• David Bache, 12, was nominated to represent the La Jolla Town Council as a youth marshal for the 2010 La Jolla Christmas Parade. Rick Wildman, president of the council, nominated the seventh-grader for his efforts in building and maintaining the website for the parade and holiday festival in 2009 and 2010. Bache, who builds websites for commercial clients in his spare time, is also an accomplished equestrian. He is the top-ranked junior endurance rider (races of 50 miles or more) for the Pacific Southwest region in 2010 and is ranked in the top five nationally. • Paul Kenny, a Scripps research scientist, received the Jacob P. Waletzky Award for Innovative Research in Drug Addiction and Alcoholism on Nov. 14. Kenny, an associate professor in the department of molecular therapeutics at the Florida campus of the Scripps Research Institute, conducted groundbreaking research on microRNAs, previously thought to play a role in psychiatric disorders, but now also believed to be important to anti-addiction therapies. Kenny joined the research institute in 2000. He and colleagues made headlines earlier this year when they published a study linking the mechanisms that cause compulsive overeating to drug addiction. • Marisa Vallbona, a La Jolla-based public relations practitioner, was invited by the Association of Hispanic Media Professionals to give a presentation to the association’s student chapter at San Diego State University on Nov. 18. She spoke to students about her experiences in the industry during her speech, entitled “Ethics in PR and Social Media.” Vallbona, who has offices in La Jolla and Los Angeles, is a national board member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and ethics officer for the PRSA San Diego/Imperial counties chapter. • Jerry Gold, Ph.D., director of Scripps Behavioral Health Services, started the Scripps A-Visions Vocational Training Program in 2002. The program, which helps people with mental illness develop communication and customer service skills, recently received the 2010 Lilly Reintegration Award. The award recognizes contributions and achievements in helping people battling serious mental illness re-enter the community. Gold is a member of the American Psychological Association and a board member of the California Hospital Association Behavioral Health Advisory Board and has served the mental health needs of San Diego County for the past 21 years. • Kim Avant was recently named the new assistant general manager of the Grande Colonial Hotel. A native of Safford, Ariz., Avant began her career in hospitality as a front desk agent at the Hampton Inn, San Diego/Del Mar. In a recent statement, Terrence Underwood, general manager for the Grande Colonial, said, “Kim joins a team of more than 100 employees. She will be instrumental in our efforts to continue the tradition of excellence and customer satisfaction that the company has achieved for nearly a century.” • John Scotti, a 2007 graduate of the Bishop’s School, is one of three University of Chicago students to be named a 2010-11 Rhodes scholar. Scotti, 21, will graduate this winter with bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and biochemistry and a master’s degree in chemistry. He said the award will likely lead him to a doctorate in organic chemistry at Oxford University. Scotti, who is also a jazz pianist, aspires to become a professor at a research university so that he can pursue work to develop human therapeutic agents. • Richard Somerville, distinguished professor emeritus at Scripps Institute of Oceanography has called upon the science community to make a greater effort to communicate scientific findings in a way that allow for informed policy decisions. Somerville will appear at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco beginning Dec. 13 to discuss the importance of the dissemination of information relating to climate change. He and nine colleagues authored a letter in the Nov. 19 issue of the journal Science arguing that further delay in controlling greenhouse gas emissions could have serious consequences for society.
