Trustees approve honorary degrees to neurobiology, health care leaders

University Park, Pa. -- Penn State's Board of Trustees approved (Nov. 21) the granting of honorary doctorates to George Koob, professor and chair of the Committee on the Neurobiology of Addictive Disorders at The Scripps Research Institute, and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

A pioneering researcher in the field of substance abuse and stress, Koob investigates the neurobiological basis of emotional behavior focused on the theoretical constructs of reward and stress.  His work explores the neural bases of motivation, reinforcement and behavioral responses to stress and addiction.

A Penn State alumnus, Koob is co-author of the book “The Neurobiology of Addiction,” adjunct professor in the department of psychology and psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, and co-director of the Pearson Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research at the Scripps Research Institute, one of the country's largest, private, non-profit research organizations focusing on basic biomedical science.

He received a bachelor of science degree in zoology from Penn State and a Ph.D. in behavioral psychology from Johns Hopkins University.

Koob will speak and receive an honorary doctor of science on Saturday, May 16, 2009 at the College of Health and Human Development ceremony.

Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey is the first woman and the first African-American to head the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, America's largest philanthropy devoted to health and health care.

She was a leader in academic medicine, government service and her medical specialty of geriatrics before joining Robert Wood Johnson in 2001 as senior vice president and director of the health care group.  Previously, at the University of Pennsylvania, she was the Sylvan Eisman Professor of medicine and health care systems and director of Penn’s Institute on Aging. In Washington, D.C., she was deputy administrator of what is now the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine of The National Academies.

Lavizzo-Mourey’s extensive career also has included serving on the White House Task Force on Health Care Reform and on several federal advisory committees, and as a consultant to the White House on issues of health policy.

She earned a medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. She still treats patients at a community health clinic in New Brunswick, N.J.

Lavizzo-Mourey will speak and receive an honorary doctor of science on Sunday, May 17, 2009 at the Penn State College of Medicine ceremony.