Rosemary Blieszner receives Alumni Fellow Award from Penn State
October 19, 2021
![Rosemary Blieszner receives Alumni Fellow Award from Penn State president Eric J. Barron.](/content/liberalarts_vt_edu/en/news/articles/2021/10/rosemary-blieszner-penn-state-award/_jcr_content/article-image.transform/m-medium/image.jpg)
Rosemary Blieszner, Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech and interim dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, was named an Alumni Fellow by the Penn State Alumni Association.
The Alumni Fellow Award, the most prestigious award given by the Penn
State Alumni Association, recognizes alumni who are leaders in their
professional fields. Blieszner, who received her doctorate from Penn
State, was nominated by the Graduate School at Penn State, and accepted
an invitation from President Eric J. Barron to return to the campus at
University Park for the Award Ceremony on Oct. 6. While there, she also
shared her expertise with faculty and graduate students. Her host at the
awards ceremony was Regina Vasilatos-Younken, vice provost for graduate
education and dean of the Graduate School.
While on campus, Blieszner met with Craig Newschaffer, dean of the
College of Health and Human Development, to discuss graduate and
undergraduate programs in human development and family sciences, and the
Biobehavioral Health Program. She also spoke with staff at the Center
on Healthy Aging about strategies for recruiting research participants,
and met with graduate students to discuss their research interests in
cognitive decline in old age and social and contextual determinants of
late-life health and well-being.
Blieszner’s scholarship and roles as an educator and administrator span 40 years at Virginia Tech. She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, American Psychological Association, International Association for Relationship Research, National Council on Family Relations, and Association for Gerontology in Higher Education. A former dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, she has been a faculty member in the Department of Human Development and Family Science since 1981. She is also a senior fellow in the Center for Gerontology.
Written by Lesley Yorke