Release

U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Wesley to Deliver UAlbany's Annual Burton Lecture

Contact: Catherine Herman (518) 437-4980

ALBANY, N.Y. (May 11, 2005) -- The Hon. Richard C. Wesley, judge, United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, will deliver the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy's 20th annual John E. Burton Lecture on Thursday, May 12 at 4 p.m., Milne Hall, Room 200, on the University's downtown campus. The Distinguished Public Service Awards Ceremony for Outstanding Contributions to Public Service will follow the lecture.

Richard C. Wesley ('71) is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. At the time of his appointment in 2003, he was a judge of the New York Court of Appeals. Wesley engaged in private practice from 1975 until 1986. During three years from 1979 to 1982, he also served as assistant counsel and chief legislative aide to New York Assembly Minority Leader James L. Emery. In 1982, Wesley was elected to the Assembly - and was re-elected in 1984 - representing Livingston, Allegany and Ontario Counties. In 1986, Wesley was elected to a 14-year term as a justice of the New York State Supreme Court from the Seventh Judicial District. He served as supervising judge of that district's criminal courts from 1991 to 1994. In 1994 he was appointed by Governor Mario Cuomo to the Supreme Court Appellate Division, Fourth Department. In 1997 he was appointed a judge of the New York State Court of Appeals by Governor George Pataki, a position he held until joining the federal judiciary.

Judge Wesley graduated with a bachelor's from the University at Albany, summa cum laude in 1971. He earned his JD at Cornell Law School in 1974, and Wesley was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1975. In 1999, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University at Albany.

He and his wife, Kathryn, live in Livonia and have two children.

After Wesley's lecture, the following award recipients will be honored:

• Diana Jones Ritter, Executive Deputy Comptroller, New York State Office of the State Comptroller (Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy Distinguished Public Service Award)
  
  
• Chauncey G. Parker, New York State Director of Criminal Justice and Commissioner of the Division of Criminal Justice Services (School of Criminal Justice Distinguished Public Service Award)
  
  
• Mark Kissinger, Deputy Secretary to the Governor for Health and Human Services, New York State Office of the Governor George E. Pataki (School of Social Welfare Distinguished Public Service Awards)
  
  
• Frances Allen, IBM Fellow Emerita, T.J. Watson Research Center, (School of Information Science & Policy Distinguished Public Service Awards)

Diana Jones Ritter: Ritter's public service career spans 21 years across four New York State agencies. She is the executive deputy comptroller for the New York State Office of the Comptroller where she oversees operations. In 1995, Ritter was appointed by Comptroller H. Carl McCall to the position of assistant deputy comptroller for Management Audit and State Financial Services. In 2001, she assumed responsibilities as the deputy comptroller for Administration. Ritter was promoted to her current position of executive deputy comptroller by Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi in January 2003. Prior to joining the Comptroller's Office, Ritter served as the executive deputy director for the Office of Public Health for the New York State Department of Health and as an associate commissioner of Administration and Quality Executive for the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. She began her career in government service as a budget fellow for the New York State Division of the Budget.

Chauncey G. Parker: Parker is the director of criminal justice for New York State. As director, Parker serves as Governor Pataki's senior advisor for criminal justice and oversees New York State's criminal justice agencies. In addition to his role as director, Parker also serves as commissioner of the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. Parker also serves as the director of the New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, which is the regional office of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Parker began his career in August 1986 as assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, where he was assigned for four years to the Special Investigations Unit in the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York. In January 1992, Parker was appointed as an assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he served for ten years.

Mark L. Kissinger: Kissinger was appointed deputy secretary for Health and Human Services to New York State Governor George Pataki in July 2004. He reports directly to the Governor's chief of staff and serves in an advisory capacity to the Governor. Kissinger is responsible for policies and operations of the following agencies: the Department of Health, Office of Mental Health, Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, Office of Children and Family Services, the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance and, the Office for the Aging. Kissinger was member of the New York State Senate from 1987-1999. From January 1995 to January 1999, he was the senior program associate for the Majority Leader's Office. From January 1992 to January 1995 he served as director of New York State Senate Social Services Committee. In January 1988, Kissinger served as director of New York State Senate Committee on Aging until January 1992. In 2002, Kissinger received the "Honoring Those Who Honor Our Elders" award from the New York State Coalition for the Aging. He earned the Service in Government Award in Concepts of Independence in 1996. Kissinger was also honored with the Public Service Award from the Coalition of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers of Northeastern, New York in 1995.

Frances E. "Fran" Allen ('54): Allen is an IBM Fellow Emerita for the IBM Corporation T.J. Watson Research Center. Allen currently serves as senior technical consultant to IBM Research's Solutions and Services vice-president. Allen founded the Theory of Program Optimization. She has been an active member of the National Academy of Engineering, and she was elected president of the IBM Academy of Technology. In July 2002, after nearly 45 years of service, she retired from IBM. Allen was elected president of the IBM Academy of Technology in 1995. In the early 1980's, she founded the Parallel Translation Group (PTRAN) to study compiling for parallel machines. This group was recognized as one of the top research groups in the world dealing with parallelization issues. In 1989, she was the first woman named IBM Fellow this is IBM's highest technical honor. In October of 2004, Allen received the Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership. Previously, she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame and received the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) SIGPLAN's Programming Languages Achievement Award.

The Burton Lecture is named for John E. Burton, who served as New York's budget director under Governor Thomas E. Dewey from 1943 to 1950. Burton, who was credited with modernizing the state's budget process, was a key member of the special committee that recommended the creation of the State University of New York System. He also chaired the committee that created the first public administration degree-granting program at UAlbany. Sponsors are UAlbany's Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy and the schools of Criminal Justice, Information Science & Policy and Social Welfare.

Ranked among the top-10 Public Affairs programs in the nation, the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy's core mission is to discover, communicate, and apply knowledge about politics, governance, public policy, and public management. The college directly helps public managers, policymakers, and others deal effectively with the challenges they face, making democracy stronger and governments more effective around the world.