FACULTY & STAFF
 

     Hazel M. Prelow has joined the University this semester in the Department of Psycho-logy. Com-menting on Prelow's appointment, Psychology Department Chair Robert Rosellini, said, “Dr. Prelow received her degree in 1996 from the University of North Texas with a specialization in clinical psychology and a focus on developmental issues. She has held an NIMH post-doctoral fellowship at Arizona State University. Her research focus on the study of at-risk minority children and adolescents and the investigation of protective factors nicely complements those of the faculty in our department. We are very pleased to have such a fine young scholar join our department.” 
    At Arizona State University, Prelow acted as a member of an interdisciplinary research team, studying risk and protective factors in low-income minority children and adolescents. She also received training in the design and use of interventions for low-income minority populations and in advanced statistical procedures. 
Prelow was the winner of  the Dallas Psychological Association's Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Award in 1995. She was listed in Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges in 1994-1995 and 1993-1994. 
    From August 1995 to July 1996 she held an APA-accredited internship at the Texas Woman's University Counseling Center. Her duties included providing short-term individual therapy, group therapy, and intake assessments for adults from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as supervising practicum students and crisis intervention sessions for clients who presented a wide variety of difficulties with relationships, depression, and anxiety.
    Her most recent scholarly article, “Do Coping Styles Differ across Sociocultural Groups? The Role of Measurement Equivalence in Making this Judgment,” with J. Tein, M.W. Roosa, and J. Woods, is set to appear in an upcoming American Journal of Community Psychology.
    Prelow is a licensed psychologist in New York State and Texas.  She is also affiliated with the American Psychological Association and APA'S Division 45, the Society for Psychological Study of Ethnic and Minority Issues.  Finally she is a member of the Society for Research on Adolescence.

    Brenda D. Smith has joined the University as an assistant professor in the School of Social Welfare. Janet D. Perloff, interim dean for the School, said, “Brenda Smith is a terrific addition to the School of Social Welfare faculty. She will add considerably to our strength in the area of child welfare policy and services. In addition, I am expecting that Brenda will find many colleagues here on campus who share her interests in multi-method research and feminist approaches to social policy research.”
    Prior to coming to Albany, Smith worked as a visiting research specialist in social work at the Children and Family Research Center of the University of Illinois. There she conducted child welfare analyses using the integrated database of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
    She did her doctoral work at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. Her dissertation, defended this past August, was titled, Parental Drug Use, Treatment Compliance and Reunification: Client Classifications and Common Wisdom in Child Welfare.
    Smith has a variety of research interests, including constructionist and feminist approaches to social policy research, urban poverty and families, mothers' experiences with child welfare services, and the intersection of child welfare and parental substance use.
    In 1996, she was granted a dissertation research award by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, part of the  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. After that, she was awarded a research grant by the Children and Family Research Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
    Smith has held professional positions outside the university setting. From 1989-1993, she was a policy analyst and program evaluator for the Institute on Disability and Human Development in Chicago. She evaluated a state program for families having an adult member with a developmental disability. She has also worked as a community organizer and on a campaign against the nuclear weapons industry.

    Maia Boswell has joined the University as an assistant professor in the Department of Women's Studies. Department Chair Vivien Ng said, "I am most excited that Boswell will expand the possibilities of the women's studies course offerings to include environmental justice Issues."  Prior to coming to Albany, Boswell received her Ph.D. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her focus there was on race and gender theory, multiculturalism, cultural studies, and 19th century British literature. 
    Professor Boswell's research areas of interest include ecofeminism, the environmental movement, social theory with an emphasis on French feminist and psychoanalytic theory, cultural studies, feminist rhetorical criticism, and feminist pedagogy.
    She has also earned a number of awards, including the John Manning Booker Fellowship, a dissertation grant, and the Phi Beta Kappa Award.
    Boswell's published articles include:    “‘Ladies,’ ‘Gentlemen,’ and ‘Colored’: The Agency of (Lacan's Black) Letter in the Outhouse” on Tony Morrison's Sula and psychoanalysis in Cultural Critique, and from Duke University Press, “Textual Politics at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.” Boswell is working on a book which considers impasses and ecofeminism.

David Carpenter and Katsi Cook Win Awards
    Professor David Carpenter and instructor Katsi Cook, both of the Department of Environmental Health and Toxicology in the School of Public Health, have been awarded the Homer N. Calver Award from the environment section of the American Public Health Association. The award honors Carpenter and Cook for their innovative work linking researchers and members of the Mohawk community. The Calver session is traditionally the environment section’s highest profile event at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting, held Nov. 7 to 11 in Chicago.

Tom Gebhardt Gives Presentation
    Thomas L. Gebhardt, director of Personal Safety and Off-Campus Affairs, participated in the 13th Annual National Meeting on Alcohol, Other Drug, and Violence Prevention in Higher Education, held Nov. 6-9 in Albany. Gebhardt gave two presentations on successful collaboration between the campus and the community.
    Also participating in the national meeting were Mary Fiess, interim associate vice president for University Relations; and Estela Rivero, Dan Trujillo and M. Dolores Cimini, all of the University Counseling Center.

Linda M. Butkus Joins Student Affairs
    Linda M. Butkus joined the UAlbany staff Nov. 15 as secretary to Vice President for Student Affairs James P. Doellefeld. She came to the University from IDS Life Insurance Company of Albany, where she served as administrative assistant to the president for six years.
    Butkus replaces Linda Kreis, who is now working for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Deborah Cooley Joins University Advancement
    Deborah Cooley of Albany has joined UAlbany’s Department of Development Research and Prospect Coordination as a development researcher. Before joining the University, she was an information specialist with Info Ed International, Inc. of  Guilderland. In her current position, she researches individual, corporate, and foundation donors to help raise funds for different schools and campaigns at the University. Cooley earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1995 from Dowling College in New York, and is a certified teacher. The Office of Development Research and Prospect Coordination has primary responsibility for the identification and initial assessment of new prospects capable of significant financial support to the University, as well as the ongoing evaluation of previously identified prospects.