News Briefs

Local angle: Charlotte

Briefs

Dr. William Leuchtenburg, William Rand Kenan Jr. professor of history emeritus, will moderate a panel discussion Tuesday (Nov. 1) in Charlotte. The discussion will focus on poverty in the south.

Titled "Poverty and Plenty: Economic Change in North Carolina," it will take place at 7 p.m. at the Levine Museum of the New South at the corner of College and Seventh streets. UNC system President-elect Erskine Bowles will participate. Gary Grant, executive director of Concerned Citizens of Tillery, and Tom Lambeth, chairman of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, also will take part in the discussion.

Admission is free, with a suggested $5 donation to the Crisis Assistance Ministry in Charlotte.

Panel members will discuss the importance of the New Deal to the South. They also will address poverty today and the disparity between rural and urban economies.

The program is presented in conjunction with the exhibit "In Search of a New Deal," on display at the museum through Dec. 30. For reservations, call (704) 333-1887, ext. 501. For more information, visit www.museumofthenewsouth.org.

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The documentary "Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power" will show on Nov. 14 at UNC’s Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.

The free public viewing will be from 7-9 p.m. in the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room of the center, located at 150 South Road.

The program will include a post-film discussion with Dr. Tim Tyson, a Williams biographer and the author of the 2005 UNC Summer Reading Program selection, "Blood Done Sign My Name." Tyson is a senior research scholar at the Center for Documentary Studies of Duke University and a visiting professor of American Christianity and Southern Culture at Duke Divinity School.

"Negroes with Guns" explores the life of Williams, an early civil rights activist from Monroe who urged blacks to arm themselves for protection. The film is the latest installment in the center’s Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Films.

For more information, contact Damien Jackson at (919) 962-9001.

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Dr. Suzanne Havala Hobbs has been named to the board of directors for the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

Hobbs is associate director of the doctoral program in health leadership for the department of health policy and administration at UNC’s School of Public Health. She has practiced in the field and written about health for 25 years.

Hobbs will serve out her predecessor’s term, which ends in June 2006. She will formally join the board next week at its fall meeting, to be held at the association’s new home, the University of Missouri-Columbia’s School of Journalism.

The association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. Its mission is to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care writing.

A licensed and registered dietitian, Hobbs writes a diet and health column, "On the Table," that appears weekly in The News & Observer of Raleigh and The Charlotte Observer.

She has written nine books and is a contributing writer for Bottom Line/Personal, a newsletter that features expert advice from various fields. She also has written for magazines including SELF and Vegetarian Times and is on the Times’ editorial advisory board.

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Dr. Michael A. Stegman, chair of UNC’s public policy department, has been appointed lead observer of domestic policy issues for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation of Chicago.

Stegman will direct policy for the Program on Human and Community Development, one of the foundation’s major programs. In this role, he will translate policy trends and position program strategies around the issues of affordable housing, community change, mental health, juvenile justice and public education.

Stegman is the Duncan MacRae ’09 and Rebecca Kyle MacRae professor of public policy, planning and business in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. He also founded and directs the Center for Community Capitalism at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, based at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. Stegman will fulfill his UNC commitments working for the MacArthur Foundation.

The foundation is one of the nation’s 10 largest private philanthropic foundations, with an annual grant-making budget of around $180 million.

Stegman has a passion for and long history with the issue of affordable housing. From 1993 to 1997, in the Clinton administration, he was assistant secretary for policy development and research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Stegman was acting chief of staff at HUD from November 1996 through April 1997. In 1997, The National Journal named him "one of Washington’s 100 most influential decision-makers."

Stegman has written extensively on housing and community development policy and financial services for the poor. While at HUD, he was founding editor of Cityscape, a journal on urban policy research.

Among Stegman’s books are "Savings and the Poor: The Hidden Benefits of Electronic Banking" and "A Rich Tapestry: States and Localities Take the Lead in Affordable Housing," both written in 1999. He has written or co-written many articles and chapters in professional journals and books.

Stegman is a fellow of the Urban Land Institute and a former member of Freddie Mac’s Affordable Housing Advisory Council. He serves on national boards of directors and advisory boards including the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City and The Brookings Institution’s Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy.

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Dooley to star in European premiere
of Pulitzer Prize-winning play

Ray Dooley, a dramatic art professor in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, will play one of the starring roles in the European premiere of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "Doubt: A Parable."

Dooley will play Father Flynn in the production at the English Theatre in Vienna, Austria. He will be on leave from UNC for nine weeks beginning in January.

Besides the Pulitzer, playwright John Patrick Shanley’s "Doubt" has won honors including four 2005 Tony Awards. Set at a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, the play tells the story of a nun, Sister Aloysius, who investigates a progressive young priest, Father Flynn, on suspicions of sexually abusing a young boy.

Dooley, head of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program, previously chaired the dramatic art department. He brings to the classroom and the PlayMakers Repertory Company – the professional ensemble based at UNC – nearly 30 years of professional acting experience that has spanned film, television and stages from New York to Seattle. He has appeared in more than 40 PlayMakers’ productions since 1989. Dooley will return to Chapel Hill to play the title role in PlayMakers’ "Cyrano de Bergerac," opening April 12, 2006.

Dooley received a master’s degree in fine arts from the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and a bachelor of arts, with a dual major in English and theatre and drama, from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y.

For more information, contact Kim Spurr at (919) 962-4093.

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The Association of American Colleges and Universities has selected UNC as one of 16 campuses participating in a new project on internationalizing general education curricula.

The schools were chosen from among 89 applicants to participate in a two-year project, "Shared Futures: Global Learning and Social Responsibility," funded with a $430,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation of New York City.

Strengthening Carolina’s international focus and presence is one of the priorities outlined by Chancellor James Moeser in the university’s academic plan.

The futures project aims to enable students to encounter global issues throughout their undergraduate years – not just in a single required course – and to be prepared for citizenship in a world of global change.

Dr. Jay M. Smith, associate dean for undergraduate curricula and a history professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, said he hopes the project will help UNC increase its study abroad participation rate; offer development grants to increase the number of global issues courses and to train the professors; and assess student learning in foreign language courses.

For more information, contact Kim Spurr at (919) 962-4093.

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