NEWS

Dr. David R. Godschalk, Steven Baxter professor in the UNC department of city and regional planning, has received the Distinguished Educator Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning.

Godshalk was honored Nov. 21 at the association’s annual conference in Baltimore. Presented in appreciation of service and contribution to planning, the award recipient is selected from candidates who are nominated by association members. Nominations come from chairs or members of the faculty of member schools. Nomination criteria include scholarly contributions, teaching excellence and professional service.

"Dr. Godschalk was selected and nominated by ACSP members for his scholarly contributions, teaching excellence, and service to planning for more than 30 years," the association said in a news release.

The association highlighted Godschalk’s "significant contributions" to its work as well as to that of the American Planning Association, its state chapters and the American Institute of Certified Planners. "His work has made a significant difference to planning education and practice," the association said.

Godschalk teaches courses on dispute resolution and site and project planning. He serves on the board of the Multi-Hazard Mitigation Council of the National Institute of Building Sciences. He was a member of the 2000-2001 North Carolina Commission to Address Smart Growth, Growth Management and Development Issues. A registered architect and planner, Godschalk’s research interests include smart growth, hazard mitigation, coastal planning, consensus-building and distance learning.

UNC now joins the University of Pennsylvania with three winners of the Distinguished Educator Award. Others from Carolina were John A. Parker, 1994, and F. Stuart Chapin Jr., 1986. UCLA, Cornell, MIT and UC-Berkeley each have had two winners.

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning is a consortium of university-based programs offering credentials in urban and regional planning. It promotes education, research, service and outreach in the United States and throughout the world.

Photo note: To download a photo of Godschalk, go to: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/godschalk_david.jpg

###

Professor pens book about race in Native American society

UNC history professor Dr. Theda Perdue explores issues of race and family ties from a Native American perspective in her new book, "‘Mixed-Blood’ Indians: Racial Construction in the Early South."

Published by the University of Georgia Press, the book examines the differences in concepts of race between European and Native American cultures and how those perceptions affected the treatment of multiracial people. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, European men sometimes married Indian women. Whites referred to the children of such marriages as "half-breeds," but no such distinction was used in Indian communities.

Perdue discusses the assimilation of non-Indians into Indian societies, their descendants’ participation in tribal life and the white cultural assumptions conveyed in the designation "mixed blood." Perdue also examines cases involving white women and African men and women within Indian societies.

Perdue, a specialist in Southeastern Native Americans, has been at UNC since 1995 and a professor since 1998. She has written or edited 10 books, including "Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700" (University of Nebraska Press, 1998); "The Cherokee" (Chelsea House, 1988); "Native Carolinians: The Indians of North Carolina" (N.C. Division of Archives and History, 1985); and "Slavery and the Evolution of Cherokee Society" (University of Tennessee Press, 1979).

###

Nursing professor receives American Heart Association award

Dr. Joanne Harrell, a nursing professor at UNC, recently received the American Heart Association’s 2002 Katharine A. Lembright Award in recognition of her contributions to cardiovascular nursing research.

Harrell is director of UNC’s Center for Research on Preventing and Managing Chronic Illness in Vulnerable People and principal investigator of the Cardiovascular Health in Children studies. The longitudinal descriptive studies, funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research, examine the development of obesity, cardiovascular disease risk factors and insulin resistance syndrome in children and adolescents.

The studies have shown that school-based interventions can improve heart health in elementary and middle school students.

The Katharine A. Lembright Award was established in 1987 in honor of an American Heart Association staff member who played a significant role in the development of the AHA Council on Cardiovascular Nursing.

Harrell was named a fellow of the American Heart Association last year and the American Academy of Nursing in 1996. She has been selected as the Distinguished Researcher of the Year by the Southern Nursing Research Society and as Nurse Researcher of the Year by the N.C. Nurses Association.

Photo note: To download a photo of Harrell go to: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/harrell_joanne.jpg

###

UNC Drinking Water Research Center director, professor named distinguished lecturer

Dr. Philip Singer, the Daniel A. Okun professor of environmental engineering and director of the UNC School of Public Health’s Drinking Water Research Center, has been selected as the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors’ 2003 Distinguished Lecturer.

Singer, who will give remarks at about 15 universities in the spring, has prepared two lectures on disinfection byproducts in drinking water.

The first lecture, "Formation and Control of Disinfection Byproducts in Drinking Water," incorporates research conducted by Singer and his students during the past 28 years. His second lecture will be titled "Regulation of Disinfection Byproducts in Drinking Water: Past, Present and Future."

Singer has been active in the American Water Works Association and currently is on the Board of Directors of the Water Environment Research Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board’s Drinking Water Committee.

His research interests include aquatic chemistry, water and wastewater treatment processes and the formation and control of disinfection byproducts in drinking water.

###

Nutrition faculty members honored for paper on PRAISE! project

Several faculty members within UNC’s department of nutrition have received the Sarah Mazelis Best Paper of the Year Award for Health Promotion Practice for "The PRAISE! Project: A Church-Based Nurtition Intervention Designed for Cultural Appropriateness, Sustainability and Diffusion."

The honored faculty members are associate professors Dr. Alice Ammerman and Dr. Boyd Switzer and assistant professor Dr. Marci Campbell. The department of nutrition is based within UNC’s schools of public health and medicine.

The award was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Public Health Education, held recently in Philadelphia. The paper was published in the April issue of Health Disparities.

The Partnership to Reach African-Americans to Increase Smart Eating (PRAISE!) project is a National Cancer Institute-funded study that developed and tested a nutrition intervention program in partnership with 60 churches. More than 1,300 people participated in this five-year randomized controlled trial.

For more information about the project, click on www.sph.unc.edu/nutr/about/praise.htm.

###

Houpt receives George C. Ham Society Distinguished Alumnus award

Dr. Jeffrey L. Houpt, dean of the School of Medicine and vice chancellor for medical affairs at UNC, has been chosen the 2002 George C. Ham Society Distinguished Alumnus by UNC’s department of psychiatry.

Houpt, who also serves as chief executive officer of UNC Health Care, received the award during the recent 19th Annual George C. Ham Symposium, which featured comments from Ham Society president Dr. Linda Nicholas and UNC department of psychiatry chairman Dr. Robert N. Golden. Houpt concluded the ceremony with a presentation on "The Future of Academic Health Centers."

His research, teaching and clinical interests have examined the interface between psychiatry and medicine, particularly the role of human behavior and psychiatric disorders in the expression of medical disorders.

###

GlaxoSmithKline Foundation honors Kotch’s commitment to children

Dr. Jonathan Kotch, a professor in the UNC School of Public Health’s department of maternal and child health, has received the 2002 GlaxoSmithKline Child Health Recognition Award in the Individual Recognition Award category, presented recently at the annual meeting of the N.C. Public Health Association.

Kotch, who also is associate chairman for graduate studies in his department, was honored for his efforts to improve the lives of North Carolina’s children and their families.

In recognition of Kotch’s work, a scholarship of $1,000 was awarded to Judith Jordan, a nurse who works in the Johnston County Department of Public Health. The money will help Jordan secure a bachelor’s degree in nursing from UNC at its off-campus site at Johnston Community College. This scholarship was given through the N.C. Public Health Association.

Kotch is the director of the National Training Institute of Childcare Health Consultants, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of U.S. child care. He also leads the N.C. Child Care Health and Safety Resource Center, which provides funding, training and information for local child health-care consultants and child-care programs statewide.

His research interests include child injury prevention, health and safety in child care, child abuse and neglect, and child health policy.

- 30 -

School of Public Health contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 966-7467 or lisa_katz@unc.edu
Department of psychiatry contact: Crystal Hinson, (919) 966-9115
News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415