Joe Pellicciotti, former professor and campus leader passes away

Joe Pellicciotti passed away unexpectedly on December 22, 2018 in Spokane, Wash. Pellicciotti served IU Northwest for 35 years as a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and as Vice Chancellor for Administrative Affairs, until his retirement and relocation in 2015.

Memorably, Pellicciotti assumed the position of vice chancellor just days before the major flooding crisis of 2008, which ultimately led to the demolition of the campus’s first building, Tamarack Hall.

Among other projects, Pellicciotti was responsible for the Arts & Sciences Building construction up through its groundbreaking in 2015, and is fondly remembered as a caring and inspiring teacher and colleague.

Indiana recognized his contributions with the Sagamore of the Wabash award, on the occasion of his retirement.

He is survived by his wife Beth, and children Michael and Anne.

At left, Joe Pellicciotti is congratulated by Indiana State Rep. Bill Fine on receiving the Sagamore of the Wabash (2015).

Marketing, Development Offices win CASE V honors

Staff members from the Office of Marketing and Communications, and the Office of Development, were honored in December 2018 by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District V.

The team secured two awards for their work in 2018. In the category of “Best Writing for the Media,” the team won a Gold Award for “IU Northwest MBA Student to graduate from Chicago hospital bed.”

In the category of “Best Video Fundraising, Alumni Relations and Commercial Spots,” the team won an honorable mention for “Together, we make this the Region’s University,” a video made in partnership with Instructional Media Services.

The Pride of Case V Awards recognizes the best work in communications, alumni relations, and development by member institutions in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Other Notes of Distinction

HelenMarie Harmon, director of student success, engagement and career development for the School of Business and Economics (SOBE), recently made presentations at two national conferences. 

The first, entitled “Destination: Graduation! Sharing STARS Stories for Support Throughout the Journey,” took place at the 51^st Annual College and Learning Conference, held in New Mexico this past October.     

The other presentation, entitled “Polishing Professional Presentations: Connecting Senior-Year Students with Local Employers,” took place during the 2018 International Adult Learning Conference, held in Ohio this past November.

Additionally in November, a group of students and Harmon, director of the SOBE STARS Peer Mentor Program, attended the 2018 National Mentoring Symposium, held at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), where they won “Best Poster” at the symposium. This is the second consecutive year that the STARS Peer Mentor Program has brought back the Best Poster Presentation honors from this National Symposium.

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Bonita Neff, professor and Department of Communication chair, received national achievement recognition from the National Communication Association’s Public Relations (PR) Division for her leadership and service as founder of the PR Division of nearly 400 academic members at the annual conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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Ernest Talarico, Jr., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology at IUSM-Northwest-Gary (IUSM-NW-G), recently published a book chapter in the medical textbook, “An Atlas of Gynecological Oncology: Investigation and Surgery.” Talarico was the lead co-author and editor for the chapter on Anatomy, along with colleagues from Cancer Treatment Centers of America and Germany.

Talarico also recently published three manuscripts in the European Journal of Anatomy: (1) “A Comprehensive Anatomical Characterization and Radiographic Study of Stage III Testicular Cancer in a 31-Year-Old Male Patient”; (2) “A Morphometric Anatomical Study on the Division of the Left Main Coronary Artery and Myocardial Bridges”; and (3) “Sinistroposition: A Case Report of True Left-Sided Gallbladder in a Vietnamese Patient.” The first publication was based on research done with colleagues, Jose L. Mas, D.V.M., Visiting Assistant Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology at IUSM-NW-G, and Jonathan A. Jones, M.D., Family Medicine Resident at Union Hospital in Terre Haute, using cutting-edge imaging technology. The latter two were based on research done with colleagues in Vietnam, where Talarico holds the rank of Visiting Professor at Tan Tao University School of Medicine in Long An Province, Vietnam, and serves as the Director of the Anatomy Project of Southeast Asia.

Finally, last fall, Talarico, along with research colleagues from St. Mary’s Medical Center in Hobart, as well as Vietnam, Italy, and India, presented seven different, but related, cardiovascular studies at the 29^th Great Wall International Conference of Cardiology in Beijing, Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics - Annual Congress in San Diego, and the American Heart Association 2018 Cardiovascular Conference in Chicago.  This groundbreaking work focuses on the application of computational fluid dynamics in cavitation theory of coronary arteries, and is the first translational research to document arterial damage and plaque formation secondary to turbulent flow, micro-jet formation, and bubble explosion.

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Ana Osan, professor of modern languages, presented a paper titled “De ‘Los días gemelos’ a ‘Los buenos propósitos’: Un breve estudio de la poesía hispanounidense de Ana Merino,” at the Second Conference of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. in October.

Alumni Notes

IU Northwest Alumna Pat Wisniewski (B.A., Communication, 2009) of Valparaiso, is enjoying a successful career as an independent filmmaker. Pat, whose previous work includes well-known region documentaries “Everglades of the North” (2012) and “Shifting Sands” (2016), recently released the PBS documentary, “The Lively One,” which made its broadcast premiere in January on PBS stations covering the Chicago and South Bend regions.

The film tells the unlikely story of drag racing legend Dick Brannan, who led Ford Motor Company to national records in the 1960s during the “Golden Age” of drag racing. Narrated by Emmy winner Peter Coyote, this half hour film tells how an underdog from South Bend, with a little bit of help, reinvented one of America's most iconic brands at the drag strip.

The project will be distributed nationally through American Public Television beginning in May 2019.