Notable & Quoteable

UM College of Health Professions & Biomedical Sciences Assistant Professor Annie Belcourt accepted an invitation from Harvard University to be a JPB Environmental Health Fellow for the next three years. The fellowship will allow Belcourt, a faculty member in pharmacy practice and public health, to extend her work in environmental health while developing new collaborative research projects directed toward tribal populations in Montana. “I am honored to have been selected from the many excellent applicants working in environmental health across the nation,” Belcourt says. “I am excited to represent UM and to provide a Native American scholar perspective on behalf of tribal nations in our region.”

The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library at UM has placed all seventy-two UM yearbooks online at http://scholarworks.umt.edu/sentinel/. The Sentinel yearbooks range from 1904 to 1972 and 1987 to 1989. They are online in ScholarWorks, UM’s open-access repository service that showcases and preserves published and unpublished works by UM students, faculty, staff, and departments. The text of each yearbook is fully searchable, and they include photographs and stories that document all aspects of life at UM.

Paul F. Kirgis, a professor at St. John’s University School of Law, has been selected to lead the UM School of Law as dean. Kirgis will begin his new duties July 1. While at St. John’s in New York City, Kirgis received the Faculty Outstanding Achievement Medal and twice was named the professor of the year. He is the founder and faculty chair of the Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution and previously served as associate dean for faculty scholarship.

The UM Department of Psychology received a five-year, $1.2 million federal grant to continue its highly successful Indians Into Psychology [InPsych] Program. The grant, awarded by the Indian Health Service, provides financial support and unique educational opportunities for Native American students as they pursue degrees in clinical psychology. InPsych Program Director Gyda Swaney attributes the success of the program to the caliber of Native students involved, and the training and mentorship the students receive from UM faculty. Since the InPsych Program’s inception in 1998, UM has awarded eight doctorates in clinical psychology to Native students. Currently, seven Native American graduate students are pursuing their doctorate degrees in clinical psychology at UM. Additionally, five participants in the undergraduate summer program have completed or are completing their doctorates at universities nationwide.