For Immediate Release

Contact: John M. Martino
Phone Number:  (215) 895-1186
Date: 06/04/02

University Of The Sciences In Philadelphia Professor Receives Lindback Teaching Grant

The Christian R. & Mary F. Lindback Foundation recently presented a Minority Junior Faculty Award to Miriam Diaz-Gilbert of Voorhees, N.J. (08043). The award will support her research on the writing competency of Doctor of Pharmacy students who are not proficient in the English language, as well as the writing skills that these students are expected to demonstrate during their sixth-year clerkships.  Diaz-Gilbert, assistant director of the writing center at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, plans to develop an interactive textbook for English as a Second Language (ESL) pharmacy students to help them master the writing skills essential in their clerkships and the pharmacy profession. 

Before coming to USP in 1999, Diaz-Gilbert was an adjunct professor at Camden County College and an adjunct professor at the Community College of Philadelphia.  She also was an instructor in the English Language Institute at the University of Delaware, and taught at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University in New Brunswick as a visiting lecturer in the areas of second language education and bilingual education.  She designed a workplace ESL curriculum and a volunteer program at Cooper Hospital for clients of Puerto Rican Unity for Progress in Camden, N.J., a non-profit social service organization.  From 1989-96, she developed ESL programs for Japanese businessmen, spouses and children.  Since 1989, she has been a published writer, speaker and trainer in the areas of cross-cultural sensitivity/awareness. She also has provided English instruction to Philadelphia Phantoms and Philadelphia Flyers from the Czech Republic.

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