will run through June 2013, will transform the College’s existing science curriculum by introducing innovative teaching methods, bioinformatics concentrations, and focused work and quantitative reasoning and analysis.

Weigang Qiu, assistant professor of biology, is the principal investigator of the project. Adrienne Alaie, assistant professor of biology, and Virginia Teller, professor of computer science and chair of the Computer Science Department, are co-P.I.s. Other leading faculty members from anthropology, biology, chemistry, computer science, and mathematics and statistics took part in the development of the project.

Among the benefits that students in the project will enjoy are small classes, individual mentoring, the opportunity to participate in research conducted at Hunter and nationally, and topnotch preparation for graduate studies and scientific/mathematical careers. Scholarships will also be available for qualified students.

The components of the project include:

	concentrations in bioinformatics for students majoring in biology, chemistry, computer science, or mathematics and statistics;
	transformation of the curriculum in science, mathematics, and statistics so that students graduate with knowledge and understanding of the fundamental concepts of bioinformatics and the critical role that bioinformatics plays in biomedical science today;
	faculty development initiatives such as the introduction of innovative pedagogy and bioinformatics content in 27 courses.

The students directly involved in the quantitative biology project are not the only students who will benefit from the project, notes principal investigator Qiu. Some 6,500 students a year—all students taking courses in the disciplines related to the project—will benefit from the curricular improvements that will arise once the new computational and quantitative biology content is integrated into these courses.

Hunter Economics Team Excels in the ‘Fed Challenge’

Hunter Economics Team Excels in the "Fed Challenge"

The Hunter College Economics Department Team has been selected to move into the semi-final round of the Fed Challenge, a competition sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Hunter’s five-member team, Megha Singh, Jose Lemus, Anumita Mukherjee, Besufekad Alemu, and Brian Trainor, are all undergraduate economics majors or students in the joint B.A./M.A. program.

On November 10, the Hunter team took part in the first-round of the Challenge. The competition comprised a 20-minute presentation and a 15-minute Q&A session with the judges. During the presentation, students described the current state of the economy, forecasted growth, employment and inflation trends, and made recommendations for the Fed’s monetary policy.

Coached by Hunter Economics Professors Niklas Westelius and Sangeeta Pratap, the team spent months getting ready for the Challenge. They learned how to collect, organize and analyze microeconomic data — and honed their communications skills. While preparing for the event, the team also stayed abreast of the latest developments in the financial markets. The Hunter group was praised by competition judges for its crisp and succinct presentation — showcasing a deep understanding of economic principles and recent events.

Of the 16 collegiate teams that competed in the event, six were chosen to move on to the semi-final round, which will take place on November 21. At that event, the judges will choose two teams to compete in national finals on December 3.

Hunter Model UN Team Stacks up More Awards

Hunter Model UN Team Stacks up More Awards

Hunter College's Model UN team took home an Honorable Mention and a Verbal Accommodation this past weekend at the third annual Columbia Model UN Crisis Simulation.

Competing against schools as formidable as Harvard and UPenn, Hunter's Jared Greenfield came away with a Honorable Mention Award for his role in the committee, Allied Supreme War Council: San Reno Conference 1920. Lauren Vriens, acting as Rex T. Shelby in the committee, Enron's Board of Directors in 2000, was given a Verbal Accommodation.

“They really did an excellent job representing Hunter,” said Professor Pamela Falk, the team's academic adviser and “war room” correspondent at the conference, “I'm incredibly proud of them.”

Due to the small size of the committees, only half of the class attended Columbia. The rest of the students are expected to do as well in this weekend's Model UN Conference at Yale University.

“The Hunter College Team represents six of seven continents and has gained vital experience from competing at Harvard, CUNY and Columbia,” said Delegate Coordinator Raissa Dally.

“This is an incredible education,” said Vriens, a member of the HC Team who competed at Columbia and is an intern at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Hunter Geography Student Awarded National Fellowship

Elyssa Davis, a Hunter geography masters student, is a winner of the 2008/2009 Society of Woman Geographers (SWG) Evelyn L. Pruitt National Minority Fellowship. Davis is using her grant award to pursue thesis research on women's participation in improved rural water supply in the Dominican Republic.

Awardees of the Pruitt National Minority Fellowship demonstrate a high level of academic achievement, a strong interest in geography, and promise of future accomplishments in the discipline. The Fellowship is named for Evelyn L. Pruitt, a longtime SWG member who was a geographer for the U.S. Navy and whose work greatly advanced the study of coastal environments and the use of remote sensing in geographical studies from the 1940's into the 1970's.

NSF Awards Grant to Hunter Chemistry Professors

The National Science Foundation has awarded a four-year, $749,996 Noyce grant to Hunter Chemistry Professors Bill Sweeney and Pam Mills and Deborah Gardner, Director of Hunter’s Teacher Academy. The grant will fund 40 students who enter the Teacher Academy in their junior year and who major in math or science in the BA/MA programs of their disciplines.

This project builds on the existing Teacher Academy program which admits highly qualified candidates as freshmen or sophomores. The Noyce program will provide funding for tuition and stipends for 40 new biology, chemistry, earth science, physics or mathematics majors who intend to teach in middle schools or high schools in New York City. The Noyce program will continue the Teacher Academy collaboration between the Schools of Arts & Sciences and Education at Hunter, the host schools that provide internships to the students, and the Partnership for Excellence in Teaching at the Department of Education.

Motorola Foundation Awards $50,000 for Program to Improve Geometry Teaching

The Motorola Foundation has given a grant of $50,000 to Hunter College in partnership with the Manhattan Hunter Science High School to implement a pioneering program that uses technology and innovative approaches to mathematical thinking to improve the teaching of high school geometry.

The project director for the grant is Frank Gardella, Hunter professor of curriculum and teaching, and executive director of the Mathematics Center for Learning and Teaching, which is part of Hunter’s School of Education. The new program—Intuitive Experiences Before Formalism: A Model for Teaching High School Geometry—originated during the 2007-2008 school year, when the mathematics department at Manhattan Hunter Science High School and the Mathematics Center for Learning and Teaching developed a learning sequence aimed at helping students meet the New York State standards for the new Integrated Geometry Regents Program.

A central problem that the new sequence seeks to address is that geometry tends to become a formalized entity before students have had an opportunity to develop the intuitive ideas underlying the formalism—e.g., the “proofs” that constitute a principal aspect of high school geometry. To deal with this problem, the new program assigns students laboratory activities using special software—Geometer Sketchpad—as well as traditional tools such as rulers, protractors, and compasses. After working through a series of activities, both computer-based and hands-on, from which they are asked to draw a conclusion, students develop a more intuitive understanding of geometric concepts and are then able to move on to the formalism of geometry with a clearer grasp of the underlying ideas.

Students in the program, which is being given at Manhattan Hunter Science High School, will be tested at various points during the school year.

Hunter Education Professor Awarded $3.1 Million Grant from National Science Foundation

Hunter College School of Education Professor Elizabeth Da Silva Cardoso has been awarded a $3.1 million grant by the National Science Foundation for her project, “MIND Alliance for Minority Students with Disabilities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics,” designed to increase the quantity and quality of minority students with disabilities in the field of sciences at the high school, community college, college level and in the work force.

Professor Cardoso will partner with Southern University at Baton Rouge on her project. This collaboration allows for the expertise, experience, institutional, programmatic and personnel resources to provide best practice educational and career development services to students with disabilities from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds.

At Hunter College, Professor Cardoso teaches in the Department of Educational Foundations and Counseling Programs in the School of Education. She teaches in the Rehabilitation and School Counseling Programs that includes clinical and didactic course work in psychosocial aspects of disability, counseling and interviewing skills, practicum, internship, and individual clinical supervision.

Professor Cardoso has published extensively in the areas of substance abuse assessment and treatment, multicultural counseling, psychosocial aspects of chronic illness and disability, and evidence-based practice. She received an American Rehabilitation Counseling Association (ARCA) research awards in 2004 and 2005 for an empirical research papers entitled, "Readiness to change among individuals in therapeutic community programs for treatment of substance abuse" and “Rehabilitation counseling students attitudes toward people with disabilities in three social contexts: A conjoint analysis”, that were published in the Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin. Some of her research has been funded by PSC-CUNY, Junior Faculty Development Award, and the George N. Shuster Faculty Fellowship.

Hunter Sophomore Wins Kempton Journalism Award

Hunter College sophomore Tracy Neiman is among the winners of the first Murray Kempton Awards for Journalism. Her article about a Hunter student raising awareness for a cancer charity was selected Best Feature Story by a three-person panel of judges. The piece, “Why Ly Ky Tran is Relaying for Life,” details Ms. Tran’s effort to honor the memory of a friend who died of brain cancer.

“I wanted to write an article about Hunter’s participation in Relay for Life, an American Cancer Society fundraiser – and as I talked to participants, I realized many of them had really moving stories to tell about what fueled their enthusiasm for the cause,” Neiman said.

The award-winning article was published in The Hunter Envoy, the student newspaper on which Ms. Neiman has worked for about a year. She is currently the news editor.

Neiman, who has not yet declared a major, credited journalism professor Bernard Stein for helping to develop her reporting and writing skills. “One of the most important teachings Professor Stein left me with is this: Everyone is interesting and everyone has a story to tell,” she said. “I think of this often, especially when I’m lacking article ideas or inspiration.” She also said that the support of her Hunter creative writing professor Isabel Grayson “has truly made me more confident in myself and in my writing.”

The awards are named for the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist Murray Kempton. His career in New York journalism spanned a half-century, during which his left-leaning columns became staples in New York Post and, later, in Newsday. Kempton died in 1997.

“Murray Kempton was an amazing journalist and columnist, and I am so honored and gratified to receive an award in his honor,” Neiman said.

CUNY Trustees Appoint Kenneth Olden Founding and Acting Dean of Proposed School for Public Health

The Board of Trustees of The City University of New York has appointed Dr. Kenneth Olden as Founding and Acting Dean of the proposed new CUNY School of Public Health to be sited at Hunter College.

The appointment was made at the recommendation of Chancellor Matthew Goldstein and Hunter College President Jennifer J. Raab.

Dr. Olden headed the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, both part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), from 1991 to 2005. He was the first African-American to become Director of one of the 18 Institutes of the NIH, and has also recently served as Yerby Visiting Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.

President Raab said: “Under Dr. Olden’s leadership CUNY and Hunter College will be well positioned to establish a world-class School of Public Health given our strong master’s and Ph.D. programs in the field, combined with the University’s great strengths in the natural and social sciences that underlie the public health field.”

Dr. Olden earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at Knoxville College, a master’s in genetics at the University of Michigan, and a doctorate in cell biology and biochemistry at Temple University. Before conducting research at the National Cancer Institute, he did postdoctoral work and taught at the Harvard Medical School. From 1979 to 1991, Dr. Olden worked at Howard University in several roles, ultimately as director of the Howard University Cancer Center and Chairman of the Department of Oncology. In 1991, he became director of NIEHS and the National Toxicology Program, with a concurrent scientific post as chief of the Metastasis Section of the NIEHS Environmental Carcinogenesis Program.

Dr. Olden stated: “The goal of CUNY’s School of Public Health is to train interdisciplinary urban public health researchers and practitioners capable of working across all levels of analysis, disciplines, and social sectors -- such as health, education, the environment, and criminal justice -- to address complex urban public health problems.” He said the school will produce graduates “with the skills and knowledge to help eliminate the serious disparities in urban health care facing the poor, minorities and immigrants, while also preparing future faculty and addressing staffing shortages in the public health workforce that will accompany the aging of Baby Boomers.” Dr. Olden noted that, “by virtue of its location at the City University, the School will attract students who live and work in the very urban communities it is designed to serve.”

In October 2006, Chancellor Matthew Goldstein announced plans to open a School of Public Health at Hunter College by 2010 that will be the only such program in the nation focusing on urban public health. The school, which will offer community-based public health doctoral and master’s degrees, will also be the first public school of public health in New York City.

By 2030 nearly two-thirds of the world’s 8.1 billion people are expected to be city dwellers. Many of the most serious health problems of our time, including HIV infection, drug addiction, forms of interpersonal violence, and more serious variants of chronic diseases like asthma and diabetes, have emerged first in cities. The proposed CUNY School of Public Health will focus on developing new ways to control health problems in urban populations while training practitioners to implement these solutions in New York City and other urban centers.

In his new post, Dr. Olden will head a School that will draw upon four CUNY colleges with particular strengths in the public health field, and featuring a collaborative model in accordance with Chancellor Goldstein’s mission of an integrated university. The campuses are: Brooklyn, Hunter and Lehman Colleges, which are already home to master’s degree programs in this area; and the Graduate Center, which along with Hunter, currently houses the Doctor of Public Health degree programs. The school is in formation, and will be fully established when it is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), which we expect to occur during 2010--2011.

The proposed CUNY School of Public Health will offer the Master of Public Health or Master of Science degree program tracks in the five core areas of public health: epidemiology, biostatistics, social and behavioral sciences, health care administration and policy, and environmental health sciences; and the Doctor of Public Health (DPH) degree programs in four of these core areas. The MPH degrees will be offered on the Hunter, Brooklyn and Lehman College campuses, while the Doctor of Public Health (DPH) degree programs will be offered jointly by Hunter College and the Graduate Center with support from other CUNY colleges.

Dr. Olden has maintained his research interests throughout his administrative career. Among his many publications are a 1978 paper on glycoproteins in Cell that has become one of the 100 most-cited scientific research reports, and a 1985 paper in the Journal of Biological Chemistry that reversed the 15-year conventional wisdom that secretory proteins are transported via a “conveyor belt.”

Dr. Olden’s early cancer research led him to study the role of glycoproteins in cancer. Working with Ken Yamada and others at the National Cancer Institute, he became fascinated with fibronectin, a glycoprotein that promotes the attachment of cells to the extracellular matrix. Because fibronectin disappears from cancer cells, which then metastasize, fibronectin might hold the key to metastasis prevention, thus saving patients’ lives. The team got as far as preventing metastasis in mice but was unable to do the same thing in humans.

Hunter Professor Emerita Named MacArthur Fellow

Hunter Distinguished Professor Emerita Nancy Siraisi has been chosen as one of 25 recipients of the MacArthur Foundation’s “Genius Awards.” Dr. Siraisi, a medical historian who studies the impact of medical theory and practice on Renaissance society, culture and religion, was singled out for her creativity and potential for making important future contributions to her field. She will receive $500,000 over five years from the MacArthur Foundation.

In making the announcement, MacArthur Foundation President Jonathan F. Fanton said that MacArthur winners were “people working on the very edge of discovery and people at the edge of a new synthesis.”

Siraisi was a professor of history at Hunter College from 1970 until her retirement in 2003. She is the author of several books, including Taddeo Alderotti and His Pupils (1981), Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine (1990), and History, Medicine, and the Traditions of Renaissance Learning (2007). Regarded as a leading scholar of the field in the U.S. and Europe, Siraisi continues to provide contributions to the evolving scholarly understanding of medical history and, specifically, Renaissance intellectual history.

Siraisi said the award will keep her studying and writing about medicine in the 16th century. "I take it to be an expression of confidence," said the 76-year-old, "that I will go on actively working."

Five-year $4,250,000 Grant from U.S. Education Department

Will Fund Center on Disability Statistics

Hunter has received a five-year $4,250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to launch a center on disability statistics and demographics whose ultimate goal is to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities.

John O’Neill, professor of educational foundations and counseling, will be project director of the new Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Statistics and Demographics (RRTC) and Elizabeth Cardoso, associate professor of EF&C, will be co-director.

Noting that existing survey data on people with disabilities “lack continuity and are underutilized, leading to missed opportunities to improve the programs and policies that advance the lives of people with disabilities,” the project leaders say that the new center will carry out an integrated set of research and outreach projects aimed at overcoming these problems.

To further strengthen its results, the center will bring together the work of researchers, advocates for people with disabilities, and leaders in vocational rehabilitation, and will build on statistical and demographic efforts already carried out at Hunter.

The central goals of the proposed RRTC are to improve knowledge of existing data and access to the data, to generate the knowledge needed to improve future data collection, and to strengthen the connections between data from respondents, researchers, and decision makers. “In this way,” concludes the grant proposal, “we hope to facilitate evidenced-based decision making that will improve service systems and ultimately lead to the improvement of the quality of life of people with disabilities.”

The grant will be awarded in five yearly increments of $850,000, beginning in fall 2008.

Hunter Researcher Wins Major NIH Grant

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a four-year, $952,000 grant to Professor Beatrice J. Krauss, Executive Director of Hunter’s Center for Community and Urban Health. The grant will fund a project to address the continuing HIV epidemic among minority youth.

Professor Krauss’s co-principal investigators will be Professor Carol Roye, who holds a dual appointment in nursing and urban public health; Darrell P. Wheeler, associate dean for research and associate professor at the School of Social Work, and Professor Jeffrey T. Parsons, chair of the Psychology Department. The project will be housed at Hunter’s Schools of the Health Professions and will collaborate with the School of Social Work, the CUNY graduate health psychology program, Columbia University and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Professor Krauss’s project will mentor and advance the careers of eight Fellows who are recruited from the New York region. The Fellows will be trained in youth, family, community and HIV issues, thereby increasing the number of skilled researchers who are from communities that are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS.

Student Services Launches Revised Student E-Bulletin

First-Year Seminar Students Assigned Short Stories on the Dominican Immigrant Experience

Hunter College has assigned Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz’s first book, Drown, as the primary reading in this year’s First-Year Seminar (FYSH) courses, taken by all incoming freshmen and transfer students. Drown, a collection of short stories, chronicles the Dominican immigrant experience in the Dominican Republic, the Bronx, and a number of Northern New Jersey towns.

Díaz's 2007 novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, earned a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Sargent First Novel Prize, and the National Book Critics Award for Best Novel of 2007.

All FYSH students will be invited to hear Díaz read from Drown when he visits Hunter to deliver the FYSH Lecture on October 22. Díaz is no stranger to Hunter audiences. He read from his novel at a Distinguished Writers Series event on campus and also led a workshop for Hunter MFA students.

Hunter Poli Sci Professor Predicts Selection of Biden for VP

http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/blog/2008/08/why_biden_how_a_local_prof_kne.html

Hunter Scores High Again in U.S. News & World Report Best College List

Once again, Hunter has won outstanding marks in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges.” In its widely anticipated 2009 issue, the newsweekly rated Hunter an impressive 12th among “Top Public Universities” in the North and placed the College 52nd on its list of “Best Universities in the North” that grant master’s degrees.

In a category of special importance to the student body, Hunter repeated its first-place finish among master’s granting universities in the North whose undergraduates leave school with the lowest personal debt.

Hunter also got a top grade for the diversity of its student body. It ranked fourth in this category among masters-granting universities in the North. Significantly – but perhaps not surprisingly – CUNY had five campuses among the top six in this category. Besides Hunter, they are Baruch, City College, Brooklyn College and John Jay. CUNY’s commitment to diversity is strong, and Hunter is helping lead the way.

Hunter Alum Awarded 2008 NJ Governor’s Nursing Merit Award

Hunter alumna Maria Brennan has been awarded the 2008 N.J. Governor’s Nursing Merit Award, Nurse Administrator. Brennan was selected among New Jersey’s top nursing leaders to receive this award, which is given for excellence in nursing, compassion in care, and technical proficiency.

Brennan, who earned her MS in nursing from Hunter in 1984, is the chief nursing officer for St. Joseph’s Healthcare System (SJHS) and the vice president for patient care services at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson, NJ.

As the senior nursing executive at SJHS, she has demonstrated her commitment to excellence in patient care by developing “swing” units to deal with the seasonal influx of patients, designating “urgent care” alternate sites, and creating additional patient-need nursing units. Brennan is also credited with decreasing the RN vacancy rate at SJHS from 12% to 2%. She has also advised organizations nationally and locally on how to improve patient care and nursing practice.

In December 2006, Brennan was elected to the Board of Directors of the Organization of Nurse Executives of New Jersey (ONE/NJ), and in 2007 she received the ONE/NJ Nurse Executive Award. She was also honored as a Healthcare Heroes Nurse of the Year finalist in June 2008 by NJBIZ magazine.

Prior to accepting her current position at St. Joseph’s in 2004, Brennan served as vice president for nursing and patient care services at other healthcare organizations including St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center of New York, Staten Island Services Division, Meridian Health System, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, and Capital Health System in Trenton.

Hunter Alum Named COO of Amalgamated Bank

Hunter alumnus Barry Kipnis has been named Chief Operating Officer of Amalgamated Bank, reporting directly to the Bank’s CEO.

As the Bank's COO, Kipnis is responsible for reviewing bank-wide technology projects, expense control, development of new products and services as well as general oversight of operations and administrative functions.

Kipnis, who earned a BA from Hunter in 1973, has over 30 years of diversified experience in securities operations and administration. Before joining Amalgamated Bank, Kipnis served as Vice President, in Securities and Custody Services for the Global Wealth Management business at Morgan Stanley & Company.

Two Hunter Students Are First Authors of Article on Tumor-Fighting Substance

Two Hunter graduate students are the first authors of a just-published journal article on a substance that could play an important role in the fight against cancer.

The article appears in the July 1, 2008, issue of the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Cancer Research and also lists Hunter biology professor David Foster as an author. The article is titled “Honokiol Suppresses Survival Signals Mediated by Ras-Dependent Phospholipase D Activity in Human Cancer Cells.”

The Hunter students, Avalon Garcia and Yang Zheng, worked in the laboratory of Dr. Foster. The research on the substance—honokiol, a natural compound from magnolia cones—was funded by the National Institutes of Health and conducted collaboratively by labs at Emory University School of Medicine, NYU School of Medicine, and Hunter.

Earlier research conducted at Emory led to the discovery in 2003 that honokiol, which is found in Japanese and Chinese herbal medicines, has the ability to inhibit tumor growth in mice. Knowing more about how the substance works, said Dr. Jack Arbiser, the head of the Emory lab, “will tell us what kinds of cancer to go after.” The compound’s properties, he added, “could make tumors more sensitive to traditional chemotherapy.”