Newsletter Volume 8 Issue 5 - October 27, 2021 |
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Zoom Updates
Volunteer Opportunity
AMIS Amigo Friendship Program
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Lunch Colloquium - Monday, November 1
Melissa Carter
“Upstream: Legal Advocacy to Promote Family Integrity”
Lunch Colloquium - Monday, November 15
Mike Kutner
“Biostatistical Collaboration for the Betterment of Society”
AROHE Conference
Post Conference News
Healthcare News
Medicare Open Enrollment
Faculty Activities
Corinne Kratz
Pat Marsteller
Perry Sprawls, Jr.
Dale Strasser
Walking the Campus with Dianne
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Just a reminder to check for Zoom updates. The most recent, as of this writing, is 5.8.1.
If you have any problems in getting the update, please contact Dianne at dianne.becht@emory.edu for more information.
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About AMIS Atlanta
AMIS is the French word for “friends” and describes our mission, which is to promote cultural and global understanding through friendship and hospitality with international students and scholars in the greater Atlanta area. Join AMIS in welcoming international students to Atlanta, Georgia and learn about the world through international friendship. You can make a difference in the life of a future global leader while making a new friend!
AMIS Amigo Friendship Program
AMIS’s International Friendship Program matches an international student with an American volunteer in the local community for friendship and sharing of cultures. Your support can help an international student in their adjustment to American life, culture, and language, as well as introduce them to our city. We ask you to meet at least once for a meal, event, or outing and continue your friendship over the school year as you have time and opportunity. AMIS will provide support and group events for friendship partners. During the COVID-19 pandemic, please follow CDC recommendations for in-person gatherings.
Learn more at: amis-inc.org/amigovolunteer
Or call us at: 470-851-1248
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Lunch Colloquium - Monday November 1, 2021 |
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“Upstream: Legal Advocacy to Promote Family Integrity”
Melissa Carter
Clinical Professor of Law,
Executive Director of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center
Zoom Lunch Colloquium
11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Two decades of research documenting the effects of adverse childhood experiences and mounting evidence that removal from family and the experience of foster care can cause acute and enduring trauma have helped to broaden thinking about the relationship between the legal duty to protect children and the moral responsibility to promote their well-being. Recently enacted federal policies have imposed mandates and unlocked resources to prevent the unnecessary separation of families, reduce socioeconomic and racial and ethnic disparities in the child welfare system, and afford a greater measure of justice for children and parents. As child welfare system stakeholders coalesce around a prevention agenda, the role and responsibility of the legal and judicial community in achieving the outcomes of safety, permanency, and well-being for children must be redefined. One promising opportunity for system improvement has captured the full attention of judges, lawyers, and agency administrators throughout the country – the use of lawyers as an “upstream” intervention to address the social determinants of health that create vulnerabilities within families.
Melissa Carter will explain this emerging model of preventive legal advocacy and share research, data, and program models demonstrating how lawyers can prevent the need for children to enter foster care by addressing the poverty-related needs of families.
About Melissa Carter:
Melissa Carter is a Clinical Professor of Law at Emory Law School and the Executive Director of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center, a multidisciplinary child law program seeking to promote and protect the legal rights and interests of children involved with the juvenile court, child welfare, and juvenile justice systems. In that role, she is responsible for the administration of the Center, directing the public policy and legislative advocacy clinics, and teaching child welfare and family law courses. Melissa brings 20 years of experience leading system change work through policy development and legislative advocacy, including efforts that resulted in a comprehensive revision of Georgia’s Juvenile Code and dozens of state child welfare laws. She also holds an appointment as a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Morehouse School of Medicine.
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Lunch Colloquium - Monday, November 15, 2021 |
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“Biostatistical Collaboration for the Betterment of Society”
Mike Kutner
Rollins Professor of Biostatistics, Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Emory School of Public Health
Zoom Lunch Colloquium
11:30 am - 1:00 pm
We are not the only ones who recognize the extraordinary quality (and impact) of the work Mike Kutner has done in his chosen field of statistical techniques and procedures especially relevant to the biological sciences and medicine. And it’s not only here that he has distinguished himself both teaching in this field and doing research, especially the collaborative research he so enjoys, and publishing, of course. Mike has been receiving “lifetime achievement” awards from a wide range of professional organizations for decades now. And this year, the American Statistical Association (ASA) named him the recipient of the “2021 Karl E. Peace Award for Outstanding Statistical Contributions to the Betterment of Society.” In today’s talk, Mike will look back at the work that prompted the ASA to offer him this award—and also look ahead to the work he still plans to do, training the next generation of biostatisticians so they may enjoy and excel in the collaborative efforts that characterize the field even as he himself has done.
About Mike Kutner:
Here are some excerpts from what Mike has written about himself, followed by some further information from us:
After I received my BS. degree in mathematics and physics, I was certified to teach junior high and high school students. I decided that in order to teach more effectively, it was important to pursue further education. Having always enjoyed quantitative courses that included probability and statistics, I decided to pursue a master's degree in statistics with a minor in mathematics. Upon completion of my master's degree [at VPI & State university], I joined the Mathematics Department at the College of William and Mary where I taught statistics, probability, numerical analysis, and calculus courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level for five years. I really loved academic teaching and applied research and therefore I went back to graduate school [at Texas A & M University] to pursue a doctoral degree in statistics in order to get my "union card." My doctoral work included learning statistical techniques and procedures that were especially relevant to the biological sciences and medicine.
[In 1971] I joined the Department of Biometry and Statistics at the Emory University School of Medicine after completing my doctoral training. This allowed me to teach graduate students, and medical students, and to pursue collaborative and methodological research with clinical faculty in the medical school. I worked on several interesting studies at the Clinical Research Center. . . . In addition to working on clinical research studies, I was also publishing methodological research papers in statistical journals. My research interests in linear statistical models afforded me the opportunity to join John Neter and William Wasserman as co-authors of Applied Linear Statistical Models, 2nd edition. This popular textbook is currently in its 4th edition and is continually referred to as the "Bible."
At Emory University, I moved up the academic ranks to Associate Professor and then to Full Professor in roughly ten years. A few years later, I was asked to be Interim Chairman of the Department of Biometry and Statistics. I enjoyed the administrative responsibilities and duties and thus decided to accept the position of Director of Biostatistics in the newly reconfigured Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Over the next two years, Emory University created a School of Public Health. I was asked to serve as both Director of Biostatistics and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in this newly formed School. In my last two years at Emory before leaving Emory for a while, I was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
And now some words from us. In 1994, Mike left Emory University to join The Cleveland Clinic Foundation as Chairman of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology. And he has reported that his work there was “both challenging and rewarding.”
By 2000, Mike was back at Emory, and in 2002, was named Chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics in the School of Public Health, a position he held until 2009. In 2004, he was named the Rollins Professor of Biostatistics—which title he holds still.
As noted in the description of Mike’s talk today, above, he has been receiving “lifetime achievement” awards of one sort or another for decades now. The latest, the Karl E. Peace Award, is the most prestigious of all. But we also wanted to note that Mike himself has gifted Emory with funds to endow two awards for professionals and students in biostatistics, one the Michael H. Kutner Award for Excellence in Biostatistics, which recognizes an RSPH graduate for distinguished achievement in the field, and [the other a scholarship from] the Michael H. Kutner Fund for Biostatistics to support outstanding PhD candidates in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics. As he said in 2011, the year of this generous gift, “It is time for me to pay back my gratitude for what I have achieved as a biostatistician.”
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We Have Boldly Went—and Had a Splendid Time:
The Virtual AROHE Conference of 2021
Many members of the Emeritus College will remember the last annual conference of the Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education (AROHE), an in-person event that took place over three days in October 2018, right here in Atlanta, with Emory hosting and the various other institutions of GA-HERO, the Georgia Association of Higher Education Retiree Organizations, co-hosting. Arizona State University was to host the next conference in 2020, but when the pandemic forced the cancellation of that plan, AROHE began to plan for a virtual conference, to be held in 2021, instead. It was Bill Verdini, the then-President of the ASU Emeritus College, and President-elect of AROHE itself, who insisted those of us involved in the new round of planning make a virtue of necessity—and rather celebrate than bemoan the change from an actual site (and event) to a virtual one.
And it was Bill, a longtime fan of the Star Trek series, who first suggested that we might promote the virtual conference as a “voyage of the Starship AROHE.” Before long, we had titled the conference “Re-imagining Retirement: ‘Let Us Boldly Go.” And we began to publicize it thus:
Cyberspace. The final frontier. And the site of the next AROHE enterprise. Join us as we venture into virtual realms to explore the opportunities for collegial relationships, intellectual engagement, and productive endeavor that Retirement Organizations present--both to their members and to the colleges and universities they serve. And help us to discover further ways that ROs and AROHE itself might yet do more to re-crate retirement as a time of purpose and passion for all on board the "starship" of our Association.
We also made the happy discovery that the Starship logo (see above) and the accompanying music (that you can perhaps recall) are in the public domain—and so could be used in our promotional materials.
Well, here we are, a little more than a year since the planning began (with Gretchen Schulz as co-chair of the Program Committee), and a little more than a week since the conference concluded, with a report on how hugely successful it was—and not in spite of but because of its virtuality, the factor that made it possible for so many more to “attend” than have usually attended the in-person conferences, including that here at Emory. Indeed, twice as many as usual “beamed aboard.” (Thank you, Scotty.)
Among the concurrent sessions (selected from proposals submitted by representatives of ROs that are AROHE members) were two offered by reps of our own RO, one by Ann Rogers, and one by Ron Gould and Gretchen Schulz.
Ann’s presentation, coupled with another in a session on “Post-Pandemic Planning: Applying Lessons Learned,” was entitled “From Zoom to Hybrid in Four Months.” It was described thus in the proposal and program:
With the help of Zoom, Emory University's Emeritus College pivoted to virtual programming at the onset of the pandemic, in fact increasing the frequency of our popular Lunch Colloquiums from every other week to weekly and increasing attendance at the Colloquiums, too. Now the risks associated with COVID have decreased, we are planning to resume in-person programming in the fall--in combination with virtual programming. Our presentation will describe the technology that will enable this hybridization.
Of course, by the time Ann offered the presentation, the worsening of the pandemic situation in Georgia, reducing the number of those willing to attend an in-person event, and the tech problems that arose in our first attempt at hybridizing our Lunch Colloquiums had combined to persuade us to revert to Zoom programming only for the time being. And Ann retitled her presentation “From Zoom to Hybrid in Four Months—and Back.” It was very well received, perhaps because so many other ROs are struggling in the same way with the same issues. Misery loves company—and good suggestions for dealing with the misery, making lemonade from lemons, to fail to coin a phrase, as I do think we at Emory are managing to do.
Ron and Gretchen presented in a session called “Never Too Late: Lifelong Learning (and Teaching). Their talk was entitled “Growing (While) Old: Maximizing the Multidisciplinarity of the RO Experience.” And here is the description of that talk—also very well received:
We presenters will share the primary lesson learned from long experience with our own RO--that ROs allow academics who have spent years constrained by disciplinary boundaries (often involving literal as well as intellectual space) to mix with colleagues from every discipline imaginable, enjoying programming that is itself as mixed--as multidisciplinary--as it can be. We will argue it's the learning that ensues (such a pleasure) that turns "growing old" into "growing while old."
Ron also moderated a set of presentations on RO programs in which retirees mentor students at their institutions. Ann also organized an Emory “booth” for the virtual version of the Resource Exchange Fair that is always one of the highlights of these conferences—an opportunity for attendees to find out more about the programming offered by one another’s organizations. And other Emory attendees at the conference helped to “staff” that “booth” when it was “open” for “live” interaction. (We had a contingent of nine at the conference—not only Ann and Ron and Gretchen, but also Marilynne McKay, Marianne Scharbo-Dehaan, Brenda Bynum, Kurt Heiss, and Clark Lemons, not to mention although we must certainly mention Gray Crouse, who was omnipresent behind the scenes as a member of the Tech Support Committee and whose services were much in demand, given the challenges of the platform AROHE had chosen to use for the event.)
The conference concluded (on Thursday, October 14) with a wrap-up from our captain on this voyage of the Starship AROHE, our leader in this (ahem) enterprise, neither James Kirk (whose avatar actually did fly into space while our conference was going on) nor Jean Luc Picard, but Bill Verdini. In his “Captain’s log, stardate 10142021,” he reported that, although this voyage had come to an end, we of AROHE will “continue to journey through 2022 and beyond.” We will continue to “boldly go” forward in those “efforts to transform retirement in higher education” that are the mission of AROHE itself—and its member institutions like Emory’s Emeritus College. And may we live long and prosper as we do so.
--Gretchen Schulz
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Medicare Open Enrollment, October 15 to December 7
Note: This article is for those who are already on Medicare. People not yet on Medicare should request our Healthcare Newsletter for information about initial enrollment in Medicare plans.
There are certain changes you can make to your Medicare policies during the open enrollment period each year. The changes you can make depend on the policies you have. Everyone should have a drug plan, either a separate Part D plan, or a drug plan associated with a Medicare Advantage plan. In either case, it is recommended that you check every year to see if the drug plan you have will be the best one for you in the next year, although data suggest that 70% of recipients do not check their drug plan against others. Drug plan formularies can change from year to year, so if you take potentially expensive drugs you could end up saving substantial amounts by changing your plan. How to check your plan is detailed below for the two types of plans that you might have.
Medigap Plan Plus Part D Drug Plan
As explained in this link, “In most states, insurance companies can deny you a different Medigap policy and you won’t have guaranteed issue rights, unless you are either eligible to switch under a specific circumstance or you purchased your Medigap policy less than 6 months ago.” Although you cannot change your Medigap plan during the Open Enrollment period, you can change your Part D drug plan during Open Enrollment, and can do so each year if you choose to do so.
To explore your Part D options, you would click here to access the 2022 Medicare Plan Finder. At this point, it becomes clear that having an account on https://www.medicare.gov/ is very helpful. I have an account that I set up last year when I did an initial search for Part D plans. My account thus has in it the drugs I searched for last year, the pharmacies I wanted to use, and also showed the Part D plan I currently have. I did not have any additional or different drugs to add, so all I had to do was to click a “See Plans” button to examine the plans sorted by the yearly drug and premium cost. You don’t have to choose a different plan and even if there is a plan shown that might be slightly less expensive, you might decide you are satisfied with your plan.
Medicare Advantage Plans
In contrast to the situation with Medigap plans, if you have a Medicare Advantage Plan, you can change your current plan to another Medicare Advantage plan during Open Enrollment, and you can do that each year if you choose. If you have had a Medicare Advantage Plan for 12 months or less, you can also choose a Medigap Plan without penalty (but if you have had some type of Medicare Advantage plan or plans for more than a year, you cannot switch into a Medigap Plan without potential underwriting or restrictions).
There are a number of reasons you might want to switch your Medicare Advantage Plan. Unlike Medigap plans, Medicare Advantage plans have networks, and those networks can shift from one year to the next. Medicare Advantage plans can also offer benefits not available through traditional Medicare/Medigap plans but those benefits can also change from one year to the next. In addition to those reasons, each Medicare Advantage Plan has its own drug formulary, and thus your drug costs could change from one year to the next, as can happen with Part D drug plans.
You can use the same 2022 Medicare Plan Finder as for the Part D drug Plans, but this time search for Medicare Advantage plans. You would enter the drugs you are currently taking, the pharmacies you would want to use, and then search for plans. You could then look just at drug costs, but the greater complication here is that any change of plan would not only change the drug formulary, but could also change the healthcare provider network, as well as other benefits.
If you are pleased with your current Medicare Advantage plan, you could look at the results of your search on the 2022 Medicare Plan Finder to determine what increases you might expect in the prices of your current medications and then decide whether you wanted to try to find a less expensive plan.
--Gray Crouse
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Corinne Kratz
Professor Emerita of Anthropology and African Studies
Corinne Kratz Receives Anthropology Lifetime Achievement Award
The Council for Museum Anthropology (CMA) is a section of the American Anthropological Association. This award recognizes CMA members whose careers demonstrate extraordinary achievements that have advanced museum anthropology through collections work, community collaborations, exhibitions, publications, public programming and outreach, teaching, policy development, and more. While many anthropologists distinguish themselves through their works, the Lifetime Achievement/Distinguished Service Award recognizes those who, over the course of their careers, have truly helped to define and or reshape the field of anthropology in and of museums.
Dr. Kratz was recognized for redefining both museum anthropology and critical museology during her near 50-year career, especially at the intersections between these fields and African Studies. She will receive the award in November. You may remember that she spoke to us last summer on "The Porcupine of Time. Mediating and Managing Multiple Temporalities in Exhibitions."
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Pat Marsteller
Professor of Practice Emerita in Biology
Team Bennett Award Goes to Pat Marsteller
Dr. Marsteller directed the Emory College Center for Science Education from 1997-2016. While at Emory, she developed programs that focus on attracting and retaining underrepresented students, women and minorities in careers in science and was the chair of the Emory President’s Commission on the Status of Minorities. She also was one of the cofounders of the Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology major and one of the leads on the NSF Center for Behavioral Neuroscience.
The award was established in 2009 by the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement. Each year, an individual and a team receive the award for their exemplary and extraordinary contributions to citizen science and whose work embodies the ideals and aims of Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER).
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Perry Sprawls, Jr.
Professor Emeritus of Radiology
As medical physicist Perry Sprawls approached retirement from a long Emory University career rather than transitioning to a well-earned and more leisurely lifestyle he went well “beyond the call of duty” by sharing his financial and intellectual resources and extensive experience as a clinical medical physicist and educator to enhance medical physics education in virtually every country of the world. He uses personal finances to fund the Sprawls Educational Foundation, www.sprawls.org, and uses it to connect with and distribute at no cost educational resources to medical physicists anywhere in the world. These resources include textbooks, online modules, and especially an extensive collection of high-quality visuals that can be used by medical physics educators/teachers to enhance their classroom and conference presentations and discussions. This effort to enhance the medical physics educational process around the world is supported by a series of authored articles available from the website on a variety of innovations and initiatives for increasing the effectiveness of medical physics education especially for clinical applications. A special effort has been to support the development of medical physics education in the LMIC with resources to enhance the effective use of the growing availability of the more modern medical imaging technology and methods.
In summary, he has been going "beyond the call of duty" by using extensive physical and intellectual resources developed throughout a long University career to enrich medical physics education and clinical applications around the world.
Perry Sprawls, Distinguished Emeritus Professor, Emory University and Sprawls Educational Foundation, 110 Spring View Drive, Black Mountain, NC 28711,
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Dale Strasser
Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine
"Dr. Dale Strasser Day" Honors Professor Upon Retirement
Recently retired professor of rehabilitation medicine Dale C. Strasser has been honored with a proclamation for “Dr. Dale Strasser Day” from U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, a letter of appreciation from U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, and many words of appreciation from patients and members of the Atlanta Post Polio Association. Strasser’s appointment in rehabilitation medicine spanned from 1990–2021, including serving as department chair from 1999–2005.
During his years of service, Dr. Strasser was the inaugural chair of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation’s Medical Rehab Council from 2008-10. He received recognition as one of Atlanta Magazine’s Atlanta’s Top Doctors and received the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine’s Edward W. Lowman Award, the Emory Physical Medicine and the Rehabilitation residency program’s The Light Bulb Award and American Academia of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Outstanding Council Service Award. Throughout his time with the department he authored or co-authored 31 peer-reviewed research articles, four review articles and 13 book chapters.
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Walking the Campus with Dianne |
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The BIG cat from our last walk can be found in a building we've visited before -- Michael C. Carlos Hall, home to the Art History Department and next door to the Michael C. Carlos Museum. As I mentioned before, the cat sits prominently at the bottom of the spiral staircase in the building. The sculpture is indeed quite large and appears to be very comfortable in its place. I've included another photo to give you a different view of the cat.
Here's a little history on the building for those who might be interested:
Namesake: Michael C. Carlos 1989H
Dates: Construction in 1916 | Renovated and renamed in 1985
One of the first two buildings on the Atlanta campus, the Michael C. Carlos Hall was home to the Law School until 1972. It was renovated in 1985 to house the Department of Art History and the museum collection.
It is named in honor of philanthropist and donor of antiquities Michael C. Carlos. The hall is connected to the Michael C. Carlos Museum.
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Let's continue with the BIG theme for our next walk and view a different kind of sculpture on campus. This one is much newer and more modern than the big cat. Each section of this piece is the size of a small bus, and it includes lights! |
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Where will you find this on the Emory Campus? |
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Emory University Emeritus College
The Luce Center
825 Houston Mill Road NE #206
Atlanta, GA 30329
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