Newsmakers

NATIONAL PHILANTHROPY DAY

E. Maxine Bruhns, director of Pitt’s Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Program, received the 2009 Special Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), Western Pennsylvania Chapter. The National Philanthropy Day awards banquet was held in the Sheraton Station Square Hotel on Nov. 11. From left, Connie Schwartz-Bedo, past president of AFP Western Pennsylvania Chapter; Bruhns; and Jerry Mote, chapter president for 2010.

A WELCOME VICTORY

The Pitt men’s basketball team racked up a 63-53 victory against St. John’s on Jan. 28, bringing the Panthers’ season record to 16-4, 6-2 Big East. The Panthers clamped down defensively and made their free throws in the game at the Petersen Events Center. Above, No. 5 Gilbert Brown, a 6-foot-6 forward, shoots two for the Panthers.

HARRISBURG AND HOME

Pennsylvania state Rep. Jake Wheatley (GSPIA ’00) addressed Pitt students in Posvar Hall on Jan. 22 as a guest lecturer for Pitt’s Roscoe Robinson Jr. Memorial Lecture Series on Diversity and Public Service, sponsored by the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Wheatley, a decorated U.S. Marine combat veteran of Operation Desert Storm, spoke about diversity and state government.

A LOFTY HISTORY

U.S. astronaut and physician Mae Jemison, who was the first African American woman to travel in space, was the featured speaker during a Jan. 19 evening in David Lawrence Hall, sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh’s Black Action Society. Jemison’s presentation, “Dr. King’s Legacy: A Call to Action,” was part of a series of free public events on Pitt’s Oakland campus Jan. 15-21 to honor the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.  Jemison entered Stanford University at the age of 16, earned her medical degree at Cornell University Medical College, and flew aboard the shuttle Endeavor in 1992.