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Stellar Public Service Efforts Bring Three аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²ÊÄÚÄ»ÐÅÏ¢ Davis Professors Top Honors

California received the largest share of the $25 billion tobacco industry litigation settlement in part because of law lecturer Margaret Johns' efforts. Area K-12 students are experiencing a brush with the arts, thanks to artist and professor Cornelia Schulz. And visitors to the аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²ÊÄÚÄ»ÐÅÏ¢ Davis Design Gallery and other venues view exhibitions focused on design, folk or ethnic arts, brought to them by professor Dolph Gotelli. For their contributions to the larger community, all three аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²ÊÄÚÄ»ÐÅÏ¢ Davis faculty members have received 2000 Distinguished Public Service Awards from their University of California, Davis, colleagues. The annual awards include a shared $1,000 honorarium. They were established in 1990 to recognize faculty members who have made distinguished public service contributions to the community, state, nation and world throughout their professional careers. * Margaret Johns, senior lecturer, law school Since joining the аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²ÊÄÚÄ»ÐÅÏ¢ Davis law school in 1980, Margaret Johns, who specializes in civil litigation and civil rights law, has exemplified the term public service. She founded and now supervises the law school's civil rights clinic that serves indigent persons in federal civil rights actions. She has performed significant pro bono work, for which she was recognized in 1991 with a Pro Bono Award from the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California. Since 1993, she has coordinated a 9th Circuit Pro Bono project, recruiting a panel of attorneys and coordinating appointment of counsel for indigent persons in civil appeals arising in the Eastern District. She chaired from 1990 to 1998 the Pro Bono Civil Rights Panel for the Eastern District and she served as a member of the Civil Justice Reform Act Advisory Group for the Eastern District from 1991 to 1997. During 1997 and 1998, she was a consultant to the California justice department, researching and developing theories of liability in the state attorney general's action against major tobacco companies to recover Medi-Cal expenditures for smoking-related diseases. Following that work, Floyd Shimomura, chief counsel for the California Department of Finance, said about Johns, "The value of Margaret's contribution is reflected in the fact that California received the largest share among the states. But more importantly, she helped to expose and bring to justice a billion-dollar industry built upon deceit, addiction and death. This time, the tobacco industry did not have all the top legal talent on its side." * Cornelia Schulz, professor of art The first woman studio art professor to be hired at аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²ÊÄÚÄ»ÐÅÏ¢ Davis, Cornelia Schulz believes in sharing art publicly, both on campus and in the larger community. Most recently, Schulz initiated the аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²ÊÄÚÄ»ÐÅÏ¢ Davis ArtsBridge program. Through the program, аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²ÊÄÚÄ»ÐÅÏ¢ Davis students work with K-12 students and classroom teachers to teach specific arts curriculums in public schools. Schulz brought ArtsBridge, a program begun at аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²ÊÄÚÄ»ÐÅÏ¢ Irvine, to аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²ÊÄÚÄ»ÐÅÏ¢ Davis last fall. Through ArtsBridge, "Schulz has extended ideas and their possibilities into our community ... all of us will feel the positive and long-lasting repercussions for many years to come," says colleague Annabeth Rosen, аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²ÊÄÚÄ»ÐÅÏ¢ Davis associate art professor. Interviewed last fall about ArtsBridge, Schulz said, "We are trying to integrate the arts into schools, getting across the idea that the arts are a vehicle for learning, not just a "fun" side event. Art is a useful, hands-on process to help the child grow and understand at more than just the linear cognitive level." Schulz's commitment to public service has been evident throughout her career. She has helped plan public art and exhibitions on campus. She has served pro bono on art exhibition juries locally and in the Bay Area, and has served on the San Francisco Art Institute Board. She has frequently donated her artwork to nonprofit organizations, including Amnesty International, Marin AIDS Project, Nelson ArtFriends and KQED. She served on the selection committee for the Art in Public Places program in Sacramento. * Dolph Gotelli, professor of environmental design Since 1975, Dolph Gotelli has presented six exhibitions annually to more than 10,000 visitors at the campus's Design Gallery. Typically, the exhibitions relate to some aspect of design, folk or ethnic arts, and are curated by Gotelli. In 1989, he founded the Design Alliance, a community-based organization that supports the gallery. Gotelli participates in the Asia Pacific Applied Arts Forum, an international group of designers who are committed to sharing the arts and culture of their nations via the Web, serving as the U.S. coordinator/curator. During the past 25 years, Gotelli has created more than 180 exhibitions or lectures for nonprofit organizations and some 40 exhibitions, lectures or event consultations for public organizations, says Patricia Harrison, chair of аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²ÊÄÚÄ»ÐÅÏ¢ Davis' design program in the environmental design department. A recent example of an exhibition that reached beyond the immediate region was Gotelli's Christmas exhibition at the Filoli Mansion in Woodside. In this show, he filled the main ballroom with vignettes from his personal collection of holiday memorabilia. The project was a fund-raiser for the maintenance of the Filoli Mansion and Gardens. Gotelli has also supported creative arts efforts by providing aesthetic advice to groups planning fund-raisers and arts events. Locally he has worked with organizers of the Davis Bicycle Parade, with the Creative Arts League of Sacramento, the Sacramento Zoological Society and the Boys and Girls Club of Sacramento. "Through his efforts, he has expanded public awareness and appreciation of visual communication, cultural heritage and the creative spirits of people," Harrison says.

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Susanne Rockwell, Web and new media editor, (530) 752-2542, sgrockwell@ucdavis.edu

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