Carlow University Appoints Howard Stern, PhD, as Associate Dean
City’s CIO Will Lead Carlow’s Development of Digital Learning Environment

Carlow University appointed Howard Stern, PhD, chief information officer of the City of Pittsburgh, to the position of associate dean of academic administration. He will begin at Carlow in January 2012.

Howard Stern, PhD

In this new position, Stern will provide leadership for the development of the University’s digital learning environment and oversight for the Office for Academic Technology. He will partner with Carlow’s faculty, schools, departments, and staff in providing strategic leadership for the innovative and effective use of online and other educational technologies. “The position is designed to ensure the excellence of all digitally enabled learning initiatives offered through Carlow University regionally, nationally, and globally,” says Margaret McLaughlin, PhD, the provost and vice president of Academic Affairs for Carlow University.

McLaughlin said that characteristics of excellence include educational effectiveness, innovative program design, forward-thinking and sensible application of innovative technologies, collaborative program development that builds on faculty and staff interest and expertise, and extraordinary student and faculty support services.

“Dr. Stern will coordinate the scale and expansion of existing online programs through targeted recruitment, new certificate programs, and creative marketing efforts,” says McLaughlin. “He will represent the University at professional and educational conferences and collaborate with other educational institutions, government and non-profit agencies, and business organizations in the region and nationally.”

Stern received a doctorate in political science from West Virginia University in 2006 and master’s degrees in political science (West Virginia, 2005), information science (University of Pittsburgh, 1993), and public administration (University of Pittsburgh, 1983). He taught for many years at La Roche College and more recently for Carlow University’s School of Management. In addition to his administrative role, Stern is receiving an appointment as assistant professor in the School of Management.

Core Value: Leadership

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Campus School Tennis Coach Overcomes Cancer, Wins Tennis Professional of the Year Award

To the names of Lance Armstrong and Mario Lemieux, you can add the name Mark Haffner.

Under ordinary circumstances, Haffner, who coaches tennis at The Campus School of Carlow University, would never draw comparisons to world-class athletes, but surviving bladder cancer has entitled Haffner to be mentioned in the same breath as Armstrong and Lemieux, who, themselves, are both cancer survivors.

The United States Tennis Association certainly agrees with that sentiment, and for all he has accomplished they have named him their Tennis Professional of the Year, an award Haffner received earlier this year.

Haffner, a Squirrel Hill resident, was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2008. He had surgery in December of that year and started treatment in January 2009.

“I wasn’t prepared for how emotionally and physically draining they were,” he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Haffner began the standard treatment for bladder cancer—six weekly infusions of an infectious mycobacterium called Bacillius Calmette Gucrin, or BCG—enduring side effects such as pain, nausea, and flu-like symptoms.

“I would get my treatments on Friday,” he told the Post-Gazette. “After a while, my daughter would ask, ‘Why are you always so sick on weekends, Daddy?’”

Haffner had to stop at five BCG treatments on the advice of his doctor, after he developed a urinary tract infection and landed in the hospital, nearly at the point of renal failure.

Despite the side effects and infection, Haffner has recovered and has been cancer-free for more than two years. In addition to teaching tennis at The Campus School, he also coaches hockey and is a personal trainer. Along the way, he can dispense advice that others cannot.

“I would be remiss in not extending my sincere appreciation for the opportunity to work with the students at The Campus School of Carlow University,” he says. “Please know that I share these achievements with those organizations who have paved the way for me to do what I love: helping children be the best they can be.”

Core Value: Sacredness of Creation

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Carlow University Art History Professor Presents at the United Nations
Sylvia Rhor, PhD, Presents at the “Peace is the Way” Event

Sylvia Rhor, PhD, gave a presentation about nonviolent superheroes at the United Nations in New York City as part of the exhibit, “Peace is the Way: A Century of Nonviolent Action Animated Comic Book Film Series .” The presentation took place on November 8, 2011, in the Julia Taft Conference Room on the 20th floor of One United Nations Plaza.

Rhor is an associate professor of art history at Carlow and was a Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar at New York University. She was also curator of “Civil Rights Superheroes” which was on display at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh, Pa. Her presentation highlighted the Montgomery Story , a comic book about Martin Luther King Jr., which shows how comic books and cartoons inspired everyday people to join the civil rights movement, and how they continue to fuel international peace movements. Montgomery Story was translated into Arabic and used in Tahrir Square during Egypt’s nonviolent uprising.

Other presenters included Stuart Jolley and Gregory Kennedy-Salem, both activist film makers; Sister Chan Khong, who began helping poor people in slums at the age of thirteen; and Laura Hassler, who specializes in cultural diversity in the arts and has founded a World Music School.

Core Value: Sacredness of Creation

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As part of Disability Employment Awareness Month, Carlow University featured a presentation by Mary Crossley, JD, dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Law on October 24, 2011 in Room 107 of the A.J. Palumbo Hall of Science and Technology. Crossley specializes in disability discrimination law, and focused on the topic of “Disabilities and Cultural Competence in the Professions.”

Mary Crossley, JD

Dean Crossley came to Pitt's School of Law in 2005. Before that, she was the Florida Bar Health Law Section Professor of Law at Florida State University. She also served two years as associate academic dean at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Prior to choosing to teach, she practiced health care and corporate law in New Haven and San Francisco, in addition to clerking for Judge Harry Wellford on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Core Value: Hospitality

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Student Affairs Town Hall Meetings Provide Forum for Student Feedback

As part of the interview process, Carlow University’s new dean of Student Affairs, Jennifer Carlo, heard from students that they needed and wanted regular access to someone who could address any concerns they had. To fulfill that need, Carlo, with the help of the Student Government Association (SGA), began hosting town hall meetings with students earlier this month.

So far, there have been two in-person meetings—one in Tiernan Cafeteria and one in the A.J. Palumbo Hall of Science and Technology. There will be another in-person meeting in the residence halls and a virtual meeting via a web chat before the end of the semester. “We have a diverse student population, and we want to make it easy for anyone to access and participate in these meetings,” says Carlo.

Carlo says response to the town hall meetings has been favorable. “I’m getting a lot of follow-up e-mails after the meetings,” she says. “Students are telling me they are happy to have access to someone who can address their concerns. For me, it's time well spent.”

Students come to the meetings with a variety of both general and specific concerns; however, Carlo says she is pleased with the number of students who come to the meetings to say they are happy with pretty much everything.

Carlo and the SGA plan to host town hall meetings every semester. Future meetings may also include members of the President’s staff, as well as additional Student Affairs staff members.

Core Value: Hospitality and Student Progress

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Pittsburgh poetry fans attended a reading by American poet and university professor D. A. Powell, held in Kresge Theatre on the Carlow University campus on Wednesday, November 9, 2011.

Powell received his MA at Sonoma State University and an MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He also has served as the Briggs-Copeland Lecturer at Harvard and is teaching at both Columbia University and the University of San Francisco. He won the prestigious Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his fourth book, Chronic , and was the recipient of the 2009 California Book Award. Powell’s poems have been featured in American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of New Poetry (2009) and Best American Poetry (2008).

Carlow University’s Division of Humanities, the Creative Writing Program, and The Madwomen in the Attic sponsored this event as a part of the Madwomen Reading Series. Powell’s reading was free and open to the public, and a reception and book signing followed the presentation.

Core Value: Discovery/Quest

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Duquesne Professor Speaks about Poet Mina Loy at Carlow University
Lecture Was Part of Carlow’s Cultural Theory and Historical Practice Lecture Series

Carlow University hosted Linda A. Kinnahan, PhD, an English professor at Duquesne University, for a lecture entitled “A Foliage of Mass Production: Photography and the Modern Urban Scene in Mina Loy’s Poetry,” on Thursday, November 10, in Kresge Theatre on the Carlow campus.

Loy was a poet, painter, and socialite who made herself known in the avant-garde worlds of Futurism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Kinnahan’s central themes were the way in which Loy offers a set of visual relations that define currents of consumerism and poverty, as well as questioning how Loy’s poetry and photography engage with the visual dynamics shaping the modern urban environs of mass consumption, disposable culture, and economic selfhood.

This lecture was part of Carlow’s Cultural Theory and Historical Practice Lecture Series, and was free and open to the public.

Core Value: Discovery/Quest

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Carlow University Receives Nine Golden Triangle Awards from IABC/Pittsburgh
Carlow Receives Awards That Span Print, Broadcast, and Digital

Carlow University’s University Communications and External Relations division received nine Golden Triangle awards from the Pittsburgh chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) at its annual awards dinner on October 6, 2011.

Carlow received nine awards for projects developed in the last 12 months. The winning projects in the category they were awarded included:

Electronic Newsletters
The Women of Spirit® Newsletter
The Carlow Sun

Publications
The Carlow Journal
Destination Education—The Carlow Viewbook

Special Publications
Carlow-at-a-Glance

Audio/Visual
“I Matter “ Traditional Student TV Commercial
“I Matter” Non-Traditional Student TV Commercial

Book and Magazine Covers
Voices from the Attic

Print Advertising Campaign
The Master of Science in Fraud and Forensics

The Golden Triangle awards are judged by IABC chapters in other states. The awards recognize the projects that creative departments and agencies develop on time and on budget. Each entry must provide a rationale, explanation of audience, and discussion of cost for consideration.

“We received the second highest number of awards of any organization at this year’s Golden Triangles, and no other organization (for- or non-profit) received awards across the board in categories spanning digital to television to advertising to traditional print,” said Louise Cavanaugh Sciannameo, vice president of University Communications and External Relations at Carlow University.

Other very deserving award winners included the University of Pittsburgh, Westinghouse, The National Aviary, Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne University, Bayer Material Science, Tucker Arensberg, McKesson, Euro RSCG, U.S. Steel, Alcoa, the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, and PPG.

Core Value: Leadership

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Rocket Scientist Awards Program Recognizes Innovation in Carlow University’s Finance and Operations Department

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower,” said the late Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple, Inc. and the visionary and creative genius behind the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and other Apple products.

To encourage innovative thinking among his staff here at Carlow, vice president for Finance and Operations Tyler Kelsch implemented the Rocket Scientist Award program. “The purpose of the program is to recognize a Finance and Operations staff member who, through extraordinary and innovative action above and beyond the call of duty, removes a barrier to a key business objective affecting multiple departments,” says Kelsch.

To date, there have been three rounds of Rocket Scientist Awards. The winners receive a trophy and other benefits.

To win the award, a staff member (the senior department manager and Kelsch are ineligible) must accomplish a task that is not part of his or her existing job duties, affects at least two Carlow departments in a positive way, and shows initiative. More than one person can win the award if they are all working on the same project.

In the first round of awards, Evan Tachoir, human resources coordinator, won for his work revamping the adjunct faculty contracting process with the academic departments. Terri Ranft, payroll coordinator, also won for bringing her daughter’s high school dance team to campus to see a Carlow University Dance Team performance. After the performance, the high school students met with Carlow admissions counselors to learn more about the University.

In the second round of awards, all of the Carlow grounds crew members—Dan Hall, Tom Dynoske, George Doose, and Jon Paul Vagnier—were recognized for their work on the waterfall.

“This project would normally been contracted out to an outside landscaping business, but our groundskeepers used their existing skill sets to design and construct the waterfall—saving the University a lot of time and money,” says Kelsch. “Their work on this project represents their commitment to enhancing the Carlow community and the learning environment we strive to create for our students.”

The entire Carlow Student HUB staff was recognized in the third and most recent round of awards. “This was the first time in all my years of working with these types of services that we were able to implement a one-stop service area without any troubles,” says Kelsch. “The entire group came together and instituted the Student HUB in a short period of time without any push back or resistance.”

The Student HUB staff includes: Judith Cashmere, Judith (Judi) Halterlein, Lori Krieger, Irene Leong, Nicole Mullen, Natalie Wilson, Jean Berkeley, Laura Deutsch, Natasha Higgins, Jason Krall, Katie McCurdy-Marks, Cheryl Sorensen, Virginia (Ginny) Mikulan, Linda Root, Dolores (Jean) Trovy, Patricia (Patty) Whitfield, Deborah Gearhart, and Michelle Scherrah.

Core Value: Discovery/Quest

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For upcoming campus events, please visit MyPortal.

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