National Association Honors Ralph Snyderman '61 For Contributions to Nation's Health Care

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has awarded Washington College alumnus Ralph Snyderman its 2012 David E. Rogers Award in recognition of “major contributions to improving the health and health care of the American people.”

Snyderman, who serves on the Washington College Board of Visitors and Governors, is  chancellor emeritus of Duke University and former president and CEO of the Duke University Health System. He has earned a national reputation as a distinguished physician, researcher, educator and policy leader. He served as chair of the AAMC and president of the Association of American Physicians and is frequently called upon by U.S. policymakers to discuss issues of health-care reform. Washington College awarded him the Alumni Association Citation in 1996 and an honorary degree in 2004 for outstanding achievement in the field of medicine.

The AAMC honor was announced Saturday, November 3, at the organization’s annual meeting in San Francisco.  Below is the citation for Dr. Snyderman:

Ralph Snyderman, M.D., Duke University

 School of Medicine

Recipient of the David E. Rogers Award

Recognized as the father of personalized medicine, Ralph Snyderman, M.D., has played a pivotal role in improving the nation’s health over the past 40 years. Chancellor emeritus at Duke University and James B. Duke Professor of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, Dr. Snyderman also serves as director of the Duke Center for Research on Prospective Health Care. 
           Through the center, Dr. Snyderman leads the development and implementation of what he terms personalized health care—a rational way to engage patients in their own personalized, predictive, and preventive care. He seeks to transform care from the disease-oriented approach to one that personalizes health. In 2002, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services partnered with Duke to develop a personalized care model that tracked the health of patients. In 2003, Duke expanded the model and began offering prospective health care to its employees. 

            During his 15-year tenure as chancellor for health affairs and dean of the school of medicine, Dr. Snyderman led the development of the Duke University Health System (DUHS) and served as its founding president and CEO. He established an overarching mission for DUHS to design innovative models of health care delivery. “Societal impact was a fundamental goal at Duke, and a commitment was made to become a new kind of academic institution,” says E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., vice president for medical affairs at the University of Maryland, John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor, and dean of the school of medicine. With Dr. Snyderman at the helm, DUHS “emerged as a leading national and international force in creating initiatives that are transforming how health care is delivered,” Dr. Reece adds. 

           Dr. Snyderman also led the creation of the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), the largest academic clinical research institute in the world. “One of Dr. Snyderman’s major accomplishments was the conceptualization and development of the infrastructure to support clinical and translational research,” says Dr. Reece. “The DCRI is capable of conducting any clinical research project, from the smallest pilot to truly global trials.” 

            Always committed to research ethics, Dr. Snyderman chaired the AAMC Task Force on Clinical Research from 1998 to 2000, and his 2000 Science article, co-written with Dr. Ed Holmes, advocated establishing guidelines for the protection of human subjects in clinical research. “This document formed a strong foundation for the actual rules implemented by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protection,” Dr. Reece says. 

            The programs Dr. Snyderman initiated to bring personalized health care to Durham, N.C., regardless of the ability to pay, include Promising Practices, Just for Us, and Latino Access to Coordinated Health Care. “These initiatives focus on cardiovascular disease, obesity, and asthma, and are led by members of the Duke and Durham community to substantially reduce the burden of disease in economically deprived areas,” Dr. Reece says. 

            Dr. Snyderman was a member of the AAMC Executive Council from 1997 to 2004, serving as chair from 2001 to 2002. He is a former chair and administrative board member of the AAMC Council of Deans.   

            Dr. Snyderman earned a B.S. degree from Washington College and an M.D. degree from Downstate Medical Center of the State University of New York.

WC Alum and Scholar to Share Story Of Correspondence Among Separated Austrian Jews

Dr. Jacqueline Vansant.

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Sometime between March and August of 1938, a small group of 15- and 16-year-old Jewish schoolboys stood on a bridge in Vienna and said goodbye to each other “forever.” Their families were about to flee Austria to avoid the increasing Nazi persecution. But pledging to stay in touch, the boys first devised a complicated plan for a group correspondence or “round robin.”

On Tuesday, October 23, Washington College alumna  Jacqueline Vansant ’76, a professor of German studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, will share the story of the remarkable correspondence the young men maintained for more than 15 years across three continents.  Her presentation, “Making Connections over Space and Time: The Extraordinary Group Correspondence of Jewish-Austrian Schoolboys,” will take place at 4:30 p.m. in the Washington College Hillel House, 313 Washington Avenue. It is free and open to the public.

Vansant says she was first drawn to exile studies as a student of Washington College professor of German Erika Salloch, who had fled Nazi Germany. She has long focused her research on post-war Austrian literature and culture and in 2001 published Reclaiming ‘Heimat’: Trauma and Mourning in Memoirs of Jewish-Austrian Reemigres.

When Vansant heard about the correspondence among the nine Viennese schoolboys, she saw an opportunity to study how the experiences of the youth compared with those of the adult Jews who escaped Austria. “I was also fascinated by the thought of looking at texts that were contemporaneous with the historical events described in them,” she adds. “The letters indeed are amazing!”

 John Kautsky.

Vansant has worked closely with one of the original correspondents, John Kautsky, now a professor emeritus of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis. She also met the son of correspondent Ali Hector, who emigrated to Erez Israel, and learned more about Ali’s life after the correspondence ended.

“My conversations with John Kautsky have given me a fuller understanding of just how important the correspondence was for the young men,” says Vansant. “John remained friends with some of the correspondents until their recent deaths. His wife, Lilli, has also shared her experiences of flight from Austria, which bring home how many stories are out there to be told.”

The Oct. 23 talk is sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages; the Institute for the Study of Religion, Politics, and Culture; the Office of Multicultural Affairs; and Hillel House.  For more information, contact Nicole Grewling at (800) 422-1782, ext. 5763, or by email, ngrewling2@washcoll.edu.

Engineer James Hand '60 to Return to Washington College to Share Project Apollo Experiences

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Alumnus James Hand ’60 will return to Washington College on Tuesday, March 20 to talk about his decade of work with NASA’s Project Apollo. The event will take place at 6 p.m. in Decker Theatre in the Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue.

Hand’s presentation will address many aspects of the Apollo space missions, with a particular focus on the first manned lunar landing of July 1969. As a NASA scientist working first at Kollsman Instrument Corporation in New York, and then at the MIT/Instrumentation Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., Hand helped develop guidance, navigation, and control systems for the Apollo Command and Lunar Modules. He participated in the first lunar landing mission as part of the engineering support center at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Along with discussing his own experiences and contributions to the Project, he will talk about President John F. Kennedy’s vision for America’s space program, the astronauts and other key contributors, technology, and the importance of that era’s legacy for today. The talk will be accompanied by a slide show and video of the Apollo mission launch.

“I promise that no pop-quiz will be given,” says Hand of his talk. “But I may ask the audience to consider a few decisions, such as ‘Should I land in the lunar crater or fly over it, given the chance of running out of fuel and crashing?’ ”

Before the talk, from 5:15 to 6 p.m., guests will have the opportunity to look through a large collection of Hand’s Apollo memorabilia and chat with him about what is displayed. The items will include documents containing the signatures of thousands of NASA employees, including Hand, that were carried to the moon on the first lunar landing mission.

Hand received his B.Sc. in physics from Washington College, an MBA in Management from Hofstra University, and a Master Certificate in Computer Programming from Boston University. He participated in the Apollo 11 mission as a scientist in the engineering support center at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Tex.

The event is sponsored by Washington College’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Office of Alumni Relations and the Department of Physics. A reception hosted by the 1782 Society will be held afterward in the Underwood Lobby. For more information: http://www.washcoll.edu.

Photo caption: In a photo taken on June 29, 1970, Washington College graduate James Hand is shown working on the Apollo Command Module Guidance and Navigation Console.

Conservative Think Tank Staffer, WC Alum Offers Perspective on GOP Primary Contest, February 21

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College’s Goldstein Program in Public Affairs kicks off its new “Young Alumni Speakers Series” Tuesday evening, February 21, with an insider’s look at the Republican presidential primary race.

Dan Holler ’05, Communications Director for Heritage Action for America, will share his perspective at 7 p.m. in Hynson Lounge of Hodson Hall on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. His talk is titled, “Breaking All the Rules: The GOP Primary.”

Based in Washington, D.C., Heritage Action for America was created in June of 2010 as a sister organization to the Heritage Foundation, a well-known conservative think tank. With a goal of advancing conservative policy, Heritage Action provides policy analysis and lobbying for Heritage Foundation positions.

Holler is responsible for Heritage Action’s media outreach, including its blog and social media outreach, pushing for conservative policies and providing conservative perspectives on upcoming votes. Before joining Heritage Action, Dan was the Deputy Director of Senate Relations for The Heritage Foundation, sharing the think tank’s research and policy recommendations in the areas of energy and environment, taxes, health care and national security. An honors graduate of Washington College who majored in Political Science, Holler began his career as an intern at the Foundation.

Dan writes a weekly column for Townhall.com, serves as a regular guest on conservative talk radio stations around the country and comments regularly in Washington media outlets on congressional matters. For more information: www.washcoll.edu, and http://heritageaction.com.

Washington College's Oldest Alumna Dies at 102

Chestertown, MD, January 19, 2007 — An educator, a lifelong community activist and a pioneer in the field of elder affairs, Rebecca Neal Owens '25 passed away January 7, 2007, in Port Charlotte, Florida, at the age of 102.

She is remembered as spirited and independent, with a lively intellect and strong will. Even well into her 90s, Neal Owens was still driving her own car and was active in the organization she helped found, the Charlotte County Council on Aging.

Owens moved to Florida in 1975 from New Jersey, after retiring as director of the City of Newark's Office of Elder Affairs. She was appointed to the Charlotte County Advisory Council on Aging in 1977 by the County Commission. She was elected chairwoman and remained the council's driving force for many years.

Under her leadership, the council launched the Retired Senior Volunteer Program and a congregate meals program—which now operates out of the Rebecca Neal Owens Center in Punta Gorda. A handyman service and a transportation program are also part of the services Owens brought to the senior population there.

A history major at Washington College, Neal Owens went on to teach and later earned a master's degree. In retirement, she redirected her energies toward community service and became an advocate for the aging, frequently appearing before state and national legislators on behalf of the elderly. In recognition of her work as a volunteer in elder affairs for more than 30 years, she was recently an honored guest at the 45th annual meeting of the AARP Charlotte Chapter.

She last visited campus in 2000, returning for her 75th Class Reunion and taking the position of honor at the head of the Commencement processional. She had been the first female president of Alumni Council. According to Owens, "Attendance had been awful until they installed me as president. Then, all of a sudden members didn't miss a meeting. The men were afraid of what I might do."

In Memoriam: William O. Baker '35, Former President of Bell Labs and Presidential Science Adviser

Chestertown, MD, November 4, 2005 — William Oliver Baker, Class of 1935, a prominent scientist, former head of Bell Laboratories, and science adviser to five presidents, passed away from heart failure Monday, October 31, 2005, in Chatham, New Jersey. He was 90.

A physical chemist by training, Dr. Baker served as president of Bell Labs—now the research and development arm of Lucent Technologies—from 1973 to 1979 and retired as chairman of the board in 1980. During his tenure, Bell Labs scientists twice won the Nobel Prize in Physics: in 1977 for research into the electronic structure of glass and magnetic materials, and in 1978 for the research of Arno A. Penzias and Robert W. Wilson that led to the discovery of the cosmic background radiation created by the Big Bang.

Dr. Baker was born July 15, 1915, in Chestertown, and grew up on his family's 400-acre farm. He earned a bachelor's degree in physical chemistry from Washington College. In 1938 he earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Princeton and joined Bell Labs, then Bell Telephone Laboratories, in 1939 as a research scientist. During World War II, his research contributed to the development of synthetic rubber. After the war, he was named head of polymer research and development, and later became assistant director of chemical and metallurgical research and director of physical sciences research. He was Bell Lab's vice president of research from 1955 to 1973. Dr. Baker received 11 patents for his research on the crystalline molecular structure of various materials.

His expertise led to his appointments as a science adviser to Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Reagan. He served for many years as a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, and the Federal Emergency Management Advisory Board.

Among his many honors and awards are the National Medal of Science in 1988 and the 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Guglielmo Marconi International Fellowship Foundation at Columbia University. At the 2003 award ceremony, Dr. Martin Meyerson, president emeritus of the University of Pennsylvania, remarked: "Bill Baker towers above any other individual as the champion of industrial research in service to society. He has devoted more than six decades to being a diplomat of science in advocating and championing basic research for improving life in America."

Dr. Baker's wife, the former Frances Burrill, whom he married in 1941, died in 1999. He is survived by his son, Joseph Baker.