UM Experts Sought by the NIH

Two University of Miami faculty members have been appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to serve on National Advisory Councils. In these prestigious roles, Nilda P. Peragallo, dean of the School of Nursing and Health Studies, and Carl Eisdorfer, Ph.D., M.D., Knight Professor and director of the University of Miami Center on Aging, are responsible for providing advice related to their disciplines to the HHS secretary and the director of the National Institutes of Health.

Peragallo has been appointed to serve on the National Advisory Council to the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, a five-year term in which she will review and make recommendations on grants for biomedical research and research training activities to improve minority health. Eisdorfer will serve on the National Advisory Council on Aging through 2009 and will make recommendations on research, training, and other programs related to the aging process and the diseases and special needs of the elderly.

From the Hipp

William Hipp, dean of the Frost School of Music, has announced that he will retire at the close of the 2006-2007 academic year. Having held the position since 1983, he is the longest-serving dean in the Frost School’s 80-year history. His signature accomplishments include: creation of the annual Festival Miami extravaganza; addition of major facilities like the L. Austin Weeks Center for Recording and Performance, the Victor E. Clarke Recital Hall, and the Marta and Austin Weeks Music Library and Technology Center; and procurement of the $33 million gift from University trustee Phillip Frost and his wife, Patricia, which named the school in their honor. Hipp plans to take a year on sabbatical after retiring but may return to teach classes at the school.