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Violence prevention seminar planned
Law enforcement professionals traditionally have been expected to respond after a crime has occurred—their job has been to catch the criminal and gather evidence for the prosecutor.
Increasingly, however, they have been asked to respond and intervene before something tragic has occurred—to prevent such acts of violence as stalking, relationship violence and workplace violence.
To assess the risk of violence and prevent attacks in situations like these, law enforcement professionals must work with others, both within and outside of the law-enforcement community.
A seminar designed to acquaint law enforcement professionals with the field of threat assessment and with the approaches used by the Secret Service and its National Threat Assessment Center to prevent acts of targeted violence will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.
The seminar is sponsored by UB and the Secret Service.
Presenters will be Randy Borum, a senior consultant to the U.S. Secret Service in the National Threat Assessment Center and associate professor in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida; Susan Keverline, a research psychologist with the National Threat Assessment Center; and George Wattendorf, prosecuting attorney for the Dover, N.H. Police Department.
Admission to the seminar is free, but those wishing to attend must register in advance on the seminars Web site at http://www.specialevents.buffalo.edu/threat.
RIA announces spring seminar series
The Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) will kick off its spring seminar series on March 25 with a lecture by Kim Fromme, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin.
Fromme will discuss "An Integrated Conceptual Model of Alcohol Abuse and Problems: Applications for Intervention" at 10 a.m. at RIA, 1021 Main St., Buffalo.
Each spring and fall, RIA offers seminars that provide information about the study of alcohol, other drugs and other related issues. The series showcases topics of interest to researchers, clinicians, policy makers and the general public.
All seminars, which are free and open to the public, are held at 10 a.m. in RIA's first-floor seminar room.
Fromme, who formerly was affiliated with the Department of Psychology at the University of Delaware at Newark, currently is conducting a longitudinal study funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the transition from high school to college for freshmen who entered UT in 2004. Her previous research topics have included impulsivity as a biological marker for binge drinking, prevention of binge drinking and associated consequences, Internet-based alcohol information for college students and adolescent involvement in risk behaviors.
She is a member of the Research Society on Alcoholism, Division 50 of the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.
Also speaking as part of the RIA spring lecture series will be:
April 8, June Tangney, professor of psychology at George Mason University, "Offenders' Moral Emotions and Cognitions: Implications for Substance Abuse, HIV Risk and Criminal Re-Offense." Tangney's teaching interests include psychological assessment, personality, research methodology and statistics, systems of psychotherapy and adolescent psychology. Her research focuses on personality and emotional development and is funded by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the John Templeton Foundation. She has published in numerous scholarly journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Child Development and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, among others.
May 6, Mark Wood, associate professor in the Department of Psychology and the Cancer Prevention Research Center at the University of Rhode Island, "Collegiate Alcohol Use and Misuse: The Interdependence of Etiology and Preventive Interventions." Wood's research interests include the etiology of alcohol use and misuse, the relations between psychological, social and familial factors, as well as alcohol use and misuse among college students and young adults. His three current NIAAA-funded grants are investigating "Alcohol Early Intervention for Freshmen," "Environmental Methods for Reducing College Drinking" and "A Stage Matched Alcohol Intervention for Managed Care." He also is consulting on projects regarding gender, affect and expectancies in college drinking; naturalistic influences on alcohol problems in college; and long-term consequences of collegiate alcohol involvement. He has published widely and serves on several journal review boards.
May 20, Maria Testa, senior research scientist at RIA, "Longitudinal Research on Alcohol and Sexual Assault: The Women 2000 Study." Testa is the recipient of several NIAAA-funded grants examining the role of alcohol in women's sexual risk behaviors and sexual-assault experiences, including an Independent Scientist Award. She is a frequent grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and is an associate editor of Psychology of Women Quarterly.
For further information on RIA's spring seminar series, go to http://www.ria.buffalo.edu/events/index.html.
Student callers recognized
Students raising money for UB through their work in the UB Call Center were recognized on Tuesday during the second annual Student Caller Appreciation Banquet held by the Office of the Vice President for University Advancement and the Department of Annual Programs.
Seventeen students received special awards from Patty Grabenstetter, program manager of the UB Call Center. Students were recognized in a variety of categories, among them were "Most Matching Gifts,'" "Highest Credit Card Percentage," "Honorable Mention for Making a Difference in a Relationship Between the University and an Alumnus/Parent/Friend," "Best Team Player" and "Best All-Around Caller."
Among the special guests in attendance at the banquet, held in the Center for Tomorrow, were Al Ruffalo, chair and CEO; Stan Campbell, senior vice president; and Joe Maruchella, senior operations manager, all of RuffaloCODY, the fund-raising consulting and telemarketing firm that works with University Advancement.
Two co-directors named for health informatics program
The School of Informatics has announced the appointment of two additional co-directors of its 20 credit-hour graduate program leading to an Advanced Studies Certificate in Medical/Health Informatics.
They are W. Scott Erdley, clinical assistant professor in the School of Nursing, and David Ellis, director of the Telemedicine Program in the Department of Emergency Medicine in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
The two will join Gary D. Byrd, director of the university's Health Sciences Library, in administering the health informatics program. They will replace former co-director Peter Winkelstein, who recently left the university for private industry.
Information on the Advanced Studies Certificate in Medical/Health Informatics can be found at http://informatics.buffalo.edu/programs/advstudy/advinfomed.asp