Published on 3/30/2012 7:00:00 AM
From left: Nick Trombetta, Karen Giardini (Jacqueline Lee Dempsey’s sister), Patricia Nixon,
April Mattix, Andrew Hughey, Alan Lesgold, Thomas Platt, Maura Powell, Rob Marshall.
The School of Education honored 10 alumni and one graduate student with awards at the school’s annual 2012 Alumni Awards Reception on Friday, March 23, at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association in Oakland. Four departmental awards and seven awards in individual categories were presented at the reception.
2012 Distinguished Alumni Award
Andrew R. Hughey is currently professor of counselor education at San Jose State University, where he has served as director of the Counselor Education Program and dean of the School of Applied Arts and Sciences. He is also field site coordinator for their Counselor Education Program and principal investigator at San Jose State for a very large project called GEAR-UP: A Community Achievement Project, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. His current GEAR-UP grant (2008-2014, $14 million) is designed to increase students entry and success in college. It involves five California school districts, 16 middle schools, eight high schools, and a staff of more than 80 professionals.
Aware that the obstacles facing urban school children are in many ways worse today than they were in the 1980s, Hughey does not romanticize the challenges facing school counselors. Instead, he advises counselors to base their professional approach on systematic research, teaching them how to design educational counseling protocols that respect students’ contexts, yet propel them beyond limitations.
2012 Early Career Award
Thomas E. Platt is currently the associate director of the Emergency Medicine Degree Program in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh.
His work toward the improvement of pre-hospital and emergency medicine care has enhanced the field and our region. Platt’s EMT and paramedic programs provide students with valuable oversight they will use when entering the emergency medicine field. He is the program director of one of the nation’s best paramedic programs. Internationally, he has consulted in areas of the Middle East, such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, on ways to enhance the knowledge and skills of EMS professionals.
2012 Pre-K–12 Educator Award
Nick Trombetta was hired as the superintendent of Midland School District in 1995. Facing drastic educational cuts, Trombetta led a small group of community leaders and educators to search for a secure educational future for the district and its students. Starting with a small state grant, he persuaded his school board to sponsor an online K–12 charter school. Expected to attract perhaps 50 local and regional students, the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School enrolled 500 students from all over the commonwealth and had a waiting list of 400 within the first few months of its opening in 2000.
The success of PA Cyber re-drew the educational map in Pennsylvania. Suddenly school choice was an option for every family in each of the state’s 501 school districts. Today, with 11,000 students, PA Cyber is twice the size of any competing cyber charter in the state and is one of the largest cyber charter schools in the nation.
2012 Departmental Alumni Award - Department of Administrative and Policy Studies
Since 1970,
Al Condeluci has been an advocate and catalyst for building community capacities and understanding culture. He has worked as an attendant, caseworker, advocate, planner, program director and now, chief executive officer of his organization, United Cerebral Palsy/Community Living and Support Services (UCP/CLASS). UCP/CLASS has created a family of corporations and is dedicated to its mission: “Working towards a community where each belongs.” Under Condeluci’s leadership, UCP/CLASS has grown to become the 3rd largest disability-specific agency in Western Pennsylvania, with a budget of $32 million and a staff and payroll complement of 700. UCP/CLASS was listed also in 2007 as one of the 50 “Best Places to Work” in Allegheny County.
2012 Departmental Alumni Award - Department of Health and Physical Activity
Patricia A. Nixon has been a leader in the area of pediatric exercise physiology for the past 25 years. She’s also president of the North American Society for Pediatric Exercise Medicine and a member, since 1978, and a fellow, since 1993, of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Nixon has a joint appointment in the Department of Pediatrics at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, where she conducts the majority of her work. Her research focuses on pulmonary function, exercise tolerance, and physical activity in children with chronic diseases. She is well-regarded for her research involving children with cystic fibrosis.
2012 Departmental Alumni Award - Department of Instruction and Learning
Jacqueline Lee Dempsey taught courses for the Early Intervention Program in the Department of Instruction and Learning, and was responsible for developing the itinerant/consultation module for it. She was the primary evaluator for the Family-Centered Preschool Project, which employs parents of children with disabilities as family consultants in early intervention programs.
Throughout her career, Dempsey worked with programs such as the Allegheny Intermediate Unit’s Project DART and The Early Learning Institute. Later, she started the Early Childhood International consulting firm and became highly regarded and much sought after in her field.
Dempsey passed away on October 26, 2011, following an intensive four-month battle with pancreatic cancer.
2012 Departmental Alumni Award - Department of Psychology in Education
Pamela Moss is recognized as a leading validity theorist in the United States. Her work lies at the intersections of educational assessment, philosophy of social science, and interpretive or qualitative research methods. Moss' current research agenda focuses on validity theory in educational assessment, assessment as a social practice, and the assessment of teaching.
She is currently co-leading a project, funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Institute for Education Sciences, to develop an integrated assessment system for use with teacher candidates and the practicing teachers who support their learning.
2012 Falk School Outstanding Alumni Awards
Rob Marshall went on to become a director, and his films have been honored with a total of 23 Academy Award nominations, and winning nine, including Best Picture. His most recent film,
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, has grossed over one billion dollars worldwide, becoming the 8th Highest Grossing Picture in History. He is currently developing
The Thin Man, starring Johnny Depp, as well as the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical,
Into the Woods.
His other directorial efforts include the Academy Award-winning films
Nine,
Chicago, and
Memoirs of a Geisha.
Nine was nominated for four Academy Awards, five Golden Globes, and 10 Critics Choice Awards.
Chicago was the winner of six Oscars, including Best Picture, and Marshall received the Directors Guild Award, an Oscar nomination, and a Golden Globe Award nomination, to name a few. His film adaptation of the best-selling novel,
Memoirs of a Geisha, was the winner of three Oscars, three BAFTA Awards, and a Golden Globe.
For the last twenty years,
Maura Powell has been principal and owner of Dominion Design Associates, a successful full-service planning, design, and construction company located in Alexandria, Va. Most recently, she started Terra Nova Design Group, a landscape design firm focusing on sustainable practices, lighting, and irrigation.
Powell is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accredited professional. Her work has been featured on HGTV,
Veranda Magazine, and the Washington Design Center Show House.
Kathleen Marshall is an award-winning director and choreographer, winning a 2011 Tony Award, a Drama Desk, and an Outer Critics nomination for
Anything Goes. She also received a 2006 Tony Award for Best Choreography for
The Pajama Game, and a 2004 Tony award for her choreography of
Wonderful Town. Marshall was director and choreographer for the Broadway production for
Grease, and choreographed
Boeing-Boeing.
Additionally, Marshall directed and choreographed productions of
Little Shop of Horrors,
Seussical,
Follies,
Kiss Me Kate,
1776, and
Swinging on a Star. Her Off-Broadway credits include
Two Gentlemen of Verona,
Saturday Night,
Violet, and
As Thousands Cheer. She currently is the director and choreographer for the musical
Nice Work If You Can Get It, starring Matthew Broderick and Kelli O'Hara. The production will open on Broadway later this month.
2012 Student Leadership Award
April A. Mattix is currently completing her doctoral work in the Language, Literacy, and Culture Program at the School of Education. Since joining the program at Pitt, Mattix has done significant work in the area of literacy education. Her background and degrees in education, international affairs, and political science have contributed to the unique sociocultural perspective she brings to this work. She has actively engaged in research throughout her program, conducting in-depth studies on teaching and the relationship of social issues to their representation in the pages of children's literature.
Mattix is a strong leader within our community, and has demonstrated her leadership abilities in a variety of forums. Within the School of Education, she serves as the President of the Council of Graduate Students in Education (CGSE), a position elected by a body of her peers.