UB Faculty Experts

EXPERT CONTACT : Kellie Ann Kostek Financial Literacy Program Coordinator, Staff Educational Services Student Academic Records & Financial Services 716-645-5683 kkostek@buffalo.edu

Kellie Kostek is the University at Buffalo’s answer to the growing problem of student debt. Kostek is UB’s financial literacy program coordinator. Her objective is to reach as many students as possible to teach the benefits of fiscal responsibility.

“Most students arrive on campus having never had a serious conversation with their parents about managing debt,” said Kostek, “they just don’t know where to begin.”

Kostek’s weeks are filled with financial workshops, special appearances to UB 101 classes and talking to resident assistants (RA’s)—who are often the first to identify the effects of debt crisis in students.

EXPERT CONTACT : Susan V. Mangold Professor of Law Co-director of the Program for Excellence in Family Law University at Buffalo 716-645-2428 svm@buffalo.edu

A national expert in child welfare law, Mangold says anyone has the right to tell child protection in their state when they suspect a child is being abused or neglected.  "Some professionals who work with children are mandated to report instances of abuse, but lay people may also call in reports," says Mangold, who studies the impact local funding strategies have on those child welfare laws and the children they are designed to protect. "In most instances, only police, doctors or child welfare workers can actually take custody of a child

"But the term 'custody' is being used in a different way in this case," she says, "not really meaning that legal custody shifted temporarily from the parents to the attendant, but rather that she had the child with her instead of with the parents. 

"Since everyone was still on the plane, it seems the attendant moved the child from the parents until the plane landed and the authorities got involved.  From what is known of the case, it seems the attendant dealt reasonably with a difficult situation. 

"I am most concerned that the parents were sent without any follow up services given what was observed on the plane and the evidence of a black eye on a 13-month-old child."

EXPERT CONTACT : Barbara A. Rittner Associate Dean for External Affairs and Ph.D program University at Buffalo School of Social Work 716-645-1256 rittner@buffalo.edu

The story about a flight attendant intervening when a stressed mother slapped her 13-month daughter while on a Southwest Airlines flight obviously will trigger public debate about whether parents should ever slap their children, says Barbara Rittner, an associate dean and expert on child welfare risk assessment.

"In this case, the police, upon meeting with the family, felt it was an isolated incident and did not merit a referral to protective services. Regardless, the flight attendant’s actions should be considered in the context of the environment (an airplane), with potential flight safety issues (a distracted, fighting family with a crying baby potentially distracting other passengers), and the flight attendant's sense of responsibility for the child’s safety considering the baby had a black eye already (as evidence by having paramedics examine the child on landing). "

Although flying is especially stressful these days and can be particularly stresssful for families traveling with infants, Rittner says she doubts this would have received such widespread attention if not for a recent story that grabbed so much attention concerning a flight attendant’s confrontation on another airline.

EXPERT CONTACT : Dr. Elad Levy UB professor of neurosurgery University at Buffalo School of Medicine 716-887-5200 ELevy@ubns.com

Dr. Levy implanted a stent in an artery inside the skull of a 14-year-old boy to prevent a stroke, a procedure thought to be the first conducted in an adolescent.

The boy was home within one day and remains well at his nine-month evaluation. The boy's injury, an "intracranial arterial dissection," a tear along the inside wall of an artery located inside the skull but outside the brain, is an important cause of stroke in young patients.

To date, patients typically receive anti-platelet medication or anticoagulation therapy for this condition. However, neurosurgeons now can treat the dissection more effectively with the advent of self-expanding intracranial stents.

Dr. Levy discusses this innovative procedure.

Q: How often do strokes occur in children, and what are the usual causes? 

  The annual incidence of childhood stroke (0-18 years of age) is 2-13/100,000.  Vascular causes are a very important potential reasons for stroke, including dissections, arteriovenous malformations and moya-moya,  an inherited disease in which certain arteries in the brain are constricted.  Cardiac and blood-related diseases  also are risk factors. 

EXPERT CONTACT : Teresa Quattrin, MD Professor and Chair of Pediatrics University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences 716-878-7300 tquattrin@upa.chob.edu, quattrin@buffalo.edu   Pediatrician-in-Chief of the Division of Endocrinology/Diabetes Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo

This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2009, no state had met a target of reducing obesity prevalence among adults to 15 percent. Why is obesity so prevalent in America? And what can we do to combat the problem? Quattrin, who is leading a more than $2.5 million study to test an innovative program for preventing and treating obesity in children aged 2 to 5, offers her expert opinion.

Why have obesity rates increased so much over the past several decades?

Changes in diet and activity levels have contributed to obesity. People are eating more, and eating less healthy food high in calories. In our research, we looked at the food intake of children 2 to 5 years old, and 7 out of 10 were consuming significantly more calories than the recommended 1,200 per day. There are children who eat a whole carton of strawberries, and their parents think that’s OK. But it is not--too much healthy food can contribute to the problem, too. Extra calories, along with low physical activity, lead to obesity--especially in people with a predisposition to developing the disease, and certainly in kids whose parents are obese.

What health problems can childhood obesity cause?

Knee problems, back problems, high blood pressure and cardiovascular problems can all result from obesity. Children who are overweight tend to have poor self esteem and make fewer friends. It’s important to remember that health problems due to obesity can begin early in life. Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult onset diabetes, but now many teenagers and children--as young as 8 years old--have the disease.

Are children who are obese more likely to become adults who are obese?

Yes. Studies have shown that even 2- to 5-year-old children who are obese have as high as an 80 percent chance of suffering from obesity in adulthood if their parents are overweight. Once the body is used to eating a certain amount of food, the stomach no longer sends the proper signals to the brain to say that you’re full. So when you try to change habits, it’s a struggle.

What are some simple steps children and families can take to prevent obesity?

Parents should educate themselves by finding out their children’s body mass index, and their own. Young children who don’t look overweight may still be obese. Parents also need to be good role models. If the home environment is such that the refrigerator and pantry are full of junk food instead of fruits and vegetables, the child grows up feeling that’s the way he or she should eat. Being active is also important. Park a little further away from the supermarket. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk to the store or a friend’s house. These are simple steps that can ameliorate and prevent problems.

EXPERT CONTACT : Teresa A. Miller Professor University at Buffalo Law School 716-830-4243 photodoc@gmail.com, tmiller@acsu.buffalo.edu

"In many ways, Lohan is no different than the scores of young people in the United States whose lives are ruined by drugs and alcohol," says Miller. an expert in the Law School specializing in criminal punishment  "She is someone who is troubled, and who appears to 'dull the pain' through controlled substances and excessive use of alcohol."

But Lohan differs from these troubled young people because she is able to “buy her way out of harsh criminal consequences for her actions by posting large sums of money in bail when she is arrested," Miller says. "She then opts out of the criminal justice system and into the private mental health and drug rehabilitation system.  While poor, urban drug addicts languish in jails and prisons under harsh mandatory minimum sentencing laws, Lohan has been diverted into a kinder, gentler system."

Miller says the American criminal justice system has clearly gone overboard by "harshly punishing young people while ignoring the social pathologies" that encourage drug addiction.

"On the other hand, I nevertheless wonder if the addictions of troubled celebrities like Lohan (and the late Michael Jackson) are prolonged because their money insulates them from more serious consequences like deprivation of liberty, loss of class privilege, criminal stigma and fear."

EXPERT CONTACT : Thomas H. Nochajski, Ph.D. Professor of Social Work University at Buffalo School of Social Work 716 -645-1245  thn@buffalo.edu

“First, we need to understand that Lindsay Lohan is not the first person to violate probation requirements; however, because she has money and, to a certain degree, fame, she may have a harder road to travel,” says Nochajski, who studies DUI offenders, alcohol abuse and delinquency.