Researcher invested with KU professorship

Kansas City, Kan. — Kansas University molecular and integrative physiology professor David Albertini has been formally invested with the Hall Family Foundation Professorship in Molecular Medicine.

The ceremony was last week at KU Medical Center.

Prior to coming to KU in 2004, Albertini spent 20 years at Tufts University.

He also served as a lecturer in the Harvard University department of pathology, a visiting staff scientist at the New England Regional Primate Research Center and a faculty member at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

Albertini’s research interests lie in women’s health and, specifically, the causes of infertility and ovarian cancer. He has examined the use of assisted reproductive technology to improve egg and embryo quality. Albertini also is an expert in stem cell therapy.

University appoints new administrator

Ottawa — Ottawa University has selected a new vice president for enrollment management.

Susan Backofen, vice president for recruiting at Davenport University in Michigan, started in the job last week.

She worked at Davenport for 20 years, also serving as chief operating officer for one of Davenport’s campuses.

Backofen has degrees from Davenport and Central Michigan University.

Volunteer forum offered at Brandon Woods

Brandon Woods Retirement Community will have a citywide presentation about opportunities for volunteers in nursing homes on Friday.

The 2 p.m. presentation at the retirement community, 1501 Inverness Drive, is a project of Kansas Advocates for Better Care, a Lawrence-based advocacy group for nursing home residents and their families.

The presentation also will help staff and volunteers understand what constitutes neglect and how certain activities can help prevent it. For more information, call Kansas Advocates for Better Care at 842-3088.

New bishop ordained for Wichita diocese

Wichita — Monsignor Michael Jackels was ordained bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wichita on Monday.

Jackels, 50, was ordained before about 2,500 people at a Mass at the Church of the Magdalen. He served in a key Vatican office on doctrinal matters before his appointment by Pope John Paul II was announced in January.

Jackels served in the diocese of Lincoln, Neb., following his ordainment as a priest there in 1981. Since 1997, he had been an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican.

He succeeded Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, who was transferred to the Diocese of Phoenix in December 2003.

The Wichita diocese has about 115,000 parishioners and covers 25 counties in southeast Kansas.

It was established in 1887, and Jackels is its 10th bishop.