Gender Equity

Original article at: http://web5.cns.utexas.edu/news/2011/09/sawyer-pecase/

Biologist Sara Sawyer has received a 2011 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.
Sawyer is assistant professor of molecular genetics and microbiology and member of the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology in the College of Natural Sciences.

Sixteen federal departments and agencies join together annually to nominate the most meritorious scientists and engineers whose early accomplishments show the greatest promise for assuring America’s preeminence in science and engineering and contributing to the awarding agencies’ missions.

“It is inspiring to see the innovative work being done by these scientists and engineers as they ramp up their careers—careers that I know will be not only personally rewarding but also invaluable to the nation,” said President Barack Obama. “That so many of them are also devoting time to mentoring and other forms of community service speaks volumes about their potential for leadership, not only as scientists but as model citizens.”

Sawyer is being recognized for her research on the evolution of DNA repair genes, providing insight on both the formation of cancers and susceptibility to viral infection. Human cells contain a complex network of DNA repair pathways that have evolved to protect the integrity of chromosomes. However, viral pathogens, like HIV, use proteins in these pathways for their own benefit, and that may influence the evolution and function of those proteins.

Ali Khademhosseini, a visiting 2011 Donald D. Harrington Faculty Fellow in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Biomedical Engineering Department this fall, also received a PECASE. Sawyer and Khademhosseini will receive their awards from Obama in person next month. A full list of the 2011 PECASE recipients is available at the White House Web site.

For more information, contact: Lee Clippard, College of Natural Sciences, 512-232-0675.

AUSTIN, Texas — Sex-segregated schooling is not superior to coeducational schooling and carries the risk of exaggerating sexism and gender stereotyping, according to a new report co-authored by a University of Texas at Austin psychologist.

In an article in the current issue of Science magazine, psychologist Rebecca Bigler, along with other members of the American Council for CoEducational Schooling (ACCES) call upon policymakers to take a close look at scientific evidence addressing the negative aspects of single-sex education.

Concerned with a Department of Education reinterpretation of Title IX that permits single-sex education within coeducational schools, the researchers cite evidence that it legitimizes institutional sexism without demonstrating actual improvement in academic performance.

The research comes as the Austin Independent School District, which operates an all-girls middle school, is considering opening two additional single-sex school campuses. Nationally, the number of single-sex schools has climbed steadily in recent years despite a lack of consensus that such schools lead to academic or psychological outcomes superior to those of coeducational schools.

“Given the scientific research on the topic, a further investment in single-sex schools does not appear to be a wise use of public funds,” Bigler says.

According to the report, proponents of single-sex classrooms often misconstrue evidence from neurobehavioral science to justify different educational methods. For example, Leonard Sax, the executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, inferred from research conducted on adults’ cardiovascular regulation in response to stress that boys respond best in the classroom with loud confrontation (“What’s your answer, Mr. Jackson? Give it to me!”), whereas girls should be approached much more gently (“Lisa, sweetie, it’s time to open your book.”).

Neuroscientists, however, have found very few differences in children’s brains tied to sex, and many believe that the perceived differences in the neural structure or function of adult brains are the result of a lifetime of sex-differentiated experiences rather than inherent differences.

Past research by Bigler and her colleagues has demonstrated that labeling and organizing children by social groups – even randomly assigned T-shirt colors — cause children to infer that the groups differ in important, meaningful ways and develop intergroup prejudices.

“Schools play a larger role in children’s lives beyond academic training—they prepare children for mixed-sex workplaces, families and citizenry,” Bigler says. “Institutionalizing gender-segregated classrooms limits children’s opportunities to interact with members of the opposite sex and to develop the skills necessary for positive and cooperative interaction.”

Also working on this research were Diane F. Halpern, Claremont McKenna College; Lise Eliot, Rosalind Franklin University; Richard A. Fabes, Laura D. Hanish and Carol Lynn Martin, Arizona State University; Janet Hyde, University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Lynn Liben, The Pennsylvania State University.

For more information, contact: Michelle Bryant, College of Liberal Arts, 512 232 4730; Rebecca Bigler, Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, 512-471-9917.

Professor Lillian Mills takes over from Urton Anderson as chair of the Department of Accounting. An award-winning scholar, Mills is the Wilton E. and Catherine A. Thomas Professor in Accounting. She has conducted influential research at the intersection of financial reporting and tax compliance for 15 years. She won the 2005 American Accounting Association Deloitte Wildman Medal for the published paper that has made or is likely to make the most significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of accounting. Mills branded an informal departmental research readings group to become the Texas Tax Readings Group, a model other universities have begun to emulate. She is the immediate past president of the American Taxation Association and is one of a handful of accountants involved in leadership of the National Tax Association, whose broad membership brings together policymakers, economists, academics and legal scholars.

For more information, contact: Cory Leahy, Red McCombs School of Business, 512 471 3998.

AUSTIN, Texas — Two University of Texas at Austin College of Education faculty members were elected Fellows of the National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK) and a third was given the organization’s highest honor at a special banquet and ceremony during the September conference.

Jody Jensen and Jan Todd, the newly elected Fellows, are professors in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education.

Jensen, who joined the College of Education in 1997, specializes in children’s neuromotor development and is co-founder of the Autism Project, where she studies the interactions between exercise and the symptoms of autism.

Todd, who began teaching at The University of Texas at Austin in 1985, is an expert in the history of sport and exercise and is co-founder and co-director of the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports.

The induction of Todd and Jensen brings the total number of University of Texas at Austin Fellows in the honorary organization to six.

Professor Emeritus Waneen Spirduso was honored at the conference with the H. Clarke Hetherington Award, the NAK’s highest accolade.

Spirduso, who is a former chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education and was interim dean of the College of Education, founded The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute of Gerontology. She is a former president of the NAK and has served in numerous leadership roles since her own induction as a Fellow in 1983. She was honored in 2009 by the President’s Council on Physical Fitness for her decades of significant work in the area of physical activity and aging, and she was the first woman to receive the university’s Civitatis Award for her outstanding service to the university community.

“It’s very rare for one department to have this many faculty in the academy,” said John Ivy, chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, “and it makes me extremely proud to be the head of such a distinguished group. I’m particularly delighted that Dr. Spirduso received the Hetherington Award.

“Hetherington founded the academy and the list of award recipients represents a ‘Who’s Who’ of our profession. Dr. Spirduso’s research has been seminal to the establishment of the field of exercise gerontology, and no one whom I know has done more to advance knowledge on that subject. I’m so proud of her, as well as Dr. Jensen and Dr. Todd.”

The NAK is composed of elected active, emeritus and international Fellows who have made major, long-term contributions to kinesiology and physical education. The academy’s purpose is to encourage and promote the study and educational application of the art and science of human movement.

For more information, contact: Kay Randall, Office of the President, 512 232 3910.

The Center for Politics and Governance at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs will present Gail Collins, renowned New York Times columnist and author, as she talks about her 2009 book “When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present” on Oct. 13, as part of the Center’s ongoing Perspectives@CPG series.

Gail CollinsThe event will take place from 12:45 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To register, visit:http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/cpg/event_rsvp.php?id=77. Free parking will be available in Lot 38 in the LBJ Library and Museum parking lot.

The first-ever female head of The New York Timeseditorial board and op-ed columnist, Gail Collins, is a noted women’s historian. In her talk on Oct. 13, Collins will tell the story of women’s struggles and successes from the time the first colonists arrived in America, to the open sexism of the 1960s, to Hillary Clinton’s historic run for President.

Collins joined The New York Times in 1995, as a member of the editorial board and later, as an op-ed columnist. In 2001, she became the first woman ever appointed editor of The New Times editorial page.

Beyond her work as a journalist, Collins has published several books, including: “When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present”, “Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity and American Politics”, “America’s Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines” and “The Millennium Book,” which she co-authored with her husband Dan Collins.

More on “When Everything Changed”

“When Everything Changed” begins in 1960, when most American women had to obtain their husbands’ permission to apply for a credit card. It ends in 2008, with Hillary Clinton’s historic presidential campaign. This was a time of cataclysmic change, when, after four hundred years, expectations about the lives of American women were smashed in just a generation.

A comprehensive mix of oral history and Gail Collins’ keen research – covering politics, fashion, popular culture, economics, sex, families, and work – “When Everything Changed” covers five crucial decades of progress. The enormous strides made since 1960 include the advent of the birth control pill, the end of “Help Wanted- Male” and “Help Wanted – Female” ads, and the lifting of quotas for women in admission to medical and law schools. Gail Collins describes what has happened in every realm of women’s lives, through the testimonies of both those who made history and those who simply made their way.

Professor Elected Fellow of Gerontological Society of America

Dr. Debra Umberson, a professor in the Department of Sociology and a faculty research associate in the Population Research Center, was elected a 2011 Fellow to the Gerontological Society of America.

The society is the nation’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging. Umberson was one of 37 fellows elected this year. The GSA’s membership consists of more than 5,400 researchers, educators, and practitioners.

Renowned scholar and researcher Carolyn J. Heinrich has joined the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs faculty as the Sid Richardson Professor in Public Affairs. Heinrich, whose research focuses on social welfare policy, labor force development, public management, performance management and econometric methods for program evaluation, has also assumed leadership of the LBJ School’s Center for Health and Social Policy (CHASP).

“I am delighted that Dr. Heinrich, one of the country’s foremost social policy scholars and researchers, is joining the LBJ School and taking over the directorship for our Center for Health and Social Policy,” said Robert Hutchings, Dean of the LBJ School at The University of Texas at Austin. “A dynamic and innovative scholar and teacher, she will enhance an already rapidly expanding research agenda within the Center for Health and Social Policy, applying modern research and quantitative analysis methods to social programs ranging from education to public health.”

Heinrich, who was previously director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will join a team of LBJ School faculty at CHASP who have worked to develop the center’s social policy research agenda, events and programming since the center’s inception in 2002. She has also been appointed as an affiliated professor in the Department of Economics in the College of Liberal Arts.

“This is a very exciting time to be a part of the LBJ School community and especially the CHASP team, in what is clearly a forward-thinking academic environment that vigorously supports policy-focused research collaborations,” said Heinrich. “Being close to state government in a state like Texas, which is large, diverse, and both a driver and a model for policy innovation and diffusion to other states, provides tremendous advantages when it comes to creating policy and evaluating its impacts.”

Since its creation, the center has been governed by an executive committee, which included David Warner, Wilber J. Cohen Professor in Health and Social Policy and acting director of the center since 2008. Under the direction of Warner and the executive committee, the center executed a robust research agenda and mounted programming and events such as the Health Privacy Summit that took place in Washington, D.C. in June of 2011. The center has expanded in recent months with the creation of the Project on Educator Effectiveness and Quality (PEEQ), which is under the direction of LBJ School Associate Professor Cynthia Osborne, a member of the CHASP executive committee.

Heinrich is also bringing with her a portfolio of national and international research projects on educational interventions, workforce development and active labor market policies for low-skilled and disadvantaged workers, health care reform and substance abuse treatment policies, child support, and conditional cash transfers and related poverty-reduction interventions.

“It is my goal for CHASP to be recognized as one of the leading centers of research on health and social policy, both nationally and internationally, that not only informs current programs and practices, but also transforms future policymaking, making a positive impact on individual and family lives and the broader society through the work that we do,” said Heinrich.

Heinrich is the President of the Public Management Research Association, and through April 2011, she served on the Executive Committee of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. Heinrich was also editor of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory from 2005-2008. In 2004, she received the David N. Kershaw Award for distinguished contributions to the field of public policy analysis and management by a person under age 40, and in 2010, she was elected to the National Academy of Public Administration. She has published more than 50 peer-reviewed books and journal articles.

For more information, contact: Kerri Battles, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs, 512-232-4054.

Melinda Garvey, McCombs School of Business Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Photo: Korey Howell

Melinda Garvey, owner and publisher of AustinWoman magazine, has been named Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin, a yearlong appointment that began Sept. 1.

“I’m delighted by the continuing evolution of our innovation and creativity studies at McCombs, as evidenced by Melinda Garvey’s appointment as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Kelleher Center,” said Thomas Gilligan, dean of the McCombs School. “She exemplifies a type of entrepreneurship of growing interest among business students, the small business owner. I foresee many productive conversations between Melinda and our students in the year ahead.”

Garvey, who follows Louise Epstein and Gary Hoover in the McCombs role, recently launched ATXMAN, a magazine about and for men in Central Texas. She founded AustinWoman magazine in 2002 after spending eight years at other publications. AustinWoman focuses on female entrepreneurship and women-run businesses, which Garvey says can often face more challenges than small businesses run by men.

“It’s frustrating because banks need to sit up and smell the coffee,” Garvey said. “Many of them — not all — are stuck in this ‘old boy network.’ They advertise to men and they target them.”

As a small business owner herself, Garvey recognizes the importance of businesses run by women and has spent time helping the Women’s Chamber of Commerce expand its member benefits. She is also a founding board member of Texas Women in Business, an organization that supports women business owners. She was named Office Depot’s 2006 Businesswoman of the Year.

As a guest lecturer at McCombs during the last five years, she has spoken about finding small business success, a topic she says she will focus on while Entrepreneur-in-Residence.

“The days of IPOs and big corporations are not over, but it is different now and small businesses are really the wave of the future,” she said. “It’s not only something you can be passionate about and something you can love, but you can make a great living.”

Garvey is planning to use her connections to help students meet entrepreneurs from a variety of companies.

“Students don’t have as much access and as much transparency into the small business world, and I always find they’re intrigued and often surprised at things I’m doing and how we’re doing them,” she said.

Meanwhile, she will continue to run the magazines with the help of her husband, Christopher.

“In every life cycle of an entrepreneur there is a time when you need to take a break,” she said. “This will allow me to put my head and my brain in a different place and regenerate.”

For more information, contact: Cory Leahy, Red McCombs School of Business, 512 471 3998.

Dr. Bech Maloch

Dr. Beth Maloch, an associate professor in the College of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Fellow of the Charles H. Spence Centennial Associate Professorship in Education, has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Elizabeth Shatto Massey Award for Excellence in Teacher Education.

The Massey Award recognizes a “teacher of teachers,” one who inspires and prepares future elementary and secondary school teachers.

Maloch will be honored with the $12,000 award ata ceremony to be held in the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center on Thursday, Sept. 22.

“Dr. Maloch is a faculty member who is profoundly committed to teaching as a profession and the instruction of our future and current teachers in particular,” said Manuel Justiz, dean of the College of Education. “She’s been honored by her colleagues and students for her exceptional preparation of future teachers and for her scholarship – rarely have I seen a faculty member accrue so many prestigious teaching awards so rapidly.”

Maloch has been a faculty member in the College of Education since 2000. She teaches undergraduate courses in teaching methods, including reading methods, reading assessment and development and language arts methods, and graduate courses in literacy teaching and research methodology. Maloch also serves as a graduate adviser for Language and Literacy Studies in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and is the Graduate Studies Committee chair for the department.

While teaching and supervising undergraduate and graduate students, she conducts research related to classroom talk and discussion, as well as literacy teacher education and serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Literacy Research Association. Her committee involvement has allowed her to have a key role in revising core undergraduate curriculum for both university-wide and College of Education purposes.

This year, Maloch was named to the university’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers, a recognition that only 5 percent of tenured faculty receive. In past years, she received the UT System’s Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award in recognition of extraordinary classroom performance and innovation, two Dean’s Faculty Integration Awards to support her creative use of technology, and the Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the College of Education’s highest teaching honor.

A native of Little Rock, Ark., Maloch earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Ouachita Baptist University and both a master’s degree and doctorate in language and literacy studies from Vanderbilt University.

A committee of University of Texas at Austin representatives and alumni who are active in public education selected Maloch as this year’s Massey Award recipient. Student evaluations and the recommendations of peers, students and program directors were used to assess the candidates from the university’s seven teacher preparation programs.

Named for Elizabeth “Libba” Shatto Massey, the award was created in 2003 by university alumnus John H. Massey to honor his wife’s lifelong dedication to public education. Libba received her degree in education in 1961 from The University of Texas at Austin and pursued a career in teaching. She has served as the chair of the University Development Board from 2009-10 and 2010-11 and is a vice-chair for The Campaign for Texas. She is a former member of the Texas Exes Board of Directors and a recipient of Texas Exes Distinguished Alumnus Award, the highest award given by the association.

About the Texas Exes
Established in 1885, the primary function of the Texas Exes is to promote, protect and preserve The University of Texas at Austin. The Texas Exes strives to connect its 96,000 members to each other and to the university through communication, local chapter engagement, events, career counseling, travel and advocacy in support of higher education.

For more information, contact: Kim Gundersen, Texas Exes, 512-471-8553.

Estrogen Influence on Neuroendocrine Aging

Andrea Gore, professor of pharmacy, has won $1,091,704 (for third five-year cycle of grant) from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Andrea Gore’s project is part of a long-term study that is to elucidate how menopausal changes in estrogen affect neurobiological functions.

Her proposed studies address the critical question of whether, for how long, and when, estrogen treatments should be given at menopause. Studies being conducted in laboratory rats are designed to test different timings and durations of estrogen treatments, given at the time of estrogen depletion in mid-life.

Endpoints of analysis include how these different estrogen regimens affect behavioral outcomes, molecular gene expression in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus, and protein expression in hypothalamic regions. The neurotransmitter and receptor targets of estrogen will be a particular focus of the analyses, as estrogen receptors in the brain are located in many different neural and glial cells and in this way affect their functions.

Overall, these studies are relevant to understanding normal neuroendocrine aging processes, and will provide insights into new therapeutics for the treatment of neurobiological symptoms associated with the loss of hormones at menopause.

From VP Research Research Alert, September 1, 2011