The Dish Stanford people on the move and in the spotlight

The Advisory Council of the Bill Lane Center for the American West is meeting Friday and will welcome WILLIAM K. REILLY and TIMOTHY WIRTH as new members.

Reilly is a founding partner of Aqua International Partners, a private equity fund dedicated to investing in companies engaged in water and renewable energy, and a senior adviser to TPG, an international investment partnership. Reilly served as the first Payne Visiting Professor at Stanford (1993-1994), administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1989-1993), president of the World Wildlife Fund (1985-1989), president of the Conservation Foundation (1973-1989), and director of the Rockefeller Task Force on Land Use and Urban Growth (1972-1973). He is a director of the Packard Foundation, the American Academy in Rome and the National Geographic Society.

Wirth is the president of the United Nations Foundation and the Better World Fund. He began his political career as a White House Fellow under President Lyndon Johnson and was deputy assistant secretary for education in the Nixon administration. Wirth represented Denver suburbs in Congress from 1975 to 1987 and was elected in 1986 to the U.S. Senate, where he focused on environmental issues, particularly global climate change and population stabilization. Wirth served in the U.S. Department of State as the first undersecretary for global affairs from 1993 to 1997.

Wirth and Reilly join SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR, MIMI GARDNER GATES, PAMELA RYMER, WILLIAM LILLEY, BILL LANDRETH, HOPE ECCLES and NELSON ISHIYAMA on the council.

The National Science Foundation has awarded $10 million to fund the American National Election Studies (ANES) to study voter participation and decision-making in the 2012 U.S. presidential election, and in the mid-term elections of 2010. The Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRiSS) shares the award with the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR), which has conducted the study since 1948. Stanford has served as co-lead of the project since 2005.
“This is the longest running survey of the American people in the social sciences,” said Provost JOHN ETCHEMENDY, congratulating Stanford political scientists SIMON JACKMAN and GARY SEGURA, who will serve alongside Michigan political scientist Vincent Hutchings as co-principal investigators of the four-year collaborative grant. Although the major piece of science funded by the grant is a large, face-to-face survey of the American electorate immediately before and after the 2012 presidential election, researchers will field a series of smaller studies of the electorate between now and the summer of 2012. Visit the IRiSS website for the complete announcement.

The Stanford Blood Center has a slate of holiday promotions to encourage donors to give during a time of year when there’s often a shortfall in blood supplies. Currently, the blood center is below its minimum inventory in five out of eight blood types, particularly types O-negative and B-negative.

During the center’s “It’s a fare deal” promotion, every person who donates on the dates listed below can enter a drawing for a gift certificate at a local restaurant. There will be a prize drawing for a $100 gift certificate at each of the center’s three locations in Palo Alto and Mountain View, according to the following schedule:

• Dec. 26 and 28, Trader Vic’s, Palo Alto
• Dec. 29, Mantra, Palo Alto
• Dec. 30, Kan Zeman, Palo Alto
• Dec. 31, Sundance, Palo Alto; The Cantankerous Fish, Mountain View; and First Crush, San Francisco

The winners will be drawn the first week of January and the certificates will be mailed to the recipients. Other giveaways to help the center get through the holiday slump include:

• Discount coupons for the Sports Basement that expire Dec. 31
• Greeting cards featuring children’s artwork
• AMC movie tickets

More information about the specific dates, locations and details for each promotion are available online at https://bloodcenter.stanford.edu.
The blood center is also offering a health and wellness event Jan. 7 from noon to 7:30 p.m. called “Get in the Habit” at the Palo Alto location at 3373 Hillview Ave. Team In Training, a charity sports-training program, will be on hand to showcase the organization’s opportunities to help people get in shape and raise funds to defeat blood cancers at the same time. Attendees also will enjoy health and fitness demonstrations and free healthy cuisine. The event will also include prize drawings for an annual membership to the YMCA and a two-hour consultation with Lift Your Spirits Home Transformations. Donors and non-donors are welcome to attend.

Collection barrels and boxes abound across campus for those inclined to support local charities. STANFORD’S NATIVE AMERICAN COMMUNITY is teaming up with the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe’s Education and Youth Committee once again to sponsor a Christmas toy drive for needy Native American children. Last year, the Committee gave presents to more than 200 Native American children of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe – the group indigenous to San Francisco, San Mateo, northern Santa Clara and Alameda counties. Bring unwrapped new toys for children from infancy to 18 years old to one of the locations listed below by Dec. 4. The Committee will pick them up and wrap them in time to distribute to children this weekend. For more information, call (650) 725-6944.
Collection box locations:

• Native American Cultural Center (524 Lasuen Mall)
• Muwekma-Tah-Ruk, the Native American Theme House (543 Lasuen Mall)
• Archaeology Center (Building 500, 488 Escondido Mall)
• Branner Hall (655 Escondido Road - lounge)
• Cantor Arts Center/Stanford Museum (Staff Entrance, lower level)
• Career Development Center (563 Salvatierra Walk)
• Facilities Operations (Bonair Siding)
• Jasper Ridge Docent Program (Jasper Ridge Center)
• Haas Center for Public Service (562 Salvatierra Walk)
• Office of Student Activities/Student Affairs (Tresidder Union, second floor)
• Undergraduate Admission/Financial Aid (second floor, Montag Hall, 355 Galvez)
• Undergraduate Advising and Research (Sweet Hall, first floor)

THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS is collecting unwrapped gifts for InnVision, a comprehensive service provider for un-housed and at-risk individuals and families on the peninsula. Collection barrels are located on the first floor of Building 170, the Press Building at 425 Santa Teresa Street and in the first floor lobby of the Francis C. Arrillaga Alumni Center through Dec. 11.

THE SLAC NATIONAL ACCELERATOR LABORATORY is lending its support to local food banks. Look for donation barrels for non-perishable food items in Buildings 15, 40, 41, 48, 50, 120, 137 and the Linear Café. If you would prefer to make a monetary donation, you can do so by going to the Second Harvest Virtual Food Drive website. There, choose “companies with 250 or more employees” from the menu, then scroll to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The special ID number is 47748. Last year, SLAC won a Silver Award for helping families in the greater Bay Area. The drive ends Dec. 17.

As Thanksgiving approaches and the December holiday break is just a month away, we’d like to hear your thoughts about how you plan to spend the holiday season. What do the holidays mean personally, politically, intellectually? How will you spend them and with whom? If you are traveling, where will you go? What will you cook? Share your favorite recipes or gift or decorating ideas or your strategies for minimizing stress or saving money.