FIRST CHAIR: The Valley Foundation of Los Gatos has established the first endowed chair for the School of Nursing at SJSU and Professor Colleen O'Leary-Kelley holds that distinction. It's the first fully-funded endowed chair in the history of the university and funding for the endowment was more than $1 million.
In addition to teaching, O'Leary-Kelley will work on curriculum development and nursing research. She has served as a staff nurse in the medical/surgical intensive care unit of VA Palo Alto Health Care System and staff nurse in the cardiac ICU at UCSFStanford Health Care.
The honored nurse has been a critical care educator and staff nurse at Sequoia Hospital and medical/surgical clinical instructor at SJSU. In 2003, O'Leary-Kelley conducted research for VA Palo Alto while serving a postdoctoral nurse fellowship. She holds a doctor of philosophy degree in nursing from UCSF.
Throughout her career, she has received numerous grants, fellowships and other honors. "The foundation has filled a need at a time when there is a nursing faculty shortage in the state—as well as severe budget cuts in education," said Jayne Cohen, nursing director.
NEW ADVISORY BOARD: Terry Duryea, Mary Ann Fairall, Tom O'Donnell and Allan Slutman were elected to the Terraces of Los Gatos board of advisors recently. They will serve three-year terms and are referred to as the class of 2008. New officers were also elected.
Officers include the Rev. Lamar Allen, chairman; Clayton Bruntz, vice chairman; and Pamela Bancroft, secretary. Outgoing chairman is Joe Cusick, who served for nine years. Term limits required that he step down from the board. Cusick received a gift and certificate of appreciation for his years of service.
Two coups for The Terraces this year: they won certification from the national certification agency for residential continual care and they placed first in their float category in the Children's Holiday Parade.
FORECASTER: Zack Lynch, managing director of San Francisco's NeuroInsights, gave the gala address at the Arab Strategy Forum held last month in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Lynch is an economic and social forecaster who advises organizations on the impact of neurotechnology on business, government and society.
Lynch is the son-in-law of Gay and Roy Crawford of Saratoga, and is married to their daughter Casey. Casey is vice president of research for NeuroInsights and accompanied Zack to Dubai. Neurotechnology is the business of creating tools to help combat brain disorders and diseases.
THUMBS UP FOR TURDUCKEN: My family gave an enthusiastic thumbs up to turducken.
It starts with a turkey encasing a duck, which in turn plays host to a chicken. Next comes sausage and then the final section is cornbread stuffing with a snap to it, evidently Cajun in origin. The whole project is de-boned, so it can be sliced vertically.
The only exception are the turkey legs, which are unalloyed turkey. The concoction cooked for four hours in an outdoor cooker, rested nearly an hour, and then was served up, quite moist. It is prohibitive in cost, but the major cost was shipping.
Now that we know Los Gatos Smokehouse carries it, we can eliminate shipping expense, in case we decide this has to be a tradition.
PHOTO SHOOT: Los Gatan Gail Miller attended a photography workshop in Santa Fe recently, sponsored by National Geographic. His photos were critiqued by the experts from that prestigious publication. Later he gave a program about his New Mexico adventures to the Los Gatos Lions. Miller is a former LG Lion himself.
NAILING 20 YEARS: Kerry Hull and Valerie Speno, owners of The Los Gatos Nailworks, 23 W. Main St,, celebrated their 20-year anniversary recently with a gala reception catered by A Matter of Taste, which even included a fountain that dispensed chocolate.
SANTA FRACAS: When 4,000 Santas get together the results can turn ugly, as witness a BBC story last month coming out of Newtown, England. The Santas were gathered for a fundraising run for local charities that's been going on for three years. But this year too many Santas had too good a time in the pubs afterward.
Threats against other red-suited sorts were hurled, a melee ensued and five arrests resulted. Organizers say that those causing the ruckus weren't necessarily real Santas, that the fights broke out hours after the race ended. Though thousands of pounds were raised for charity, the chaos gave the Jolly Ones something of a black eye.
COMMUNITY CONCERT: Next Community Concert offering will be Jan. 16 when soprano Sherry Overholt and baritone Lee Velta present a concert that ranges from opera to musical theater. The concert will be held at the United Methodist Church on Church Street at 2:30 p.m.
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By Mary Ann Cook