Carlow University’s Fall Commencement ceremony will be December 18. Karen Wolk Feinstein, President and CEO of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation will be the Commencement Speaker.
| University Communications | For Immediate Release |
| Drew Wilson, Director, Media Relations | December 04, 2015 |
| 412.578.2095 (phone) | |
| 412.260.6807 (cell) | |
| 412.578.2080 (fax) | |
| agwilson@carlow.edu |
More Than 300 Carlow University Graduates Will Receive Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral Degrees
Pittsburgh, Pa. – Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF), will be the commencement speaker for Carlow University’s Fall Commencement ceremony on Friday, December 18, 2015, beginning at 6:45 p.m., at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland.
In addition to addressing the graduates, Dr. Feinstein will also receive an honorary doctorate degree during the ceremony.
Dr. Feinstein leads the JHF and its two operating arms, the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI) and Health Careers Futures (HCF). Together they perform a unique mix of grant making, research, teaching, coaching, resource development, and project management. Under her leadership, JHF and PRHI have become a leading voice in patient safety, healthcare quality and related workforce issues. [A complete bio appears at the end of this press release.]
Carlow will be awarding more than 300 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees during this ceremony. Six doctoral degrees will be awarded, 173 master’s degrees, and 123 bachelor’s degrees. Not everyone who has earned a degree will elect to walk in the ceremony.
In keeping with Carlow tradition, a Baccalaureate Mass will be celebrated prior to commencement at 4 p.m. in the St. Agnes Center of Carlow University, located on Fifth Avenue, between the intersections with Craft Avenue and Robinson Street. The Mass will be celebrated by the Most Reverend David A. Zubik, Bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The concelebrant will be Reverend Adam M. Verona, Carlow University Chaplain, the Master of Ceremonies will be Deacon Kevin L. Lander, and Carlow University faculty, staff, and students will assist as liturgical ministers.
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Editor’s Note: The news media is welcome to cover any of the events of Carlow University’s Baccalaureate Mass and Commencement. Please contact Drew Wilson on his cell phone at (412) 260-6807 to arrange convenient parking.
About Carlow University
Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carlow University was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1929. Offering both undergraduate and graduate programs, Carlow University is a comprehensive master’s institution dedicated to learner-centered education at the collegiate levels and at the elementary school level in the Campus School of Carlow University.
[Commencement Speaker Biography Follows.]
Winter 2015 Commencement Speaker
Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD
President and CEO, Jewish Healthcare Foundation
Carlow University Woman of Spirit® 1997
Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD, is at the forefront of health care reform in Pittsburgh and beyond. Her dedication has helped encourage leaders to embrace national health care reform.
Feinstein is president and CEO of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) and its two operating arms, the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI) and Health Careers Futures (HCF). Appointed the foundation’s first CEO in 1990, she initially focused on seniors, women, and other underserved populations. She has since transformed PRHI into a leading voice in healthcare safety, quality, and efficiency, and HCF into an engine for workforce development. When Feinstein founded PRHI, it was among the nation’s first regional multi-stakeholder quality coalitions and the first to apply industrial engineering principles to advance safety and quality. Feinstein was a leader in the formation of the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement (NRHI), a national coalition of Regional Health Improvement Collaboratives.
Feinstein frequently presents at national and international conferences andis the author of numerous regional and national publications on quality and safety. She was the editor of the Urban & Social Change Review and Moving Beyond Repair: Perfecting Health Care. She prefaced Same Time Next Week, a series of narratives that explore mental illness, and At the End of Life, which proposes better practices for death and dying. Additionally, she has served on the faculties of Boston College and Carnegie Mellon University, and as an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
She has held trustee posts at the United Way of Allegheny County and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, and is a Past President of Grantmakers In Health and Grantmakers of Western Pa, and now co-chairs the Pennsylvania Health Funders Collaborative. Her service on nonprofit, governmental, and for-profit boards includes NRHI, the National Board of Medical Examiners, the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health and University Center for International Studies, Allegheny County Parks Foundation, National City Bank, Boy Scouts of WesternPennsylvania, and Brandeis University’s Heller School Board of Overseers. She chaired the health transition team for two governors, transition teams for three county executives, and the bioterrorism task force for the mayor of the City of Pittsburgh. She was recently appointed to Governor Tom Wolf’s Health Research Advisory Committee.
Feinstein earned her bachelor’s degree at Brown University, her master’s degree in social planning at Boston College, and her doctorate at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.