Lester A. Hamburg Member of the Year Award
Bruce Rollman has been a proud member of Congregation Beth Shalom since 1998. Volunteering his skills as a NIH-funded clinical investigator, he spearheaded the Congregation’s Solar Initiative that raised $227,000, including a $125,000 grant from the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County, that will enable Beth Shalom to repair the ELC roof and then install a large array of solar panels.
These panels will significantly cut our Congregation’s electric bill and reduce greenhouse emissions by approximately 80 tons annually for the estimated 25-year life of the solar roof. In addition, they will be a visible sign of Beth Shalom’s revitalization under Rabbi Seth Adelson’s guidance and the Congregation’s commitment to tikkun olam.
Now in his third term on Beth Shalom’s Board of Trustees, Bruce served on the Rabbi Search Committee (2014-2015) that recruited Rabbi Adelson. Previously, as a member of the Adult Education Committee, he helped create the Beth Shalom Health Initiative, an annual public lecture series (2012-2017) that brought leaders in Pittsburgh’s health care community to our Congregation and attracted underwriting support from local foundations.
Bruce is Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Biomedical Informatics and holds the UPMC Endowed Chair in General Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Recruited to the University in 1995 following completion of his masters degree in public health and research fellowship at Johns Hopkins, he provides direct patient care at his Division’s Faculty Practice at UPMC-Montefiore Hospital and conducts studies to improve the treatment of depression and anxiety in primary care and cardiac settings. Bruce’s research has been funded by the NIH and other Federal agencies for over 23 consecutive years, and he has published more than 100 scientific papers and holds 4 U.S. patents. Intent on sharing and building upon his expertise, in 2015 Bruce launched the cross-disciplinary Center for Behavioral Health and Smart Technology to help mentor and support the careers of the next generation of clinical investigators (www.healthtech.pitt.edu/), and he was recently elected to serve a 3-year term on the School of Medicine’s Executive Committee.
Bruce and his wife Jane are both active volunteers for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and for other local Jewish communal organizations. Their children, Emily (22), Mark (21), and Rachel (19), are all graduates of Beth Shalom Preschool, Community Day School, and Taylor Allderdice, and became benei mitzvah at Beth Shalom.