Calkins
Chair at Annenberg School & Public
Policy Center: Caryn Lerman
Dr.
Caryn E. Lerman, Associate
Director for Cancer Control and Population
Services at the Abramson Cancer Center,
has been appointed to the first endowed
chair created from a $100 million
bequest from the family of the late
Ambassador Walter Annenberg to Penn's
School for Communications and Public
Policy Center.
"Dr.
Lerman is the lead scholar on much
of the important work done in collaboration
with Annenberg School faculty to
prevent teen smoking. She is among
the shining examples of cross-school
collaboration at Penn," said
Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson.
Dr.
Lerman is also a professor of psychiatry
at the School of Medicine with a
secondary appointment as Professor
of Communications at the Annenberg
School.
As
a specialist in tobacco control research,
Dr. Lerman studies the genetic influences
on tobacco use and their implications
for developing successful smoking
prevention and treatment programs,
and on methods to influence public
policy on tobacco issues. Dr. Lerman
oversees a team of scientists involved
in basic, clinical and epidemiological
studies. She and her colleagues have
demonstrated a link between smoking
and genetic variants in the brain's
dopamine and serotonin pathways.
In
keeping with the tradition of the
Annenberg School, Dr. Lerman has
been afforded the opportunity to
name her academic chair after an
individual whose work she wishes
to honor. She selected Mary Whiton
Calkins, the first female president
of the American Psychological Association
and the American Philosophical Association.
"Mary
Calkins attended Harvard University
in the late 1800s, but was never
awarded a college degree because
she was a woman," Dr. Lerman
said. "One reason I chose to
honor her was to rectify that old
injustice, as well as to call attention
to the contributions she made to
the field of psychology."
The
Mary W. Calkins Chair is funded by
revenue from a $100 million endowment
(Almanac September
24, 2002) to the school and policy
center that was announced September
19, 2002, by the Walter Annenberg
Foundation. Last year's bequest augmented
the Annenbergs' previous grant of
$120 million (Almanac July
13, 1993). A newspaper and magazine
publishing magnate, Mr. Annenberg
founded the prestigious communications
school at Penn in 1958.
Dr.
Lerman came to Penn in 2001 from
the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown
University Medical Center, where
she was a professor of oncology,
psychiatry and pharmacology, and
associate director for cancer control.
She was awarded her undergraduate
degree in psychology from Pennsylvania
State University, and she went on
to earn a masters degree in psychology
and a doctoral degree in clinical
psychology at the University of Southern
California. Prior to her work at
Georgetown, she was Director of Behavioral
Oncology Research at Fox Chase Cancer
Center.
Dr.
Lerman has received numerous awards for
her work, including the Society of Behavioral
Medicine's New Investigator Award; the
Preventive Oncology Academic Award from
the National Cancer Institute at the NIH,
and the Award for Outstanding Contributions
to Health Psychology from the American
Psychological Association. She has also
served on the Board of Scientific Advisors
of the National Cancer Institute and has
co-chaired its Tobacco Research Implementing
Group.
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