One Career Choice Gets Better
Every 10.9 Seconds

 

Every 10.9 seconds another American turns 60, and by 2030, one in every five Americans will be over the age of 65. To prepare leaders to meet the needs of the growing baby boom population, UMBC’s Erickson School of Aging Studies will launch an undergraduate major in Management of Aging Services this fall. It is the first program in the nation to integrate management science, public policy and the study of human aging.

As U.S. demographics change, so do the demands on the workforce, creating career opportunities in such diverse areas as finance, healthcare, marketing and product design, social services, and public advocacy.

“When today’s students hear the word ‘aging,’ they should think of the diverse and plentiful career choices they’ll have when they graduate,” said J. Kevin Eckert, dean of the Erickson School. “The multidisciplinary curriculum that the management in aging services major provides will give students the edge in a rapidly changing workplace.”

The Management of Aging Services major will include intensive individual advising, generous merit-based scholarships, internships and service learning opportunities, career counseling and job placement, in addition to courses taught by some of the nation’s leading researchers in the field, including UMBC professors in public policy, aging and health services. In addition, all declared Management of Aging Studies majors will be eligible for $1000 of financial assistance for fall 2006.

The Erickson School of Aging Studies at UMBC was established in April 2004 with a $5 million commitment from John Erickson, founder and CEO of Erickson, the Baltimore-based developer of residential communities for middle-income people over 62. The School’s goal is to educate leaders and build new knowledge to improve society for mid-life and older adults. In addition to the new bachelor’s degree, the School offers a graduate certificate as well as executive education courses.

For more information, visit www.erickson.umbc.edu.

 

2/27/06

 

 

 

 

 

Strengthening History Education

 

UMBC’s Center for History Education recently received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Teaching American History Grant Program to invigorate the teaching of history in elementary, middle and high schools. This is the fourth grant the Center has received from the Department of Education.

Over the next three years, the Center will collaborate with Baltimore County Public Schools to enable 30 elementary, middle and high school teachers of American history to become Master Teachers. Program partners also include the Maryland State Archives and the Maryland Historical Society. Participants will work with teams of historians, resource teachers and archivists to increase their own knowledge, develop effective strategies for teaching history and acquire new historical materials for their students.

Teachers will attend Summer Institutes and school-year workshops taught by UMBC’s distinguished history faculty on such topics as the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Movement. John Jeffries, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and a professor of history, and Kriste Lindenmeyer, associate professor and chair of history, will be among the faculty at the 2006 Summer Institute.

“The UMBC history department has a long tradition of providing support to teachers of history at all levels, and the Center was born of this commitment,” said Daniel Ritschel, associate professor of history and director of the Center for History Education. “We seek not only to help teachers strengthen their knowledge of history, but also to develop instructional techniques best suited for the history classroom.”

The Center collaborates UMBC’s Martha Ross Center for Oral History (MRCOH) to offer teachers and students opportunities to study community history and create their own oral history projects. Barry Lanman, MRCOH director, has worked with teachers to develop local history projects at schools in Arbutus, Dundalk, Glen Burnie, Halethorpe, Lutherville and Timonium, among others.

The Center also is a resource for educators throughout Maryland and beyond: an online library of lesson plans, created by program participants, can be accessed by teachers across the country. In addition, the Center is planning a conference to bring together prominent educators, policy makers and foundations to discuss access to quality education and suggest policies to strengthen history education.

(2/20/06)

 

 

 

 

 

Recognizing Outstanding Alumni

 

UMBC celebrated its success in forging leaders in a wide array of fields at the February 8 Alumni Awards ceremony in Annapolis.

2006 Outstanding Alumna in Engineering and Information Technology

Donna Stevenson, 1987 Information Systems

As head of Early Morning Software, Stevenson is one of only a few minority women CEOs of an IT company in the country. She remains an active volunteer at UMBC, most notably as a member of the Center for Women and Information Technology Advisory Board and a mentor-in-residence for the ACTiVATE program, which promotes entrepreneurship among women.

2006 Outstanding Alumnus in Humanities

Steven Eidelman, 1973 American Studies

After serving for three decades as an advocate for people with disabilities – most recently as national executive director of The Arc of the United States – Eidelman last fall was named the University of Delaware’s first Robert Edelsohn Chair in Disabilities Studies, as well as a Senior Fellow at the university’s Center for Disabilities Studies. In his new position, Eidelman also develops leadership training programs for government and not-for-profit managers who support people with disabilities.

2006 Outstanding Alumna in Natural and Mathematical Sciences

Diane Auer Jones, 1988 M.S. Applied Molecular Biology

In addition to a successful career as an entrepreneur, government policy maker and administrator at Princeton University, in November Jones was appointed Deputy Associate Director for the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. She also has served as an active member of the UMBC Research Park Corporation’s Board of Directors for the past eleven years.

2006 Outstanding Alumna in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Lisa L. Dickerson, 1978 Political Science

Prior to her appointment as the first African-American female Administrator for the Maryland Transit Administration in 2005, Dickerson served as assistant secretary for equity and economic empowerment at the Maryland Department of Transportation, and before that garnered successes working as a Congressional fellow in Washington and serving as vice president of a national telecommunications firm. During his time in office, President George H.W. Bush also appointed Dickerson to the prestigious Committee for Small Business and the Republican Council of 100.

2006 Outstanding Alumnus in Visual and Performing Arts

Billy Kemp, 1995 Visual and Performing Arts – Music

An accomplished multi-instrumentalist and producer, Kemp received three nominations from the Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) in 2004 including best producer. In 2003 Kemp produced Grammy-nominated and Wammy award-winning singer Debi Smith. He has acted as composer for the regional Emmy award-winning Maryland Public Television series, “Outdoors Maryland” since 1997 and served as adjunct faculty at UMBC since 1996.

2006 Distinguished Service Award

Michael L. Oster, 1974 Economics

As chairman of the UMBC Economics Advisory Board since its inception in 2001, Oster has helped shape the council’s objectives, facilitate scholarships and internships for students and created many valuable connections for the University. An accomplished banking executive, Oster joined BB&T in 1999 as a regional president and became Maryland group president in 2001. His time and talents also benefit the boards of a number of worthy organizations, many of them in his home, Carroll County. He currently also serves as chairman of the Maryland Bankers Association.

Visionary Leadership Award

The Alumni Association Executive Board will present this special award to the Reginald F. Lewis Event Committee (Kisha Matthews ’03, Yvette Mozie-Ross ’88, James Wiggins ’75, Gary Brooks ’79, Michael Sterling ’85, Juan Holcomb ’81, Devin Walker ’89 and Crystal Watkins ’95) in recognition of their achievement in advancing the mission of the Alumni Association.

For more information about the UMBC Alumni Association awards, as well as alumni news and events, visit Retriever Net online at http://retrievernet.umbc.edu.

(2/9/06)

 

 

 

 

A Destination for Art and Culture

 

With its strong emphasis on exhibitions, outreach, public programming and scholarly research publications focused on contemporary art and cultural issues, UMBC’s Center for Art and Visual Culture (CAVC) fills a unique niche within the mid-Atlantic region.

CAVC’s exhibitions were recently recognized by both national and regional media. Washington Post reviewer Jessica Dawson called “Blur of the Otherworldly,” CAVC’s fall 2005 exhibition, “an ambitious group show….,” while locally, Baltimore magazine named CAVC the metropolitan area’s Best Contemporary Art Gallery. Said Baltimore: “UMBC’s Center for Art and Visual Culture mounts cutting edge exhibitions infused with aesthetic bravado, intellectual heft and cultural significance. (Recent shows) have turned the center into a budding contemporary art powerhouse.” (“Blur of the Otherworldly” is also part of a feature on art and the paranormal in the February issue of Art in America.)

In addition, the American Association of Museums awarded CAVC a First Prize in its Publication Design Competition, Exhibitions category, for “White: Whiteness and Race in Contemporary Art.” The traveling exhibition, organized by CAVC, has been profiled by news organizations such as ABC “World News Tonight,” Newsweek and National Public Radio.

Since 1992, CAVC has actively pursued the organization of exhibitions that contain the aesthetic, theoretical and educational potential to reach both a national and international audience. CAVC Director Symmes Gardner said, “David Yager, our executive director and founder, and I have worked together to build CAVC through the years. It’s been a fantastic experience because we’ve had a lot of time to maneuver and try out new things.” CAVC staff includes Curator Maurice Berger, a fellow at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics of the New School for Social Research in New York.

CAVC has traveled its exhibition projects to a broad spectrum of museums, professional non-profit galleries and universities in the U.S. and abroad. It also coordinates an internship program for UMBC undergraduate and graduate students, and collaborates with schools, museums and non-profit organizations to produce educational programs for children and adults in the city and suburbs.

On Thursday, February 2 from 5 to 7 p.m., CAVC will host an opening reception for “What Sound Does a Color Make?,” a traveling exhibition organized and circulated by Independent Curators International that explores the fusion of vision and sound in electronic media. At 6 p.m., Kathleen Forde, curator of “What Sound Does a Color Make?” will discuss the exhibition.

The Center for Art and Visual Culture is just one of the reasons UMBC is a destination for art and culture. For a calendar of upcoming arts and humanities events at UMBC, visit www.umbc.edu/arts.

(1/30/06)

 

 

 

 

Learning from New Zealand Public Policy

 

On January 18, leaders in public policy from across the U.S. will convene at UMBC for a one-day forum, “What Did We Learn Over There? Public Policy in New Zealand Through American Eyes.” Hosted by the University’s Center for Health Program Development and Management (CHPDM), the event will bring together for the first time individuals who studied in New Zealand as Ian Axford Fellows in Public Policy. The Axford Fellows program was established by the New Zealand Government in partnership with the private sector to give outstanding American professionals opportunities to study, travel and gain practical knowledge of economic, social and political reforms and management of the government sector.

Eight former Ian Axford Fellows will give presentations, and the program will be placed in context with remarks by Robert Reischauer, President of the Urban Institute and former chair of the Ian Axford Fellowships selection committee; Annette Dixon, the World Bank’s Director of Strategy and Operations for Europe and Central Asia Region; and Peter Watson, CEO of the Dwight Group and current chair of the Axford selection committee. UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski and CHPDM Executive Director Chuck Milligan will speak, and faculty and students will also attend.

John O’Brien, CHPDM’s director of acute care policy and an Ian Axford Fellow in 2005, was inspired to bring former Fellows together to foster an ongoing dialogue about policy issues. “My six months in New Zealand allowed me to think broadly about how health care delivery systems work, and to question my own assumptions of how systems can and should work,” he said.

Though dwarfed by the United States in size and population, New Zealand faces many of the same issues that confront this country. Health care, the environment, taxes, ethnic diversity and education are but a few of the topics that past Axford Fellows have investigated. “One of the benefits of studying New Zealand is that the relationships across seemingly disparate topics are more apparent than in a large country like the United States,” said O’Brien. “Discussion among forum participants is likely to generate fresh insights and novel approaches that otherwise might not be considered.”

CHPDM is dedicated to improving the health and social outcomes of vulnerable populations through research, analysis and evaluations on behalf of government agencies and foundations. Formed in 1994 in a unique collaboration with the Maryland Medicaid program, the Center is actively engaged in the academic and research programs at UMBC, and partners with other University centers and departments on research initiatives, forums and symposia related to federal and state health policy. As a member of the University community, the Center offers research and employment opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and currently employs eight UMBC alumni.

For more information on CHPDM, visit www.chpdm.org.

(1/10/06)

 

 

 

 

Each year, the UMBC Alumni Association presents awards to honor alumni for their professional and personal achievements and service to the University.  Learn more about our past award winners.

Outstanding Alumna
Natural & Mathematical Sciences
Diane Auer Jones ’88, M.S. Applied Molecular Biology
In addition to a successful career as an entrepreneur, government policy maker and administrator at Princeton University, in November Jones was appointed Deputy Associate Director for the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. She also has served as an active member of the UMBC Research Park Corporation’s board of directors for the past eleven years.
Outstanding Alumnus
Humanities
Steven Eidelman ’73, American Studies
After serving for three decades as an advocate for people with disabilities – most recently as national executive director of The Arc of the United States – Eidelman last fall was named the University of Delaware’s first Robert Edelsohn Chair in Disabilities Studies, as well as a Senior Fellow at the university’s Center for Disabilities Studies. In his new position, Eidelman also develops leadership training programs for government and not-for-profit managers who support people with disabilities.
Outstanding Alumnus
Visual & Performing Arts
Billy Kemp ’95, Visual and Performing Arts – Music
An accomplished multi-instrumentalist and producer, Kemp received three nominations from the Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) in 2004 including best producer. In 2003 Kemp produced Grammy-nominated and Wammy award-winning singer Debi Smith. He has been the composer for the regional Emmy award-winning Maryland Public Television series, “Outdoors Maryland,” since 1997. He has been adjunct faculty at UMBC since 1996.
Outstanding Alumna
Social & Behavioral Sciences
Lisa L. Dickerson ’78, Political Science
Prior to her appointment as the first African-American female Administrator for the Maryland Transit Administration in 2005, Dickerson served as Assistant Secretary for Equity and Economic Empowerment at the Maryland Department of Transportation, and before that garnered successes working as a congressional fellow in Washington and serving as vice president of a national telecommunications firm. During his time in office, President George H.W. Bush also appointed Dickerson to the prestigious Committee for Small Business and the Republican Council of 100.
Outstanding Alumna
Engineering and Information Technology
Donna Stevenson ’87, Information Systems
As head of Early Morning Software, Stevenson is one of only a few minority women CEOs of an IT company in Maryland and the rest of the United States. She remains an active volunteer at UMBC, most notably as a member of the Center for Women and Information Technology advisory board and a mentor-in-residence for the ACTiVATE program, which promotes entrepreneurship among women.
Distinguished Service Award
Michael L. Oster ’74, Economics
As chairman of the UMBC Economics Advisory Board since its inception in 2001, Oster has helped shape the council’s objectives, facilitate scholarships and internships for students and created many valuable connections for the University. An accomplished banking executive, Oster joined BB&T in 1999 as a regional president and became Maryland Group President in 2001. His time and talents also benefit the boards of a number of worthy organizations, many of them in his home, Carroll County.
Visionary Leadership Award
The Alumni Association Executive Board will present this special award to the Reginald F. Lewis Event Committee in recognition of their achievement in advancing the mission of the Alumni Association. The committee members are:
Kisha Matthews ’03
Yvette Mozie-Ross ’88
Devin Walker ’89
James Wiggins ’75
Gary Brooks ’79
Michael Sterling ’85
Juan Holcomb ’81
Crystal Watkins ’95

Learning from New Zealand Public Policy

 

On January 18, leaders in public policy from across the U.S. will convene at UMBC for a one-day forum, “What Did We Learn Over There? Public Policy in New Zealand Through American Eyes.” Hosted by the University’s Center for Health Program Development and Management (CHPDM), the event will bring together for the first time individuals who studied in New Zealand as Ian Axford Fellows in Public Policy. The Axford Fellows program was established by the New Zealand Government in partnership with the private sector to give outstanding American professionals opportunities to study, travel and gain practical knowledge of economic, social and political reforms and management of the government sector.

Eight former Ian Axford Fellows will give presentations, and the program will be placed in context with remarks by Robert Reischauer, President of the Urban Institute and former chair of the Ian Axford Fellowships selection committee; Annette Dixon, the World Bank’s Director of Strategy and Operations for Europe and Central Asia Region; and Peter Watson, CEO of the Dwight Group and current chair of the Axford selection committee. UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski and CHPDM Executive Director Chuck Milligan will speak, and faculty and students will also attend.

John O’Brien, CHPDM’s director of acute care policy and an Ian Axford Fellow in 2005, was inspired to bring former Fellows together to foster an ongoing dialogue about policy issues. “My six months in New Zealand allowed me to think broadly about how health care delivery systems work, and to question my own assumptions of how systems can and should work,” he said.

Though dwarfed by the United States in size and population, New Zealand faces many of the same issues that confront this country. Health care, the environment, taxes, ethnic diversity and education are but a few of the topics that past Axford Fellows have investigated. “One of the benefits of studying New Zealand is that the relationships across seemingly disparate topics are more apparent than in a large country like the United States,” said O’Brien. “Discussion among forum participants is likely to generate fresh insights and novel approaches that otherwise might not be considered.”

CHPDM is dedicated to improving the health and social outcomes of vulnerable populations through research, analysis and evaluations on behalf of government agencies and foundations. Formed in 1994 in a unique collaboration with the Maryland Medicaid program, the Center is actively engaged in the academic and research programs at UMBC, and partners with other University centers and departments on research initiatives, forums and symposia related to federal and state health policy. As a member of the University community, the Center offers research and employment opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and currently employs eight UMBC alumni.

For more information on CHPDM, visit www.chpdm.org.

(1/10/06)