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I'd like to welcome Susan Allen, internationally recognized
for her research on HIV prevention and spread in Africa, and her husband,
Eric Hunter, one of the world's leading experts on
retroviruses, to Emory. Allen has been appointed professor of international
health in the Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) with joint appointments
in epidemiology and pathology. Hunter has been named an Eminent Scholar
of the Georgia Research Alliance and will serve as professor of pathology
and laboratory medicine in the School of Medicine (SOM), and both will
be faculty of the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and the Emory
Vaccine Center.
Prior to joining Emory, the couple conducted groundbreaking research at the University of Alabama at
Birmingham (UAB), helping establish that institution as one of the top AIDS research centers in the United States.
Allen served as core director of UAB's CFAR and Hunter was the founding director.
Allen recently presented research findings from Rwanda and Zambia at the National Science Symposium of the
NIH CFARs, held at the RSPH. Married couples are the largest risk group for HIV in many African countries,
with 60% of new infections acquired from a spouse, according to Allen. However, a 70% reduction in new
infections occurs when couples participate in counseling together. The field sites that Allen oversees
offer outpatient medical care and voluntary testing and counseling for couples. The Couples Voluntary
Counseling and Testing program is proving the most effective prevention strategy for this group.
Claire Sterk has been appointed Associate Dean of Research.
Charles Howard Candler Professor and Chair of the Department of Behavioral
Sciences and Health Education, Sterk has chaired the Research of Emory
Commission since 2001. As Associate Dean of Research, she will work
with faculty and administrators to facilitate research excellence and
growth within the RSPH and between RSPH and other units of the university.
She also will continue to serve as department chair, to teach, and conduct
research. Sterk joined our faculty in 1995 and was named department
chair in 2000. An NIH-supported scholar, she is known internationally
for her research in drug use, HIV, sexual risk-taking, and mental health,
and she serves on the National Drug Abuse Council. Her campus service
includes tenure as president of the University Senate from 2000 to 2002.
Mike Kutner has been named Rollins Professor and Chair
of the Department of Biostatistics. Much of his distinguished career
in research and teaching has been here at Emory. When the RSPH was formed
in the early 1990s, he served as director of biostatistics as well as
associate dean for academic affairs. He left in 1994 to build the Department
of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Cleveland Clinic. He has since
returned to the RSPH and most recently served as interim chairman of
biostatistics and director of the Biostatistics Consulting Center.
Congratulations to Amita Manatunga, who has received
promotion to professor of biostatistics. Her research interests focus
on the theory and applications of survival data, and she works primarily
with modeling multivariate survival data using frailty (random effects)
models. She has collaborated with medical researchers in the fields
of mental health, hypertension, genetics, and pharmacology and is the
biostatistician at Emory's General Clinical Research Center.
Congratulations also to Aryeh Stein, promoted to associate
professor of international health with tenure. Stein studies the role
of nutrition in the development of chronic disease. One of his current
research projects examines the reproductive outcomes of women exposed
to famine during gestation in the Dutch famine of 1944-45 and the effect
of famine exposure on cardiovascular risk. Stein recently received an
NIH grant for education and health across the life course in Guatemala.
Assistant Dean of Development and External Relations Kathryn
Graves is one of a select group of people across campus to
receive an Emory Award of Distinction for 2004. This year, Graves celebrates
her 23rd year of service at Emory, 15 at the RSPH. This nomination for
Graves by her staff brings much deserved recognition to her for extraordinary
dedication to our school.
Biostatistics doctoral student Andrew Barclay was one
of six students selected campus-wide to receive the 2004 Emory Humanitarian
Award. Lance Waller, Barclay's dissertation adviser,
nominated him for volunteer technical and statistical support of initiatives
supporting Georgia's children, including voluntary technical consulting
for Georgia nonprofit and governmental agencies. Barclay and his wife,
Michelle, in partnership with Emory's School of Law, founded and endowed
the Barton Child and Law Policy Clinic, which is dedicated to effecting
systemic policy and process changes for the benefit of children in Georgia's
child welfare system. Barclay also frequently provides information technology
assistance on a variety of RSPH projects from database management transfer
of juvenile court data to developing websites for Georgia Kids Count
and the Georgia Child Fatality Review.
The April 1 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology includes
an article by biostatistics faculty members Ira Longini, Elizabeth
Halloran, Azhar Nizam, and Yang Yang that
examines containment of pandemic influenza with antiviral agents. "For
the first wave of pandemic influenza or a bioterrorist influenza attack,
antiviral agents would be one of the few options to contain the epidemic
in the United States until adequate supplies of vaccine were available,"
the authors report. They conclude that vaccinating 80% of the children
aged less than 19 years is almost as effective as vaccinating 80% of
the population.
According to U.S. Census figures, the number of people without insurance
increased by the largest margin in a decade. Health students at Emory
have decided to do something about that alarming statistic. They've
formed a nonprofit organization, Health Students Taking Action Together
(H-STAT), and their current advocacy focuses on child obesity as well
as proposed budget cuts in Georgia's PeachCare for Kids program. Jeffrey
Koplan, vice president for health affairs at the Woodruff Health
Sciences Center and joint professor at the RSPH, is acting as an adviser
to the student group, whose student leaders include Rebecca
Bedingfield, Nishant Shah, and Dorothy Wadsworth.
Professor of Biostatistics Donna Brogan was one of
five women honored as an Unsung Heroine at Emory University this February.
The awards, given for the past seven years, highlight women who have
demonstrated extraordinary dedication to issues affecting women at Emory
or in the larger community, but whose efforts have not received formal
recognition. In 1971, Brogan was the first woman appointed to a faculty
position in Emory SOM's Department of Biometry and Statistics, and in
1991, she became the first female chair of the Department of Biostatistics
at the RSPH. She has supported women's issues and health through research
and community service.
The Emory Center for Injury Control is 10 years old and going strong.
In the decade since it was founded by Arthur Kellermann,
chair of Emergency Medicine, the center has tackled a number of issues
from helmet safety and firearm-related violence to child fatalities
and safety belts, garnering grants from CDC, NIH, the National Highway
Traffic Safety, and others. At an anniversary celebration, the center
recognized outstanding individuals and organizations who work in injury
prevention and public health with the presentation of 13 career achievement
awards. Among the recipients were Georgia's Director of the Division
of Public Health Kathleen Toomey and the organization,
Safe Kids of Georgia.
Recognition for the RSPH abounded at the American Public Health Association
(APHA) meeting in November. Cam Escoffery, 95MPH, who
teaches in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education,
was the recipient of the Early Career Award from the Public Health Education
and Health Promotion Section of the APHA. Our students likewise raised
our visibility at the conference with two poster presentations, including
"Sexual Violence in Three African Conflict Situations: Unique Challenges
and Differing Responses" by Sarah Raskin, International
Health, and "Environmental Justice and Health Communications: A Human
Rights crisis" by Aditi Vaidya, Environmental and Occupational
Health. I received the John P. Snow Award from the epidemiology section,
which recognizes the contribution of an epidemiologist for excellence
in epidemiologic practice or research.
- Ruth L. Berkelman (Center for Public Health Preparedness
and Research) presented "Preparing for Bioterrorism: the imperative
for a public-private partnership" at the Sam Nunn Policy Forum in
March.
- Jay Bernhardt (BSHE) has been named associate editor
of the journal Health Education Research.
- The Georgia Alliance for Tobacco Prevention presented an Award of Excellence for Tobacco Prevention
and Control to the RSPH for its support and assistance in tobacco control efforts.
- Keith Klugman (IH) was elected to the Executive Committee
of the International Society for Infectious Diseases.
- Reynaldo Martorell (IH) has been appointed to the Food
and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine as well as the
newly formed Advisory Committee on Population and Public Health
of the Wellcome Trust.
- Gary W. Miller (EOH) is a member of the Neurotoxicology
and Alcohol Study Section for the NIH's Center for Scientific Review.
- Deborah McFarland (IH) has been appointed for a second
three-year term to WHO's Technical Consultative Committee on Onchocerciasis.
- In the fall of 2004, Godfrey Oakley (Epi) will be the
Donald Thurston Visiting Professor at Washington University School
of Medicine.
- John L. Young, director of the Georgia Center for Cancer
Statistics, received the NCI Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End
Results Program Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions
to the SEER program. The Metropolitan Atlanta and Rural Georgia
SEER Cancer Registry, based at the RSPH, received an NCI SEER recognition
award.
- Kathryn Yount (IH) is serving a two-year term as the
representative for social sciences on the Executive Council of the
Institute for Comparative and International Studies.
Congratulations to the faculty and students who are making the RSPH a vital training ground for
public health. Keep up your good work.
James W. Curran, MD, MPH
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