News Briefs

Local angles: Winston-Salem;
Virginia Beach, Va.

Briefs

Dr. Betsy Sleath, a professor in UNC’s School of Pharmacy, recently was awarded a $1.6 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for a study on "Children and Asthma: Communication and Outcomes."

The four-year project led by Sleath will examine how doctor-patient communication is related to how well a child’s asthma is controlled. During the study, 260 children between the ages of eight and 15 who have mild, moderate or severe asthma will be enrolled at eight private pediatric practices across North Carolina. Their caregivers also will participate.

Other UNC members of the research team are Dr. Guadalupe (Suchi) Ayala, co-principal investigator, and Dr. Karin Yeatts, both from the School of Public Health; Stephanie Davis, a pediatric pulmonologist from the School of Medicine; and Dr. William Campbell, professor, and Dr. Dennis Williams associate professor from the School of Pharmacy.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health, the federal government’s primary agency for biomedical and behavioral research.

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UNC’s School of Social Work has accepted its first 15 students into its new advanced-standing part-time master’s program in Winston-Salem. Classes begin Sept. 2. Advanced-standing students are those who have previously earned bachelor’s degrees in social work.

The program, believed to be the only part-time advanced standing master’s of social work program in the nation, will help professionals continue to work while pursuing master’s degrees.

School faculty members will teach on Fridays during the upcoming academic year at the Forsyth County Department of Social Services. For more information, contact Tina Souders at (336) 703-3398 or tsouders@email.unc.edu.

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Rising junior Anna Fabiszewski of Virginia Beach, Va., an environmental science major in the UNC Carolina Environmental Program, has won an Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The award will provide $8,000 in academic assistance for her junior and senior years and a 10-week paid internship next summer at an NOAA or NOAA-approved facility. Fabiszewski also will receive travel expenses for participation in a Hollings Scholarship conference after the internship.

The scholarships are designed to increase undergraduate training in oceanic and atmospheric science, boost public understanding and support for stewardship of the ocean and atmosphere and improve environmental literacy. They also aim to recruit and train students for careers in natural resource and science agencies or as teachers of oceanic and atmospheric science.

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Dr. Milton Heath Jr., a professor in UNC’s School of Government, was elected recently to the National Association of Conservation Districts’ Southeast Regional Conservation Partnership Hall of Fame. He was one of nine new members elected this year.

The N.C. Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts’ nomination of Heath read, "Almost every legal issue and new authority for four decades has had the advice and guidance of Milton Heath."

The Hall of Fame, started in 2002, annually recognizes one or more individuals from each state in the southeast region who have made significant contributions toward conservation in that state. The region covers Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia.

Heath joined UNC in 1957, where he has been the principal specialist in conservation and environmental law at the School of Government. He has consulted in England, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and Kenya.

From 1959 to 1984, Heath was the principal drafter of most of the state’s environmental and natural resource legislation. He also was standing counsel to several N.C. House and Senate committees. He was a technical assistant to the chairman of the Federal Power Commission from 1963-64 while on leave from UNC.

Heath holds degrees from Harvard and Columbia universities. He wrote many environmental and conservation law bulletins, including, recently, "Guidebook on the Law and Practice of Soil and Water Conservation in North Carolina."

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Two UNC doctoral students have received James J. Gallagher Dissertation Awards of $1,500 each for their research on policies that affect children and families.

Kimberly Cobb, of the department of child and maternal health in the School of Public Health, studies newborn screening in North Carolina and how information from screenings are relayed to families. She also examines pediatricians’ knowledge of the purpose and procedures for newborn screening.

Heidi Hollingsworth, of the early childhood families and literacy research track in the School of Education, researches how parent and professional practices support developing friendships of young children with disabilities. She plans to develop ways for teachers and families to help children who have difficulty with peer relations.

The awards honor Dr. Jim Gallagher, a researcher at UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, which he directed from 1970 to 1987. Gallagher's research has focused on children with disabilities or at-risk conditions and those who are gifted.

Funding for the awards comes from an endowment established last year.

The institute’s mission is to cultivate and share knowledge to enhance child development and family well-being. Most of its research and outreach services concern children from birth to age 8.

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Dr. Barbara Entwisle, a UNC sociology professor who directs the university’s Carolina Population Center, has been elected president of the Population Association of America.

The association, a nonprofit, scientific organization based in Silver Spring, Md., promotes research on population issues. Members include about 3,000 demographers, sociologists, economists, public health professionals and others. Entwisle will serve from 2006 to 2007 and preside over the association’s meeting in New York City next March.

On the UNC faculty since 1985, Entwisle researches demographic responses to rapid social change, migration and social networks — and the relationships between population and the environment. Her work focuses on northeast Thailand. She has directed the population center since 2002.

Center faculty and students conduct interdisciplinary research on population issues in central North Carolina, across the United States and in 50 countries. The researchers include 54 faculty fellows representing 15 departments and 63 predoctoral and postdoctoral scholars. Its findings are made available to a global audience. For more information, visit www.cpc.unc.edu.

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English professor awarded
prize in medieval studies

UNC English professor Dr. Patrick O’Neill was awarded the Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Prize by the British Academy in July for his contributions to medieval studies. The prize is one of the highest honors in the field.

O’Neill was recognized for his 2001 book "King Alfred’s Old English Prose Translation of the First Fifty Psalms."

The academy, established in 1902, focuses on the humanities and social sciences. The biennial Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Prize in English studies was created in 1924 in memory of the academy’s first secretary.

O’Neill, on the UNC English faculty since 1980, teaches medieval English and Celtic literature and studies the intellectual culture, especially Christian, of the British Isles from 600 to 1100 A.D.

He has been a fellow at the National Humanities Center in the Research Triangle Park. He currently is a research associate at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, School of Celtic Studies and a fellow of the Institute of Oriental and Occidental Studies at Kansai University in Osaka, Japan. He is completing a book on cultural relations between early Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England.

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Dr. Anthony C. Hackney, a UNC professor of exercise and sport science, and of nutrition, recently returned from an educational lecture tour in Argentina and Uruguay.

Hackney was an envoy of the U.S. Embassy in Montevideo, which sponsored his trip with the Diabetes Association of Uruguay and the Catholic University Institute for Physical Fitness,.

He lectured on his research on the effects of exercise training and stress on the endocrine system at several universities and academies in Montevideo, as well as the Uruguayan Olympic Training Center in Punta Del Este. Also, he taught two workshops, one on nutritional concern for athletes in training and the other on the role of physical activity in combating type-two diabetes.

As a faculty member in the UNC School of Public Health, Hackney has won two Fulbright Scholar awards to work in Lithuania and Poland.

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Two UNC nursing faculty members have been named fellows in the American Academy of Nursing, an organization composed of nursing leaders in education, management, practice and research.

Dr. Cheryl Jones and Polly Johnson will be recognized at the academy’s 32nd annual meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Nov. 11. Jones is a professor and master’s in science coordinator for healthcare systems in the school. Johnson is an adjunct professor at the school and executive director of the N.C. Board of Nursing.

The academy, founded in 1973, aims to serve the public and the nursing profession by advancing health policy and practice through the generation, synthesis and dissemination of nursing knowledge.

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News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589