Having trouble viewing this email? Click here to view in your web browser
Newsletter Volume 8 Issue 7 - December 8, 2021
In this issue:
IMPORTANT NOTES:
Zoom Updates


Newsletter Editors Needed
Lunch Colloquium - Monday, December 13
Allan Levey
“Racing For An Effective Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease: One Person At a Time”


Lunch Colloquium - Monday, January 10
Sherryl Goodman
"Depression in Women During Pregnancy and the Postpartum:


OLLI News
Emeritus Faculty Teaching at OLLI in 2022


Faculty Activities
Russell Richey


New Members
Arthur E. Stillman


Walking the Campus with Dianne
IMPORTANT NOTES:
Zoom Updates
Reminder to check for Zoom updates. The most recent, as of this writing, is 5.8.6.

Note that automatic updates can be selected upon the latest Zoom update.
If you have any problems in getting the update, please contact Dianne at dianne.becht@emory.edu for more information.
Newsletter Editors Needed
Do you have good proof-reading skills? Enjoy editing?

We're looking for individuals who would like to assist with proof-reading the newsletter before publication. It takes less than an hour twice a month and gives you an opportunity to flex your editing muscles as well as get a chance to see the newsletter first!

If you are interested please contact Ann Rogers (ann.e.rogers@emory.edu) or Dianne Becht (dianne.becht@emory.edu).
Lunch Colloquium - Monday, December 13, 2021
“Racing For An Effective Treatment for
Alzheimer’s Disease: One Person At a Time”

Allan Levey
Director, Brain Health Personalized Medicine Institute, Emory University

Zoom Lunch Colloquium
11:30 am - 1:00 pm


Dr. Levey will provide a brief introduction to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, including the current state of knowledge, treatments, and accelerating progress in research. Given his many years of work as chair of the Department of Neurology and his recent appointment as Director of the newly constituted Brain Health Personalized Medicine Institute—not to mention his continuing roles as The Goizueta Foundation Endowed Chair for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, and Betty Gage Holland Professor and Chair, and director of the Goizueta Alzheimer's Disease Research Center—there may be no one better able to share highlights of Emory’s remarkable record of ongoing research in neurodegenerative disease and information about the initiatives in this area that the Brain Health Center will be pursuing under his leadership.


About Allan Levey:

Dr. Allan Levey, MD, PhD, is the newly appointed Director of Emory's Brain Health Personalized Medicine Institute (BHPMI). The Institute will house a vibrant research program to collect, integrate, and analyze large data sets to inform understanding of the biological, medical, and lifestyle factors impacting brain health and disease. Its mission is to improve brain health patient outcomes through personalized medicine and data science.

Dr. Levey received his BS from the University of Michigan and both his PhD and MD from the University of Chicago. A visionary leader who is internationally recognized for his work in neurodegenerative disease, he has served as neurology department chair at Emory for the past 18 years. He is The Goizueta Foundation Endowed Chair for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, Betty Gage Holland Professor and Chair, and director of the Goizueta Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. He has also played a pivotal role in the growth and success of the Emory Brain Health Center, partnering with leadership from Neurosurgery, Psychiatry, Rehabilitation Medicine, and the Emory Sleep Center.

Researchers and clinicians from many areas, working together—as it has been possible for them to do at Emory and as will be more possible still under the aegis of the BHPMI—have learned that across the spectrum of brain diseases, there are more commonalities than differences. Dementia, depression, ALS, autism, stroke and other brain diseases have been treated as unrelated conditions. However, data from the integrated research taking place at Emory’s Brain Health Center indicate that all these diseases are more related than previously believed, and data science can help complete the puzzle picture, leading to improved patient care and, ultimately, to prevention as well as treatment of such diseases.
Lunch Colloquium - Monday, January 10, 2022
"Depression in Women During Pregnancy and the Postpartum"

Sherryl Goodman
Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology

Zoom Lunch Colloquium
11:30 am - 1:00 pm


Many of us know someone who was depressed during pregnancy or after her baby was born. And some of us have experienced depression ourselves—in those circumstances or otherwise. What do we mean by “depression”? Why be concerned about it, particularly when it occurs among women who are pregnant or parenting infants? And what can we do about it? Few are better equipped to address this topic and answer questions such as these than Sherryl Goodman. Her decades of research, grounded in developmental psychopathology, have encompassed study of mechanisms by which mothers with depression transmit psychopathology to their children, preventing or treating depression in women, and how children might benefit from prevention or treatment of their mothers’ depression.

About Sherryl Goodman:

Dr. Sherryl Goodman is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology at Emory University and Director of Graduate Studies. She recently served as Editor of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology and Chair of the Council of Editors of the American Psychological Association. Her research interests, grounded in developmental psychopathology, include mechanisms by which mothers with depression transmit psychopathology to their children, preventing or treating depression in women, and how children might benefit from prevention or treatment of their mothers’ depression. She is dedicated to the integration of science and practice in psychology. Dr. Goodman received her BA with honors in Psychology from Connecticut College (1972: Magna Cum Laude) and her PhD in Psychology (Clinical; 1978) at the University of Waterloo. 
OLLI News
For those who may not be familiar with OLLI -- The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Emory is a lifelong learning program for seasoned adults who enjoy learning for fun. At OLLI, the thirst for knowledge never ends, with classes and social programs that nourish the mind, body, and soul. Build friendships with others who live in the spirit of learning and personal growth by choosing from dozens of classes and special interest programs.

Emeritus Members Marilynne McKay and George de Man are teaching courses at OLLI beginning January 2022. Below you will find more information about the courses they are teaching. If you are interested in attending theirs or any other courses at OLLI in 2022, please click here to view the OLLI website for more information.



MONUMENTAL PROBLEMS: Rethinking Public Memorials
 
Instructor: Marilynne McKay
 
7 weeks beginning January 11
Tuesdays 10:00-11:00am
 
Course Description
Who deserves a monument in an America torn by issues of racial inequity and social injustice? Since the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, many Confederate monuments have been removed as symbols of White supremacy. We’ll compare the histories of Southern and Northern memorials and hear how present-day communities are reacting to demands for change. We’ll see new honorees and hear what historians have to say about “erasing history.” We’ll learn some strategies used to sidestep legal issues and tally some big expenses involved in maintaining statuary and finding new homes for displaced monuments.
 
We’ll discuss the new Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s $250 million investment designed to “transform the way our country’s histories are told in public spaces.” Using data from the National Monument Audit, we’ll review today’s national statuary—it’s no surprise that memorialized individuals are overwhelmingly white and male. We’ll learn that violence is the most dominant subject of commemoration across our nation (33% of conventional monuments mention war). What are the values we really want to honor? We’ll explore how communities are imagining proposals that might “ensure that future generations inherit a commemorative landscape that venerates and reflects the vast, rich complexity of the American story.”


Modern Amazons: Formidable Women and How They Made Good or Fell Short

Instructors: Jill Parks and George deMan

January 11 - February 1, 2022
Tuesdays 11:15am - 12:15pm

Course Description
This class will look at formidable women of the 20th and 21st century. We will look at some who are iconic but struggled for their place in a male dominated world:  Nancy Pelosi, RBG, Liz Cheney, Nikki Haley, C.T. Whitman, Sheryl Sandberg, Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir among others. We will also take a look at those who are not as well known, such as Beryl Markham, Bessie Coleman, Nellie Bly, Emma Goldman, but made their mark- - and finally we will look at those who, fatally flawed by hubris, fate and events, or the machinations of their enemies, failed to grasp the lofty goals they (and perhaps we) sought: Evita Peron, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Elizabeth Holmes, and others.

Faculty Activities
Russell Richey
Dean Emeritus of Candler School of Theology

Emeritus College member Russell Richey has recently published a book titled "A Church's Broken Heart: Mason Dixon Methodism."

How might United Methodism confront its continuing racial dilemmas and grasp how and why Methodism came to be so divided--organizationally, geo-politically, structurally, attitudinally--precisely where it proved most successful, namely in its heartland states stretching west from the Delmarva across middle America? From its late 18th-century landing on the Delmarva Peninsula, an initially anti-slavery Methodism advanced west across middle America, its circuit riders and class meetings welcoming into membership Blacks as well as Whites. In this border state homeland, Methodism went early into torment over slavery, retreated from its initial anti-slavery witness, suffered through several racially-inspired denominational schisms, and, in the major 1939 reunion, was structured in sectional-racist denominational divisions (jurisdictions).
 
Virtually all Blacks went into a national Central Jurisdiction. The five regional jurisdictions live on, dividing the church sectionally. Gradually, the Central Jurisdiction bled churches and ministers into one of the previously White jurisdictions. Jurisdictional sectionalism persists, however, with discord now apparent on abortion and homosexuality. Further, racial separatism lingers, markedly and especially at the congregational level. The four selected states and their conferences exhibit Methodism's old and ongoing strains. In them the sectional racist spirit surfaced gradually in the period 1816-1876. In the 1844 Methodist Episcopal Church division over slavery, Ohio and Indiana marched with the MEC (north) and Tennessee and Kentucky with the MEC South. In the latter two, however, some anti-slavery sentiment persisted and in the two northern states considerable racism and some pro-slavery advocacy did the same. Methodists invested significantly on both sides of the Civil War. The sectional and racial commitments, matured in the years studied, have stayed vibrant in two (now jurisdictioned) Methodisms.
New Members
New members are the lifeblood of any organization.
Please make a special effort to welcome them to the EUEC!
Douglas L. Falls, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Cell Biology
Arthur E. Stillman, MD, PhD, -- William and Kay Casarella Professor of Radiology and Imaging Sciences; Professor of Medicine; Director, Division of Cardiothoracic Imaging

Dr. Stillman is a Distinguished Investigator of the Academy of Radiology Research. He is a past President of the North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging and past Chair of the Council of Cardiovascular Radiology & Intervention of the American Heart Association. Dr. Stillman is recognized as an international leader in cardiovascular imaging. His current research focuses on outcomes and comparative effectiveness for cardiac imaging.

Walking the Campus with Dianne
Our last BIG view was of the beautiful and massive pipe organ located in the Cherry Logan Emerson Concert Hall at the Schwartz Center.

From the Schwartz Center website:

Emerson Concert Hall houses the 14-ton Werner Wortsman Memorial Organ built by top North American builder Daniel Jaeckel and installed in 2005.

Rising 36 feet above the stage, the Werner Wortsman Memorial Organ not only towers as the visual focal point for the Schwartz Center, but it also offers three primary artistic functions:

  • to serve for performance of organ solo repertoire
  • to complement other Emory University campus organ installations used for performance and graduate studio teaching
  • to provide the necessary musical vehicle for the performance of orchestral and choral literature requiring the participation of a concert hall organ

The Werner Wortsman Memorial Organ is named in memory of Werner Wortsman 47C and in recognition of his generous support of the arts at Emory. The organ, a mechanical key-action tracker instrument of 54 stops and 3,605 pipes, is playable from three manuals (keyboards) and pedal board.

The design of the organ case bears tribute to the classical golden section principle in its size ratios. For example, the relationship of the vertical distance from the stage to the bottom of the organ case relative to the height of the entire organ case itself is the same relationship as that of the entire organ case height to the distance from the stage to the top of the organ case.
The case’s cherry wood, rounded pedal towers, and the painted lower panels below the impost all match design elements found in the concert hall. The Emory University coat of arms occupies the top middle position of the organ's highest central tower, surrounded by intricate basswood carvings outlining patterns of Southern foliage.

The Werner Wortsman Memorial Organ is one of the first pipe organs built in the United States that uses as a starting point the tonal outlook of 18th-century Alsatian organ builder Andreas Silbermann.

After moving from his native German Saxony to Strasbourg, France, the cosmopolitan capital of Alsace, Silbermann built significant organs that integrated attributes of both the French Classic organ and the German Baroque examples. Similarly, our Werner Wortsman Memorial Organ benefits from the internationalism of its maker who worked extensively with organ builders in both Europe and the United States before setting up his own pipe organ shop in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1978.

Influenced by the classic instruments of Silbermann, our Werner Wortsman Memorial Organ includes a judicious mix of organ-building traditions from different countries. For example, its rounded pedal towers, its facade pipes with their high tin content, and the five-rank mounted cornet all bear a decidedly French Classic imprint. Southern German and Austrian Baroque organ design influences are heard in its generously scaled flute stops.

The organ’s two main keyboard divisions, the Hauptwerk and the Oberwerk, feature more Central German Baroque principal choruses and mixtures, necessary for Bach polyphony. The Romantic harmonic reeds and harmonic flutes of the Recit provide timbres reminiscent of the French-Symphonic organ builder Aristade Cavaillé-Coll.

About the Donor

Werner Wortsman 47C (1925–2009) was raised in Germany with a love for classical music and opera, and at age 13 came to the United States to escape Nazi rule. He served in US Army Intelligence in World War II before majoring in journalism at Emory. Living most of his adult life near campus, Wortsman owned a radio station, wrote two books, and participated in Emory alumni events. The value he placed on education, music, and the arts inspired his bequest to the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts at Emory. The Werner Wortsman Memorial Organ was named for him in 2011, in recognition of his generous estate gift to the arts at Emory.

And the person creating BIG, beautiful music in the photo? A fairly new member of the Emeritus College, Timothy Albrecht, Professor of Church Music, Professor of Music, and, University Organist. To hear Timothy speak about the Werner Wortsman organ, please click here.
Since this is the last issue of the newsletter for 2021, I will not end the year with a campus view, but an inspirational feel-good story! I hope this makes you smile as much as it did me. And perhaps inspire you to become a runner (or maybe a bike rider?) -- if so, let me know and I'll join you!

Happy holidays to everyone!!

See you again in 2022.
105-Year-Old Woman Sets World Record For 100-Meter Race
         
November 2021

National Senior Games Association

Age ain't nothing but a number -- and 105-year-old runner Julia Hawkins is full proof of that after setting a world record in the 100-meter dash run in her age group!!

Hawkins -- better known as Hurricane -- made history with a 1:02:95 time in the race at the 2021 Louisiana Senior Games last weekend.

Hawkins is the first female track and field athlete and American to set the 100-meter record in her 105+ age group.

"The older you get, the more passions you ought to have," Hawkins told USA Today, "Keeping active is one of my most important passions."

"I believe in magic moments, thinking of things that you see and do and feel that are more than just usual. They're absolutely out of this world, they're so unusual. And wonderful." Hawkins added, "Every time I race it's a magic moment."

This isn't the first time Hawkins has made history on the track --- in 2017, she ran the fastest 100-meter for age group 100-104 in the National Seniors Games.

"People say that they want to be just like me when they grow up... And I think if I can please people and give them hope, then it's worth living longer."

The former middle school teacher got into the sport when she was 100 ... after her four kids registered her after she gave up 8-10 years of biking ... and she loves it.

"When I started running, I found it was a pleasure. I enjoyed doing it," Hawkins said. "I felt that would be a neat challenge to run the 100 [meter] dash, at 100, in under a minute."

The Louisiana games is a qualifier for the National Senior Games in Florida in May 2022 -- and Hawkins is still debating if she'll go this year.
Emory University Emeritus College
The Luce Center
825 Houston Mill Road NE #206
Atlanta, GA 30329