Cygnus Corporation: News

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News

Cygnus Project Director, Betsy Newman, M.A., M.Ed., a member of the Human Capital Group of the Industry Advisory Council (IAC), has been working on a project examining succession planning in Federal agencies for the past year. The project assists the succession planning process by creating an understanding of current practices in human capital and operations in Federal agencies and encourages a dialogue toward continuing improvements. As part of the project, Ms. Newman’s committee designed and administered a succession planning survey to all Federal agencies. Survey results were presented in a public IAC forum on October 13, 2011 at ICF International headquarters in Washington, DC and it will be available as an IAC White Paper in 2012.

Henry Wong, Ph.D., Cygnus’Director of Program Assessment and Research, completed the review of a book prospectus, Cross-Cultural Research in Social Settings, for Wiley/Jossey-Bass Publishers in December 2011. The prospectus was submitted by Professor Linda Miller Cleary of the University of Minnesota–Duluth.

Betsy Newman, M.A., M.Ed., Project Director, presented twice during a Conference on Retirement Planning, sponsored by TIAA-CREF, on April 18, 2011, at Pennsylvania State University at State College.

Betsy Newman, M.A., M.Ed., Project Director, gave a presentation on “E-mentoring: A New Paradigm” on March 22, 2011, to the Federal Mentoring Roundtable, sponsored by NIH. Her presentation served as a primer on the exciting new opportunities provided by electronic mentoring.

Betsy Newman, M.A., M.Ed., Project Director, presented on “Making the Most of Your Retirement” to the Retirement Symposium at the University of Pittsburgh, sponsored by TIAA-CREF on March 18, 2011. There were 400 attendees, and the session was followed by signing of her book Retiring as a Career.

Henry Wong, Ph.D., Director of Program Assessment and Research, completed the review of a book prospectus, Managing Applied Social Research, for Wiley/Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, California, in December 2010. The prospectus was submitted by Darlene Russ-Oft, Laura Leviton, and Mary Nakashian.

For the recently published Surgeon General’s report How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease, Cygnus completed the layout, editing, proofreading, fact checking, and reference verification.

Henry Wong, Ph.D., Director of Program Assessment and Research, and Simin Wong, Ph.D., Public Health Research Consultant, were invited by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to attend the 2010 annual meeting of the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program (BCERP) in New York City, November 15–18, 2010. They gave a presentation about the methodology and research design of the BCERP Needs Assessment Study, which is funded by NIEHS and the National Cancer Institute.

Molly Wolfe, Special Assistant to the President for Operations, recently published “Financial literacy and education: An environmental scan” in The International Information & Library Review 2010;42:105–110.

Betsy Newman, M.A., M.Ed., Project Director, gave a presentation titled “The Nature and Complexity of Leisure” on September 24, 2010, to the Life Planning Network of Boston, Massachusetts. On October 6, 2010, Betsy gave a presentation on “Creating Your Vision for Retirement” at the University of Kentucky Retirement Conference. She also presented at the International Conference on Positive Aging in Los Angeles, California, December 7–10, 2010, on “Spiritual Aspects of Retirement.”

Henry Wong, Ph.D., Director of Program Assessment and Research, presented a paper titled “The Statistical Adventures of an Applied Sociologist: Reflections, Challenges, and Lessons Learned,” at the Washington Statistical Society, Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2009.