Commission honors ASU women in leadership roles

June 10, 2010

In recent years, the ASU Commission on the Status of Women has become a familiar name to many at Arizona State University for it advocacy initiatives, professional development programming, safety projects, and, of course, the CSW Outstanding Achievement and Awards Program. Every year, the CSW honors individuals, groups and teams who have worked to benefit women and other underrepresented groups at ASU and beyond.

“It is such a joy to celebrate those in the ASU community who work to enhance opportunities for women and other groups," said CSW Tempe Chair Vicki Harmon. "The contributions made through the efforts of these people enhance the university environment for each of us.” Download Full Image

The CSW Awards Program was established in 1999, and boasts a long list of incredible men and women who have given their all to make a difference – and this year is no exception. A dean, a staff counselor, a media coordinator, and a research team of two full professors are the recipients of the 2010 CSW Awards.

“Faculty, staff, students, men and women are all represented in CSW award submissions," Harmon said. "Awards were presented this year for efforts that displayed exceptional scholarship, leadership, mentorship and program development. It is such a pleasure to see the quality of work being done at ASU.”

The recipients of the 2010 CSW Outstanding Achievement Awards are Margaret Coulombe, media coordinator for the School of Life Sciences; Dean Mari Koerner of the College of Teacher Education & Leadership; Dr. Robyn McKay, staff counselor for the Polytechnic Student Counseling Services; and the collaborative research team of Drs. Maureen Daly Goggin and Beth Fowkes Tobin from the Department of English.

Coulombe was recognized for her dedication to supporting and promoting the success of women in the sciences. Not only does she work tirelessly to highlight the success of women in the sciences in media outlets, which is an important factor in the steady attrition of women scientists as they move through the ranks, but Coulombe goes one step further to provide one-on-one mentoring to undergraduate and graduate students in the sciences. Coulombe reaches out to students, mentors them and helps them to find a place in different communities on campus including organizations such as Women and the Sciences & Engineering.

Dean Koerner was honored for her work in elevating the status of the teaching profession not only within our university, but within our community and nation. Under her leadership, Koerner has created a paradigm for a college that is focused on providing a world class education to Arizona students by creating effective teachers and school leaders. As a result of her efforts, CTEL has garnered national attention, including a 33.8 million dollar Teacher Quality Grant from the US Dept of Education for the Professional Development School program (PDS). PDS program supports and encourages low income districts to “grow their own” quality teachers – these teachers are primarily women, who normally would not have had the chance to gain a university education. Koerner is described an outstanding leader ready to meet the “challenges of educating in a rapidly changing world.”

McKay was recognized for the significant impact her efforts have had on the climate for women at ASU’s Polytechnic Campus. In the short time that she has been at ASU, she has created a multitude of different programs and lunches to help women of all ages and backgrounds, navigate through challenges from the college experience to major life changes. One of McKay’s most visible accomplishments is in the creation of a Women in Science and Engineering program to benefit the women students in the College of Technology & Innovation. McKay began the program in Fall of 2009 and under her direction and mentorship, the program has achieved great success. Membership numbers are expected to double this year. As one of her nominators explained, “Robyn is creative, innovative and strong … we have all learned and benefitted from her efforts, and our campus is better because of her presence.”

This year the CSW honored a collaborative research team of Drs. Maureen Daly Goggin and Beth Fowkes Tobin, both professors in the Department of English. The pair was recognized for their outstanding collaborative scholarship on a three volume edited series in the area of Women’s Material Culture from the periods of 1750-1950. For centuries things such as such as needlework, painting, and collecting were dismissed in cultural studies and scholarship as “women’s work” or merely hobbies of women in the leisured classes; however, the work of Goggin and Tobin seeks to reframe these notions, giving new voice to women who were ignored or silenced in the past. Their scholarship helps to redefine the understanding of women’s meaning making in often neglected social and cultural work.

In addition to the CSW Award recipients, the commission honored several of its own members for their outstanding work on the CSW with the CSW Chairs Award for Outstanding Service. This year’s recipients included Jennifer Lee-Cota, Kaylen Cons, Joel Hutchinson, Kelly Jackson and Cindy Rasmussen.

All of the award nominees and recipients were honored at a breakfast reception on April 21. Vice President & Dean Elizabeth Langland delivered an inspiring key note address on the importance of women’s leadership.

For more information on the work of the commission, please visit http://www.asu.edu/csw" target="_blank">www.asu.edu/csw.

Written by:
Karen Engler, mailto:karen.engler@asu.edu " target="_blank">karen.engler@asu.edu
Commission on the Status of Women & Faculty Women's Association
(480) 965-2958

Health Care savings pioneer wins major award

Decades before health care reform became a household phrase, business professor Eugene Schneller was pioneering fields that would play a key role in reducing the costs of health care.

Read the article

Health Care savings pioneer wins major award

June 10, 2010

Decades before health care reform became a household phrase, Professor Eugene Schneller was pioneering fields that would play a key role in reducing the costs of health care. Schneller, who teaches at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, just received a major prize for leadership in education. Since his career started in the 1970s, he has helped to improve quality and access to care, and he recently helped bring the concept of health care supply chain management – choosing the most cost-effective products – to the forefront.

“When you used to go see the doctor, you would depend on one person behind the desk, the physician, to make decisions on your care based on clinical knowledge,” Schneller said. “Now, you have to consider different machines, technology, medical devices and other options when making choices about your care. Health care supply chain management helps bring the best products to the site of your care and helps providers make good selections about what to offer you at a cost-effective price.” Download Full Image

Schneller also is co-director of the Health Sector Supply Chain Research Consortium, an innovative membership group of health care organizations researching how to improve the performance of hospitals and streamline health care costs. The group includes distributors, health information technology companies, group purchasing organizations and others involved throughout the health care industry, working to solve problems for the common good.

Among the research funded by the group are projects focusing on how to save money on hip and knee replacement surgeries, and how to structure incentives for doctors and hospitals to focus on efficiency. For the future, work will focus on standardizing ways to bar-code medical products so they can be easily traced in the event of a recall and helping find out how to eliminate the disparities in prices charged for specific medical treatments in the United States. Many other countries have greater transparency to ensure more similar costs for similar procedures.

Schneller said supply chain management techniques have made various other industries, such as information technology and retail, profitable and efficient. He says the same principles will work to save money in the health care arena.

“Less than half of hospital transactions are totally paperless, as opposed to 100 percent of what a store like Walmart does,” Schneller said. “We need to improve on that, so that we can better track patients, care and medical devices.”

He added: “The recession is a supply chain manager’s best friend because people really look at how to cut costs. We need to look at payment for the whole patient admission and understand how to work better with suppliers to manage the supply chain strategically to affect the bottom line. For example, we need to analyze whether people are utilizing the materials they should. Are you giving a 90-year-old woman the type of hip replacement that’s appropriate for a highly active young person?”

This month, Schneller received the Gary L. Filerman Prize for Educational Leadership, awarded to one person per year by the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA), a nonprofit organization. The prize recognizes those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of health administration education, exhibited leadership in the field, and enriched their institutions and students through their work.

“I’ve been affiliated with health care management education since 1979, when I founded a program at Union College in New York,” Schneller said. “This prize makes you reflect back on how health management has changed over the years and how I’ve been able to contribute. Health management education combines important concepts from public health, social sciences and business. Since I’ve taught in medical schools, schools of public health, liberal arts departments and schools of business, it’s great to see how nicely different disciplines have come together to train people to lead organizations and make a difference to patients.”

Schneller has been involved in the accreditation process of about 20 schools over the years, pointing out ways they can improve. He has a Ph.D. from New York University and an honorary physician assistant degree from Duke University. He has won numerous teaching awards and serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Supply Chain Management, Healthcare Briefings and Electronic Highway. He was named a “Healthcare Thought Leader” by Future Healthcare, and he spent time in the former Soviet Union, helping to modernize the health care system in the 1980s.

“I’ve watched supply chain management go from a basement-level job at hospitals to a vice president position in progressive hospital systems across the United States; this reflects people realizing how much of a difference could be made,” Schneller said. “To be singled out in this field is very moving.”

One of Schneller’s colleagues, W. P. Carey School of Business Assistant Professor Jonathan Ketcham, was also honored by AUPHA this month. He received the John D. Thompson Prize for Young Investigators for his impressive research in the health care management sector.