Faculty and Staff Are in the Swing This Summer

Tulane faculty and staff have stayed on the move, despite the dog days of summer. Awards, honors and new leaders are making university news.

MARK BOORAS has been named the new head coach for the Tulane men's tennis program, which will return to competition in 2009–10. Booras becomes the fourth coach hired by Tulane to restart a suspended program, joining women's golf head coach JOHN THOMAS HORTON, women's tennis head coach TERRI SISK, who were hired last summer, and LENA GUARRIELLO, who was hired earlier this month to relaunch the women's swimming and diving program.

Booras comes to Tulane from Louisiana State University, where he served as the associate head coach during his final four years there and was an assistant coach during his first six seasons. Booras' leadership was showcased in 2007 when the Intercollegiate Tennis Association named him its National Assistant Coach of the Year.

Tulane will add both women's soccer and women's bowling coaches during the summer of 2009, giving the Green Wave 16 varsity sports programs and returning the athletics department to full strength for the first time since 2006.

In other news, ELIO BRANCAFORTE co-curated two exhibits at Harvard University focusing on early modern European travels to Iran. They are at the Houghton Library and Harvard Map Collection and are titled “From Rhubarb to Rubies: European Travels to Safavid Iran (1550–1700)” and “The Lands of the Sophi: Iran in Early Modern European Maps (1550–1700).”

The exhibits opened on May 8 and will be on display until Aug. 16. The exhibits deal with the tradition of cross-cultural exchange between Europe and Iran, incorporating books, maps and fine art objects from the Harvard museums. Brancaforte is an associate professor of German at Tulane.

DR. JIM FARROW received the Ollie B. Moten Award at the annual meeting of the American College Health Association in Orlando, Fla., on June 5. Farrow is professor of pediatrics and medicine and he serves as executive director of the Tulane Student Health Service. The award honors members of the association who have made a significant impact on their institution of higher education.

DR. L. LEE HAMM, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine, was awarded the Julio E. Figueroa Founders Award from the National Kidney Foundation of Louisiana. The award was presented at the 18th annual Gift of Life gala held at the Sheraton New Orleans on April 19. The award is presented yearly to an individual or organization who has provided outstanding participation, service and leadership to the National Kidney Foundation of Louisiana. Hamm is co-director of the Tulane Hypertension and Renal Center of Excellence.

DR. JIANG HE, professor of epidemiology, medicine and human genetics and chair of the Department of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, received a 2008 Distinguished Alumnus Award from Johns Hopkins University. He received the award, which honors alumni who have typified the Johns Hopkins tradition of excellence and brought credit to the university by their personal accomplishment, professional achievement or humanitarian service, at the Johns Hopkins convocation exercises in Baltimore on May 21.

At Tulane, He holds the Joseph S. Copes, MD, Chair in Epidemiology and also serves as director of the Office of Health Research. He earned his PhD in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health after earning two medical degrees in China.

BRANDON MACNEILL was hired as executive associate athletics director. Macneill handles day-to-day operations with Tulane's executive staff and oversees the continued growth of the Green Wave's external programs (marketing, public relations, the Tulane Athletics Fund and ticket sales). He also is coordinating the reinstatement plan with the athletics director. Macneill returns to Tulane, his alma mater, after spending five years at the University of Kansas where he had served as associate athletics director for administration since 2004.

L. GABRIEL NAVAR, professor and chair of the physiology department in the School of Medicine, received the Distinguished Ray G. Daggs Award from the American Physiology Society at the 2008 Experimental Biology meeting in San Diego. The award is presented annually to a physiologist who is judged to have provided distinguished long-term service to the scientific research of physiology and, in particular, to the American Physiological Society by holding a prominent position in the society. Navar is co-director of the Tulane Hypertension and Renal Center of Excellence.

MINOLFA PRIETO-CARRASQUERO, an assistant professor of physiology, received a Young Scholar's Award from the American Society for Hypertension at the society's 23rd annual scientific meeting in New Orleans on May 16. She was one of three recipients of the award, which honors emerging leaders engaged in the research field of hypertension or related cardiovascular disease. Prieto-Carrasquero was an invited lecturer on “Role of Collecting Duct Renin and Prorenin Receptor in Angiotensin II-Dependant Hypertension.”

ALAN SILVER, director of casino resort studies in the School of Continuing Studies, was a member of a group of industry experts for the Future Asia Watch Study that was presented at the G2E Asia global gaming expo in Macau, China. While at the conference, Silver conducted a training session on “Providing Quality Customer Service and Leadership in the Casino Industry” for more than 100 casino executives from Asia. He wrote an article about his experience in China for the August issue of Mississippi Gaming News.

DOROTHY SMITH joined Tulane as assistant vice president for customer partnership in the Tulane Workforce Management Organization. Smith oversees the office's employment function. Smith comes to Tulane from private industry and consulting, and will be taking the lead on creating a business partner function within the university to address customer needs and to deliver services effectively.

MARK VANLANDINGHAM, professor of international health and development, was named the first holder of the Thomas C. Keller Professorship in Diversity at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. The professorship will support VanLandingham's research on health issues of the Vietnamese population in Asia and New Orleans. VanLandingham also earned a Fulbright scholarship this year, which will enable him to travel to Vietnam in the fall.

DR. STEPHEN WEIMER, associate professor of pediatrics, and LAURIE RICHTER, director of Kidopolis, the Tulane Medical Center childcare center, presented a workshop on the influences of media on young children at the 17th National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development Conference of the National Association for the Education of Young Children in New Orleans on June 10. The interactive workshop, presented with a professor of early childhood development from the University of New Orleans, informed participants about how to advocate for change locally, regionally and nationally.

ERICA WOODLEY, director of residential education and community standards, received the Bob E. Leach Award for Outstanding Service to Students at the Region III annual summer symposium of NASPA, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. The award is presented to the student affairs professional who has demonstrated sustained exemplary service to students and a genuine and sincere sense of caring for them, while serving as a role model, advocate and coach. The award recipient also demonstrates a commitment to personalized student experiences and evidence of successful efforts in humanizing the campus community.

For her efforts as adviser to the Residence Hall Association, students selected Woodley as the Tulane Student Organization Adviser of the Year in 2007. She chairs the student affairs strategic initiative that is developing a gender assault office to meet the demand for educational and support services.