September 06, 2007 - Columbia News - Columbia University

FOOTBALL PAST
Gridiron glory days| 2
CAMPUS TALK
Columbia reduces its carbon
footprint | 3
FOOTBALL PRESENT
Q&Awith Coach
Norries Wilson| 7
VOL. 33, NO. 1
Breaking
News From
Bone Study
By Susan Craig
B
ones are typically
thought of
as calcified,
inert structures,
but researchers at
Columbia University
Medical Center (CUMC)
have identified a surprising
and critically
important new function
of the skeleton.
They’ve shown for
the first time that
the skeleton is an
endocrine organ that helps
control sugar metabolism
and weight and, as such,
is a major determinant in
the development of type
2diabetes.
The discovery revealed
that the skeleton helps
coordinate the regulation of
insulin. The breakthrough may
have major implications for the
treatment of the most common
form of diabetes.
The Columbia discovery “completely
changes our understanding of
the function of the skeleton and
uncovers a crucial aspect of energy
metabolism,” said Gerard Karsenty,
chair of the Department of Genetics
Diabetes treatment
may hinge on
our skeletons.
continued on page 6
NEWS AND IDEAS FOR THE COLUMBIA COMMUNITY SEPTEMBER 6, 2007
MAMADOU DIOUF
By Melanie A. Farmer
F
rom Senegal to Harlem, Mamadou Diouf is taking
aglobal approach as he gears up for his first academic
year as the new director of the Institute of
African Studies.
Diouf, 55, joins Columbia as the University
amplifies its teaching
and research on Africa.
President Lee C.
Bollinger has hailed
Diouf’s hiring as
a critical step in
Columbia’s African
endeavors, which
include programs and initiatives at the Earth Institute,
the Mailman School of Public Health and the
Committee on Global Thought, among others. Diouf
comes to Columbia from the University of Michigan,
NEW LEADER
FORAFRICA
INSTITUTE
“I think it is impossible to have a
program like ours here and not
be involved with Harlem.”
where he was a member of the history department.
“It is important for me to make sure that we convene
regularly our people working on Africa to shape
the Africa program, to shape our African activities,”
said Diouf, who underscored the importance and
urgency of working
EILEEN BARROSO
Oliver Sacks
Joins Columbia
In Science
And Arts
By Bridget O’Brian
O
liver Sacks, the bestselling
author and
renowned neurologist
who has been
described as “the poet laureate of
medicine,” has joined Columbia
University.
Sacks will be a professor of clinical
neurology and clinical psychiatry
at the Columbia University
Medical Center and also will be a
Columbia artist, a new designation
at the University. He will continue
to see patients at the neurological
and psychiatric institutes and also
will be involved in training students.
His appointment was
effective July 1. Sacks will give
his first Grand Rounds lecture to
the faculty and students of the
Department of Psychiatry on Sept. 7.
In his new appointment, Sacks
becomes a one-man embodiment
of the multidisciplinary scholarship
that has been a priority of
Columbia President Lee C.
Bollinger. As Bollinger told The
New York Times last week, this
exemplifies the University’s effort
to bridge the gap between the
study of neuroscience and other
disciplines in which scholars
work to understand human behavior,
including economics, social
science, law and the arts.
Sacks comes to Columbia after
42 years at the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine, where he was
aclinical professor of neurology.
While he describes himself as “a
relatively solitary figure,” in recent
years he grew more interested in
working with colleagues and eager
“to return to some of the teaching
Iloved and of which I haven’t had
much lately.”
His new position will be “sort of
on identifying all of
Columbia’s Africa-related
courses as well as all
faculty members and
parties who are interested
in Africa. “The integration
is important.”
Diouf also will inaugurate the teaching of African
studies in the Department of Middle East and Asian
Languages and Cultures. “The addition of African studies
will allow us to begin the truly exciting task of
continued on page 4 continued on page 4
EILEEN BARROSO
and Development at CUMC, and
Paul Marks, professor in the basic
sciences and senior author of the
paper. “These results uncover an
important aspect of endocrinology
that was unappreciated until now.”
Published in the Aug. 10 issue of
Cell, the research demonstrates that
bone cells release a hormone called
osteocalcin, which controls the regulation
of blood sugar (glucose) and
fat through synergistic mechanisms
not previously recognized. Usually,
an increase in insulin secretion is
accompanied by a decrease in insulin
sensitivity. Osteocalcin, however,
increases both the secretion and sensitivity
of insulin, and boosts the
number of insulin-producing cells
while reducing stores of fat.
An increase in osteocalcin activity
prevents the development of type 2
diabetes and obesity in mice, the
research shows, opening the door to
new therapies to prevent and treat
type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes affects an estimated
seven percent of the U.S. populwww.columbia.edu/news

2
SEPTEMBER 6, 2007
TheRecord
ON CAMPUS
MILESTONES
University Professor
JAGDISH BHAGWATI
received this year’s
Thomas C. Schelling
Award, presented each
year by Harvard’s
Kennedy School of
Government to an
intellectual whose
body of scholarly
work has had a
transformative impact
on public policy.
Bhagwati received
a $25,000 prize as
part of the award.
MICHAEL J. MACKENZIE, an assistant professor at the
School of Social Work, will participate in the two-year
Leaders for the 21st Century Fellowship program run
by Zero to Three, the National Center for Infants,
Toddlers and Families, which is dedicated to the
healthy development of young children.
THE WHITE COATS ARE COMING
Dear Alma’s Owl,
Columbia is better known for
academics than for football. Has that
always been the case?
Dear Football Fan,
Ilove football and never miss a home
game (away games make my wings ache).
Columbia was still on 49th Street in
1870 when students participated in the
school’s first game against Princeton;
Columbia lost 6-3.
In 1880, a sophomore named
Nicholas Murray Butler successfully
advocated for Columbia to join the
then-fledgling Intercollegiate Football
Association, but the membership lapsed
because of lack of interest. Football
didn’t return until Columbia moved to
the Morningside campus, where the
game was played on South Field.
Early 20th-century college football
was violent, had few rules and used
nonstudents to fill out the roster. The
1900 team had only three students from
the college, one of whom was paid to
come to Columbia. The game was so rife
with gambling that in 1905, President
Theodore Roosevelt denounced all college
football, and Columbia’s president—the
same Nicholas Murray Butler
who had pushed for football 25 years
earlier—banned the game from campus.
The Spectator ran a black border on its
front page with the news.
Football returned with a vengeance
in 1915, with the Lions undefeated that
season. Alas, it was the school’s only noloss
season so far, and Columbia especially
suffered in the 1980s with a 44-
game losing streak.
Over the years, Columbia’s playing
fields have seen the likes of Sid
Luckman, a future NFL Hall of Famer,
and Jack Kerouac—who was recruited
for his football prowess, not his poetry,
and later dropped out. Fullback Lou
CHARLES MANLEY
On Aug. 24, the medical and dental school students of the class of 2011 received their white clinical coats and publicly declared their
intention to practice medicine— “in uprightness and honor”— by reciting the Hippocratic oath before family,friends and faculty.This annual
rite of passage welcomes the students and emphasizes the importance of compassionate patient care and scientific proficiency.The
first white coat ceremony, in 1993, was the brainchild of Arnold P. Gold, M.D., a professor of clinical neurology and clinical pediatrics at
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and his wife, Sandra O. Gold, Ed.D.Before then, students didn't get their white coats until their
second year,and didn't take the Hippocratic oath until graduation. The white coat ceremony has now spread to more than 130 schools
of medicine, dentistry and osteopathy throughout the United States and internationally.
USPS 090-710 ISSN 0747-4504
Vol. 33, No. 1, Sept. 6, 2007
Published by the
Office of Communications and
Public Affairs
TheRecord Staff:
Editor: Bridget O’Brian
Graphic Designer: Nicoletta Barolini
Senior Writer: Melanie A. Farmer
University Photographer: Eileen Barroso
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Gridiron
Glory Days
ASK ALMA’S OWL
Gehrig also quit, but went on to
his legendary baseball career as a New
York Yankee.
Columbia may be the only Ivy League
institution with a chairman of the board
of trustees, William V. Campbell, who is
both its former football coach (1975-
79) and team captain. In 1961,
Campbell led a Lions squad to a share of
the Ivy League championship.
Die-hard fans with long memories
may recall Columbia’s upset over
Stanford in the 1934 Rose Bowl, when
Lions quarterback Clifford E.
Montgomery completed a hidden-ball
play known as KF-79 to win the game 7-
0. When Montgomery died twoyears ago
at age 94, his daring feat was noted in the
first paragraph of a lengthy New York
Times obituary.
By Erich Erving
Send your questions for Alma’s Owl to
curecord@columbia.edu.
The Caribbean Studies Association presented STEVEN
GREGORY with the Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Memorial
Award for Caribbean Scholarship for his book The Devil
Behind the Mirror: Globalization and Politics in the
Dominican Republic. Gregory is an associate professor
of anthropology.
SUDHIR VENKATESH, aprofessor of sociology, received
the 2006 C. Wright Mills Award for his book Off the
Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor.
The annual award, established in 1964, is presented by
the Society for the Study of Social Problems.
ESTER FUCHS and ERIC VERHOOGEN are the recipients
of the 2006-2007 School of International and Public
Affairs’ teaching awards. Fuchs is a professor of urban
politics and urban economic development; Verhoogen
is an assistant professor of economic development.
KENNETH D. CREWS, former director of the Copyright
Management Center at Indiana University, was named
director of Columbia’s new Copyright Advisory Office,
which will provide educational and consultative support
on copyright issues arising in the creation of original
works by members of Columbia University. He
starts the job Jan. 1, 2008.
HARVEY GOLDSCHMID, Dwight Professor of Law at
Columbia, has been named to the board of the new
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
FINRA was formed July as the successor to the National
Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), the member
regulation and enforcement arm of the New York
Stock Exchange. FINRA will function as the new regulatory
body for securities firms in the United States.
The World Health Organization has named RICHARD
M. GARFIELD, Henrik H. Bendixen Clinical Professor of
International Nursing, director of the first international
office for assessing and responding to humanitarian
needs in crisis countries.
ALLAN ROSENFIELD, dean of the Mailman School of
Public Health, received the 2007 United Nations
Population Award. One of four laureates of the original
29 international nominees, Rosenfield was also elected
afellow of the American Academy of the Arts and
Sciences and received the Joseph Calloway Prize for the
Defense of the Right to Privacy from the New York Civil
Liberties Union Reproductive Rights Project.
ANNE ROLLOW SULLIVAN, former senior associate dean
for finance and administration of the University of
Pennsylvania Wharton School, has been appointed
executive vice president for finance. Before Wharton,
she had worked at Columbia as the assistant
vice president for administrative planning and financial
management.
JEROME DAVIS, former special assistant to the
president’s office, has been appointed secretary of the
University,serving as a liaison between the trustees and
the senior administration.
GEORGE E. LEWIS,the current Edwin H. Case Professor
of American Music at Columbia, will take over as director
of the Center for Jazz Studies. He will replace the
center’s founder, Robert O’Meally, who is stepping
down from the position to return to teaching full time
as a professor of comparative literature.

TheRecord SEPTEMBER 6, 2007 3
TALK OF THE CAMPUS
University
To Reduce
Emissions
By Barbara King Lord
A
tapress conference June 6 with Mayor Bloomberg,
Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger joined eight
New York-area college and university presidents in
pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30
percent over the next 10 years.
Now comes the hard part. Each school
must take an inventory of its emissions and
develop a plan to arrive at the reductions.
“We have a concerted, University-wide
effort under way to gather the data needed
to establish a baseline for our energy
usage,” said Nilda Mesa, director of the Environmental
Stewardship Office, which is coordinating the effort.
The data-gathering project, which is expected to take a
year, is the latest phase in Columbia’s many initiatives to
make the University greener. In addition to creating the
Department of Environmental Stewardship in 2006, it previously
announced plans for three new environmentally
friendly buildings, reductions to electricity use, and
Columbia’s first green dorm, which will become a model for
other dorms.
Columbia’s efforts dovetail with the city’s own environmental
plans. In December 2006, Mayor Bloomberg
announced his PlaNYC sustainability initiative which
included a proposal to reduce the city’s carbon emissions 30
percent by 2030. The PlaNYC Challenge with local colleges
and universities has an accelerated pace for
emission reductions, aiming to cut them by
30 percent in only 10 years. In addition to
Columbia, the other schools that have made
commitments are Barnard College, Cooper
Union, City University of New York (which
has 23 campuses), Fordham University, New
York University, Pratt Institute, St. John’s University, and The
New School.
At Columbia, the “30 in 10” effort will focus on four areas:
electricity and heating oil purchased by the University; vehicles
owned by Columbia or driven by staff; students and faculty;
solid waste sent to landfills instead of being recycled;
and refrigerants.
Gathering the baseline data is an enormously complex
effort, requiring meticulous record-keeping from a variety
of sources.
Eloise Paul, assistant director of special
projects, real estate, is assessing energy use
by the many buildings that Columbia owns
and leases. “These buildings have different
methods of delivering energy to tenants,”
she said. “We’vehad to rely on the goodwill
of the landlords and building managers to help us dig up that
data.”
Columbia will work with the mayor’s office, the other
schools, and the International Council for Local
Environmental Initiatives, an organization that helps municipalities
around the world with technological and training
support for their sustainability efforts.
Mesa notes that she’s working with faculty who are leaders
in the field “to make sure that whatever is done is done
right.” For example, David Major, asenior research scientist
Mayor Bloomberg,flanked by Bollinger and Pratt’s president
Thomas F. Schutte, at the June 6 press conference
at the Columbia Center for Climate Systems Research, has
assisted the city’s Department of Environmental Protection
with similar efforts and will be helping to review the
Columbia inventory.
“This brings it full circle,” Mesa said. “It is our own faculty
in many instances who first researched and discovered the
extent of climate change, its workings and impacts, and are
now also looking for potential solutions.”
ED REED
José Ocampo
Massimo Morelli
Christopher Brown
Saskia Sassen
CAROL BECKER
Dean and Professor of the Arts
Named dean of the School of the Arts in June, Becker joins
Columbia from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago,
where she was dean of faculty and senior vice president of academic
affairs. Prior to that, Becker taught at the University of
California, San Diego; San Diego State University; Northeastern
Illinois University; and Ionian University in Corfu. Her research
interests include feminist theory, American cultural history, the
education of artists and South African art and politics.
CHRISTOPHER L. BROWN
Visiting Professor of History
Brown, who comes to Columbia from Rutgers University,
specializes in the history of the British Empire in the early
modern era and in the comparative history of slavery and
abolition. His published works include Moral Capital:
Foundations of British Abolitionism and Arming Slaves: From
Classical Times to the Modern Age. His current projects include
one on the British in Africa in the era of the Atlantic slave trade
and the other on the British planter class in the
era of emancipation.
SARAH H. CLEVELAND
Louis Henkin Professor in Human
and Constitutional Rights
Cleveland, who will also co-direct the School of Law’s
Human Rights Institute, previously taught at the University of
Texas School of Law, where she also served as faculty director
of the Transnational Worker Rights Clinic and led a student
investigation of working conditions in the Cambodian garment
industry in Phnom Penh. Cleveland was one of five
experts on the Afghanistan Transitional Commercial Law
Project Working Group, a project sponsored by the American
Bar Association.
JOHN COATSWORTH
Acting Dean and Professor at the School
of International and Public Affairs
Coatsworth, a former president of the American Historical
Association, is the author or editor of seven books and articles
on Latin American economic and international history. He
comes to Columbia from Harvard, where he was the founding
director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American
Studies from its creation in 1994 until 2006, and also chair of
the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights
Studies. Coatsworth was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation
Fellowship in 1986.
MASSIMO MORELLI
Professor of Political Science and Economics
Before joining Columbia, Morelli was an associate professor
of economics and political science specializing in game theory
Sarah H.Cleveland
John Coatsworth
and political economy at Ohio State University. He has taught
at Iowa State University and the University of Minnesota.
Morelli’s most recent research projects include conflict and
legislative bargaining experiments.
JOSÉ OCAMPO
Professor of Professional Practice in International
and Public Affairs
Ocampo will teach in the Ph.D. program in sustainable
development and play an active role in the Committee on
Global Thought. Ocampo served in the government of
Colombia in several different positions, and was United
Nations under-secretary-general for economic and social
affairs and executive secretary of the Economic Commission
for Latin America and the Caribbean.
NATHANIEL PERSILY
Professor of Law
Carol Becker
Nathaniel Persily
New Professors Named for ’07-’08
By Record Staff
This is a small sample of this year’s new faculty members.
Persily is an expert on voting rights and election law and
has been sought by courts and legislatures in redistricting
cases. He comes to Columbia from the University of
Pennsylvania and has been a court-appointed expert for redistricting
cases in Georgia, Maryland and New York.
SASKIA SASSEN
Lynd Professor of Sociology
Sassen is an expert on cities, immigration and states in the
world economy. Her many books on these topics have been
translated into 16 languages. Sassen comes to Columbia from
the University of Chicago, and is also the Centennial Visiting
Professor at the London School of Economics.
GARY SHTEYNGART
Assistant Professor of the Arts in the Writing Division
Shteyngart is the author of the novels Absurdistan and The
Russian Debutante’s Handbook, which both received numerous
awards. His fiction and essays have been in The New Yorker,
Esquire , GQ, The New York Times Magazine and many other
publications. He is a contributing editor to Travel & Leisure
and previously taught at Hunter College.
MATTHEW WAXMAN
Associate Professor of Law
Waxman most recently served as the principal deputy director
of the policy planning staff at the Department of State. He
spent nearly two years in a Pentagon post created to address
the problems raised by the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal
in Iraq and pushed for new Pentagon standards on handling
terror suspects to include language from the Geneva
Conventions that bars cruel, humiliating and degrading
treatment.

4
SEPTEMBER 6, 2007
TheRecord
FACULTY PROFILE
New Leader for
Africa Institute
continued from page 1
reconstructing the historical linkages across these regions,”
said Sheldon Pollock, the department chair. Nicholas Dirks,
vice president for arts and sciences and professor of anthropology
and history, praised Diouf for his commitment to the
development of African studies across the social sciences, policy
studies, the humanities and the arts.
Educated principally in France, Diouf is a renowned West
African scholar who has taught in his native Senegal at the
University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar and guest-lectured at
many European and American universities. He served as director
of the research and documentation program of the
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in
Africa (CODESRIA). At Michigan, he also served in the Center
for Afro American and African Studies. Diouf’s research and
teaching focuses on urban, political and cultural history in
colonial and postcolonial Africa. His appointment is in the
Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures.
He will teach a graduate course on Pan-African studies this fall.
His appointment returns the institute to the School of
International and Public Affairs, where it was suspended in the
2006-07 academic year as the school searched for a new fulltime
director to succeed Mahmood Mamdani, a professor of
anthropology who returned full time to teaching. Since joining
Columbia in July, Diouf’s top priority has been to ensure the
reopening succeeds, and to that end, he plans to reach out to
other Africa-related organizations and programs at Columbia,
in New York City and at other universities. The institute must
also work with nearby Harlem, he said.
“I think it is impossible to have a program like ours here
and not be involved with Harlem,” said Diouf, emphasizing the
natural bridge between the institute and a vital community of
African Americans and African immigrants. He hopes to establish
a significant connection between Columbia and Harlem to
discuss such topics as African influences in black American
culture, how Africa is represented there and how the two cultures
intersect.
Columbia’s location in New York City makes it ideally
situated to pull together the diverse groups involved with
Africa, he added.
Students and curriculum are also at the top of Diouf’s list
of priorities, and he recognizes the challenge to regaining
trust among students who were upset about the institute’s
year-long disappearance.
“We have to help define the institute, but the students are
going to take on the most important role because [it] has to
serve them first,” said Diouf. One of his first priorities is a town
meeting with students, who he hopes will speak freely and fuel
a bigger discussion on what the institute can offer now that
it has reopened.
Lincoln Ajoku, a student and president of SIPA’s Pan-African
Network (SPAN), calls the reopening a positive development
that students will welcome, particularly because they and others
at Columbia dedicated to Africa were vigilant in
Sacks
continued from page 1
an intermediary between art and science,
although that sounds awfully grandiose,” Sacks
said. In coming to Columbia, he will pursue his
longtime interest in schizophrenia, and in that
vein, he plans to see patients and consult with
Columbia’s experts in the fields. Dr. Jeffrey A.
Lieberman, the Lawrence E. Kolb Chairman of
Psychiatry at Columbia’s College of Physicians
and Surgeons and himself a specialist in schizophrenia,
said he and his colleagues are “thrilled”
at Sacks’ appointment. “We are looking forward
to collaborating with him to elucidate mental illnesses
through his writing. Our psychiatry
trainees, and those in neurology as well, will
greatly benefit from his insight and experience.”
Indeed, Sacks has many admirers at the
University. “He writes beautifully, and thinks
extremely well about the brain,” said University
Professor Eric Kandel, a Nobel laureate in medicine
who strongly encouraged Sacks’ move to
the University. “I thought he would be ideal for
Columbia,” Kandel said, adding, “This is like a
candy store for him.” Recently, Kandel and Sacks
together interviewed a woman who had musical
hallucinations. “He does not do quantitative science,
not in the conventional sense, he picks up
on themes,” Kandel said. “He often starts with a
neurological problem which has interesting psychological
implications.”
The London-born, Oxford University-educated
Sacks, 74, discussed his new job on a recent morning. He
wore a blue Columbia T-shirt and sipped from a Columbia
mug. “In an odd way I really sort of skirted and flitted around
academia for the last 40 years,” he said. He became a writer,
in part, because he’s incapable of seeing a patient or scientific
phenomenon without wanting to know the story
behind it. “For me, interest in science has been inseparable
from stories.”
Although he has had no formal writing training, “apart
from the occasional itinerant meetings with writing classes,”
he said, Sacks is the author of 10 books, most of them bestsellers.
Awakenings was turned into a movie starring Robin
Williams and Robert De Niro. His latest book, Musicophilia:
Tales of Music and the Brain, will be published next month.
Excerpts have appeared in The New Yorker, where he is a
contributing writer, along with Columbia’s Nicholas
Lemann, dean of the Journalism School, and Orhan Pamuk,
who won last year’s Nobel Prize in literature and holds
an appointment in Middle East and Asian Languages
and Cultures.
Sacks’ move to Columbia is another example of how arts
and sciences can work together. Several years ago, Gregory
Mosher, director of Columbia’s Arts Initiative, heard from a
mutual friend that Sacks might be interested in exploring a
role at Columbia. Mosher made some calls and before long
the idea of Sacks’ move to Columbia took on momentum.
Sacks’ “ability to cross over the arts and cultural life and scientific
life will be wonderful,” Mosher said. “He doesn’t divide
these in his brain. It’s part of who he is.”
ensuring the institute’s operations would not remain
suspended indefinitely.
“Columbia will once again have a focal point to promote
and encourage the study of Africa and Africa-related issues,”
said Ajoku. “A reinvigorated institute, which builds upon
lessons learned, is the best way to demonstrate the beginning
of a new era.”
Diouf plans to work toward creating a comprehensive and
modern African studies curriculum. Though Columbia provides
a wide range of Africa-related courses and seminars,
what is still missing is a strong, formal, integrated curriculum
on what Columbia offers about Africa, he said.
Though the institute re-opened in July, Diouf intends to
work with students in the fall to host a formal launch to celebrate
its official reopening.
“This is one of the few places outside of Africa where Africa
is discussed by Africans and non-Africans,” he said. Columbia
“can offer a neutral place for discussion.”
EILEEN BARROSO
COLUMBIA PEOPLE
SANDRA HARRIS
CHARLES MANLEY
WHO SHE IS: Assistant Vice President for the Office of
Government and Community Affairs at Columbia University
Medical Center
YEARS AT COLUMBIA: Nine
WHAT SHE DOES: A typical day at the office starts with
a call from a community group seeking to establish a health
education arm with one of CUMC’s departments or schools.
Her job also includes coordinating volunteer programs with
students, community leaders and local public schools.
Because she represents the University in community activities,
her days sometimes end at local community meetings,
addressing issues of mental health, public safety and other
social service issues.
AGOOD DAY ON THE JOB: Establishing and promoting
links between community and institutional partners is not as
easy as it sounds. Everyone works on individual time lines,
so it can be challenging to keep all parties on the same page.
A good day on the job is “when after months of program
planning and development, we are finally able to reach
an agreement on scope of work, letters of support,
linkage agreements... just in time to meet our grant or proposal
deadlines.”
HOW SHE CAME TO COLUMBIA: Before Columbia, she
served as executive director of Alianza Dominicana’s Family
Center, which provides alcoholism prevention and mental
health services for new immigrant families in Washington
Heights and Inwood. “As a social worker, mental health has
always been my area of interest,” she said. Coming to
Columbia “afforded me the opportunity to address mental
health and health care policy issues at the national level
while involving major health care providers and community
stakeholders.”
MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT: Harris helped bring
Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter to a community health fair
organized by her department. More than 2,000 community
residents attended and received free health screenings and,
of course, a photo with the famous athlete. Harris also recalls
filling the Alumni Auditorium with 700 inner city youths to
watch Momma’s Boyz, a gang-prevention theater presentation
by Repertorio Espanol. ~
BEST PART OF HER JOB: “Every day I truly get the
opportunity to be resourceful.” Harris is constantly learning
about what health policies and research discoveries the
faculty are making and how those, in turn, contribute to
the community and overall goal of improved health care
access and quality of life in Washington Heights and
Inwood.
IN HER SPARE TIME: Harris enjoys spending time with
her three children, Frank, Julio and Sandy, as well as her parents,
siblings and their children. A typical family gathering
can include 20 family members. She also loves dancing the
merengue and going to the movies.

TheRecord SEPTEMBER 6, 2007 5
IN THE COMMUNITY
Artist, College
Restore Smiles
Of Abuse Victims
By Melanie A. Farmer
W
ith a hand from Columbia University dentists, local
artist and activist Jeremiah Kyle Drake is helping to
bring back smiles to victims of domestic violence
in New York.
After meeting a woman whose jaw and teeth were damaged by
her abusive husband, Drake began to think about the dental
aspect of domestic violence and ways he could help provide
restorative dentistry to these victims. An artist at Riverside Theatre
in Morningside Heights, Drake, who grew up in an abusive family,
immediately looked to neighboring Columbia for help.
“Columbia was just as excited as I was about this idea,”
said Drake. “They really brought the needed lifeblood to
this project.”
Through the College of Dental Medicine at Columbia
University Medical Center, resident dentists will see up to 40
patients per year and provide them with dental treatment that will
include restoring their teeth to “form and function.” In some
cases, this could include greater and extended treatment.
Over the years, the College has reached out to those in need
through community programs in the school system and geriatric
centers, as well as with its mobile dental van. The dental college
also operates the Community DentCare program, which provides
comprehensive dental care for families in Washington Heights,
Inwood and Harlem.
“We have a strong commitment to helping those in need of
oral health care,” said Dr. Ronnie Myers, associate dean for
clinical affairs at the dental school. “If we can be of help
to those individuals who have been victims of domestic
violence in any way, we will have fulfilled one of our major
missions of patient care.”
Riverside Theatre artist Jeremiah Kyle Drake, left, and Dr. Ronnie Myers of Columbia’s College of Dental Medicine.
In this new initiative, Columbia has partnered with three
community organizations—Safe Horizons, the Dove Program
at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and the Washington
Heights/Inwood Coalition Against Domestic Violence—that refer
qualified patients to the program.
Raising awareness and finding support for victims of domestic
violence has been a personal mission for Drake fueled by his own
traumatic memories of family abuse. As a young boy growing up
in Syracuse, N.Y., Drake witnessed firsthand his father’s repeated
physical abuse of his mother.
“He brutalized her,” he said. “I’ve carried these memories
with me, but helping others who are suffering helps me deal
with my own traumatic memories.”
Drake, who joined Riverside Theatre in 2000, began using art
as a way to raise awareness for victims of domestic violence.
His project Restoring the Icon evolved from an earlier visual art
series. The Slashing of the Icon featured images of African
American icons such as Billie Holiday, which were slashed as an
artistic statement on women in domestic violence situations.
Drake has also forged a partnership with Harlem Hospital and
inspired the creation of a state senate bill that would amend the
social services law to provide medical assistance to needy people
for the care and treatment of scarring resulting from
domestic abuse.
DAVID WENTWORTH
GRANTS & GIFTS
Arts & Sciences
WHO GAVE IT: Sami W. Mnaymneh, CC’81, co-founding partner
of venture capital firm HIG Ventures.
HOW MUCH: $2 million
WHO GOT IT: Arts and Sciences
WHAT FOR: $1.5 million will be used to establish the
Mnaymneh Professorship in Economics, $500,000 will be
used for research support. The gift is matched by a grant
from the Lenfest Challenge Fund.
Columbia Business School
WHO GAVE IT: Anonymous Business School alumnus
HOW MUCH: $3.5 million
WHO GOT IT: Columbia Business School
WHAT FOR: To create the BRIDGE Fellowship Program that
will help leverage the school’s position in New York City by
bringing business executives into the classroom and faculty
into the business world, and to ensure a flow of data and
ideas to the University and to the world.
College of Physicians and Surgeons
WHO GAVE IT: The Boomer Esiason Foundation
HOW MUCH: $6 million
WHO GOT IT: College of Physicians and Surgeons
WHAT FOR: This gift from the former NFL quarterback establishes
the Gunnar Esiason Adult Cystic Fibrosis and Lung program
in the department of medicine, named for Esiason’s
now 16-year-old son, who has cystic fibrosis. This pledge
complements prior support made by the Foundation for
Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis program.
Columbia Law School
WHO GAVE IT: Sidney B. Silverman, Law’57
HOW MUCH: $1 million
WHO GOT IT: The Law School
WHAT FOR: The Sidney B. Silverman Loan Repayment Fund, an
endowment fund to provide interest-free loans to eligible graduates
who pursue full-time positions in government service that
make use of their legal education. The loans, which may be used
to repay debt incurred to attend the law school, will be forgiven
over time as recipients remain in government service.
BUDDING ENGINEERS
By Melanie A. Farmer
A
s Columbia works to address long-term environmental
sustainability, this summer it turned to a group
that isn't usually consulted for that kind of technical
expertise: high school students.
Students from the School of Continuing Education’s high
school program in engineering design worked on developing
solutions to environmental problems on campus— from turning
trash into energy to using vegetable oil to power vehicles.
The course has been offered for four summers, but this was the
first time the design projects
focused so close to home.
The shift supports the
University's efforts to
make the campus more
environmentally friendly.
(In the past, the students
worked on design
solutions for people
with disabilities.)
Breaking into small
groups, the students
concentrated on such
projects as turning trash
into energy, creating
human-generated energy
and implementing green-roof technologies.
“There is an increasing awareness of the
many opportunities on campus to reduce greenhouse emissions
and enhance conservation efforts in general,” said Jack
McGourty, associate dean in the Fu Foundation School of
Engineering and Applied Science, who teaches the course.
“These campus projects promise to have a positive impact on
Columbia as well as the surrounding community.”
The nine student groups each collaborated with a community
partner within the University as well as local not-for-profits
and area businesses. Partners at the University included
representatives from residential housing and dining facilities,
as well as Nilda Mesa, the University's director of environmental
stewardship. Local partners included neighborhood
parks and nearby restaurants.
One group proposed a plan to convert the waste vegetable
oil produced at John Jay Hall's cafeteria into biodiesel fuel that
could power the University's shuttle bus to the Lamont-
Doherty campus in Palisades, N.Y. Another examined ways to
create human-powered energy by using old exercise equipment
in Dodge Fitness Center to charge personal electronics
such as laptops and cell phones, or even use that power as an
alternate electricity source for the gym. Students presented
their projects in July in front of an audience of their peers,
professors and partners.
The program aims to give the high school juniors and seniors
a comprehensive course in engineering design and
applied science as well as real-life college experience.
“The class is designed to not only provide a realistic experience
on the types of problems they would
encounter as engineers and scientists, but
also gives them a preview of life on
Columbia's campus,” said McGourty.
Each year a number of the high school
students— who come from around
the world— end up applying to SEAS.
Cori Capik, a high school senior
from Miami, said the course convinced
her that she's on track with
her desired career ambitions. “I
got to really understand what
environmental engineering
entails,” said Capik, who
plans to study mechanical
and aeronautical
engineering. “Taking
this course convinced me that I want to become an engineer.”
Abdullah Al-Jazzaf, a senior from Kuwait, got vital teamwork
experience and a taste of life on a U.S. college campus.
“We learned from one another, and how to [conduct]
research from the ground up,” said Al-Jazzaf, who hopes to
study mechanical engineering in the United States. “We
were able to create projects that will actually be used in the
future.”
Al-Jazzaf's team worked on a food composting project, and
its design will be implemented during this academic year by
its community partner, Friends of Morningside Park. As for
the human-generated energy project at the gym, it will be
studied further.

6
SEPTEMBER 6, 2007
TheRecord
RESEARCH NEWS
Breaking News on Bones
continued from page 1
ation, according to the American Diabetes Association. Of the 14.6 million Americans
who have been diagnosed with the disease, most have type 2 diabetes.
Karsenty and his colleagues previously showed that leptin, a hormone
released by fat cells, acts upon and ultimately controls bone mass. They reasoned
that bones must in turn communicate with fat, so they searched bone-forming
cells for molecules that could send signals back to fat cells.
The researchers found that osteocalcin, a protein made only by bone-forming
cells (osteoblasts), was not merely a structural protein, but rather a hormone
with totally unanticipated and crucial functions. Osteocalcin directs the
pancreas’s beta cells—which produce the body’s supply of insulin—to produce
more insulin. At the same time, osteocalcin tells fat cells to release a hormone
called adiponectin, which improves insulin sensitivity. Additionally, osteocalcin
boosts production of insulin-producing beta cells, which is considered one of
the best, but currently unattainable, strategies to treat diabetes.
People with type 2 diabetes have been shown to have low osteocalcin levels,
suggesting that altering the activity of this molecule could be an effective therapy.
That conclusion is supported by the Columbia research showing that mice
with high osteocalcin activity did not gain weight or become diabetic even when
they ate a high-fat diet. Mice lacking the osteocalcin protein had type 2 diabetes,
increased fat mass, a decrease in insulin and adiponectin expression and
decreased beta-cell proliferation.
This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the
American Diabetes Association, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
and the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
The researchers are now examining the role of osteocalcin in the regulation
of blood sugar in humans and are continuing investigations into the relationship
between osteocalcin and the appearance of type 2 diabetes and obesity.
-
ROCK LYRICS SPEAK
WORDS OF WISDOM
By Diane Dobry
F
or decades, parents have worried that the
lyrics to rock music could corrupt their children
and poison their minds. But what of the
intellectual and spiritual nuggets those lyrics
may contain?
In his new book, Rock ’n’ Roll Wisdom: What
Psychologically Astute Lyrics Teach About Life and
Love, Barry Farber, a professor of psychology and
education at Teachers College, analyzes rock lyrics
for their psychological truths.
“The better lyricists within the rock tradition tell
stories about life and use creative phrases and
imagery to do so,” he says. “Like other artists,
great songwriters offer the virtue of a more palatable
way of learning than through the often-tedious
pages of textbooks.”
The book, which is published by Praeger
Publishers, an imprint of Greenwood Publishing
Group, is not typical of Farber’s oeuvre, which runs
more to such articles titled “The Therapist as
Attachment Figure” and “Clients’ Perceptions of the
Process and Consequences of Self-Disclosure in
Psychotherapy.” But given his research interests in
psychotherapy and self-disclosure in patients,
therapists and supervisors, it’s not too far a
jump to the psychology of 50 Cent, Lil’ Kim and
Snoop Doggy Dogg.
“Rock lyrics, I believe, can be a lighthearted
but engaging means to think about some profound
issues of living,” Farber writes. “Specifically,
I have looked for lyrics that illustrate in particularly
insightful ways common human longings
and concerns.”
Farber groups rock lyrics into basic thematic categories,
including love and friendship; pain; ways of
coping, aging and growing; and the inevitable troika
of sex, drugs and money.
“‘Who am I?’ is one of the great questions of life,
pondered by philosophers, artists, psychologists,
and yes, songwriters,” Farber writes, noting that
although the rocker Meat Loaf “made fun of such
existential questions, he also noted implicitly that
these are just the kind of things that many think
about a good deal.”
A chapter on death weaves together a discussion
of Aerosmith, Jackson Browne, Simon and
Garfunkel, John Prine, Billy Joel and Bonnie Raitt.
Farber notes that in rock lyrics, “nostalgia seems to
have two competing sides. One side pushes toward
sweetening the past, the other clings to old regrets.”
Farber also names the “50 Best Rock Lyrics” (in
his opinion). They include selections from the
Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Paul
Simon and Billy Joel. The list is diplomatically presented
in alphabetical order, beginning with the
Beatles’ “And in the end the love you take is equal
to the love you make” and ending with U2’s
“We’re one, but we’re not the same/We get to
carry each other.”
Farber doesn’t dispute that the writings of great
authors and psychologists go far deeper than rock
lyrics. He admits, too, that many rock devotees don’t
really listen to the lyrics. Still, he would like to see
the “words” part of rock given more attention and
serious consideration.
LONGER PATERNITY LEAVE PUTS DADS IN THE LOOP
By Record Staff
M
ost fathers take at least some leave from work to help care for their
newborn children, and those who take longer leaves are more
involved in their children’s care down the road, according to a study
by two Columbia University social work professors.
Providing some of the first evidence on paternity leave in the U.S., the study
finds that an overwhelming majority of fathers take some leave after a birth. A substantial
minority take a leave of two or more weeks, but those who do are more
involved with child caretaking tasks when interviewed nine months later.
Conducted by professors Lenna Nepomnyaschy and Jane Waldfogel at the
School of Social Work, the report used data on more than 4,500 two-parent
families from the “Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort,” a
new nationally representative study that is following a large sample of children
born in 2001. The national study’s researchers interviewed mothers
and fathers nine months after the birth, gathering detailed data about their
involvement with the child and also asking whether they took any leave
after the birth and, if so, how much.
When asked whether fathers took any leave after the birth, the vast majority
(89 percent) of families report that fathers take some time off work. “This is
the first time we have had national data on fathers’ leave-taking, and this
percentage is much higher than any of us would have expected,” said Waldfogel.
However, the analysis also indicates that these leaves are quite short,
with most fathers taking just one week or less and only a third of fathers
taking two weeks or more.
Fathers who are more highly educated and working in higher-prestige occupations
are more likely to take leave and tend to take longer leaves than those
who are less advantaged on those indicators. This result is consistent with prior
evidence that higher-paying jobs are more likely to offer leave and to offer
longer periods of leave.
Fathers interviewed about their involvement with their children nine
months after the birth shed new light on how leave-taking after the
birth relates to subsequent involvement.
“We wanted to know not just whether fathers are taking leave,
but how that translates into later involvement with their children.
Are fathers who take leave more involved with their children
subsequently? Our analyses suggest the answer is clearly
yes,” said Nepomnyaschy.
“We find that fathers who take two or more weeks off work
after the birth of their child are much more likely to participate
in a range of child-care tasks when interviewed at nine months
post birth than otherwise comparable fathers who did not take
that much leave.”
The child-care activities examined at nine months include
diapering, feeding, dressing and bathing children.
The full study, “Paternity Leave and Fathers’ Involvement with
their Young Children: Evidence from the American ECLS-B,” will be
published in the November issue of Community,Work & Family.

H
aving taken the Lions to
their first record at or
above .500 in a decade
in 2006, Patricia and
Shepard Alexander Head Coach of
Football Norries Wilson begins his
second season at Columbia on
Sept. 15 against Fordham. As an
undergraduate in psychology, he
captained a Big Ten team at the
University of Minnesota. Over the
past decade he served as an assistant
coach at Bucknell and the University
of Connecticut.
In addition to his collegiate experience,
Wilson served minority
coaching fellowships in the NFL
with the Kansas City Chiefs, the
Jacksonville Jaguars and the
Indianapolis Colts. Of course, Ivy
League schools don't dole out athletic
scholarships or compete for bowl
games. But football is one of many
intercollegiate sports experiencing a
resurgence at Columbia University.
In an era when minor league baseball—such
as the Class A Brooklyn
Cyclones—has taken off as a popular,
family-friendly activity even in big
league cities, an afternoon at scenic,
subway-accessible Baker Field
Athletics Complex at the northern
tip of Manhattan offers the
Columbia community as well as
other New Yorkers an appealing way
to enjoy the charm of a classic college
football experience.
Coach, in your first year you
Q. took a team that didn't win
a league game the previous season
to its best record in a decade, at 5-
5. What changed in that first season
to make Columbia so quickly competitive
again?
What we did on defense was
A. different, the defense carried
us through for the season. The
kids started playing for different
reasons than they had played for in
the past. We never asked the kids to
go out and win a game for us or to
go win a game for Columbia, we
asked them to go out and win a
game for the guys that they’d practiced
with every day and every
week. They had a great sense of
family amongst themselves, they
had a great sense of commitment.
Q.
How do you create that
different feeling among
the players?
I’ve spent a lot of time
A. watching women's sports.
[Wilson's wife, Brenda, played
forward on UConn's first NCAA
women’s basketball championship
team.] Whether they’re losing by 20
or winning by 20, they always cheer
for each other. So we started practicing
cheering for each other, and
practicing celebrating, and practicing
taking care of the guy that was
the slowest guy on the team, and
practicing helping the guy that was
the weakest guy. And it got to the
point where the guys really didn't care who was playing, only
that somebody on their team was playing and that was what
they were going to cheer for.
What did it feel like last year to run on that field for the
Q. first time, your first game as a head coach? Do you
think it'll be any different this year, now that you have aseason
under your belt?
No, it'll be the same. The first game, you're sure you forgot
something, you're sure you forgot to tell them
A.
something during the week or during camp, you're nervous
how they're going to perform. If you're kicking off, you're
scared the other team is going to take it all the way back, and
TheRecord SEPTEMBER 6, 2007 7
STAFF Q&A
NORRIES WILSON
Interviewed by David M. Stone
“Our kids understand that they have to compete with
gifted students coming from across the country, and
still have to come to practice each week.”
POSITION:
Patricia and Shepard Alexander Head Coach of Football
LENGTH OF SERVICE:
One year,nine months
BEFORE COLUMBIA:
University of Connecticut: offensive coordinator (2002-2005), offensive line (1999-2001).
Bucknell University: offensive coordinator (1997-1998), offensive line (1995-1996).
Livingstone (N.C.) College: defensive coordinator (1993).
North Carolina Central University: offensive line/tight ends (1991-1992).
if you're receiving the kick you're scared that you're going to
fumble it. I think once you get them out there, five or six plays,
they start to settle down and the coaches start to settle down.
You have to be settled down in some fashion or you’re going
to make the kids nervous, so you pretend a little bit that everything’s
okay, but you’re worried about everything that could
happen. And I think it still happens to Joe Paterno the first
time Penn State comes out.
With a full off-season to recruit and prepare, can you talk
Q. about what we’re going to see on the field this year?
We had about 30 kids stay up this summer because they
A. had a chance to taste a little bit of success at the end of
EILEEN BARROSO
the year, and they saw how important
it was to work out together. So
they decided to stay this summer
and run and live together. They had
summer jobs here in the city.
They’re getting stronger as a team.
And they're coming in, they watch
tape on their own. They’re starting
to understand schemes and why
things have to be a certain way.
You captained a Big Tenteam
Q. at Minnesota, you coached in
a growing Division I program at
UConn— as well as at Bucknell,
which is competitively similar to an
Ivy League program. Is there anything
different about coaching an
Ivy League team?
The kids are a lot smarter
A. than I’ll ever hope to be, off
the field. [laugh] Football-wise I'm
still a little bit smarter than they are.
They have a very high learning
curve, you can throw a lot of information
at them, it’s just that you
have to be careful what you ask
them to do they can do physically as
well as mentally.
Do you coach them
Q. any differently because
Columbia is so competitive academically
off the field?
I think coaching’s coaching
A. no matter where you are.
Students at Columbia have to study
hard. They don’t get any special
considerations from professors or
the University just because they're in
a sport. Our kids understand that
they have to go out in the classroom
and compete with gifted students
coming from across the country,
and still have to come to practice
each week.
How challenging is it to
Q. attract academically gifted
athletes to Morningside Heights?
We’re maybe attracting a little
A. bit better player because we
won some more games this past year.
But it's never easy. There are only a
certain number of admissible students
across the country for the
eight Ivy schools to choose from, so
we usually are all going after the
same academically qualified kids.
The fact that we have won championships
in other sports does help—
the fact that the athletic program
appears to be on the upswing, not
just in football but across the board,
makes more young people want
to come. But we don’t think there’s
an “Ivy League type.” We just want
to attract students who can do
the work academically, and also
come out and help us be a better
football program.
What are your hopes for this
Q. year's Lions?
We'd like to have a winning
A. season. That doesn’t mean
anything less would be unsuccessful,
[it] just depends how it pans out. We know we just have to take
it one week at a time. Winning’s not guaranteed. People think
it’s stupid when I say it, but only half the teams that play on
Saturday win. And it's tough to go out and win. You’ve got to
go out and you’ve got to prepare, and you have to have a little
bit of luck, and you have to create some luck. A lot of kids on
the team are looking down the road and hoping to win an Ivy
League championship. But right now I’m focused on that first
game and hoping to beat Fordham.
For more information about Columbia football 2007, go to
w w w . g o c o l u m b i a l i o n s . c o m .

TheRecord
SCRAPBOOK SEPTEMBER 6, 2007 8
Dr.Ricardo J. Komotar,a neurosurgery resident at Columbia University,slides safely home during the championship game between
Columbia University Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania at the Fourth Annual Neurosurgery Charity Softball Tournament
in Central Park in June.Columbia didn't win the game,but the event raised more than $100,000 for the Columbia University Pediatric
Brain Tumor Research Fund (www.KidsBrainResearch.org).
CHRIS TAGGART
Former Mayor David Dinkins celebrated his 80th birthday at a party at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) with family,
friends and colleagues from Columbia and his New York civic life.Clockwise,from far left: blowing out the candles with his wife,Joyce; he
and Joyce with Jean and Lee Bollinger; with Sir Anthony O’Reilly,chair of Dublin-based Independent News & Media Group on whose board
Dinkins sits,and Theodore Shaw of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Joyce with Ester Fuchs,professor at SIPA.
RICHARD C.E. ANDERSON, M.D.
Order in the court! This summer,students from Harlem competed in a mock trial competition in Brooklyn Supreme Court, where they
spent two days delivering opening and closing statements and cross-examining witnesses.The students got a real-life glimpse of the
legal career track through the Columbia Summer Law Institute, an annual program sponsored by Legal Outreach with funding and
support from Columbia Community Service and Columbia Law School.
CARL NUNN
Jazz fans got a treat this summer.Community Works and New Heritage Theatre Group collaborated with Columbia’s Center for Jazz
Studies on a public concert series and debut of TriHarLenium,a seminal piece by composer and trombonist Craig S. Harris honoring
the people and music who have contributed to Harlem’s cultural legacy for the past 30 years.Concerts took place at such venues as
Lincoln Center Out of Doors and Morningside Park.The final performance will be Sept. 6 at Harlem Summer Stage. Clockwise, from
left: Harris and his trombone; Helga Davis,Nation of Imagination vocalist; and Sing Sing Rhythms,Senegalese drummers.
JO LIN
Two Prominent Alums
Named University
Trustees
By Record Staff
T
wo new members, both prominent alumni,
have been elected to join Columbia’s board of
trustees, effective Sept. 4.
Armen A. Avanessians EN’83 and A’Lelia Bundles
JRN’76 join the 24-member board, which includes
leaders in law, business, education, medicine and
politics led by Chair William V. Campbell. Avanessians
succeeds Michael E. Patterson, who retired from the
board at the beginning of this academic year.
Bundles, who was elected to the board after
consultation with the Columbia Alumni Association,
fills a vacancy.
Avanessians is a partner at Goldman Sachs & Co.
He joined the firm in 1985 as a foreign exchange
strategist and was named a partner in 1994.
Currently, he is director of Fixed Income, Currency
and Commodities Strategies; Equity Strategies;
Investment Banking and Financing Group Strategies
and Goldman Sachs Asset Management Strategies.
Before joining Goldman, he was on the technical staff
at Bell Laboratories. Avanessians sits on the Fu
WHAT ARE YOULOOKING AT?
HINT: Turn this head and you’ll see a face of great currency. Send answers to
curecord@columbia.edu. First to e-mail us the right answer wins a Record mug.
ANSWER TO LAST CHALLENGE: The Curl by Clement Meadmore, a gift by Percy Uris
to the Columbia Business School.
Foundation School of Engineering and Applied
Science Board of Visitors and the Financial
Engineering Advisory Committee at Columbia.
He also serves on the Engineering Council at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
the Masters in Financial Engineering Steering
Committee at the University of California
at Berkeley.
Bundles, an award-winning journalist and author,
is now a full-time writer of books and professional
speaker after a 30-year career in network television
news. Bundles worked at ABC News and NBC News
in numerous positions including talent development,
executive producer and bureau chief. Among
her journalism awards are an Alfred I. duPont-
Columbia Gold Baton and an Emmy. Her critically
acclaimed biography On Her Own Ground: The Life
and Times of Madam C.J. Walker was named a 2002
Borders Books-Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist,
a 2001 New York Times Notable Book and
received other accolades. Her young adult biography,
Madam C.J. Walker: Entrepreneur, received an
American Book Award. Bundles spearheaded the
national campaign that led to the 1998 U.S. Postal
Service’s Black Heritage stamp of Walker. She is
currently at work on her third book, Joy Goddess:
A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance, a biography
of her great-grandmother to be published by
Simon & Schuster. She chairs a committee charged
with revamping the Columbia Journalism School’s
alumni association and a 2007 Columbia University
Alumni Medalist.