State of the Art: GW Partners With Phillips

The main gallery at the Phillips Collection in Washington

The Phillips Collection. Photo © Robert Lautman

GW has forged a partnership with America's first museum of modern art. The Phillips Collection, one of the world's most distinguished collections of impressionist and modern American and European art, has partnered with GW to jointly organize art history courses, artist visits, post-doctoral fellowships, and an internship program. Activities will take place both at GW and the Phillips' Center for the Study of Modern Art.

These experiences will enhance learning for students in GW's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences as well as GW's Graduate School of Education and Human Development, which houses the university's Museum Education Program.

In November, Phillips Director Dorothy Kosinski and GW President Steven Knapp signed a memorandum of understanding at the Phillips detailing the agreement between the two institutions for the next three years. The first collaboration is a course titled "The Performative Impulse in American Art," taught by GW professor Virginia B. Spivey.

The two institutions will also co-sponsor a "Conversations with Artists" series. The first installment features several artists, including John Simon Jr., Jim Sanborn, and Alice Aycock, as they explore the theme "Systems of Knowledge." The artists also will visit the GW campus, where they will interact with students and the faculty.

"Faculty members across the department recognize the importance of having students in front of actual works of art, in addition to viewing projected images in a lecture hall," says Dean Kessmann, chair of GW's Department of Fine Arts and Art History in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. "We often tell incoming students that we view the local museums as extensions of our classrooms; it is one of the huge benefits of studying art at an urban campus in Washington, D.C."

Emilie Kretschmar, MA '09, worked as a museum supervisor at the Phillips before she began her coursework in art history at GW, and says the opportunity added depth to her educational experience.

"As any art historian will tell you, it is absolutely essential to experience and connect with art in person," says Ms. Kretschmar, who now works at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. "Not every institution of higher education is fortunate to have such a wonderful collection within walking distance, and I think this is a real opportunity for GW students to get inspired, make deeper connections between art theory and art itself, and learn from real working museum professionals."

A New Home for GW's School of Public Health

A new building for the GW School of Public Health and Health Services is slated for construction on Washington Circle at K Street, 24th Street, and New Hampshire Avenue.

Pending zoning approval, GW expects to begin construction next year on the future home of its School of Public Health and Health Services.

Located on Washington Circle at K Street, 24th Street, and New Hampshire Avenue, the building will feature more than 115,000 square feet of gross floor area for state-of-the-art classroom facilities, research labs, departmental and office space, and conference rooms at a projected cost of $75 million. The school and its 1,500 students are currently spread out across eight locations, only one of which is on campus.

Other building features will include an auditorium, student lounge, study areas, exercise rooms, and specialty spaces specific to the teaching and research activities of GW's Department of Exercise Science. The facility will serve as a central location for research in public health and collaboration between SPHHS and government and non-governmental organizations.

Current plans call for the building to be constructed with a range of sustainable materials, and the project will target a minimum of Silver certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System.

Nobel Laureate Joins Faculty

Nobel Prize winner in medicine Ferid Murad is joining the GW faculty in April.

William Atkins

In January, Nobel laureate Ferid Murad visited campus to announce his plans to join the GW faculty in the spring. At the same time, he outlined an ambitious agenda for his time at the university—including grooming future Nobel Prize winners.

In 1998, Dr. Murad and two other researchers shared the Nobel Prize in medicine for their work elucidating the role of nitric oxide in the cardiovascular system, where as a gas it aids communication between cells. The knowledge derived from his work has been "critical to understanding numerous diseases and conditions, including hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, septic shock, cancer, gastrointestinal disorders, and neuropsychiatric disorders, to name a few," according to Jeffrey Akman, interim dean of GW's School of Medicine and Health Sciences and vice provost for health affairs.

Dr. Murad will begin work at the university in April, assuming the title of university professor—GW's highest academic rank—within the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Dr. Murad comes to George Washington from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, where he held several titles, including director emeritus of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases.

Stay tuned for the spring edition of GW Magazine, which will feature Dr. Murad and his work.

Lobbying for Education in Virginia

President Steven Knapp, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, and Dean of the School of Nursing Jean Johnson

Michaele White

President Steven Knapp—along with College of Professional Studies Dean Kathleen Burke, School of Nursing Dean Jean Johnson, and Craig Linebaugh, associate vice president for academic planning and chief academic operating officer of the Virginia Science and Technology Campus—visited the Virgnia Senate and House in Richmond Jan. 20 to urge lawmakers to keep incentive programs and research opportunities open to private universities.

With the Loudoun County-based Virginia Science and Technology Campus and multiple graduate education centers in Alexandria and Arlington, as well as the Hampton Roads Center in Newport, GW administrators supported a new bill by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), which proposes to help 100,000 more Virginians earn degrees over the next 15 years. The Virginia Science and Technology Campus, home to GW's new School of Nursing, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

After meeting with about two dozen lawmakers, the GW administrators visited the state Capitol and were introduced in the Virginia Senate and House chambers' upper level.

William Atkins

College-Bound in D.C.

GW student volunteers paint a mural on a wall of Ballou Senior High School in D.C. Ballou displays logos from a variety of colleges and universities as inspiration for its students. GW community members were at the school Jan. 18 as part of George Washington's annual Martin Luther King Jr, day of service, during which more than 500 GW volunteers helped to spruce up five public schools in Southeast D.C. Volunteers painted playgrounds and walls, created murals, organized classrooms, and cleaned desks.

An App for GW

Users of Apple's iPhone can now access campus maps, course information, and a university directory through a free mobile app created by GW Academic Technologies with involvement from several students. The app, GW Mobile, debuted earlier this academic year and is available on iTunes.

GW is one of only a few schools nationwide that have tapped student talent to create its own application, according to P.B. Garrett, assistant vice president and deputy chief information officer for academic technology.

Along with class information and maps, the app includes links on athletics, on emergencies, and on RSS feeds from GW Today and The Hatchet.

Academic Technologies also has started developing a Droid version, Ms. Garrett says.

Planning for the Future of Medicine at GW

GW undertakes review; interim leadership named

Jeffrey S. Akman, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, is serving as interim dean of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences and vice provost for health affairs until permanent leadership is identified through a nationwide search.

William Atkins

A review is underway of the George Washington University Medical Center at the request of the Medical Center Committee of the Board of Trustees. The request was motivated by several factors: the approaching 10th anniversary of the creation of the center's current structure, the changing conditions of the health care marketplace as a result of local competition and health care reform legislation, and the university's commitment to continue raising the center's academic stature.

"The focus of this plan is on the future," President Steven Knapp says. "We're looking into how we can position the Medical Center and all its programs to achieve the greatest possible success for the future."

The first phase of the review has concluded. During this first phase, the university engaged a team of experts from BDC Advisors to perform an organizational assessment, with a focus on the current structural relationship between the center and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

In its phase one summary report, BDC Advisors emphasized that while the Medical Center and its partners "performed well over the past decade, fundamental changes in the health care economy and local market are changing the competitive landscape."

In the future, the report said, "health system success will be based less on reputation and volume and more on integration of care and effectively delivering better quality and more efficient care."

Three specific recommendations by BDC Advisors from phase one are to change the reporting structure so that the deans of SMHS, the School of Public Health and Health Services, and the School of Nursing report directly to the GW provost; to eliminate the vice provost/vice president for health affairs as a separate need; and to strengthen the dean of SMHS' role by giving him or her responsibility for the school's educational and research activities as well as its relationships with its clinical partners.

(BDC Advisors' phase one summary of recommendations can be viewed at www.gwumc.edu/mcreview/mcreview.pdf.)

BDC Advisors stated that this restructuring would better position the Medical Center to meet current and future needs. It also noted that "there is a need to clarify the vision, strategy, and financial plan, including philanthropy," shared by the university, George Washington University Hospital, and Medical Faculty Associates.

The university is now in the second phase of the review, in which faculty members and other stakeholders are engaged in planning for the Medical Center's future structure, vision, and strategy. Town hall meetings have been held with Medical Center students, faculty, and staff to outline the review process, and intensive outreach will be conducted to solicit feedback. At the request of Dr. Knapp, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Steven Lerman has formed an advisory committee to facilitate the phase two review process, which is expected to be completed by the end of the spring semester.

Dr. Knapp and Dr. Lerman also announced new interim leadership for the Medical Center, which will guide the Medical Center through the second phase of the review.

Jeffrey S. Akman, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, is serving as interim dean of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences and vice provost for health affairs until permanent leadership is identified through a nationwide search. Vincent A. Chiappinelli, the Ralph E. Loewy Professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, is now interim associate dean of the SMHS and associate vice provost for health affairs.

Dr. Akman, MD '81, a SMHS faculty member for 25 years, has chaired the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences for the past 10 years. He has led more than 300 faculty members, overseen the department's clinical practice of general adult psychiatry, and served as chief of the psychiatry service of the GW Hospital.

Dr. Chiappinelli has received international recognition for his research on nicotine and its effects on synaptic transmission in the brain. The National Institutes of Health has funded his research for more than two decades.

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