Release

Lecture Will Support UAlbany's Janet D. Perloff Fund

Contact: Catherine Herman (518) 437-4980

ALBANY , N.Y. (February 24, 2005) - The late Janet Perloff, a longtime professor in the University at Albany's schools of Social Welfare and Public Health, will be memorialized in March with a lecture to benefit a fund established in her name.

"Seriously Ill Parents and Their Children" is the topic of the Janet D. Perloff Memorial Lecture, which will be presented from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday,   March 2 in Page Hall Auditorium on the University at Albany's downtown campus. Anna C. Muriel, M.D., M.P.H., of Massachusetts General Hospital's Cancer Center Parenting Program and the hospital's Department of Child Psychiatry, is the featured speaker. A reception will follow.

Perloff passed away in 2004, four years after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. While preparing to explain the diagnosis to her young son, she began exploring the problems parents encounter in communicating facts and fears about their own serious illnesses to their children. In response, she worked with her friend and colleague, School of Social Welfare Research Assistant Professor Victoria Rizzo, to develop Conversations From the Heart: Resources for Talking to Children About a Parent's Serious Illness. The guide, available online at http://www.thelifeinstitute.org, identifies books, videotapes, Web sites, and other resources to help parents and their youngsters cope with a stressful time in their lives.

A dedicated teacher, Perloff, who joined the UAlbany faculty in 1989, served as acting dean for the School of Social Welfare in 1999 and associate dean for Research from 2000-04. Recognized for her scholarly contributions to the field of maternal and child health, she received the University's Excellence in Academic Service Award in 2002-03.

For more information about the Perloff Lecture, please call (518) 442-5320. Additional information about the Janet D. Perloff Fund, which will support scholarships for graduate students in the proposed joint degree program in the schools of Social Welfare and Public Health, is available at (518) 442-5753. Gifts to the fund will be accepted at the event.