In Review

The College’s first group of Community-Engaged Summer Sustainability Fellows are exploring how climate change may affect the Rochester region.

The four students—Antoinette Nguyen ’21, a Rochester Early Medical Scholar; Ivana-re Baldie ’21, a biochemistry major; Nicole Franki ’20, an environmental studies and political science double major; and Rebecca Saubermann ’20, an environmental health and financial analytics double major—were selected as the inaugural cohort of the initiative, which is supported by the College’s undergraduate sustainability program.

The team worked with Katrina Smith Korfmacher, an associate professor of environmental medicine, to analyze health equity aspects of the City of Rochester’s ongoing Climate Vulnerability Assessment. Korfmacher also directs the Environmental Health Sciences Center’s Community Outreach and Engagement Core, which works to address environmental health problems in the community. As part of the project, the students planned to conduct surveys and interviews with area residents for a presentation to city officials.

Program Recognized for Excellence in Stroke Care

The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association has recognized UR Medicine’s Strong Memorial and Highland Hospitals for having achieved the highest standard of care for stroke. The award identifies hospitals that provide care that can speed the recovery and reduce death and disability for stroke patients.

Strong Memorial and Highland Hospitals received the 2018 AHA/ASA Get With the Guidelines program’s Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.

Strong Memorial was also recognized for the Target: Stroke Honor Role Elite Plus designation, which identifies hospitals that have consistently and successfully reduced door-to-needle time—the window of time between a stroke victim’s arrival at the hospital, the diagnosis of an acute ischemic stroke, and the administration of a clot-busting drug that has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of a stroke and lessen the chance of permanent disability if given in the first four and a half hours after the start of stroke symptoms.

Student Health Building to Get New Floor, Expanded Services

The River Campus building that provides primary care and mental health services to about 11,000 full-time students will get an additional floor, allowing University Health Service to increase programs for mental health care and to provide meeting spaces for health support groups.

The vertical expansion will add about 6,000 square feet to the UHS building, which is currently a three-story, 24,000 square-foot facility.

The $4 million project is funded in part through a $1 million grant from New York State’s Higher Education Capital Matching Grant Program, known as HECap. The program funds capital projects for independent private colleges in New York. For every $1 in state matching funds, independent colleges and universities must provide $3 in support of their projects.

In the current building, which opened in 2008, physical therapy services are located in a portion of the basement, primary medical care is available on the first floor, administrative and health promotion offices are on the second floor, and mental health and counseling services are provided on the third floor.

In addition to creating space for psychiatric and mental health care, the new floor will also allow a Medical Center–based occupational health program to relocate to the River Campus, where it can better serve the entire University community.

Construction of the expansion is slated to begin in May 2019, with plans to complete the addition by fall 2020.

Gift Supports Warner’s Efforts in Urban Education Success

Shaun Nelms ’13W (EdD), who has served as superintendent of Rochester’s East High School as part of the University’s educational partnership with the school, has been named the first William and Sheila Konar Director for the Center for Urban Education Success at the Warner School of Education.

The endowed position was made possible through a $2.5 million gift from the William and Sheila Konar Foundation to provide lead support for urban education research and practice. Nelms will continue in his role as the superintendent of East Upper and Lower Schools, which the University has partnered with as a state-approved educational partnership organization since 2015. He is also an associate professor at Warner.

In addition to endowing the position of the director for the center, the support bolsters Warner’s ability to attract and retain top leaders for the center and its work.

Established in 1982 by William and Sheila Konar and now led by their son, Howard, the foundation has supported issues close to the family, including education, health and human services, and Jewish life and programs in the Rochester area.

The late William Konar was a Holocaust survivor who made his way to Rochester in the 1940s and graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School.

This gift follows earlier commitments made by Sheila Konar and the Konar Foundation to urban education and Warner, including a gift in 2011 to launch a literacy intervention program called Project READ, which established a partnership between Warner and select elementary schools in the Rochester City School District.

International Services Director to Lead Advocacy and Engagement Effort

Cary Jensen, senior counsel and director of the International Services Office, has been named assistant vice provost for international advocacy and engagement in the Office for Global Engagement.

The new role is designed to provide broader support to the University’s international populations, especially amidst shifting national policies regarding international students and scholars studying in the United States.

Jensen, who joined the University in 1996, will lead the University’s international compliance, advocacy, and engagement services. He will develop and implement evidence-based campus policies, programs, and processes that support the diverse, often emerging needs of international populations on campus, helping to ensure that the institution is well positioned to support their success. He will also develop programs and processes that promote international diversity and inclusion University-wide, and help mitigate the risks for international populations who are subject to changing immigration policies.

Simon Master’s Program in Finance Ranked among Best

The Simon Business School has been ranked among the top 10 business schools in the United States for its master in finance (pre-experience) program for the fifth year in a row by the Financial Times.

Simon tied for fifth in the United States in this year’s survey and 42nd among the top 65 programs worldwide.

The ranking is a weighted average of alumni career progress, school diversity, international course experience, and faculty research.

Leader of Dance Program Named Director of Institute for Performing Arts

Missy Pfohl Smith, the director of the Program of Dance and Movement, has been appointed to a three-year term to lead the Institute for Performing Arts.

Smith, who also serves as artistic director of the modern dance company BIODANCE, succeeds John Covach, a professor of music in the Department of Music and director of the Institute for Popular Music.

Established in 2015, the Institute for Performing Arts brings together the disciplines of music, theater, and dance into a collaborative venture.

As a central administrative center for performance programs on the River Campus, the institute is designed to inspire students with or without prior training or experience to explore a variety of aesthetic art forms and opportunities, and to increase collaboration and strengthen the relationships among the College, the Eastman School of Music, and the Memorial Art Gallery.