FEATURES

      President Karen R. Hitchcock and Rockefeller College Associate Provost Helen R. Desfosses have been named Women of Excellence by the Women’s Business Council of the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce. They are among 100 women honored for pioneering change in the community as the chamber celebrates its 100th anniversary. They will be honored at a dinner on Thursday, June 15, from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center.
     President Hitchcock was cited for pioneering critical educational, research, business, economic, social and humanitarian changes that promise a significantly enhanced quality of life for the region’s inhabitants. Under her leadership, UAlbany has undertaken a massive strategic planning initiative. She is also the first president in the history of the University to spearhead a comprehensive master plan.
    Hitchcock was also called instrumental in building mutually beneficial partnerships with the University’s surrounding communities. In particular, an unprecedented number of nationally and internationally recognized research centers and interdisciplinary academic institutes have been created at the University under her personal supervision, nominating papers stated. 
    The President was instrumental in expanding the Center for Advanced Thin Film Technology (CAT). “Under the personal guidance and direct mentorship of President Hitchcock, the Albany CAT has created a unique $100 million pilot prototyping infrastructure that is unrivaled at any university in the world. In the last three years alone, the Albany CAT was successful at translating $3 million in state support into an excess of $150 million in economic impact for high tech companies in the Capital Region, including the creation and retention of more than 750 high tech jobs in the region. These achievements would not have been possible without the visionary leadership, pioneering efforts, and extensive commitments of President Hitchcock, especially in terms of building the entrepreneurial faculty culture that is thoroughly cognizant with and highly responsive to the needs and requirements of industry,” said the nominating papers.
    Hitchcock was praised for being extremely effective in building on the success of the Albany CAT to secure the University’s designation as Focus Center - New York (FC-NY). She also successfully pioneered “the creation at Albany of the only university-based, pre-competitive, 300mm wafer pilot prototyping and workforce training facility in the world. The facility will uniquely position the region and state to be highly competitive in attracting multi-billion dollar computer chip fabrication facilities.”
    In 1997 Hitchcock directed the acquisition of the East Campus, which leverages key partnerships among the University’s biological science programs, economic development resources, and small and medium-sized biotech companies to develop and commercialize critical technologies. The East Campus has attracted almost a dozen incubator companies, with projected employment exceeding 1000 employees in fewer than five years, leading to more than $50 million in overall economic impact in a very short time. Home to our School of Public Health, the facilities and programs now present at the East Campus will benefit our students and faculty in critical ways.
    “Clearly the pioneering leadership, unwavering drive, and strategic vision of President Hitchcock have transformed the University into an enormous educational resource and economic growth engine for the region and the state. The resulting business, economic, social, and humanitarian outcomes are well on their way to transforming the Capital Region into the ‘place-to-be’ in the 21st century” nominating papers concluded. 
    Helen R. Desfosses, associate provost for educational development and professor of public administration and policy at Rockefeller College, has been a pioneer in political and community change in the Capital Region in two ways. First, since her election in 1997 as the first woman president of the Albany Common Council in the city’s history, she has brought a unique vision to that office. She has provided strong, independent yet cooperative leadership to the Common Council, enabling the city’s legislature to assume a clearer partnership role in Albany’s political and economic development, said nominating papers. Her particular emphases as Common Council president have been on citizen participation in government, neighborhood development, and historic and cultural tourism; through these points of concentration, she has contributed greatly to the dynamism that characterizes the city of Albany today.
    Desfosses has been a pioneer in political and community change in the Capital Region in a second way, by serving as one of the region’s premier models of an engaged scholar and public educator. Through her work as a political commentator for WAMC public radio for more than a decade, her frequent service as a political analyst for area radio and television, her work on not-for-profit boards, and her unstinting willingness to volunteer her time to address dozens of educational and community groups every year, Desfosses has demonstrated the strong connection she has always felt between her role as a professor of public administration and policy at UAlbany and her responsibility to give back to the community. Her commitment to partnership and to connection has been broadly recognized by numerous awards from the University and from leading civic and business organizations.
    Also named was Nancy Liddle, former director of the University Art Gallery.

   The John A. Hartford Foundation has awarded the School of Social Welfare $323,000 to create a new program in geriatric social work practice that will increase the number of M.S.W.-level social workers prepared to work with older persons.
    The funding creates the Hartford Internships in Aging Project (HIAP), which will engage students in an innovative curriculum and internship program for their two years of M.S.W. study. 
    According to the U.S. Department of Labor, job opportunities in social work are expected to increase at a much faster average than all other occupations through 2008. Greater demand is projected for health and other social services as Baby Boomers deal with mental health issues associated with aging.
    Other objectives of the project are: to provide knowledge about adult development and aging to all UAlbany social work students; to create new roles and opportunities for social work in the field of aging; to develop and expand programs for older persons in the Capital Region; and to develop research based guidelines for practice with older adults, their families, and their caregivers.
    The HIAP will be administered through the Albany Geriatric Social Work Field Practicum Consortium, a collaboration among the School of Social Welfare and eight agencies providing services to older adults in the Capital Region and rural northeastern New York State. The consortium agencies will serve as sites for field placements (internships) for HIAP.
    UAlbany professor Anne E. Fortune, project director for HIAP, called the new program “an exciting collaboration that brings together the School of Social Welfare and many of the important agencies that serve older persons in the Capital District. Both the educational program and the effort to increase or improve services are innovative. 
    “Such efforts are especially needed in today’s rapidly changing health care environment. We expect the HIAP project to be the beginning of enduring improvements in social work services to older persons and their families.”
    The consortium was begun in April 1999 through a $50,000 start-up award from the Hartford Foundation. A private philanthropy established in 1929 by John A. Hartford, the foundation focuses its support on improving the organization and financing of health care, and assisting the health care system to accommodate the nation’s aging population.
     The HIAP interns from UAlbany will be educated to help older persons, their families and communities meet the challenges and the promises associated with aging. “Students will learn a social work service approach that builds on the strengths and capacities of older persons and empowers them to attain goals they define for themselves,” said Fortune. 
    “Each student will do an internship in several sites. As future leaders in work with older adults, students will also learn organizational and management skills and will help the agencies develop or evaluate new services for older persons and their families.”
    Social workers from consortium agencies will supervise and mentor the students and participate in classes with them. The project plans to graduate 12 students with an M.S.W. degree each year.
    To increase other opportunities for service and education in the Capital District and to continue the work of the consortium, the School of Social Welfare will establish a Center for Excellence in Aging Services (CEAS) within the Institute of Gerontology. CEAS will develop and seek resources for continuing education and consultation to community agencies.
    Members of the Albany Geriatric Social Work Field Practicum Consortium are the Alzheimer’s Association, Northeastern New York Chapter; Capital District Physicians’ Health Plan; Centro Civico; Jewish Family Services of Northeastern New York; Northeast Health; the School of Social Welfare, University at Albany; Stratton VA Medical Center; Mercycare Corporation; and the Whitney M. Young, Jr., Health Center.

   Sharon Parkinson of the Department of Africana Studies admits to having an interest in the American Free Enterprise system “since childhood.” Now, through her course The Economic Structure of the Black Community (AAAS 221), she is promoting that same interest among her students.
    Recalls Parkinson, the daughter of a hospital administrator father and a mom who was a systems and data processing manager: “My mother was the main source of my interest in self-employment. Since I was about eight years old, she has been pursuing entrepreneurial activities in addition to her career. We’ve been involved in the marketing and sales of all sorts of products, from jewelry to insurance and financial services to 3-D pocket cameras. The cameras were fun, but they didn’t quite take off as expected.” Adds the Brooklyn native: “I say ‘we’ because I was always being taken to sales presentations, being asked to take brochures to school to share with fellow students and teachers, or to distribute fliers in the community.” Of all the ventures she and her mother were involved in, Parkinson remembers, “the one I appreciated the most was the bridal fashions and wedding consulting business. That one paid for most of my college tuition.”
    According to Parkinson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations and business administration from Andrews University and an M.S. in communication from Cornell, teaching is her “second career.” Her first was handling marketing and promotions in the publishing industry through two subsidiaries of International Thomson Publishing. In that job, “I used to promote other professors’ books. Now I’m a professor myself,” notes Parkinson, who received her Ph.D. in sociology from Purdue.
    Parkinson has also been an entrepreneur: In 1991, a year after graduating from college, she started her first “‘real’ business” with her personal savings. Imani Marketing, which sold ethnic products, “was dissolved in 1992,” she remembers. “‘Imani’ means ‘faith’ in Swahili. I truly started the business on faith. I decided to cut my losses early because of a lack of adequate capital, and because I was admitted to graduate school on a fellowship.”
    Her previous entrepreneurial experience and a personal finance course Parkinson had taken in college “heightened my awareness to the need for exposing students to this information,” she says. After her arrival at Albany last September, she revamped the economic structure course - part of the Africana Studies curriculum for years - which provides students with information for increasing their personal net worth over the course of a lifetime. The course also fosters entrepreneurial mindsets. Many students came to the class already wanting to start their own businesses. The class project allows them to develop the business plan in a safe environment, and exposes them to the trials and tribulations of creating a new business.”
    The revamped AAAS 221 has been embraced by students of all ethnic and racial backgrounds. About 65 - primarily juniors and seniors - are enrolled in the course, which Parkinson plans to offer again next fall.
    Parkinson’s students glowingly attest to her skills as a teacher. Kevin McCoy, a senior political science major from the Bronx, credits Parkinson with helping him “learn more about investing in stocks, what to do with family income, and how to save money.” According to Kevin, who hopes to work with an investment company after graduation, “budgeting, getting a financial planner, and even using coupons” are all good methods of cutting costs and increasing savings. He plans to put Parkinson’s advice to use after he leaves Albany, and “to teach other people the same things I’ve learned.”
    Kevin’s classmate, senior English major Cameile Grayson of Westchester, enrolled in the economic structure course because “I took another class with Professor Parkinson, and she’s an excellent teacher. She’s taught me a lot about taking care of my finances, and she’s always available to talk about the course material. I’ve definitely learned a lot about stocks, how to get a mortgage, saving for retirement, and credit,” explained Cameile, adding that many people her age are in debt. 
    Cameile, who plans to earn a master’s degree in criminal justice, notes that guest lecturers have been effective at getting the saving, investment, and credit messages across. Matt Staccone, a senior adviser at the Small Business Development Center Director and a UAlbany graduate, helped Cameile and her classmates design plans for their own small businesses. Cohoes Savings Bank Vice President Bobbi Carter offered information on credit management and credit repair procedures. Other speakers this semester included Robert Scofield from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Capital Region office and John Hancock Financial Services Sales Manager Craig Wilson.
    In late April, Parkinson’s students presented plans for their own businesses. Jessica Morales and several of her classmates shared a plan to establish “Club XTASI” (“Escape to Another Setting Instantly”), a Manhattan dance club. Each student spoke about startup costs, staffing needs, licensing requirements, marketing, hours of operation, competition, transportation, monthly revenues and expenses, and other aspects of business ownership. 
    So convincing are the young entrepreneurs that a visitor asks Jessica after the presentation if they will actually be carrying out their plans. “Oh no,” the political science major responds, adding that, after she graduates in May, she will be working in the office of New York City Councilman Guillermo Linares.
    Given the impact that Parkinson has had upon her students, would she ever consider using what she teaches in the course to launch another business enterprise?
    “Yes, after I retire from the higher education system,” answers Parkinson, whose current research focus is African American entrepreneurs. “I’m the type who needs to keep moving, and retiring by a lake in a quiet town is not consistent with my vision or my personality.”
    In the meantime, Parkinson is still helping Mom: “I have an academic career now, but that doesn’t stop my mother from asking me to promote her latest Web sites. Now she’s involved in E-commerce, marketing products on the Internet and designing Web sites.”

    A Columbia County firm and  UAlbany have received a $4.2 million federal research grant to set up a center for “mutant” mice, which could lead to major improvements in the way diseases are identified and treated.
     The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a five-year, $4.2 million research grant to Taconic Farms, Inc., an international supplier of disease-free laboratory animals, for establishment of a Mutant Mouse Regional Resource Center (MMRRC). The center is dedicated to the further study of the genetic background and phenotypic behaviors of mice with targeted gene mutations.
    Under a cooperative agreement with UAlbany, additional research work on mutant mice will be performed through the University’s Center for the Study of Comparative Functional Genomics at the East Campus. Taconic will provide the disease-free mice for the project from its Germantown facility.
    “This enhances the University’s ability to create further research projects in biotechnology, which in turn opens the door to more incubator firms coming to the East Campus, and that will create jobs,” said Eugene Schuler, assistant vice president for Research and director of Technology Development.
    Paulette J. McCormick of the Department of Biological Sciences is co-principal investigator on the project, along with James G. Geistfeld, director of laboratory animal medicine at Taconic. UAlbany is one of three academic sites nationally for the MMRRCs, the others being the University of California at Davis and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 
    Officials with Taconic, UAlbany and the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) will form a coordinating committee to oversee administration of the program. The committee initially will consist of the principal investigators from Taconic, UAlbany, the other MMRRCs and NCRR program administrators. 
    One of the committee’s many administrative duties will be to select the mutant mice that will be sent to the MMRRCs in the U.S. A mutation is a hereditary change in DNA sequence resulting from introduction of a mutagen or as a result of the intentional addition or disruption of a gene through laboratory procedures.
    Mice sent to Taconic will have all diseases eliminated through embryo transfer, which results in an animal with a highly defined health profile. A supply of embryos from the mice will be cryopreserved; that is, collected and frozen in liquid nitrogen. This stage ensures that Taconic will have a ready supply of embryos to impregnate other surrogate female mice in the event of an emergency or if a specific mouse becomes of interest in research many years from now. 
    At the East Campus, extensive behavioral and pathological phenotyping of the mutant mice will be performed over time. Phenotyping is an observation of the characteristics of an organism often caused by one or more specific genes. This observation and analysis serves as a tool to characterize the phenotypes of the mutant mice (expression of the genes). 
    Marked differences between the original strain of mice and the mutant mice will be noted and new or changed parameters established. The parameters will be made available to other researchers and scientists to help them with their work, while the results can also be used in publishing technical and medical papers in research journals. Researchers say this process helps them learn about the effects of a specific gene on an animal.
    “This center is a major accomplishment for this area of upstate New York because it is being accomplished through commercial and academic cooperation,” said Geistfeld. “It shows that such cooperation can work to the benefit of biomedical science. The data coming out of this research program will be of great use to the biomedical sciences as we move toward cures and preventive measures for what are now in-curable diseases.”
    According to McCormick, UAlbany researchers will explore ways to “improve phenotyping of mutant mice. We might know which gene might be responsible for a given mutation, but we don’t know all the ramifications. We want to design new ways to enhance our knowledge of mutations in the mice. We’re not just studying single genes but rather we’ll be looking at all the pathways and all the genes affected by the mutations.”
    To achieve their goals, University researchers will employ microarray analysis, described by McCormick as the latest in gene study methods for establishing and analyzing patterns of gene expression. 
    “We have been limited until recently to studying one gene at a time, or a subset of a gene,” says McCormick. “Microarray analysis allows us to ‘computerize’ genes by assigning thousands of genes to one computer chip. We can analyze global gene expression. We’re no longer limited to studying a few genes. With microarray analysis, we can look at 50,000 genes in a single day. We can identify coordinated sets of genes and uncover the pathways through which they interact.”
    Microarray analysis will also allow researchers to identify so-called “modifier” genes in the various strains of mutant mice. “Human diseases often have different outcomes in different individuals,” says McCormick. “Diseases ranging from AIDS to cancer to the common cold sometimes affect some people less and some more than others.” 
    Modifier genes are those that help regulate how seriously a mutation or disease will affect an individual. Analyzing mutant mice could lead to knowledge about these modifying genes in humans and, therefore, about the potential risk of humans for various diseases as well as the potential response to different types of therapeutic intervention. This work could have a major impact on human disease prognosis and therapy.
    Founded in 1952, Taconic Farms, Inc. currently offers more than 80 different MPF laboratory rat and mouse models.