SPRING 2019
Celebrations in Spring
We come into this commencement season on a high note. In the latest
U.S. News & World Report rankings, Rollins came in at No. 5 among the nation’s 177 accredited programs and schools of public health. Rollins has placed in the top 10 for more than 15 years—most recently as No. 7. This year marks the first time that accredited programs of public health were included on the list.
On May 13, we graduated 527 MPH and MSPH students, including 25 dual-degree graduates, in our first indoor commencement ceremony. We also awarded 26 PhD degrees. Retiring Executive Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Public Health
Richard Levinson gave the commencement address, in which he encouraged graduates to, "Go raise public health!"
Jessica Seiler 19MPH was the student speaker, and she characterized public health as the most optimistic of sciences.
Adia Raichelle Louden 19MPH accepted the James W. Alley Award for service to disadvantaged populations.
The Eugene J. Gangarosa Award for creative solutions in global health was presented to
Alana Zelaya Flores 19MPH.
Juan Leon (global health) was recognized with two awards. He received the Thomas F. Sellers Jr. Award for exemplifying the ideals of public health and serving as a role model to colleagues. The award is given to an indiv
idual who represents the best qualities of collegiality. Juan was also named Professor of the Year by the Rolling Student Government Association.
The Rollins Student Government Association named
Larry Cardwell (campus services) as its Staff Person of the Year.
The Charles C. Shepard Award for best RSPH thesis was presented to
Julia Gallini 19MPH. The award is given to the graduating master's student who is deemed by the faculty to have prepared the most scholarly research paper.
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Rosa Abraha |
Rosa Abraha 19MPH has been selected as the 2019 Emory Graduate Student Leader of the Year. Rosa served as 2018 president of the Rollins Student Government Association and has been an active member of the Emory community throughout her time at Rollins. This award highlights Abraha's dedication to creating an inclusive and welcoming campus environment that makes Rollins student life exceptional.
Aisha Mahmood 20MPH received The Heart of Emory Award, given to students who are active, passionate contributors to the Emory community. Aisha was a member of the Graduate Student Government Association's Diversity, Inclusion, and Student Concerns Committee.
Mitchel Klein (epidemiology) received the inaugural Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education, which is given to one faculty member per school.
The following faculty were honored with Department Awards for Teaching Excellence:
Dawn Comeau (behavioral sciences and health education),
Kelli Komro (behavioral sciences and health education),
Hao Wu (biostatistics and bioinformatics),
Kelley Chester (executive MPH),
Matthew Gribble (environmental health),
Lauren Christiansen-Lindquist (epidemiology),
Karen Andes (global health), and
Adam Wilk (health policy and management).
A school founder retires
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Richard Levinson |
We celebrated
Richard Levinson’s retirement earlier this month with toasts, slide shows, and a little bit of
Sound of Music. Dick is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Public Health and executive associate dean for academic affairs emeritus—and I contend he has been the best academic affairs dean Emory has ever had in any school. Dick helped develop, lead, and grow the school from its very earliest days, and he has guided the promotion and tenure of hundreds of faculty members.
Dick was recruited to Emory’s Department of Sociology as an assistant professor in 1972. He quickly made a name for himself for his innovative teaching, his incomparable work ethic, and his knack for collaboration—among his extracurriculars was involvement with a group that was the precursor to Emory’s Center for Ethics. When faculty from the School of Medicine discussed adding an academic program aimed at training candidates for health planning jobs, he was tapped to help map out a curriculum. In 1975, Dick was among six faculty teaching in the School of Medicine’s Master of Community Health Program, which eventually became our school.
Outside the university, Dick worked on Senator Edward Kennedy’s staff of the U.S. Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee and on Representative John Dingell’s staff on the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow. He also served as Chief of the Behavioral Epidemiology and Evaluation Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Over the years, Levinson’s overall excellence has been recognized with both the school’s and university’s highest honors including the Thomas F. Sellers Jr. Award, Professor of the Year, University Teacher Scholar, the Crystal Apple Award, and the Thomas Jefferson Award. He has been a beloved and cherished colleague, professor, and friend who has helped shape the path of not only the school, but thousands of the students, staff, and faculty who have come through its doors. In honor of his legacy, our school’s largest and best classroom, CNR 1000, has been renamed in his honor.
Stephens receives Charles R. Hatcher Jr. MD Award
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Jon Lewin, David Stephens, and Jim Curran |
David S. Stephens has been named the 2019 recipient of the Charles R. Hatcher Jr. Award for Excellence in Public Health. David is the Stephen W. Schwarzmann Distinguished Professor of Medicine, vice president for research of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, and chair of Department of Medicine at Emory School of Medicine. David is also professor of microbiology and immunology at the SOM and professor of epidemiology at Rollins.
Since joining Emory in 1982, David has led the development of very successful programs in infectious diseases and microbial pathogenesis. He has been a major contributor to the creation and development of the NIH-funded Emory Vaccine Center, the Emory Center for AIDS Research, and the Serious Communicable Diseases Unit at Emory.
New grants
Robert Breiman, Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) Network, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, $27.7 million, continuation.
Carmen Marsit, HERCULES: Health and Exposome Research Center at Emory 5 Yr - Competitive Renewal, NIH National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, $1.5 million, continuation.
Christine Moe, Assessment of Fecal Exposure Pathways in Low-Income Urban Settings, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, $1.2 million, continuation
Kathryn Yount, Impact Evaluation of Tipping Point, CARE, $940,000, January 14, 2019 – March 1, 2023
Carlos del Rio, Center for AIDS Research, NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, $930,000, supplement
Viola Vaccarino, Sleep Disturbance as a Mechanism for Ischemic Heart Disease in PTSD, NIH National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, $780,000, continuation
Aaron Siegler, Integrating a Combination HIV Prevention Intervention into a Widely-Used Geosocial App for Chinese MSM, NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, $700,000, January 23, 2019 – December 31, 2022
Shakira Suglia, Stress, Epigenetics and Aging, NIH National Institute on Aging, $680,000, continuation
Hannah Cooper, Developing the Evidence Base for Overdose Policies: A Multilevel Analysis of NHBS, NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse, $660,000, continuation
Michele Marcus, Collaborative Research and Action: Empowering an Exposed Community, NIH National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, $620,000, continuation.
Rollins faculty have received many other grants for research and training between February 1 - May 1
View the complete list.
Appointments and promotions
Faculty promotions
New faculty
Post doctoral fellows
Staff promotions
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Hillary Barton, Research Projects Manager, Epidemiology
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Laura Donnelly, Programs Senior Associate Director, Behavioral Sciences and Health Education
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Yevgenly Kovalenkov, Pre-Award III Research Administrator, Research Administration
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Erin Lebow-Skelley, Lead Public Health Program Associate, Behavioral Sciences and Health Education
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Ashley Mastin, Academic Department Administrator, Behavioral Sciences and Health Education
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Elizabeth Pembleton, Programs Associate Director, Epidemiology
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Jianping Qi, Academic Department Administrator, Epidemiology
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Ann Lockard Thorne, Senior Public Health Program Associate, Behavioral Sciences and Health Education
New staff
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Chimora Ngozi Amobi, Public Health Program Associate, Behavioral Sciences and Health Education
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Taylor Lee Kennedy, Public Health Program Associate, Behavioral Sciences and Health Education
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Kamaria Dansby, Research Specialist, Epidemiology
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Diane Johnson-Alexander, Administrative Assistant, Epidemiology
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Sarah Elias Durry, Public Health Program Associate, Global Health
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Olivia Manders, Senior Research Administration Coordinator, Global Health
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Andisheh Nouraee, Communications Director, Global Health Institute
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Rosemarie Henson Sampson, Operations Senior Director (CHAMPS), Global Health Insitute
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Tammy Lee Babitz, Post Award III Research Administrator, Research Administration
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Maleika Huff, Post Award III Research Administrator, Research Administration
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Aisha Ricketts, Communications Manager, Student Services
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