2019 HHD Alumni Society Fall Award Recipients
The HHD Alumni Society Board honored outstanding alumni during their fall board meeting, which took place November 1 and 2, 2019.
Below are this year's recipients of the Alumni Recognition, Alumni Service, Emerging Professional - Graduate Degree, and Emerging Professional -Undergraduate Degree Awards.
Alumni Recognition Award
The Alumni Recognition Award is presented to an alumnus/alumna of the College of Health and Human Development who has demonstrated professional excellence and exemplary voluntary community involvement in a health and human development field.
Currently, Garry is the chief operating officer of Westminster Communities of Florida, an organization serving more than 7,000 older adults and 2,800 employees in 21 communities. These communities include both active living (continuing care retirement communities) and affordable low/moderate income rental retirement communities. Prior to joining Westminster Communities of Florida in 2011, he was with Presby’s Inspired Life as the chief operating officer/senior vice president from 2005 – 2011.
Garry has more than 35 years of service in various leadership capacities for not-for-profit, mission-driven organizations. He currently serves as a director on the LeadingAge Florida Board and the Florida Association of Homes for the Aging Health and Services Corporation Board. He has served on both national and statewide senior living organizations and associations. Garry is the current chair for Senior Quality Leap Initiative (SQLI), the leading post-acute and long-term care provider consortium in North America, focused on enhancing the quality of life and care for older adults by utilizing a structured approach to quality and performance improvement. In addition, he has been a speaker around the country on topics affecting the senior-living field and long-term care, innovation, and organizational leadership.
In 2015, Garry facilitated a formal academic affiliation between Westminster Communities of Florida and the College of Medicine at Florida State University. He has also coordinated additional research affiliations with Advent Health School of the Arts at the Dr. Phillips Center and the Center for Aging and Center for Aging and Brain Health Innovation in Toronto, Canada. Garry has also returned to Penn State as part of the Department of Health Policy and Administration’s Professionals in the Classroom program.
Alumni Service Award
The Alumni Service Award recognizes an alumnus or alumna of the College of Health and Human Development who has positively impacted the quality of people's lives through service to others above and beyond their call of duty.
Through Charlie’s time at the golf course, he noticed that many golf professionals have large quantities of clothing collected from events and outings that have never been worn. This realization combined with his personal reflection on how he could be of more service to those in need, led him to co-find the non-profit organization Pros Fore Clothes Foundation (PFCF). Using his connections around the industry, PFCF encourages golf professionals to donate golf clothing and staff uniforms after each golf season. Since its founding in 2009, more than 100,000 pounds of clothing has been donated to domestic charities, shelters, and missions around the country and to international charities in Kenya and South America. PFCF has also begun donating to the relief efforts of people affected by natural disasters such as hurricanes Harvey, Florence, Sandy and to those affected by wildfires in California. Under Charlie’s leadership and through his connections in the industry, many major manufacturers of golf apparel regularly donate clothing to PFCF. Most importantly, the foundation is described by one nominator as an “’all volunteer army’ with all of the labor donated by Charlie and the Foundation’s growing number of supporters.”
Charlie also has a passion for mentoring, having mentored and provided internships to dozens of students in the PGM program at Penn State. In 2015, he was recognized by students in the Penn State PGM program with the Frank B. Guadagnolo Award for Excellence in Mentoring.
Emerging Professional - Graduate Degree
The Emerging Professional–Graduate Degree Award recognizes a graduate of the past ten years who has demonstrated professional excellence and/or exemplary voluntary community involvement in the health and human development professions.
Dr. Crowley is a prevention scientist investigating how to optimize investments in healthy development and wellbeing, siting at the intersection of social policy, prevention science, and public finance. His program of research is motivated by a desire to increase the use of cost-effective, evidence-based preventive strategies to improve the lives of children and families. His work deals with the costs, benefits, and returns-on-investment of specific intervention programs; in the identification of best practices for maximizing program effectiveness and efficiency; and in developing efficient and effective ways of promoting researchers’ capacity for communicating effectively with policy-maker’s specific needs.
Dr. Crowley founded and leads the Prevention Economics Policy and Research Network, chairs the Society for Prevention Research’s (SPR) Task Force on Economic Analyses of Prevention, is a member of the U.S. Administration for Children and Families Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting Cost Advisory Group, and serves on the National Academies’ Committee on the Use of Economic Evidence to Inform Investments in Children, Youth, and Families. His work on optimizing the impact of intervention strategies has addressed the opioid epidemic in Pennsylvania and the U.S. by identifying a strategy that could prevent an adolescent from becoming an opioid abuser at a total cost of $600. Dr. Crowley
To date, Dr. Crowley has 23 publications in peer-reviewed outlets, one co-authored book, and four book chapters.
Emerging Professional - Undergraduate Degree
The Emerging Professional–Undergraduate Degree Award recognizes a graduate of the past ten years who has demonstrated professional excellence and/or exemplary voluntary community involvement in the health and human development professions.
Upon completing her education and training, she became a Clinical Ethics Consultant at UPMC Shadyside Hospital. At 26, after two years in the position, her supervisor left the organization, and Dr. Clatty was promoted to be the lead Medical Ethicist for UPMC Presbyterian and Shadyside Hospitals. As lead Medical Ethicist, she completes clinical ethical consultations, often on the topics of informed consent and healthcare advocacy, teaches medical students and residents, and mentors ethics fellows. Dr. Clatty routinely provides ethics education to staff of all disciplines at the hospital, having built Medical Ethics Committees on both campuses, and developed the “Ethics and Patient Safety Lunch and Learn” monthly series, which provides opportunities for the healthcare team to learn, interact, and role play difficult ethical dilemmas. She is currently working with emergency department physicians and nurses to develop a novel approach towards treating patients suffering from opioid addiction.
Ariel is a volunteer in her local community, serving on the board of directors of the Human Milk Bank Science Institute and Biobank, advising the Biobank’s scientist to ensure their research is being held to ethical standards. She also volunteers for the Rachel Carson Trails Conservancy and the local YMCA, where she teaches gymnastics and swimming lessons.