Campus News

Lisa Kitko, an accomplished scholar, researcher, educator, and clinician became the sixth dean of the School of Nursing in September. Formerly the associate dean for graduate education and director of the PhD program at Penn State University, Kitko succeeds Kathy Rideout ’95W (EdD), ’03 (Flw), who announced last year she was stepping down after 11 years as dean.

Noted libraries leader Kevin Garewal began his first full academic year as the vice provost and Andrew H. and Janet Dayton Neilly Dean of the University Libraries this fall. Appointed earlier in the year, Garewal, formerly the associate director of collections at Harvard Law School Library, succeeds Mary Ann Mavrinac, who served in the role from 2012 until last January.

Elizabeth Milavec ’22S (MBA) became the University’s inaugural executive vice president for administration and finance and chief financial officer this summer. A certified public accountant with an MBA from Simon, she had served as interim senior vice president for administration and finance, CFO, and treasurer since November 2021. She joined the University in 2016.

Gifts Establish New Professorships

Financial support from University friends, alumni, and their families will establish new professorships at the Simon Business School and at the Medical Center as well as a new initiative to improve care for children with cleft palates and other craniofacial issues.

At Simon, a $3 million endowed gift from Jackie Sperandio will establish the Robert Sperandio Professorship in Entrepreneurship. The position is named in recognition of her late husband, Rob, who, for 40 years, ran Sporting Dog Specialties, a Rochester-based direct mail company that PetSmart purchased in 1997.

Designed to support Simon’s strategic plan, the position will help attract, recruit, and recognize faculty members who are leaders in entrepreneurial education.

At the Medical Center, Kenneth Ouriel ’77, ’86M (Res), ’87M (Flw) and his wife, Joy Bracker Ouriel, have established the Kenneth and Joy Ouriel Family Professorship in the Division of Vascular Surgery. The position will help recognize faculty in the division, which is internationally known for its work to diagnose and treat aneurysms, blocked arteries, and other heart and blood flow issues.

And Joseph Serletti ’82M (MD), ’88M (Res) and Bonnie Serletti ’90M (MD), ’94M (Res) have made a gift to establish the Serletti Family Cleft and Craniofacial Humanitarian Outreach Initiative to improve clinical care for children in western New York and internationally.

The fund will support the efforts of the Pediatric Cleft and Craniofacial Center within the Division of Plastic Surgery at Golisano Children’s Hospital.

In the future, the endowment will fund the Serletti Family Professorship in the plastic surgery division.

Play Premieres on Campus Stage

The world premiere of a work by playwright Sam Chanse is the latest production to take the stage through a project of the University’s International Theatre Program.

Commissioned through the program’s New Voice Initiative, the play Fellowshipmade its debut this fall at the Sloan Performing Arts Center. The play is the fifth production since 2005 to result from the initiative, which was funded for 2019–22 by Natalie Hurst ’74.

The work was first developed during Chanse’s artist residency at Rochester in 2019, an appointment that also involved teaching students in the theater program.

Construction Begins on Laser Lab Expansion

The Laboratory for Laser Energetics broke ground this summer on a $42 million, 66,000-square-foot office and lab building expansion. The new three-floor building will have space for approximately 110 scientists and personnel and feature state-of-the-art laboratories and computing facilities.

County, state, and federal representatives joined University leaders for a ceremony in July to mark the start of construction. The addition is expected to be completed in 2024.

Student Selected for First Obama-supported Scholarship

Laith Awad ’24, a double major in clinical and translational sciences and health, behavior, and society, is one of 100 recipients of a new student scholarship to support public service. The Puerto Rico native is a member of the inaugural cohort of a Voyager Scholarship, the Obama-Chesky Scholarship for Public Service.

Established last spring by the Obamas and Airbnb founder Brian Chesky, the award provides rising juniors with financial aid and a stipend in addition to free Airbnb housing to pursue a summer work-travel program.

The first 100 scholars come from 35 states and territories and 70 colleges and universities.

National Grant Boosts Math and Science Teaching

The Warner School of Education and the School of Arts & Sciences are teaming up on a federally funded project to strengthen science and math teaching and learning in high-need schools in western New York.

Funded with a $3 million grant through the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, the project will support the development of teacher leaders for urban schools, offering a new round of fellowships for secondary mathematics and science teachers from five districts—Elmira, Hornell, Jamestown, Rochester, and Salamanca.

Students in the new project will join fellows from three previous Noyce master teaching fellowship projects in the region to improve STEM learning.

The project is led by Cynthia Callard ’01W (EdD), a professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the Warner School.

Rochester Establishes Medicine’s First Breastfeeding Division

A new Medical Center department represents the first effort to establish a division-level home for breastfeeding within a multidisciplinary research and clinical setting.

Officially launched this summer, the Medical Center’s Division of Breastfeeding and Lactation is the culmination of long-standing efforts by the Departments of Pediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynecology to bring together the expertise of specialists, dentists, toxicologists, family medicine physicians, and other researchers and clinicians to promote and advance the cause of breastfeeding and lactation.

Casey Rosen-Carole, an associate professor of pediatrics, will lead the new division. She credits Ruth Lawrence ’49M (MD), a medical school faculty member for more than 50 years, for establishing the modern foundation of breastfeeding as medical practice.

Lawrence is considered one of the foremost international experts on breastfeeding and the lead author of the seminal textbook Breastfeeding: A Guide for the Medical Profession in 1979, now in its ninth edition.