Veritas, Vol. 50, No. 05, February 2008

              3 The Reinvention Center, a national hub
dedicated to improving undergraduate education, is now located at UM.
4UM bioclimatologist Laurence S.
Kalkstein studies the impact of weather and climate on all things living.
5 A new Convergence Lab at the School of Communication brings news stories of global concern to the forefront.
Volume 50 • Number 5 ■ February 2008	For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
www.miami.edu/veritas
DDfQ1HEKIT QUAI Al A
RECOGNIZED IN STATE OF
University of Miami President Donna E. Shalala was recognized in President George W. Bush’s final State of the Union address on January 28 for her role with former U.S. Senator Bob Dole in investigating ways to improve veterans’ health care.
“I call on Congress to enact the reforms recommended by Senator Bob Dole and Secretary Donna Shalala, so we can improve the system of care for our wounded warriors and help them build lives of hope and promise and dignity,” Bush said. Shalala attended the address, sitting in first lady Laura Bush’s box along with Dole and members of the military recovering from injuries sustained in Iraq.
Shalala, who served for eight years as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Dole were appointed by Bush last March to lead a bipartisan commission to examine problems at U.S. military and veterans hospitals across the country.
In July the report of the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors was issued. During the course of their study, commission members visited 23 Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, and private-sector treatment facilities.
They interviewed injured service members and their families, health care professionals, and officials who manage military and veterans’ programs. More than 1,700 injured service members also responded to a national survey conducted by the commission.
The commission recommended a sweeping overhaul of the veterans health care system, including better diagnosis and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and brain iru'uries, a complete restructuring of the disability and compensation systems for wounded soldiers, and increased support for the families caring for the wounded.
Special recognition:
President Donna E. Shalala and Senator Bob Dole stand while being recognized by President George W. Bush during his final State of the Union address.
Four-story, $24 million facility slated for 2010 completion
University breaks ground on new Alumni Center
I heir home away from home was
1 literally running out of space.
i So the University of Miami’s 147,000 alumni are getting a new one.
It will feature all of the creature comforts of home and then some: fountains, gardens, copper and etched glass seals, Florida keystone, and a fireplace in the living room.
UM broke ground on January 24 on the new Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center, a $24 million,
65,000-square-foot facility that will celebrate the achievements of graduates and welcome them whenever they return.
The four-story structure, which is taking shape on the corner of Brescia Avenue and San Amaro Drive on the Coral Gables
campus just down the street from the current, smaller Alumni House, “represents a new beginning for the Alumni Association,” President Donna E. Shalala said to the hundreds of alumni, trustees, and invited guests who attended the ceremonial groundbreaking. “The new Alumni Center will become a home away from home for our alumni, a place for visiting, working, celebrating, and remembering.” It is scheduled for completion in 2010.
The center is made possible by a lead gift from Robert and Judi Prokop Newman, longtime benefactors of scholarships and academic programs at UM. Judi is an alumna who serves on the UM Board of Trustees and is president of the Newman Family Foundation. Her husband, Bob, is owner of a venture capital firm.
“Bob and I decided to support this center because as an alumna I understood the importance of having a facility on campus that I could call home,” Judi Newman said at the recent groundbreaking ceremony.
She and her husband not only provided the lead gift but have also played a key role in the building’s design, meeting with Boston-based architect and MIT professor Michael Dennis to express their desire that the center “be
a place that is both functional and visibly pleasing,” Newman said. “He shared our vision of creating a place that was warm, comfortable,
Groundbreakers: Taking part in the ceremonial groundbreaking for the Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center are, from left, Donna Arbide, associate vice president of Alumni Relations and the Annual Fund and executive director of the University of Miami Alumni Association; UM President Donna E. Shalala; Robert and UM Trustee Judi Prokop Newman, whose lead gift made the center possible; UM Trustee Betty Amos, past president of the UM Alumni Association; Architect Michael Dennis; and Board of Trustees Chair Marta Weeks.
and relaxing, and that celebrated the history of our alma mater.”
The design team of MGE Architects, led by UM alumnus Rolando Conesa, also took part in the center’s design. Among the facility’s features: meet-
Home sweet home: The Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center will provide a home away from home for some 147,000 alumni.
ing and conference rooms, a cafe, business center, state-of-the-art telemarketing center, and office space for the University of Miami Alumni Association (UMAA) and University Advancement.
One of the first buildings constructed as a result of UM’s successful Momentum campaign, the center “may be the most important new building that we’re putting on the Coral Gables campus,” Shalala said. “It’s an investment in the future and an investment that will pay off in years to come. Our future is dependent very much on our connecting with alums from the time they start as undergraduates. The Alumni Center will be as much a home for our present undergraduates as it will be for our alumni.”
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Bringing the power of genomics to medicine
early five years after an international consortium of scientists completed a map of the human genetic code, the University of Miami has opened a genomics institute that will use the knowledge amassed from that ambitious effort to change the way medicine works.
The new Miami Institute for Human Genomics, located on UM’s South Campus just west of Miami Metrozoo, will focus on the genetic origins of multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and many other diseases.
Pascal J. Goldschmidt, senior vice president for medical affairs and dean of UM’s Miller School of Medicine, calls the facility “the future of medicine.”
“If we can identify susceptibility
Genomics leade Renowned geneticist Margaret Pericak-Vance leads UM trustees, invited guests, and members of the media on a tour of the new Miami Institute for Human Genomics.
genes that drive a disease process, we can prevent the disease from developing. These opportunities will define the medicine of tomorrow,” Goldschmidt said during the institute’s opening.
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