New role for physician associate director

Six named to endowed professorships

Notes

Physician associate director takes on a new role with teaching, alumni as the focus

Elaine Grant

Mary Warner

After 25 years as director of the Physician Associate Program, Elaine E. Grant, PA-C ’74, M.P.H. ’92, has stepped aside to become the program’s first director of clinical development and special projects. Her new position, which took effect October 15, will encompass clinical education and alumni affairs.

Grant, an assistant dean who was among the first to graduate from the Yale program in the early 1970s, announced her move in a letter to students, faculty and colleagues. She said that over the past year, while also overseeing clinical curriculum, she came to realize that much can be done to enrich the clinical experiences of students.

“I am going to be interacting on a much higher level with clinical rotation faculty and educating them on the difference between medical student education and physician associate student education,” Grant said. She’s also trying to organize an alumni association and hopes to establish a new program of “miniresidencies” for physician associates who wish to enter new specialties or who are returning to work after an absence from the profession.

Mary L. Warner, M.M.Sc., PA-C, the program’s assistant director for didactic curriculum, has been named interim director. After receiving her degree as a physician associate from Emory University in 1991, she practiced in cardiac and orthopedic surgery for nine years. She came to Yale in 2000 to oversee curriculum for the program’s first-year courses. She also works at Bridgeport Hospital in emergency medicine and serves as the physician assistant member of the Connecticut Medical Examining Board.

A committee will be formed to conduct a national search for a permanent director.

—John Curtis

University names six at medical school to endowed professorships

The university has announced the following endowed professorships:

Mark B. Gerstein, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, has been named the Albert L. Williams Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics. Gerstein’s group does research in the emerging field of bioinformatics.

John H. Krystal, M.D. ’84, professor of psychiatry, has been named the Robert L. McNeil Jr. Professor of Clinical Pharmacology. Krystal is the founding director of the Center for the Translational Neuroscience of Alcoholism and deputy director for clinical research at the Abraham Ribicoff Research Facilities at the Connecticut Mental Health Center.

Paul J. Lombroso, M.D., professor in the Child Study Center, has been named the Elizabeth Mears & House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry. A molecular biologist and child psychiatrist, Lombroso explores the molecular basis of childhood psychiatric disorders.

Dieter G. Söll, Ph.D., professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, chemistry and biology, was named the Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. His research focuses on genetic, molecular, biological and biochemical studies of the function of transfer RNAs.

Fred R. Volkmar, M.D., professor of psychiatry, pediatrics and psychology, has been named the Irving B. Harris Professor in the Child Study Center. Volkmar is an expert in the field of autism, Asperger’s syndrome and other Pervasive Developmental Disorders.

Joseph L. Woolston, M.D., professor of pediatrics, has been named the Albert J. Solnit Professor of Child Psychiatry. Last year he was named chief of child psychiatry at the Child Study Center.

Notes

Joseph E. Craft, M.D., HS ’77, professor of medicine and immunobiology and chief of the section of rheumatology, was named chair of the scientific advisory board of the Alliance for Lupus Research (ALR) in July. Craft will oversee the board, help establish and monitor its scientific goals and guide the planning of the ALR annual meeting and summit.

Marie E. Egan, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics and of cellular and molecular physiology, was elected membership secretary of the Society for Pediatric Research in May for a term of six years. The society bridges basic science and clinical research for the advancement of the health and well-being of children worldwide.

Janine Evans, M.D., associate professor of medicine (rheumatology), was named associate director for clinical affairs at the Yale Medical Group in June. She will be responsible for practice standards, HIPAA oversight, credentialing and the Office of Patient Advocacy. Evans will also play a leadership role in the development of practices at satellite offices, including the Shoreline Medical Center in Guilford.

Patrick G. Gallagher, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics (neonatology), and Scott A. Rivkees, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics (endocrinology), have been named members of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, a selective group that honors outstanding achievement in biomedical research.

Margaret K. Hostetter, M.D., chair and professor of pediatrics and professor of microbial pathogenesis, and Richard P. Lifton, M.D., Ph.D., chair and Sterling Professor of Genetics and professor of medicine and molecular biophysics and biochemistry, were invited to serve on a Blue Ribbon Panel on Clinical Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The panel will examine research conducted within NIH laboratories and clinics and suggest ways to collaborate with researchers outside the NIH.

Zeev N. Kain, M.D., HS ’92, FW ’93, anesthesiologist-in-chief at Yale-New Haven Hospital Children’s Hospital and professor of anesthesiology and pediatrics and child psychiatry, has been appointed an associate editor of Anesthesiology, the journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. His renewable four-year term began January 1, 2003. He also began four-year terms in January on the editorial board of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and as a member of the Risk Prevention and Health Behavior Study Section, Center for Scientific Review at the National Institutes of Health.

Lavik

Erin Lavik, Sc.D., assistant professor of biomedical engineering, was one of two Yale faculty members named to the 2003 list of world’s 100 Top Young Innovators by Technology Review, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s magazine of innovation. Lavik’s research focuses on new approaches to repairing spinal cord injury and retinal degeneration.

Jerold R. Mande, M.P.H., lecturer in pediatrics, was named associate director for policy at the Yale Cancer Center in September. His initial goal is to define Yale’s role in the Connecticut Cancer Control Plan in conjunction with the Connecticut Cancer Partnership. Before coming to Yale, Mande served on the White House staff as an advisor to President Clinton and was senior advisor and executive assistant to the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $2.1 million grant to I. George Miller Jr., M.D. The Method to Extend Research in Time Award provides five years of support for Miller, the John F. Enders Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, professor of epidemiology and of molecular biophysics and biochemistry. In research spanning nearly 30 years, Miller has used an interdisciplinary approach to define the major properties of the Epstein-Barr virus and is now studying its pathogenicity. His laboratory also studies the gamma herpes virus, associated with Kaposi’s sarcoma and body cavity lymphomas.

Harvey A. Risch, M.D., Ph.D., professor of epidemiology, was awarded a $3.65 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for a five-year study of the etiology of pancreas cancer cases in Connecticut. His co-investigator on the study, Herbert Yu, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology, also received $3.2 million from the NIH for a five-year study of mitogenic growth factors and endometrial cancer. Risch is co-investigator on Yu’s study.

Philip E. Rubin, Ph.D., director of the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences at the National Science Foundation, received a Commendable Performance award in September from the Human Subjects Research Subcommittee on Science of the National Science and Technology Council for his superior leadership of all federal government departments and agencies involved in the protection of human subjects. Rubin has been chief operations officer at Haskins Laboratories since October and is returning to Yale where he is professor adjunct of surgery (otolaryngology) and a research affiliate in psychology.

Shaywitz

Bennett A. Shaywitz, M.D., professor of pediatrics and neurology with an appointment in the Child Study Center, received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Washington University Alumni Association in St. Louis. The award, presented at the 150th anniversary celebration in September, honors outstanding professional achievement, public service and exceptional service to the university. Shaywitz is known for taking a neurological approach to the study of dyslexia.

Shepard B. Stone, M.P.S., PA ’76, HS ’81, associate clinical professor of anesthesiology and a physician associate-anesthesiologist at Yale-New Haven Hospital, is also on the board of trustees of the Associates of the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library. Stone, a member of the Connecticut Army National Guard, was appointed state aviation medicine officer in March.