PEOPLE

Judith Auerbach, PhD, has assumed the position of assistant director for social and behavioral science in the White House Office of Science Technology Policy (OSTP). She is working to advance social and behavioral research inside and outside of the government, and to introduce contributions of social and behavioral research to key science and social policy issues.

One of her main projects is to brief the advisory board for the President?s Initiative on Race Information about racial and ethnic diversity in the science and technology work force.

Auerbach comes to OSTP from the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health, where she served as the behavioral, social and prevention science coordinator for three years.

Auerbach, a sociologist, began her policy work in 1988 when she served as a congressional science fellow for the Society for Research and Child Development in the office of Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-Colo.). From 1989 to 1990 she directed the Institute for the Study of Women and Men at the University of Southern California. After that, she served as the associate director for government affairs at the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA).

Auerbach, who earned her PhD from the University of California?Berkeley in 1986, has published and presented extensively on AIDS, family policy and gender.

She is the author of 'In the Business of Child Care: Employer Initiatives and Working Women' (Praeger, 1998) and has taught at Widener University and the University of California?Los Angeles.

Psychologist Joseph French, EdD, won a distinguished alumni award from Illinois State University, his alma mater. The award, which is the highest honor bestowed by the school?s alumni association, recognizes his outstanding leadership and community contributions. French, professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University, has made an impact on school psychology, special education and education for the gifted throughout his career. He is the author of nine assessment tests, including the Pictorial Test of Intelligence, which enables school psychologists to accurately measure the intelligence of severely physically disabled children and children with typical speech and motor ability.

French was a faculty member at the University of Nebraska and the University of Missouri before joining the psychology faculty of the Pennsylvania State University in 1964. There he directed programs in school psychology, educational psychology and special education. In 1996 he received the Karl F. Heiser Award from APA. In 1985 he received the Distinguished Service Award from Div. 16 (School). He earned his doctorate from the University of Nebraska in 1957.

Psychologist Norman Krasnegor, PhD, who advanced psychological science during his 31 years of government service, has retired.

For 16 years Krasnegor was chief of the Human Learning and Behavior Branch at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development?s Center for Research for Mothers and Children.

Prior to that position, he worked for the National Institute on Drug Abuse as executive secretary in the Division of Research, and as a research psychologist for both the National Institute of Mental Health and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

Krasnegor, who earned his doctorate at the University of Maryland in 1970, has edited books on a broad range of topics, including childhood obesity, learning disabilities, language development and memory.

In 1997 he won the NIH Director?s Award for establishing and implementing the Behavioral and Social Sciences Seminar Series at NIH. He is serving as a consultant for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on health and behavior issues, focusing specifically on children and substance abuse.

Donald Schwartz, PhD, the chief psychologist at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Commission, died of a heart attack in March at age 63.

Schwartz served the government for more than 30 years. He represented the U.S. Office of Personnel Management as a personnel research psychologist from 1969 to 1976, and was chief psychologist at the Department of Labor from 1976 to 1979. Schwartz served the EEO from 1979 to 1998, where he was instrumental in drafting the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures. He testified as an expert witness in 11 landmark EEO cases regarding employment testing. Schwartz was also a founder of the Personnel Testing Council of Metropolitan Washington. He earned his doctorate from the University of Southern California in 1968.

?Jamie Chamberlin