FACULTY & STAFF
 

     Terrence A. Maxwell has joined the University as an assistant professor at the School of Information Science and Policy. Prior to this position, he was a research assistant professor at UAlbany in the Department of Public Administration and Policy. He is currently the executive director of the New York State Forum for Information Resource Management, a position he has held since 1993.
George P. Richardson, chair of the Department of Public Administration and Policy, said, “Terry's rich experience as director of the New York State Forum for Information Management makes him a wonderful addition to Rockefeller College's capabilities in government information management.”
Maxwell, who received his Ph.D. in public administration from UAlbany in 1995, has many research interests, including information federalism, intellectual property and citizen access policy, and management of information agencies. While completing his M.P.A. in public administration at UAlbany, he received the Department of Public Administration's Outstanding Student Award for 1989.
    Maxwell has been involved in numerous projects for health and welfare reform. In 1993, as a research technician for the Research Foundation of the State University of New York, he developed a computer simulation of the JOBS welfare reform program. Currently, he heads an evaluation team at the Rockefeller Institute studying the impact of welfare reform on people who have left New York State's rolls since 1997. Other projects have included implementing, as part of a four-person team, a National Science Foundation-funded program measuring the relationship of mental models and decision-making performance in the welfare field.
    Maxwell's professional affiliations include the National Association of State Information Resource Directors (NASIRE), where he was Eastern Regional Director from 1995-97. 

    Carol Richardson Rodgers has joined the University as an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice (ETAP). Department Chair Judith A. Langer recently said, “Carol Rodgers, a theoretician and researcher in professional development, is a welcome addition to the ETAP faculty. Her work will contribute in important ways to the improvement of educational practice.” Prior to coming to UAlbany, she was an associate professor in education at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vt.
    Rodgers, who completed her Doctorate of Education at Harvard University in 1998, has many research interests, including principles of teaching and learning across subject areas, reflective teaching, teaching and learning of languages, and teacher development for experienced teachers.
    She has been involved in numerous teacher development projects on both the national and international levels, including Peer Mentoring for Teacher Educators, and the Reflective Learning Project where since 1996, she has been an adviser and trainer of reflective practice for long-term institutional change in Cultura Inglesa, San Paolo, Brazil. She is currently associate director of the Teacher Knowledge Project, a project in reflective teacher development in the Center for Teacher Education Training and Research at the School for International Training.
    Among her published works is Picture Stories: Language and Literacy Activities for Beginners, written with F. Ligon and E. Tannenbaum in 1990. Her most recent article, “Communities of Reflection, Communities of Support: How the Windham Partnership Mentor Seminars Affected the Thinking of Mentor Teachers,” appears in the Research on Professional Development Schools: Teacher Education Yearbook, VIII.
Rodgers has presented papers at several international conferences.

    Mark L. Blum joins the University as an assistant professor in the Department of East Asian Studies. Department Chair James Hargett recently said, “Dr. Blum's specialty is religious studies and he has had numerous articles published on Buddhism in East Asia, especially Japan. We are delighted to have a scholar of his caliber teaching in our department.” Prior to coming to UAlbany, Blum was an assistant professor in the Department of Languages and Linguistics and the director of Japanese Studies at Florida Atlantic University. 
    Blum, who completed his Ph.D. in Buddhist studies at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1990, is the author of numerous publications, including: “Pure Land Buddhism as an Alternative Marga,” which appeared in The Eastern Buddhist and The Origins and Development of Pure Land Buddhism, a book which is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. He has several works in progress including the article, “Art and Charisma: Iconic Symbols of Authority in Jodoshinshu.”
    Blum has been the recipient of several fellowships and grants, including: a post-doctoral research fellowship by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and a Special Research Fellow award by Otani University, Kyoto, Japan.
    He has presented many papers at conferences including “Burial and Sanctity in Medieval Japan,” presented at the American Academy of Religion, New Orleans, in 1996. He was the interpreter and a respondent for a presentation at the Hokkaido University of Education, Iwamizawa Campus, Japan, in 1997 titled “Magadha International Educational University and Hokkaido Educational University Plenary Discussion.” His latest presentation was at the Pacific Neighborhood Consortium, University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University this past January, titled, “Myth Map of Japan.”
    Blum's professional affiliations include the Association of Teachers of Japanese, the Association of Asian Studies, and the American Academy of Religion. 

   M. Dolores Cimini, director of the Middle Earth Peer Assistance Program, University Counseling Center, has received national recognition for leadership in providing prevention education and working with students in the prevention and health promotion field. The award, presented to Cimini recently at the national conference of the BACCHUS and GAMMA Peer Education Network in Orlando, Fla., recognizes program innovation and dedication to students. Nominated by her students, Cimini was selected for the award from a pool of 150 candidates from across the nation.

Julian E. Zelizer wins Ellis W. Hawley Prize
    Professor Julian E. Zelizer of the Department of History has been chosen as the winner of the 2000 Ellis W. Hawley Prize for his work Taxing America: Wilbur Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945-1975.
    The award will be presented at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians in St. Louis, Mo. on Friday, March 31. The Hawley prize, given for the first time in 1997, is awarded annually for the best book-length historical study of the political economy, politics, or institutions of the United States, in its domestic or international affairs, from the Civil War to the present. The prize is given in honor of Ellis W. Hawley, emeritus professor of history at the University of Iowa. 

Millicent Lenz Gives Presentation
    Millicent Lenz, an associate professor in the School of Information Science and Policy at UAlbany, participated in a panel on poetry at the Modern Language Convention in Chicago on December 29.
    The topic of her presentation was “Laying Claim to the World: The Glorious Energy of Richard Wilbur's Poetry for Children.”

Diane Dewar Wins Award
    Diane Dewar, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Behavior at the School of Public Health, has received the William Waters Research Award from the Association for Social Economists. This is the first year of the award, given for innovative research.

Gebhardt Gives Speech
    Thomas Gebhardt, director of Personal Safety & Off-Campus Affairs, spoke at the 50th annual convention of the National Licensed Beverage Association in Las Vegas, Nev. about ways to work with tavern owners to reduce underage- and high-risk drinking among college students.

Joseph F. Zimmerman Publishes a New Book
    Professor Joseph F. Zimmerman of the Department of Political Science in the Graduate School of Public Affairs, has published a new book, The Initiative: Citizen Law-Making (Praeger Publishers, $59.95).
    The Initiative, brought about by disillusioned voters in South Dakota in 1898 during the Populist Movement, authorizes voters to put proposed constitutional amendments and statues to a referendum ballot. It also provides a mechanism, called the protest referendum, by which statutes enacted by the state legislature can be repealed.
    The Initiative has been a controversial device since 1898 and numerous arguments have been developed both in support of and in opposition to it. In the book, these arguments are analyzed and conclusions are drawn relative to their validity. Particular attention is paid to the impact of the Initiative on state and local governing bodies and their individual members.