FACULTY & STAFF
 

    Timothy J. Hoff has joined the University as an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Behavior. He is also a research affiliate for the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis. Department Chair Ed Hannan recently said, “Tim Hoff is an outstanding young teacher and researcher who has already gained a national reputation in researching the impact of managed care organizations on physicians' work lives and satisfaction levels. He is also a demanding but popular instructor who brings a high level of energy and commitment to our department. We are very fortunate to have him here.”  Prior to coming to UAlbany, Hoff worked with Health Research, Inc. as a health program development specialist. In addition, he worked as an administrator for Albany Medical Center. 
    Hoff, who completed his Ph.D. in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the University in 1997, has many research interests, including: changing the nature of medical work and professional roles under managed care; the physician - employee; professional solidarity in medicine; and applying theories of organizations, occupational sociology, and social psychology  to medical workplace issues. 
    He was awarded the Robert K. Simmons National Dissertation Award by the American Sociological Association in 1997 for best dissertation in medical sociology. He also received, in 1997, the University at Albany Presidential Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award and an award for Excellence in Overall Academic Program, presented by the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the University.
    He is affiliated with the American Sociological Association and the Academy of Management. From 1998-1999, he was on the Make-a-Wish Foundation’s board of directors.

    Jennifer Rudolph has joined the University as an assistant professor in the history department.  Prior to coming to Albany, Rudolph was an instructor and teaching assistant at the University of Washington.
    Rudolph, who completed her Ph.D. in history at the University of Washington in 1999, has many research interests, including: the nature of Chinese power and power structures; Qing and 20th-century central government activities at the local and provincial levels; state-society relationships; reform efforts; and identity formation. Department Chair Dan White said, “Jennifer Rudolph brings the department back into the East Asian field with a combination of interests that match the strengths of the history program. She has already stepped in to advance our ties to East Asian Studies.” 
    She has been the recipient of several research fellowships and honors, including: a Fulbright-Hays  Research Grant to do her dissertation research in Taiwan and China, a research grant from the Center for Chinese Studies (Taipei), and many Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships for Chinese and Japanese.
    Rudolph has presented many lectures around the world.  In 1996, she presented “Change, Power, and Bureaucracy: The Significance of the Zongli Yamen,”to the history department of Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.  She was also a visiting scholar at the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan during 1996-97. Her affiliations include the Association for Asian Studies and the American Historical Association.
    From January 26-February 29, Rudolph will exhibit From Revolution to Reform: Chinese Propaganda Posters of the Four Modernizations Era at the University Library, second floor Presidents Reading Room. She comments, “I brought the exhibit to the University at Albany, because Chinese propaganda posters are a great way to see how the government promoted the communist cause in China. The posters aimed to mobilize the people to sacrifice for the modernization of the nation, to keep social order, and to promote the party line.” She will be giving a talk about the exhibit at the Albany Public Library on February 13, from 2-4 p.m., entitled “Changing China After Mao: the Four Modernizations.”

    Rong Tang has joined the University as an assistant professor in the School of Information Science and Policy. Dean Philip B. Eppard recently said, “Rong Tang brings to the school expertise in information-seeking behavior, especially in the cognitive aspects of information retrieval. These are increasingly important areas for research and teaching, particularly as we grapple with the problems of retrieving relevant information on the World Wide Web.”  Prior to coming to UAlbany, she was a teaching fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the School of Information and Library Science. Tang, who completed her Ph.D. in Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1999, has many current research interests, including: human information seeking, information models, cognitive perspective of  information retrieval, knowledge representation,user's behavior, and relevance judgment.
    She was awarded the Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from 1999-2000, and has received Carnegie Research Grants three times from the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 
    Among her published works is “Towards the Identification of the Optimal Number of Relevance Categories,” which appeared in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science in 1999, and was written with J.L. Vevea and W.M. Shaw, Jr. Her forthcoming publication, “Use of Relevance Criteria across Stages of Document Evaluation: A Micro Level and Macro Level Analysis,” is based on her dissertation findings.
    Tang is affiliated with the American Society for Information Science and the Association for Library and Information Science Education.

   The University at Albany has been ranked fourth in the nation in institutional contributions to the Journal of Counseling Psychology over the past 25 years.
    The Journal of Counseling Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association, is considered the flagship journal of the field of counseling psychology. The journal publishes articles relating to counseling interests across a variety of settings, such as counselor training and education and the development of counseling materials.
    Myrna L. Friedlander, a professor in UAlbany's Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, ranked ninth among the most frequent individual contributors to the Journal in that time.
    Friedlander, a member of the UAlbany faculty since 1981, is also an adjunct clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Albany Medical College. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on many aspects of family therapy, from nonverbal relational control in family communication to the development of internationally adopted children. Friedlander earned a Ph.D. in counseling from Ohio State University.
    In more news from educational and counseling psychology, Department Chair Susan D. Phillips has been elected chair of the Committee on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association for the year 2000. This is the only committee authorized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit psychology programs.
    The committee is the highest evaluating body for more than 800 doctoral, internship and postdoctoral residency programs in psychology nationwide. Composed of members from various groups, it creates and implements accreditation policy at the national level.
    Phillips has been on the faculty at UAlbany since 1979, where she has served in various capacities, including director of doctoral training and director of the Psychological Services Center. She has written numerous book chapters and journal articles on many aspects of career development. Phillips received her Ph.D., M.Phil., and M.A. from Columbia University.