Summer 2003
Briefs
Board of Trustees Selects
Two New Members
The George Washington University Board of Trustees announced the selection
of Mark V. Hughes and Tony E. Sayegh, Jr., to serve three-year terms
on the Board starting July 1. The Board also conferred the title of
Trustee Emeritus to three prominent members, Luther W. Brady, Emilio
Fernandez, and A. James Clark.
Hughes, a sector vice president and deputy manager for Science Application
International Corporation’s federal business, earned two degrees
at GW. In 1969 he received a bachelor of science degree in physics,
and in 1977 he earned a master’s degree in computer science. He
serves on the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s National
Advisory Council, as well as on the Virginia Campus Advisory Board.
He was elected to an Alumni Trustee position.
Sayegh was elected to a Young Alumni Trustee position. He earned his
bachelor of arts in political science in 1998, and received a master
of public administration in 2000. Sayegh worked in the Office of Alumni
Relations as a Presidential Administrative Fellow. In 2002 Sayegh made
a bid for the New York State Assembly and was named the Westchester
Young Republican Man of the Year and Tuckahoe Republican Club Man of
the Year.
Brady served as an Alumni Trustee for six years from 1995–2001.
Fernandez served as an Alumni Trustee from 1989–95 and as a Charter
Trustee from 1996–2002. Clark served on the Board of Trustees from
1988–93.
READI for Action
The Response to Emergencies and Disasters Institute (READI) is scheduled
to hold its grand opening celebration at noon, June 23, at the former
PSINet Building on GW’s Virginia Campus. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA)
and other officials from Virginia, Maryland, and the District are slated
to be in attendance. With $5 million in funding from Congress, READI
will train firefighters, EMS personnel, law enforcement officials, and
other healthcare providers in an integrated approach to major emergencies
including terrorism. READI will focus on providing emergency responders
with a thorough understanding of the health and medical requirements
of emergency preparedness while developing and demonstrating “best
practices” for emergency personnel nationwide. Partnering with
GW in this project will be George Mason University and Shenandoah University.
READI will hold its inaugural training session for area first responders
the week of June 16.
GW Alumna Receives 2003 Jack Kent Cooke
Scholarship
Alison Alvarez, a member of GW’s Class of 2003, is among 43 awardees
to receive the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship. The
awards are among the most generous individual scholarships in the nation,
with recipients receiving up to $300,000 over six years.
Alvarez, who earned a BA in computer science and Japanese, believes
that speaking Japanese will help her discover a new way to talk to computers.
She wants to master the language because it relies heavily on context,
and she is interested in a context-based learning mechanism for computers
that could learn to respond to questions in an artificial language.
Pioneering African American Journalist Receives Shapiro Fellowship
Dorothy Butler Gilliam, a former Washington Post columnist and
past president of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ),
joins the School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA) as the J.B. and
Maurice C. Shapiro Fellow for 2003–04 beginning in September. Gilliam
will lecture and help the school develop a program for minority outreach.
“Dorothy is an accomplished and respected journalist. Even better,
she possesses a true vision for cultivating the next generation of minority
journalists,” says SMPA Acting Director Albert L. May. “We
are excited to have her join our faculty as a Shapiro Fellow.”
At The Washington Post, Gilliam directed the Young Journalists
Development Program, an expression of her concern for the state of scholastic
journalism today.
The problem is acute in schools with large concentrations of minority
groups. At GW, she will shape a summer institute for training high school
journalism advisers in minority communities. “These advisers will
help minority youth produce newspapers in their high schools and attract
the best and brightest to professional careers,” said Gilliam.
GW Law School Dean Appointed to Trade
and Environment Policy Advisory Committee
Dean Michael K. Young has been appointed to the Trade and Environment
Policy Advisory Commission to the Office of the United States Trade
Representative.
The US Congress established the private sector advisory committee system
in 1974 to ensure that US trade policy and trade negotiation objectives
adequately reflect US commercial and economic interests. Congress expanded
and enhanced the role of this system in three subsequent trade acts.
Latin American Studies at GW Merits US
Department of Education Award
The Latin American Studies Program (LASP) at GW’s Elliott School
of International Affairs and the Center for Latin American Issues (CLAI)
at the School of Business and Public Management has been awarded a grant
under the US Department of Education’s Title VI — Undergraduate
International Studies and Foreign Languages Program. The two-year award,
worth $140,000, will enhance the program’s broad goal of providing
an interdisciplinary foundation of knowledge about Latin America to
undergraduates majoring in Latin American studies.
The funds will be used in several ways to enhance LASP’s undergraduate
studies. In addition to adding five non-language courses and one Portuguese
language course, the award will help to build a stronger conference
series; develop partnerships with universities in Peru, Argentina, Chile
and Mexico; and to create a business summer field research program in
Brazil.
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
