Back in October, Lehigh University celebrated faculty excellence with the formal installation of two distinguished scholars as inaugural holders of newly established endowed chairs. The ceremony honored Vinod Namboodiri as the inaugural Ellen and Vincent Forlenza ’75 Endowed Chair in Health Innovation and Technology, and Michael Gusmano as the inaugural Iacocca Chair.
Lehigh President Joseph Helble noted that endowed chairs are the highest honor the university bestows upon faculty members. These positions provide far-reaching positive effects, supporting research and scholarly activities, bringing attention to outstanding faculty work and helping the university attract both undergraduate and graduate students.
Recognizing Generous Support
The establishment of these chairs was made possible by generous support from longstanding partners. The Forlenza ’75 Endowed Chair was created through the generosity of Ellen and Vincent Forlenza ’75. Vincent Forlenza serves as Lehigh University’s chair of the board of trustees and is the former executive chairman of the board of directors of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a global medical technology company. The Forlenza’s have shaped the college’s distinctive nature by envisioning and funding a faculty position in health innovation and technology.
The Iacocca Chair continues the Iacocca family’s legacy of support to Lehigh, which began with Lee Iacocca. The university noted that Gusmano’s appointment honors a career defined by intellectual rigor and public engagement, values that echo the family’s legacy of innovation and impact.
Innovating Assistive Technology
Vinod Namboodiri, a professor with a joint appointment in the College of Health and P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, is a nationally recognized leader in the field of health innovation, accessibility and assistive technology. His research focuses on developing technology-driven solutions to improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities and older adults.
A significant current project, MABLE (Mapping for Accessible BuiLt Environments), involves creating indoor navigation systems for unfamiliar indoor environments — essentially, a “Google maps or something similar for the indoors,” Namboodiri said. This concept originated from observing the difficulty visually impaired people face navigating buildings independently. The technology is now scaling up, as the team has realized its universal benefit for people needing accessible paths, such as those using wheelchairs, or anyone who gets lost in unfamiliar situations.
Global Health Policy and Governance
Michael Gusmano is a professor of health policy who also serves as the associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Health, co-director of the health, medicine and society program, and director of the Center for Ethics. His scholarship examines how different societies organize care, address aging populations and promote quality of life both in the United States and internationally.
The support from the endowed chair will specifically allow Gusmano to update his important, long-running World Cities Project, which compares health, social and long-term care systems across major global cities like London, New York and Tokyo. He noted that while his work has historically been funded by organizations like NIH and NSF, those funds only cover a subset of his important scholarly activities.
A Shared Responsibility for Mentorship
Both newly installed chairs acknowledged the platform and responsibility that accompanies the honor. Gusmano, who was one of the earliest faculty members hired in the College of Health, expressed his hope that he and Namboodiri will be able to mentor the growing body of junior faculty, many of whom are engaging in interdisciplinary research for the first time.
Namboodiri agreed with this sentiment, stating that the responsibility extends to not only mentoring junior faculty but also striving to grow the institution. He views the chair as a way to build collaborations and foster an environment where the faculty "can be much more than the sum of our parts.”
