Details

Dedicated Alumni Honored by Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health


Four University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health alumni will be recognized for their outstanding service in the field of public health at the school’s 2012 Alumni Awards ceremony tonight.

“We are delighted to honor these distinguished alumni for their commitment to advancing public health through research, teaching and community service,” said Donald S. Burke, MD, GSPH dean and UPMC-Jonas Salk Chair of Global Health.

• John F. Zanardelli, MPH, class of 1979, will receive The Margaret F. Gloninger Service Award for his significant volunteer work with GSPH and the community. While president and chief executive officer of the Asbury Heights retirement and long-term care facility in Mt. Lebanon, Zanardelli has been actively involved in numerous student training and mentoring programs at GSPH. For more than 30 years, he has taught classes, been an active leader in the Delta Omega public health honorary society and initiated and run several programs to bring practice and experience to GSPH students.

• Joel Weissfeld, MD, MPH, class of 1982, will receive a Distinguished Alumni Award for Teaching and Dissemination in recognition of his leadership in cancer epidemiology training. Weissfeld, GSPH associate professor of epidemiology, directs the Cancer Epidemiology Training Program, which offers training in cancer screening and health services. Weissfeld’s work on the landmark Prostate, Lung, Colon, and Ovarian (PLCO) Screening Study not only had enormous impact on the field of cancer screening, but also has served as an intellectual foundation and training ground for a generation of students. His rigorous, yet gentle, mentoring style has inspired many students, and has earned him, among other accolades, the James L. Craig Award for Teaching Excellence from the students of the GSPH.

• Edward W. Gregg, PhD, class of 1996, will receive a Distinguished Alumni Award for Research in recognition of his leadership in diabetes epidemiology and prevention. Gregg, acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, has published more than 150 research manuscripts in publications including the Journal of the American Medical Association, Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine and the New England Journal of Medicine. A pioneer in investigating neglected aspects of diabetes, Gregg focuses primarily on cognitive function and disability. He played an award-winning leadership role in the development and execution of a database to study trends in diabetes risk factors and complications.

• James B. Pieffer, MPH, class of 1986, will receive a Distinguished Alumni Award for Practice, recognizing his work in overseeing the development and construction of more than 25 senior living communities and four housing communities for people with disabilities, including a service program for people with HIV. As president of the SeniorCare Network Inc., in Oakmont, Pieffer has given his time on a pro bono basis to numerous community groups and sponsors of senior programs. He also has grown the SeniorCare Network into one of the nation’s largest managers of low-income housing and housing for people with disabilities, building the organization on a foundation of health principles, such as wellness and prevention programs.

• Marilyn Radke, MPH, and Vincent Radke, MPH, both class of 1977, will be inducted into Delta Omega, an honorary society for graduate studies in public health that recognizes merit and encourages further excellence in, and devotion to, public health work.



5/02/2012
print

Search for an Article