Pharmacy dean named to FDA committee

Jack E. Fincham, dean of pharmacy, has been appointed to the Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee of the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration.

The 14-member committee provides input to the FDA on the suitability of switching drugs from prescriptions-only status to over-the-counter status. The committee also conducts peer reviews of agency-sponsored scientific biomedical programs in support of the FDA’s mission and regulatory responsibilities.

Committee members serve four-year terms, and meetings are conducted four times a year.

KUSM-W professor elected to national physicians’ board

Donna Sweet, MD, professor of internal medicine at the KU School of Medicine-Wichita, is the chair-elect designee for the Board of Regents of the American College of Physicians. The board manages the business and affairs of the ACP, the nation’s largest medical specialty society, and is the main policy-making body of the College.

Sweet will assume duties as chair-elect in April 2004 and will become chair of the board in April 2005.

KU grad returns from Washington, D.C., joins University Relations

Dan Lara, news and media relations specialist at University Relations, returns to his native state after spending more than six years in Washington, D.C., working in media relations on Capitol Hill and in the nonprofit sector. Lara served as press secretary and spokesman for the House Education and the Workforce Committee under former Rep. Bill Goodling, R-Pa. Lara also was director of communications for the Employment Policy Foundation, a nonprofit public policy research center focused on workplace trends and policies. More recently, Lara managed press relations for Rep. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. Lara is a 1991 graduate of Southwestern College in Winfield and earned a master’s degree in journalism from KU in 1996.

KU geoarchaeologist awarded for contributions

Rolfe Mandel, a geoarchaeologist from the Kansas Geological Survey and the Department of Anthropology at KU, will receive two awards from the Geological Society of America this month.

Mandel will receive the George “Rip” Rapp Archaeological Geology Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to the interdisciplinary field of archaeological geology. He also has been elected as a fellow of the Geological Society of America.

The awards will be presented at the society’s annual meeting in early November in Seattle. Established in 1888, the Geological Society of America has more than 16,000 members in 85 counties and is among the largest professional earth-science societies in the world.

Edwards Campus receives award for Internet publication

The Greater Kansas City Public Relations Society of America gave the Edwards Campus a first-place in its annual PRISM awards competition.
The public relations office received the award in Internet Communications for Connections, an online student information source within the Edwards Campus Web site.

Edwards Campus staff who developed Connections and who are recognized for winning the award include Kim Huggett, School of Education adviser; Mary Ryan, associate dean of academic affairs; and Elaine Warren, public relations director. Hayley Weast, KU student and former student employee in the Edwards Campus information technology staff, provided the technical assistance, and Ron Ragan, program director for the Edwards Campus online PharmD program, served as a faculty adviser for the project.

This is the fourth consecutive year the Edwards Campus has won an award at PRISM.

PRISM is the annual award ceremony sponsored by the Kansas City PRSA chapter that recognizes the best in public relations in greater Kansas City.