By Maurisa Warren

The New Century Club of West Chester

General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) The New Century Club of West Chester dates back to 1894, when the original 45 members met in the library building at Lafayette and Church streets with the purpose of creating an organized center of thought and action among women. The club presented its first donation of $5,000 to the WCU Foundation in October 2012 to improve literacy and education awareness at home, in the community, and around the world.

In keeping with this purpose, the club partners with the WCU Foundation each academic year to award scholarships to five non-traditional female WCU students. Since 2012, the club has donated a total of $45,000. Club President Carol Bremner and Scholarship Committee Chair Marilyn Light made this year’s $10,000 donation, marking the club’s seventh consecutive year of support.

The WCU Foundation supports the goals of university through fundraising activities, the management of donated resources, and the promotion of the university’s needs to prospective contributors.

College of Health Sciences

Following a national search, Scott Heinerichs has been named dean of the College of Health Sciences at West Chester University. Heinerichs boasts more than 17 years of extensive leadership in the field of health sciences, in addition to vast experience in specialized and regional accreditation.

Known for his expertise in the areas of outcomes-based education and clinical reasoning, Heinerichs has served WCU in a variety of leadership roles, including that of interim assistant vice president; faculty associate for teaching, learning, and assessment; interim chair of the Sports Medicine Department; and program director for the inaugural entry-level master’s degree in athletic training.

He most recently served as the interim dean of the College of Health Sciences, overseeing more than 150 faculty members across six academic departments.

Elizabeth Grillo

Teachers and teachers-in-training can thank Grillo and WCU graduate students studying speech-language pathology for saving their voices.

“Half of all teachers across the country will develop a voice problem at some point in their careers,” Grillo said. “Our work is addressing prevention of future problems because we are training student-teachers in their educational programs before they become professional teachers and before voice problems occur.”

For the past three years, Grillo, a professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, has been supervising graduate students in her department as they help student-teachers learn how to use their voices for their profession. To date, 20 graduate students have provided vocal training plus vocal education and vocal hygiene training to more than 60 student-teachers.

The research uses VoiceEvalU8, an evaluation tool that Grillo developed and clinicians and their clients can use anytime and anywhere. VoiceEvalU8 is a smartphone/tablet app, a web portal, and a server. It is the first to record and analyze acoustic, perceptual, and aerodynamic voice data across multiple days in the morning before talking all day and in the evening after talking all day.

Commencement Ceremonies

WCU’s winter commencement ceremonies take place on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 15 and 16, and will celebrate the achievements of 933 undergraduates and 277 graduate-level students. All ceremonies will be held in Hollinger Fieldhouse at South Church Street and University Avenue.

At the ceremony for graduate-level students on Saturday at 10 AM, Gerard Sweeney, the CEO of Brandywine Realty Trust and a WCU alum, will present the commencement address and receive the President’s Medallion.

At the 10 AM ceremony on Sunday, Susan Schick, a member of the Class of 1988 and the vice president of U.S. talent at QVC, will address undergraduates in the Colleges of Business and Public Management, Sciences and Mathematics, and the School of Interdisciplinary Studies.

At the 2 PM ceremony on Sunday, Frank Branca, a member of the Class of 1970 and the president of Branca-Rampart Agency, will address undergraduates in the Colleges of Arts and Humanities, Education and Social Work, Health Sciences, and the Wells School of Music.

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