By Public Affairs, UC Berkeley | August 30, 2012

Professor Armando Fox has been appointed to serve as academic director of the Berkeley Resource Center for Online Education, a new unit dedicated to supporting online-education initiatives and research.

Diana Wu and Armando Fox, executive director and academic director respectively of BRCOE (Noah Berger photo)

Working under the guidance of the Online Education Steering Committee, Fox will collaborate with BRCOEs executive director, Diana Wu, to build an infrastructure to support the campuss numerous and varied online-education initiatives from offerings for the public good to professional certificate programs.

Fox is a professor-in-residence in the College of Engineerings Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department, a researcher in the campuss Parallel Computing Laboratory (Par Lab), and a co-founder of the Berkeley Reliable Adaptive Distributed Systems (RAD) lab. His 2003 collaboration with Professor David Patterson on recovery-oriented computing earned him the distinction of being named a top-50 researcher by Scientific American and led to formation of the RAD Lab. Prior to that, he taught computer science at Stanford, where he received teaching and mentoring awards from the Associated Students of Stanford University, the Society of Women Engineers, and the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society.

Provost George Breslauer and John Wilton, vice chancellor for administration and finance, announced Foxs appointment in an Aug. 30 CalMessage. Wus role, providing administrative leadership to Berkeleys online education efforts, was outlined in an April 27 CalMessage.

Information about the office, Foxs and Wus roles and online initiatives will be shared through the BRCOE website. Questions may be directed to online@berkeley.edu.

Categories: Campus news, Education, Faculty/Staff, News, Technology & engineering Tags: online education

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Fox named academic director of online-education center

CHICAGO, Aug. 30, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the world recently cheered on athletes who most embody the Olympic spirit, we reflect on how greatly sports have evolved throughout the years. The methods for coaching athletes have changed drastically as well. These days, coaches have to be versatile enough to grow beyond teamwork and motivational techniques in order to truly inspire their athletes.

That's why the GH School of Healthy Living is forging ahead and embracing a distinctive approach to personal training, which has resulted in creating world class trainers and inspirational healthy living leaders. It all starts with the right team, and GH is hiring.

GH School of Healthy Living recognizes that former college coaches are the best suited candidates to transition from their day jobs into the GH programs. Channeling their passion and skill set from a career served shaping the lives of athletes, these former college coaches create a positive environment of highly effective techniques for motivating all types of people towards sustainable, healthy living.

When Kelly Lindsey joined GH School of Healthy Living in 2011, she knew she was joining a movement that transforms traditional 'exercise and healthy living' practices for her clients. After completing a successful professional soccer career with the US Women's National Soccer Team, Lindsey refocused her drive and athletic prowess to coaching; serving as an NCAA Division 1 women's soccer coach at the University of California, Berkeley. Lindsey later left her job at Berkeley to pursue her dream of working closer with her players to propel them towards their peak potential.

Lindsey eventually realized the more successful she became as a coach, the less time she had to train and inspire the best from her players towards reaching their champion goals - as well as motivate them in school and their daily lives. She wanted the opportunity to go beyond merely winning and losing with her players by encouraging them to reach their true life potential. At GH School for Healthy Living, Lindsey finally found herself in an environment that allowed her to combine her skills as a former player and coach to positively transform the lives of others.

"Helping real people win in the game of life -- where winning really matters -- allows me to be more of a coach than I could ever have been in the world of collegiate and professional sports," said Lindsey. "GH School for Healthy Living allows me the opportunity to really focus on improving the lives and health of others."

Through the vision of Greg Hahaj, the CEO and founder of the popular Chicago-based GH's life coaching centers, GH School for Healthy Living has incurred tremendous success transforming clients' lives through changing behaviors inside and outside the gym. At GH, clients are instilled with a complete education about healthy nutrition and exercise, as well as scientific assessments to create and monitor personalized health plans for each client.

"I want to dedicate my career to improve their performance in the game of life and I wanted to surround myself with a team that shares that same mission," commented Hahaj.

GH School for Healthy Living has attracted other top-tier athletes and coaches who have made the switch from traditional coaching to sustainable living. Doug Penno, a former Division 1 basketball player and Assistant Coach at Pace University in New York, has also channeled his years of experience to educate and empower people who want to live a healthier lifestyle.

"Through my experience in basketball as a player and a coach, I realized the incredibly positive impact a coach can have on the lives of others," said Penno, "I enjoyed coaching basketball, because it gave me the opportunity to help my players be better people and that's my passion."

Excerpt from:
Chicago's GH School for Health Living Launches National Hiring Search for Coaches and Athletes

Mark Robinson analyses Brett Ratten's remarkable media conference after the heart-breaking disappointment of being axed as Carlton coach.

Mick Malthouse and Eddie McGuire after Collingwood's defeat in last year's Grand Final. Picture: Colleen Petch Source: Herald Sun

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire. Picture: Wayne Ludbey Source: Herald Sun

COLLINGWOOD feared it could "kill'' Mick Malthouse if it had not enacted a coaching transition three years ago.

Magpie president Eddie McGuire revealed today the club feared the stress of coaching an AFL club, along with other issues going on in Malthouse's life at the time, were the only reasons for the deal that saw Nathan Buckley appointed senior coach this year.

McGuire's heartfelt comments come as Malthouse is expected to be appointed Carlton coach for 2013 after Brett Ratten's sacking.

"I heard on Neil Mitchell's program this morning, Mick was at pains to point out the agonising decision of whether to put himself through the mental and physical anguish of coaching the game and the emotional toll that it could put on his family,'' McGuire said.

"I think that give you an insight into the dilemma we faced three years ago at Collingwood.

"Mick is a mighty person and an amazing coach. But his closest confidant and his manager Peter Sidwell and I met and we were a little worried at that stage that we might kill him because he put so much into it, all the stress and the things we were going on in his life at that stage.

"The stress was so much on him and you could hear it in his voice on radio this morning.

Link:
Eddie feared for Mick's life

VICTORIA, British Columbia, Aug. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Wholesome Career Living Inc. has launched a new TV site to provide multimedia resources on the topics of career planning, life transition management, executive coaching and purposeful living.

"We are tapping into the ever increasing trends in video watching on the web, and using it as a leverage for enhanced customer engagement," says Company President and CEO Tolu Adeleye, Ph.D.

The website features video content from experts and practitioners in the mentioned subject areas as well as those of individuals who speak from an experiential point of view. Movie clips, podcasts, videos are sourced from YouTube, vimeo, and other video-sharing sites as well as iTunes and other podcast directories sharing sites.

The various video and podcasts are organized in easy-to-access categories on the site.Furthermore, video magazine episodes featuring view points of multiple experts on a chosen topic will be presented on regular basis at http://www.wholesomecareerliving.tv

The website also serves as a forum for interaction between practitioners in the career management and life coaching fields and visitors to the site.

In line with the company's service offerings as a 'provider of services that cover the whole career continuum', the website features topics such as:

The provision of these key issues and others in visual and audio forms through this site and the interaction that ensues will better position the company's customers for greater successes in their goals.

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Wholesome Career Living Inc. Presents - Wholesomecareerliving.tv - Videos, Podcasts and Sound Clips to Empower You ...

Kansas State's Angel Rodriguez says he chose to be a Wildcat largely because of former coach Frank Martin.

Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images

Angel Rodriguez had spent his entire life living in the tropics. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, a city on the northern coast of the island. While San Juan is significant historically and economically in the Caribbean, these days most people associate the city with a potential vacation destination. That's what happens when beautiful beaches are combined with an average temperature in the 80's 12 months out of the year.

Think about it like this: Rodriguez was born in a place where he had to travel 1,000 miles northeast just to get to Miami, where he went to high school. Even if you listen to Rick Ross and judge the city based solely on a 30-year-old Al Pacino movie, it's impossible to deny the fact that Miami is one of our nation's premiere party destinations.

Before heading off to college, Rodriguez had spent his youth living where the rest of the country goes on Spring Break. So when the time came for the point guard who had twice been named to the Class 6A All-State First Team and was one of the top five prospects in Florida to decide where he would spend four years as, in all likelihood, a star basketball player, he chose ... Manhattan, Ka. Home of the Kansas State Wildcats.

Manhattan is a city of 52,000 that freezes during the winter, deals with droughts and triple-digit temperatures during the summer, sits smack in the middle of tornado alley and has an airport with flights to and from Chicago and Dallas. Only Chicago and Dallas. What motivated Rodriguez to make that move? To go from southern Florida to northeastern Kansas?

"Everybody knows that the reason I came to K-State was because of Frank," Rodriguez said.

The 'Frank' that he is referring to is Frank Martin, the former head coach at Kansas State. Martin, whose parents immigrated from Cuba before he was born, cut his teeth as a high school coach in Miami and still has strong recruiting ties in an area where his name carries quite a bit of weight and garners even more respect. Rodriguez referred to his relationship with Martin as a 'friendship' on more than one occasion during a phone conversation Tuesday evening. Throw in the fact that Martin had turned another Puerto Rican point guard -- former Wildcat Denis Clemente -- into an all-Big 12 performer during a season that ended with Kansas State in the Elite 8, and Rodriguez's decision to play his college ball in the Little Apple was an easy one to foresee.

What wasn't so easy to foresee, however, was Rodriguez's reaction when Martin left to take over the basketball program at South Carolina. Just four days later, Kansas State filled their head coaching vacancy with Bruce Weber, who had been fired after nine seasons at Illinois less than a month earlier. Rodriguez was at a crossroads: follow his coach -- his friend, his mentor -- to South Carolina, where he would have to sit out a season before being forced to compete with Bruce Ellington for playing time, or stay at Kansas State to play for a different coach but with a roster talented enough to compete for a league title in a wide-open Big 12?

"It was a decision I had to make not only based on me, but with my parents and my people and what they thought was best for me," Rodriguez said. It wasn't a decision he made quickly. Rodriguez met with his new coach and heard him out, giving Weber, who was criticized for his recruiting during his tenure at Illinois, a chance to re-recruit him and convince him to remain at Kansas State. And luckily for Weber, Rodriguez bought into the sales pitch. "He was a great guy and a great coach. Based on that and the fact that I didn't want to sit out, why go transfer ... when I could stay and play right away in the Big 12 as a starter?" he said.

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Rob Dauster: Despite K-State coaching swap, Angel Rodriguez still looks to break out

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 30, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- American Specialty Health Insurance Company (ASH Insurance) has named Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council (MCHC) senior vice president and chief financial officer Daniel T. Yunker to its Board of Directors, effective immediately. Yunker will join current ASH board members George DeVries, Paul Peterson, Monte Dube and several senior American Specialty Health chief executives.

"We are delighted to welcome Dan to our team," said ASH Insurance chairman and CEO George DeVries. "His financial, regulatory and technology experience will be invaluable as we continue to grow and expand the product offerings that we offer health plans and employer groups."

Yunker has been on the executive team of MCHC since June 2005, with responsibility for internal finance and accounting; regulatory programs, including the Wage Index and associated appeals; Human Capital Services, including the MCHC Employee Benefit Plan Trust, information technology, including the Healthcare Information Exchange (MetroChicago HIE); business development; and business performance programs and services. He also has been entrenched in the health care reform debate, sizing up the impact that reform legislation will have on the delivery of health care and working closely with health care leaders and members to address the challenges of a rapidly changing system.

Prior to joining the Council, Yunker was a vice president at Aon Corporation and spent five years at the national Healthcare Financial Management Association, where he was responsible for designing and implementing programs and strategies to contribute to the success of members and their organizations.

Earlier in his career, Yunker worked in various leadership roles at Delnor-Community Health System, and is a founder of both IPS, a Chicago-based physician-practice management company, and Air Angels, Inc., an aero medical flight company. Yunker holds a master's degree in business administration from DeVry University's Keller Graduate School of Management and a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering/psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

About American Specialty Health Insurance Company and American Specialty Health

ASH Insurance is a health insurance company domiciled in Illinois and admitted in 43 states and the District of Columbia. Through this company, employers in various states are able to directly purchase supplemental group riders for specialty health care from a specialty benefits health insurance company. This makes options such as chiropractic, acupuncture, massage therapy, nutrition services, and naturopathy more readily accessible to local workforces. ASH Insurance products are currently approved in 22 states and the District of Columbia. Available benefit options vary by state.

American Specialty Health Incorporated (ASH) is a national health services organization that provides a total population health management program, specialty health care management programs, and fitness programs to health plans, insurance carriers, employer groups, and trust funds. Based in San Diego, ASH has over 900 employees and serves nearly 31 million members. For more information, visit ASHCompanies.com or call 1-800-848-3555. Follow us on Twitter @ASHCompanies!

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American Specialty Health Insurance Company Names Daniel Yunker of Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council to Board of ...

Austin, TX (PRWEB) August 30, 2012

LIVEO announced today that Chef Johnny Carino has signed on as featured talent for the cloud-based holistic, interactive social health and fitness network. Hosting LIVEOs live-streaming nutrition and cooking programs, Johnny will be an essential part of what makes the health and fitness network different from other online fitness tracking websites.

LIVEO integrates and interoperates with leading performance tracking devices and fitness applications while serving up proprietary fitness tools, performance tracking, wellness content, and social media support system to significantly improve the way individuals and companies manage healthier lifestyles and overall wellness. Top-notch talent such as Johnny Carino starring in live-streaming nutrition, health and fitness programming will help position LIVEO to become the whenever, wherever health and fitness destination of choice.

We are thrilled to have Johnny join us on our revolutionary mission to change the mobile health and fitness market, states LIVEO co-founder and president Danny Davis. His charisma and expertise will play a pivotal role in establishing LIVEO as the preferred way for people and corporations to manage health and fitness.

Carinos passion for cooking began in his Brooklyn kitchen at the age of 12, watching his Sicilian-born grandfather create great pasta and seafood dishes. A graduate of Johnson and Wales University with an Associate Degree in Culinary Arts, Chef Carino was first known for the restaurant named for him, Johnny Carinos Italian Grill (of which he is no longer affiliated). Since then, he has gone on to star in the top-rated cooking show Break Me Off A Piece of That, which recently wrapped its fourth season on PBS in the Texas market. He regularly appears at Flavors of Central Texas, and is known for his high-energy cooking classes at many locations of the world-famous Central Market.

A potentially demoralizing diagnosis of diabetes and other health-related issues have not slowed down the high profile chef, but provided a new direction in life through his volunteer efforts with both the University of North Texas Childhood Autism program and Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas. The former bodybuilder still works out daily and uses cooking to create a healthy lifestyle. His involvement with LIVEO is a natural fit.

ABOUT LIVEO LIVEO is transforming how the market perceives the mobile fitness application landscape, delivering a new, innovative solution that will not only significantly improve the way individuals and companies manage healthier lifestyles and wellness, but will change how the market is perceived. LIVEO is a holistic, interactive social health and fitness network accessible to consumers and corporations online through cloud-based software and a mobile application. It serves as a single source for unique, live-streaming content, capabilities and connectivity designed to help individuals and corporations significantly improve the way they manage healthier lifestyles and wellness. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the company was born from the combined vision of a group of passionate, experienced leaders and their unique mix of experience in both the business and the fitness industries. To learn more, visit liveo.com. For investment opportunities, please email info(at)liveo(dot)com to receive a business plan.

Link:
Chef Johnny Carino Partners with LIVEO

The art of artificial

Love the look of fake nails but hate the upkeep of constantly refilling? Turn to a Texas-based creation, Custom Nail Solutions (www.customnailsolutions.com). Available in five lengths: sport, active, fashion, glamour and stiletto, each nontoxic kit takes an impression of your nails that you'll send in for tips custom fit for you. And miracle of miracles, this DIY endeavor doesn't require any filling or drilling to the natural nails. $139.95.

Drip therapy

If your job has you awkwardly hunched over your laptop day and night, you'll relish the release from Little Drops of Rain, the brand-new treatment featured at Lake Austin Spa Resort (1705 S. Quinlan Park Road. 512-372-7300, http://www.lakeaustin.com). Soothing and therapeutic, the hot drops of essential oils sprinkled along your spine target your stress points, while the accompanying massage sends you blissfully away from your work woes. 50 minutes $165; 80 minutes with massage $215.

Sweat solution

Give sweat the swipe with Handana (www.myhandana.com), a high-performance athletic band. Created by local tri-athlete Katie Niemeyer, each soft lycra hand bandana slips on like a glove with your thumb in the center hole, and wicks away the perspiration from your brow and face. Washer friendly for easy upkeep. $15. Available locally at C'est Chic (5800 W. Slaughter Lane. 512-609-8728, http://www.cestchicaustin.com).

Emerald eyes

Blink and you'll miss out: This fall's trend in eye makeup calls for funky and bold colors that complement and define, like the new hues from Rochelle Rae. The three refillable eye shadow shades come in themes: Green with Envy, Extremely Violet and Turquoise Tantrum. $50 each. Available at Rae Cosmetics (1206 W. 38th St. 512-320-8732, http://www.raecosmetics.com).

Shifty business

A perfect office look for the stylish career set comes the tee shift dress from Ace & Jig. The rolled sleeves give this flat-front linen and cotton frock just the right amount of edge to go from business to casual, and the front pocket detail, weaved by artisans in India, creates an added pop of personality. $170. Available at Kickpleat (918 W. 12th St. 512-445-4500, http://www.kickpleat.com).

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Shine items: Fashion, 
beauty, 
health and fitness

Danny Sullivan dreams of gardening and spending time with his grandchildren, but that's just a fantasy. Retirement is out of his reach, at least for the foreseeable future.

The 62-year-old founder of a small catering company spends his days helping stock bars with beer and ice, wooing potential new clients and juggling the 20 to 30 different events his firm handles daily.

"I am so tired," he says. "I don't know that I'll ever be able to retire."

The weak economy has been tough for small-business owners across the board, with their total revenue inching up by just 3% since 2007 and declining in fields such as construction (-12%), real-estate services (-3%) and retailing (-2%), according to financial-software maker Intuit Inc. But for entrepreneurs in their 60s and 70s, the consequences have been particularly vexing.

Danny Sullivan has struggled to sell Arguello Catering. (Jason Henry for WSJ)Many of them are stuck in "business purgatory," unable to retire and forced to hang on for a recovery that economists say could still be a long way off.

Mr. Sullivan has struggled to sell Arguello Catering Inc., the Redwood City, Calif., business he started 21 years ago, at a price anywhere near the $850,000 or so he figures he needs to stop working. He reckons that about 70% of his nest egg is tied up in the 25-employee company.

Its annual revenue has fallen to roughly $2 million from $3 million before the recession, Mr. Sullivan says. He has tried, without success, to boost the business's value by branching into new markets, expanding hours of operation and adding healthier menu options. He says he got three offers for Arguello this year, but they were far too low.

Nearly half of the 799 small-business owners surveyed in August by The Wall Street Journal and Vistage International, an executive-mentoring organization, expect to retire after age 65, with 38% saying that their planned retirement date is later than they had predicted five years ago. In addition, 56% said most of their retirement nest egg is tied to their business.

Baby boomers, in many cases, were blindsided by the recession and its effect on their retirement plans, says George Vozikis, director of the Institute for Family Business at California State University in Fresno.

[More from WSJ.com: A Vacation Spent Shopping]

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'The Economy Stole My Retirement'

Here's your assignment: Gather up all of your retirement accounts and shape them into a portfolio that will supply you with the income you'll need during your retirement years. Oh, and one other tiny to-do: You'll also need to make sure you never run out of money, even though you don't know exactly how long you'll need it.

In the past, one simple and elegant solution to the above problem was to buy an immediate annuity that would pay you a stream of income for the rest of your life. But many investors don't like the loss of control that accompanies annuities. A more temporal problem is that today's ultralow interest rates mean that payouts from annuities are lousy right now, as I explored in this article (http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=332113).

One other intuitively appealing idea is to sink your portfolio into income-producing investments such as bonds and dividend-paying stocks and live off whatever yield they generate. That way you might never have to tap your principal at all. The big drawback, however, is that you're buffeted around by whatever the interest-rate gods serve up. When yields are up, you're living high off the hog; when they're miserly, as they have been for the better part of a decade, you have the unappetizing choice of scaling your spending way back or venturing into riskier income-producing securities to get the yield you need.

Given that each of those approaches has become more challenging in the current low-interest-rate environment, it's no wonder that so many retirees and pre-retirees have been receptive to another strategy: "bucketing" their portfolio for retirement. At its core, bucketing is a total-return approach in which you segment your portfolio based on when you expect to need your money. Money for near-term income needs is parked in cash and short-term bonds, while money needed for longer-range income needs remains in bonds and stocks. Financial-planning guru Harold Evensky was a pioneer of the bucket approach; he discusses the basics of the strategy in this video (http://www.morningstar.com/cover/videocenter.aspx?id=330323).

Aiming for the Buckets Why has bucketing become so popular? First, it bows to reality by acknowledging that all but very wealthy investors will need to tap their principal during retirement; it provides a sensible and easy-to-use framework for doing so. And given that many retirees will live for 25 or more years in retirement, the bucket approach provides a necessary dose of long-term growth potential, enabling a retiree to hold stocks as well as safer securities for nearer-term income needs.

Another big advantage of bucketing is that it's flexible. It can incorporate many of a retiree or pre-retiree's existing holdings, and a bucket plan can be readily customized to suit a retiree's own specifications. For example, an older retiree with an expected 10-year time horizon might have just two buckets--one for very short-term needs and another bucket earmarked for the medium term. A younger retiree with a longer time horizon, meanwhile, might have similarly positioned short- and intermediate-term buckets as well as a sizable equity bucket for long-term growth. The unifying theme among all bucket strategies is that the retiree sets aside a pool of cash for near-term income needs, thereby enabling him or her to ride out any volatility that accompanies the mid- and long-term assets.

To help illustrate what an actual bucketed portfolio might look like, let's assume we're building a portfolio for a soon-to-retire couple with the following attributes:

They have a $1.5 million portfolio.Their time horizon is 25 years, and they have a very high risk capacity.They plan to withdraw 4% of their initial balance in year 1 of retirement ($60,000), then inflation-adjust that amount every year.Given those variables, here's a sample bucketed portfolio employing some of Morningstar analysts' favorite funds. (Note that because this portfolio is geared toward risk-tolerant investors with a very long time horizon, it's quite equity-heavy, with a roughly 50% stock/50% bond asset allocation. This profile will be too aggressive for many retirees.)

Bucket 1: Years 1 and 2

$60,000: Cash (certificates of deposit, money market accounts, and so on)$60,000: PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Strategy(MINT)This portion of the portfolio is designed to cover living expenses in years 1 and 2 of retirement. Its goal is stability of principal with modest income production. Risk-averse investors who want an explicit guarantee of principal stability will want to stick with FDIC-insured products for this sleeve of the portfolio. On the flip side, investors comfortable with slight fluctuations in their principal values may steer less than a year's worth of living expenses to true cash instruments.

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A Sample Retirement Portfolio Using the Bucket Approach