A Letter From Outreach and the Penn State College of Medicine
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ach spring Outreach and the University recognize a faculty member who has made a significant impact on the community through scholarly engagement work. We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Eugene Lengerich,
associate professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the Penn State College of Medicine, is the recipient of this year’s Faculty Outreach Award. Since 2004, Dr. Lengerich has served as principal investigator for the Northern Appalachia Cancer Network (NACN), a community-academic partnership to reduce the cancer
Vice President for Outreach Dr. Craig D. Weidemann (left) with Dr. Harold L. Paz, dean of the Penn State College of Medicine and chief executive officer of the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Steve Tressler
burden among the medically underserved in rural
Pennsylvania and New York. The NACN was created in 1992 and today is composed of 13 coalitions and seven clinical partners, including hospitals, cancer centers and clinics, that join with academia to develop and deliver best practices for cancer reduction to their communities, considered to be at increased risk. Communities are at increased risk because they either have a high rate of cancer, high rate of behavioral risks or limited access to care. Over the last five years, the NACN has completed 1,541 community-based interventions. You can read more about Dr. Lengerich’s work on page 2. Dr. Lengerich’s focus on community health is one that is extremely important to the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine. As a nation we face extraordinarily
difficult challenges in access, quality and cost of health care. And as one of approximately 126 academic health centers around the country, Penn State Hershey Medical Center has a responsibility to address those challenges for all those whom it serves. A critical ongoing initiative at the Medical Center is to translate scientific knowledge and discovery into improved health status across communities by creating programs in education, prevention and patient care. In Hershey’s growing collaboration with Penn State Outreach, there are huge opportuni-
ties to work together on these initiatives, with such resources as the World Campus and
Penn State ON DEMAND. This state-of-the-art technology allows Hershey to take faculty content and deliver it broadly. The more knowledge and education we can provide, the more we can improve our health status in Pennsylvania and beyond.
Cover photo by Steve Tressler Vista Professional Studios; location courtesy of Mount Nittany Medical Center ICU
INSIDE OUTREACH
PENNSYLVANIA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
“Much of our work has to do with how we engage what’s happening on campus and get it productively nestled out in regions where faculty can make a difference.”
—Tim Franklin
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im Franklin, the new director of Penn State’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, a unit of Outreach, succeeds Jack Gido, who retired last spring. Franklin was most recently Virginia Tech’s director of University Outreach Programs, Southside Virginia, and executive director of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research. Here Franklin talks about Penn State, Pennsylvania economic and workforce development challenges and priorities in his new job:
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Why did you want to come to Penn State? If you are as intrigued as I am with the land-grant university mission, Penn State is the largest of them all. It was a wonderful opportunity to be a part of a great institution. What are the biggest workforce development-related challenges in Pennsylvania? Developing a workforce with the right skills and abilities for where the economy is growing is a major challenge. Preparing a 21st century workforce includes considerations that cross all levels of education and training. In addition, the best and brightest migrating out of rural areas holds those regions back.
Tim Franklin joins Penn State Outreach.
difference in addressing economic and workforce development needs in an innovation economy.
Q A
Q A
What are your priorities in your new job? My first priority is to develop relationships and a full understanding of Penn State’s range of resources important to making a
How do you attract faculty in achieving your goals? Faculty have a vested interest in bringing in new sources of funding and supporting teaching and research activities that interest and attract quality graduate students. The opportunities for land-grant universities to make community engagement central to increasing these resources are as present now as they have been at any point in history. … Much of our work has to do with how we engage what’s happening on campus and get it productively nestled out in regions where faculty can make a difference.
The Shirley Hendrick Award recognizes a person whose visionary accomplishments have contributed significantly to the success of Penn State’s outreach mission efforts—to transform the quality of life for individuals and communities. See page 26 for a story about Peck’s outreach work, which focuses on integrating more technology in schools.
Award for Academic Partner
16 \ Penn State Outreach Magazine
Dr. Kyle Peck, associate dean for outreach,
technology and international programs in the College of Education, is the recipient of the 2007 Shirley Hendrick Award from the vice president for Outreach, Dr. Craig Weidemann. Dr. Shirley Hendrick (1936–2000) was associate dean for continuing education in the Smeal College of Business and the inaugural chair of the Commission for Adult Learners.
By Melissa W. Kaye
Addressing the Achievement Gap
The number of special education students
in regular classrooms in Pennsylvania has been increasing steadily over the last few years—currently there are more than 135,000 special education students in regular classrooms most of the day. In an effort to reduce the achievement gap and meet requirements of No Child Left Behind, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has issued sweeping changes to certification and training requirements of future teachers so that they will meet the needs of special education students. In addition, 120,000 current teachers will need additional hours of training in special education. To address these changes, the Penn State College of Education’s Special Education program has partnered with Continuing and Professional Education, a unit of Outreach, to produce a postbaccalaureate credit program titled Evidence-Based Practices for Inclusive Classrooms and Differentiating Instruction (EPIC), designed to help teachers work with students with special needs. “Teachers need evidence-based practices to be successful with all students,” said Dr. Fran Warkomski of the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) in the PDE. “EPIC will be outstanding for all teachers.” The first EPIC course began March 17 at six Penn State campuses. In another effort to close the achievement gap, College of Education faculty Drs. Charles Hughes and David Lee developed the Penn State Keystone Tutor Credential Program in partnership with the PDE and PaTTAN to meet a statewide demand for qualified in- and after-school tutors. Warkomski said this program will ensure that tutors meet the same set of quality standards statewide. The program runs through July 11. For more information: http://www.outreach.psu.edu/cape/.
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audi Aramco, the stateowned national oil company of Saudi Arabia, wanted to educate its employees in the foundations of supply chain and how and why supply chains work—and recognized Penn State’s expertise in that area. While Penn State’s World Campus offers a graduate certificate in supply chain management, Aramco was more comfortable with traditional face-to-face learning for its employees—although the company did want to learn more about Penn State’s online academic environment. The solution: Amy Stever, Outreach client development manager, worked with Dr. Gary Gittings, Penn State instructor in supply chain and information systems, to offer the company a blended-learning approach to the program, with both on-site and online delivery. Because the company was new to Penn State and online learning, Gittings delivered a week of on-site learning first, in order to establish trust with Penn State, said Stever. “We shared a lot of information with them and gave them a demo of the online learning environment,” said Stever, who
Tailored LEARNING for Saudi Aramco
dressed in a traditional black abaya to blend in with the local culture of Dhahran. Dr. Negar Davis, director of Penn State’s International Student Services, provided other crosscultural advice to the Penn State team that went to Dhahran— such as allowing break times during the day for prayer and when to shake, or not shake, hands. When it came time for online delivery, all the students adjusted and performed well, reported Gittings. Aramco employee and American expatriate Steven Killmer praised the program, calling it “the best training and development activity that I have seen out of a company.”
Amy Stever presents a Penn State banner to Shabeeb al-Shabeeb of Saudi Aramco.
Spring 2008 / 17