People

Veteran financial aid director to take post at UCCS

Bode

Robert Bode will direct the office of financial aid, student employment and scholarships at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. The current financial aid director for Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minn., will begin work at UCCS in January.

"Robert Bode has vast experience in helping students reach higher by assisting them with their financial needs," said Chancellor Pamela Shockley-Zalabak, who announced the appointment Nov. 19. "Students will benefit from his knowledge and caring approach."

Starting in 2004, Bode led the offices of student financial aid and gateway student services at Metropolitan State, a 9,000-student university. Previously, he was associate director of financial aid for law and graduate programs at the University of St. Thomas and assistant director of financial aid at Northwestern College, both in St. Paul.

"The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs provides many outstanding benefits for students, and we will continue to work together to reduce the burden of paying for a college education," Bode said. He succeeds Lee Ingalls Noble, who retired in October following a 30-year career at the university.

In Minneapolis, Bode is active in adoption issues and is a former board member and treasurer of the MICAH Fund, a nonprofit organization that promotes the adoption of African-American children. He is president-elect of the Minnesota Association of Financial Aid Advisors.

UCD finance and administration has interim vice chancellor

Parker

Jeffrey D. Parker has been chosen interim vice chancellor of finance and administration at the University of Colorado Denver. Parker follows Teresa Berryman, who retired in October.

Parker began his career with the University of Colorado in 1999 as controller for what was then named the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. In 2002, he was promoted to assistant vice chancellor for finance and controller. In 2005, after consolidation of the Health Sciences Center with the University of Colorado Denver campus, he was promoted to associate vice chancellor of finance and administration.

Associate professor awarded funding for folk-healing project

Bull

Sheana Bull, an associate professor of community and behavioral health at the Colorado School of Public Health, recently was awarded pilot project funding for a collaborative effort to integrate traditional Hispanic folk healing, or curanderismo, with primary care.

The funding came from the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute's community engagement program. Bull and her team — Rick Padilla of the Denver Health and Hospital Authority and Charlene Ortiz of the Colorado School of Public Health — will partner with Eliseo Torres, vice president for Student Affairs, University of New Mexico; Arturo Ornelas Lizardi, director of El Centro de Desarrollo Humano, Cuernavaca, Mexico; and Sofia Chavez-Frederick, Estara Integrative Programs, Lakewood.

Fundraising leader to boost Colorado Initiative for Molecular Biology

Wright

Jessica Wright will lead efforts to generate private support for the Colorado Initiative for Molecular Biology (CIMB), the University of Colorado Foundation announced last week. For two years, Wright has led fundraising efforts for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences on the Boulder campus, where she has restructured the college's team fundraising approach, reconnected the college and departments with key alumni, and managed critical donor relationships resulting in multimillion-dollar gifts. A primary responsibility for Wright will be fundraising for the 257,000-square-foot Biotechnology Building, begun in September and slated for completion in fall 2011.

Child health expert honored

Niermeyer

Susan Niermeyer, M.D., a professor of pediatrics in neonatology, recently was recognized for her contributions to international child health by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The E.H. Christopherson Lectureship on International Child Health honored her with an award of the same name.

Niermeyer practices and teaches clinical neonatology at The Children's Hospital, University of Colorado Hospital and community hospital nurseries in the Denver area. Her areas of emphasis include neonatal resuscitation and cardiopulmonary physiology in infancy. She is a former co-chair of the AAP neonatal resuscitation program steering committee and is editor of "Helping Babies Breathe," the AAP program for neonatal resuscitation in the developing world. Niermeyer's research focuses on adaptation, particularly cardiopulmonary adaptation and low birth weight at high altitude.

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