Posted on Friday, October 2, 2009
Westminster College will award Alumni Citations to Dr. Edmund R. Becker and Janice E. Wilson, and Dr. Anthony F. Pizon will receive the Outstanding Young Alumni Award at the annual Citation Celebration Reception and Dinner Friday, Oct. 9, in the Witherspoon Rooms of the McKelvey Campus Center.
The Westminster College Alumni Citations were created to recognize alumni who achieved significant accomplishments in their profession or made meaningful contributions to the community or Westminster. The Outstanding Young Alumni Award recognizes alumni of 15 years or less who are making significant contributions as they build careers and serve their communities or Westminster.
Becker, a 1971 graduate who majored in mathematics and sociology, went on to earn a master's in sociology from Ohio University and a doctorate in medical sociology from Vanderbilt University. His career includes research associate positions at Vanderbilt University, the American Medical Association in Chicago, and Harvard University; and faculty positions at Vanderbilt, the University of Colorado at Denver, Harvard, and his present position as professor in Emory University's Department of Health Policy and Management. He teaches on organizational healthcare management, physician performance, and negotiations and serves on the Accountability Review Council for the School District of Philadelphia. His research focuses on measuring and evaluating healthcare costs, outcomes, and prevention. He has published over 100 articles on topics ranging from cost shifting and unionization in hospitals to the advantages of off-pump vs. on-pump coronary artery bypass surgery. Becker and his wife, Dr. Kathleen Adams, reside in Atlanta.
Wilson, a 1980 graduate with a degree in music education, earned a master's in voice performance from The Pennsylvania State University and received a Rotary Foundation fellowship for voice study at the Royal College of Music in London. A mezzo-soprano, Wilson travels and performs extensively in the United States. Recent concerts include performances with the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh, the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Pennsylvania State University Orchestra and Choruses, the St. Cecelia Orchestra and Chorus, the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, and the Lexington Philharmonic. She is a winner or finalist in numerous competitions and is known for her skilled interpretations of solo orchestral works, choral masterpieces, and chamber music. A resident of Manhattan, Wilson has served nearly 10 years as director of the Knowledge Center for the League of American Orchestra.
Pizon graduated cum laude in 1997. He studied medicine at the Medical University of Ohio, completed an emergency medicine residency at the University of Pittsburgh, and completed a medical toxicology fellowship at the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix. He is an emergency room staff physician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Presbyterian/Shadyside, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, and Magee Women's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Considered an expert in treating patients who have been exposed to life-threatening poisons, Pizon is one of four physicians in UPMC's Medical Toxicology Service. He was appointed assistant medical director of the Pittsburgh Poison Center and medical director of the West Virginia Poison Center. In addition to his medical duties, Pizon is an assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and Division of Medical Toxicology at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine. Pizon and his wife, 1996 Westminster graduate Caryn Mehalik Pizon, and three children live in Pittsburgh.
Contact Mary Cooley James '84, director of alumni relations, at (724) 946-7363 or e-mail mjames@westminster.edu for additional information.
