6 The Brandeis Hoot
FEATURES
November 9, 2012
March of Dimes chapter to hold first lecture series
By Rachel Hirshhaut Editor
Damiana Andonova ’15 became interested in the complicated topic of premature birth when she was just a junior in high school. “I was always fascinated with obstetrics and perinatology. In 11th grade I realized that causes of prematurity are still speculative,” she said. “Way back in the 1500s, DaVinci was thinking about causes of prematurity and still no one knows why some babies are born prematurely.” That mystery inspired Andonova to start a new student organization at Brandeis this year: the first and only collegiate March of Dimes chapter in Massachusetts. March of Dimes is a national activist organization that fights for the health of babies. Originally founded during Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency to help polio victims and fund a cure for polio, the organization succeeded and its official mission changed in 2003 to focus on fighting prematurity, birth defects and improving babies’ health.
Andonova believes that Brandeis was the right place to begin this chapter because of its variety of social justice and community service programs. “This is an issue that extends beyond whether you like babies or not. This is about universal themes of social justice, access to health care, equality,” she said. “Our mission as a club is advocacy, philanthropy and education. We want to make meaningful learning experiences while we build a volunteer force that not only stays true to the March of Dimes mission but educates the Waltham community about the importance of prenatal care and ways we can support the fight against prematurity,” Andonova said. March of Dimes will hold its firstever speaker series, BabyTalk Colloquium, this coming week from Monday to Saturday, in honor of World Prematurity Day on Nov. 17. The discussions feature eight doctors and one public health researcher. They are meant to appeal to a variety of people, not only pre-health students, Andonova says. One lecture is geared toward neuroscience majors; another book-related lecture is intended to engage English majors. The speakers include three Newborn Medicine Fellows from the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts University on Monday; Dr. Sarbattama Sen, a researcher of maternal obesity
at Tufts on Tuesday; Dr. Adam Wolfberg, author of the book “Fragile Beginnings: Discoveries and Triumphs in the Newborn ICU” on Wednesday; Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson, MPH from the Heller School of Social Policy, an expert on infant mortality and maternal health disparities, on Thursday; Dr. Leslie Kerzner, an NICU doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital, on Friday; and a capstone discussion on Saturday with Paul Sukithamapan, a Brandeis alumnus and founder of Project Plus One. “The purpose of these events is to create transparency and discourse among doctors, researchers, families of Lemberg students and Brandeis students. The council thought in one hour we could combine social justice, science and narrative medicine by sharing, collaborating and discussing our common goals,” said Andonova, who plans to pursue the pre-med track of the HSSP major. March of Dimes already has a strong relationship with the Brandeis science department. The organization gave its annual research grants of $150,000 to two biology professors, Avital Rodal and Suzanne Paradis (who specialize in neurobiology) this year. The club also has a three-member faculty advisory committee, led by Judith Tsipis, director of the Genetic Counseling Program. These science professors “can help illuminate part of our mission,” Andonova said.
brandeis march of dimes Club members flier the campus.
photo by rachel hirshhaut/the hoot
IBS’ Mann nominated for EIU Business Professor of the Year By Emily Beker Staff
Professor Catherine Mann (IBS) was nominated last month as Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Business Professor of the Year. Mann began teaching at Brandeis in 2006 and spent 25 years prior to that working in Washington, D.C. Mann has taught at least one course every year since she completed her Ph.D. at MIT in 1984. Before coming to Brandeis, from 1990 to 2000, Mann
catherine mann
would fly back and forth on the weekends from Vanderbilt to teach. She taught a class at the school of management every spring semester and continued to do so for 10 years. Mann is no stranger to the act of teaching. “You can say that every time you stand up in front of a crowd you are teaching. One thing I found interesting was in my Washington time period, based on my research, I would not go and give the same talks but similar talks day after day after day to differ-
ent groups, either about the global or local economy, or role in information technology and outsourcing,” Mann said. “When you come to teach, you have the same group and you are giving different talks, each one growing on the next. So, in a way talks are the same thing as teaching.” While in Washington, Mann describes how her “academic part was part-time and my policy was full time,” a switch, for “now the university setting is full time and policy work is part-time.” Even though she now teaches at Brandeis, Mann is still involved with the Federal Reserve, the World Bank and sometimes the Peterson Institute for International Economics. All of her work is project-based and is more directly involved with policy questions. Mann teaches a wide variety of students on campus. Teaching undergraduates, graduates and students aiming for their Ph.D., Mann teaches international macroeconomics and finance to the undergraduate student body; the primary students in that class are juniors and seniors. Her work with the graduate students involves
their core courses. She teaches two of the five courses all first-year graduate students must take. One course she teaches is Global Economic Environment. The format of the course is the illustration of major economic concepts through case studies. The class is broken up into smaller groups, so the international students feel more comfortable speaking. Mann then hands out different roles in each case study. This week, the class worked on a case about the economic concepts underpinning productivity growth in Singapore. The question on the case was whether or not Singapore should try to enhance its economic growth by targeting an investment in government or in the biomedical sector. Another course she teaches on the graduate level is Advanced International Macroeconomics. That course discusses what determines exchange rate, the international traffic flows and other topics. On the Ph.D. level, Mann teaches a reading course. Once they finish their formal program, meaning their courses, they have to begin the process for their theses. Mann pulls together
25 or so different working papers to show the process of writing a paper that will eventually be part of their thesis. They have to present the paper of their choice, which is based on their interest, as the author would. They are taught to use advanced econometrics in this class in addition to being provided with a lot of literature with which work. Her recent nomination was due to student nomination. Current and former students can vote for her, among 250 other professors from all over the world for the EIU award, a division of The Economist. The committee assesses factors such as how the number of years the professor has been teaching and the size of the school when determining the final four professors. Once the final four are selected, they travel to London to present a talk on a topic of their choice, somewhat reminiscent of a teaching competition. Mann was the only Brandeis professor nominated for this award. Mann expressed optimism about her role in teaching economics to the Brandeis community. “I really like what I do; I’ve done it for a long time,” she said.
photo by nate rosenbloom/the hoot