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03/25/03

Appointments and Elections
James F. Blumstein, Centennial Professor of Law and director of the Health Policy Center at the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies, has been named to the advisory board of the National Federation of Independent Business Legal Foundation. In this capacity, he will help guide the Legal Foundation in choosing cases to pursue and recommend topics for legal advisory material for small business owners.

Bob Cramer, associate director of the Career Center, has been elected president-elect of the Southeastern Association of Colleges and Employers for 2003-04. SACE provides professional development, promotes professional and ethical standards, and fosters relationships among employment and career services professionals. Membership includes college relations, recruitment and human resource professionals from organizations throughout the United States, and career services professionals from colleges and universities.

Norman B. Urmy, executive vice president for clinical affairs at the Medical Center, was elected to the board of the Hospital Alliance of Middle Tennessee.

David Williams II, vice chancellor for University affairs and student life, and general counsel, was elected to the board of trustees for the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville. He will serve a three-year term.

Publications
Lenn Goodman, professor of philosophy and a scholar on Middle Eastern thought, had his new book, Islamic Humanism, released recently by Oxford University Press.

Papers and Presentations
Lewis V. Baldwin, professor of religious studies, lectured widely on the
life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., in January and February. He
appeared at churches in New York, Cleveland, Ohio, and Fort Wayne, Ind. He
also appeared at Clark-Atlanta University, Belmont University, West Chester
University, Cleveland State University and Loyola-Marymount University. He
was honored for his contributions to King scholarship and was included in a
recent review of his work in Choice, as “among the preeminent scholars on
King and the civil rights movement.” Baldwin attributes his rise as a King
scholar to the inspiration and support he has received from black churches
and from his extended family.

Gregory Barz, assistant professor of musicology (ethnomusicology), presented the keynote address “Singing for Life: Music, Religion and AIDS Intervention in Uganda,” for the “Religion and Music Conference” at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Feb. 27. At the conference he also presented the seminar “Is All Music Religious? Are All Religions Musical?”

Carolyn Breda, research associate, at the Institute for Public Policy Studies, and Craig Anne Heflinger, associate professor of human and organizational development and fellow at the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies, presented research findings on motivation to change behavior among adolescents in substance abuse treatment at the 16th Annual Research Conference: A System of Care for Children’s Mental Health March 2-5 in Tampa, Fla.

Jacek Hawiger, Oswald T. Avery Distinguished Chair and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, was invited to speak about a new class of peptides developed at Vanderbilt as intracellular signaling inhibitors that can prevent noxious effects of potential biowarfare agents at the first biodefense research conference titled “Biodefense: Future Research Directions: Development of Countermeasures.” The 2003 Biodefense Research Conference was convened by the American Society of Microbiology in Baltimore on March 9-12. Earl Ruley, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, was also invited to speak on “Functional Genomics of the Mouse: Gene Entrapment Strategies to Dissect Inflammatory Pathways.” The Conference was attended by 800 participants from the U.S. and abroad. It provided the most comprehensive “state of the science” review of human biology threatened by potential bioweapons and new approaches to detection, treatment, and prevention of diseases caused by microbial agents.