Another Zoom update!

The most recent, as of this writing, is 5.10.7

If you have any problems getting the update, please contact Dianne at dianne.becht@emory.edu for more information.





Lunch Colloquium - Monday, June 20, 2022

“Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights

in the American South”

Kylie Smith

Associate Professor, Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellow for Nursing

and the Humanities, School of Nursing

Zoom Lunch Colloquium

11:30 - 1:00 pm

Psychiatric hospitals in the United States have always functioned as spaces of both custody and care. In the mid 20^th century legislation was passed in an attempt to improve conditions and treatment practices for patients, but these developments were delayed in the South due to an insistence on racial segregation. In this talk, Dr. Smith will draw on extensive archival sources referenced in her book in progress to show the ways that Southern psychiatric hospitals in the mid twentieth century had become home to many thousands of Black patients with mental and physical disability where treatment and care was custodial at best, violent and abusive at worst. Yet these hospitals were also the scene of important Civil Rights activism in the 1960s that revealed the ways that psychiatry functioned as a tool of white supremacy. This activism led to the end of segregation, but could not fix the racism that underpins the provision of mental health and disability care today.

This project is funded by the G13 Grant from the National Library of Medicine and will be published by UNC Press in 2023.

About Kylie Smith:

Dr. Smith is a tenured Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and the Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellow for Nursing and the Humanities and Associate Faculty in the Department of History at Emory. She teaches courses on the history of race in health care, critical theory, and nursing theory and philosophy in the School of Nursing and the Emory College of Arts and Sciences. Her research area is the history of psychiatry, and she is the author of the multiple-award-winning book Talking Therapy: Knowledge and Power in American Psychiatric Nursing. Her new book, entitled Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the American South, will be published by UNC Press in 2023; her work on the book has been supported by a grant from the National Library of Medicine (NIH).

Dr. Smith was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in English and History and a PhD in History from the University of Wollongong in Australia. Before coming to Emory, she worked in the School of Nursing at the University of Wollongong where she researched mental health nursing history and taught ethics and reflective practice. She has also worked in multicultural HIV/AIDS health promotion in Sydney, Australia, and studied scriptwriting at the Australian Film Television and Radio School.



Lunch Colloquium - Thursday, July 7, 2022

“Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 . . . or Long COVID”

Ighovwerha Ofotokun, MD, MSc

Professor of Medicine and Professor of Behavioral Sciences

and Health Education

PLEASE NOTE:  THIS MEETING IS ON THURSDAY

Zoom Lunch Colloquium

11:30 - 1:00 pm

Clinician-scientist Dr. Igho Ofotokun has long been involved in Emory’s work with emerging infectious diseases and their consequences or sequelae. He has now been chosen as a Principal Investigator of the Atlanta hub of the nationwide NIH-funded initiative, Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER). Aimed at studying the long-term post-acute-sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), the initiative seeks to understand the phenomenon that has come to be known as Long COVID so as to treat it better and perhaps prevent its occurrence. Today, Dr. Ofotokun will discuss what we currently know about the problem, including the burden of the lingering disease, the common clinical manifestations, the potential pathobiology, and the research effort he is helping to lead here at Emory and at other Atlanta-area institutions.

About Igho Ofotokun:

Igho Ofotokun is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine and Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. Since 2003 when he came to Emory, he has also been a Staff Physician in the Grady Memorial Health System Infectious Disease Program.

He received his BSc in Pharmacology from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1983, his MB:BS from the University of Benin, Nigeria, in 1990, and his MSc from Emory in 2005. His postgraduate training includes an Internship in Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan from 1995 – 1996, a Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan from 1996 – 1998, and a Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Michigan from 1999 – 2001.

He is a clinician-scientist much of whose career has been devoted to caring for individuals living with HIV and to combating the long-term sequelae (or consequences) of HIV among vulnerable populations. His work has focused especially on the care of women living with HIV/AIDS, and on mentoring early career investigators in patient-oriented research in women’s health. Following a BIRCWH Award won under the mentorship of Dr. Claire Pomeroy at the University of Kentucky in 2002, he went on to receive a NIAID-supported K-23 Award. At Emory, he built upon this earlier work and Emory’s research-rich environment to assume the leadership role in the field he has enjoyed ever since. He has served and is currently serving as the PI/co-PI of multiple NIH awards. Along with his co-PI Dr. Gina Wingood, he led the effort for the establishment of the NIH-funded Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) at Emory.

In recognition of his efforts in research and in the mentoring he cares so much about, he has received several mentoring awards including the Infectious Diseases Divisional Shanta Zimmer’s Mentoring Award in 2010, the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) National Research Award in 2013, and the Department of Medicine Shanthi V. Sitaraman Silver Pear Mentorship Award in 2014.

Given his extensive experience with the study of infectious disease, Dr. Ofotokun has recently been chosen as a Principal Investigator (PI) of the Atlanta hub of the nationwide NIH-funded initiative, Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER). Aimed at understanding the long-term post-acute-sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), the initiative seeks to understand, prevent, and treat the phenomenon that has come to be known as Long COVID. He, another PI from Emory, and a third PI from Morehouse have assembled a team of scientists, clinicians, patients, and caregivers from the Atlanta area to take on the critical problem posed by the long-term effects of COVID.



2022 Emeritus College Awards and Honors

A CELEBRATION OF ACHIEVEMENT

THE 2022 EMERITUS COLLEGE AWARDS AND HONORS RECEPTION

On the afternoon of Monday, June 13, members of the Emory University Emeritus College and family and friends gathered to celebrate the achievements of the 2022 recipients of the various awards and honors offered to retirees each year by the EUEC itself and by Emory College of Arts and Sciences. We also took the occasion to recognize new members, thank the donors whose generous gifts help us to thrive, and, sadly, bid good-bye to those whom we have lost in the last year.

After welcoming attendees (that is, those “attending” via Zoom), Ann E. Rogers, Director of the Emeritus College, turned the virtual podium over to Michael Elliott, Dean of Emory College, to present the Heilbrun Fellowship, awarded this year to Donald Stein, Asa Griggs Candler Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology, to support the research and scholarship he continues to do in retirement. (For more information about this fellowship and about Don Stein’s proposal for the award, see the relevant section of this article below.)

Next to speak was Tim Holbrook, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs (including those of the retirees of the EUEC). He offered congratulatory remarks to the EUEC itself, which has sustained its vitality so well throughout this difficult time of pandemic, and to the recipients of this year’s EUEC awards in the two categories of Distinguished Faculty Awards and Distinguished Service Awards.

Distinguished Faculty Awards recognize Emeritus College members who have made significant professional contributions to Emory and its affiliated institutions and/or to local, state, national, or international communities or organizations that reflect the “spirit of Emory.” A nominee must have been a member of the EUEC for at least two years. And the work adduced in a letter of nomination must have been done in the years since the member’s retirement.

Distinguished Service Awards recognize Emeritus College members who have made significant contributions by way of service to Emory and its affiliated institutions and/or to local, state, national, or international communities or organizations that reflect the “spirit of Emory.” A nominee must have been a member of the EUEC for at least two years. And the service adduced in a letter of nomination must have been done in the years since the member’s retirement.

The recipients of these awards were announced next—with those who nominated recipients sharing excerpts from their letters of nomination (excerpts also quoted in the relevant sections of this article below).

This year’s recipients of the Distinguished Faculty Awards are Michael M. E. Johns, Emeritus Executive Vice President for Health Affairs at Emory University, and Emeritus President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Emory Healthcare, nominated by Michael Kutner, and Vernon Robbins, Emeritus Professor of Religion and Winship Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities, nominated by Gretchen Schulz and Marilynne McKay.

This year’s recipients of the Distinguished Service Awards are Donald O’Shea, Professor Emeritus of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, nominated by Ann E. Rogers, Gray Crouse, and Gretchen Schulz, Professor Emerita of English, Oxford College, nominated by Ron Gould, Gray Crouse, Marilynne McKay, and Holly York.

We hope you’ll find the time to review the many reasons why the Heilbrun Selection Committee and the EUEC Awards and Honors Committee chose to honor these recipients with these awards.

THE 2022 HEILBRUN DISTINGUISHED FELLOW AWARD

THE 2022 EUEC DISTINGUISHED FACULTY AWARDS

Vernon Robbins

Emeritus Professor of Religion and

Winship Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities

The second recipient of a 2022 EUEC Distinguished Faculty Award is Vernon Robbins, Emeritus Professor of Religion and Winship Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities. In the letter nominating him for this honor, Gretchen Schulz and Marllynne McKay began with a description of the remarkable record of achievement that preceded his retirement in 2019, but (again, as required by the specifications for the award) they then focused on the many ways that record has been enhanced since. We quote:

For one thing, there are the publications he has authored or edited since 2019. They include Welcoming the Nations: International Sociorhetorical Explorations (2020), co-edited with Roy R. Jeal, a book that includes his chapter “From Ottago, Africa, and India to Asia, Australia, and Oceania.” That year also saw the publication of his article “Voyaging on the Sea of Life: Reflections on the We-Passages in Acts.” And during that year and the next, he completed three other chapters for books, all of which are now “in press." Nor has he neglected his work as General Editor of books in the aforementioned series, Emory Studies in Early Christianity; one came out in 2020, one in 2021, and two (thus far) in 2022.

As if this scholarly-work-in-print (or soon to be) were not enough to demonstrate how deserving he is of a Distinguished Faculty Award— there is the scholarly-work-in-person (or almost) that he has been doing during this period, as well. Vernon has always been a teacher extraordinaire, and during this period—not just in spite of but because of the pandemic—he has been busier teaching than ever before, and in the process reaching “students” from all around the world. He has been a major practitioner of Zoom teaching—having taken it up enthusiastically, and done so by choice and not by necessity.

In March of 2020, as the COVID shutdowns began, Vernon revved up, using the tech we were all just learning to use to begin to offer a series of Study Guides on “Human and Divine Love in the New Testament”; between March and October, he taught 66 “classes” to large numbers of attendees from all over the US and Canada, too. Then in January of 2021, he started another twice-a-week Zoom class, this time using Study Guides he created on “How Christianity Became White in the Bible and the World.” Again, the series (still ongoing) attracted attendees from this country and beyond. Moreover, at the same time as he was teaching these two series of classes, he was also organizing and hosting monthly Zoom meetings of the Atlanta New Testament Colloquium. In these meetings, a scholarly paper is sent out to the e-list beforehand and two scholars are recruited to act as official responders after the paper’s author presents the paper at the meeting. Thus far, authors and respondents include participants in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, Canada, and Korea.

How Vernon has managed to contribute meaningfully to the work of the Emeritus College itself while busy with the many other “professional contributions” reviewed above, we nominators do not know. But, here, in closing, we’d like to say that we are both in a position to attest that he has done so. In that same period when he had begun to teach the first of his series of Zoom classes (and offer the first of his series of Zoom meetings) he accepted an invitation to do a talk at one of our Lunch Colloquiums, giving us emeriti a taste of his socio-rhetorical criticism in “The Birth of Jesus to Virgin Mary in the Infancy Gospel of James (Protevangelium Jacobi).” And in this last year, he has volunteered to share his Zoom savvy with us, accepting an invitation to join the “Zoom Team” that enables the tech we of the EUEC still need to ensure the excellence of our presentations.

THE 2022 EUEC DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARDS

Donald O’Shea

Professor Emeritus of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology

The first of the two recipients of the 2022 EUEC Distinguished Service Awards recognized at the Awards and Honors Reception on Monday afternoon, June 13, is Donald O’Shea, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Physics at Georgia Tech and longtime affiliate member of the Emeritus College. He was nominated by our Director, Ann Rogers, in a letter co-signed by Gray Crouse and Gretchen Schulz. Here are some excerpts from that letter:

Even though Donald O’Shea never taught at Emory University, he has generously contributed his time and talent to the Emeritus College for many years. For example, in 2012, he discussed scientific papers at a Lunch Colloquium, then shared the podium with his wife, Helen O’Shea, is 2019, describing the creation of their garden. He also developed the posters advertising the 2017 Celebration of Creativity held in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Even though these contributions are notable, his major contribution is less visible, but critically important to the preservation of our ever-growing library of video resources.

Since 2015, Donald O’Shea has edited approximately 150 videos from our Lunch Colloquiums, Sheth Lectures, Pre-Retirement Seminars, Afternoon Programs, and Awards Ceremonies. Initially he just added the Emory logo at the beginning and the speaker and credit copyright notice at the end of the videos, but he soon began editing out glitches and manipulating the volume to enhance the Zoom recordings, producing high quality videos for posting on the Emeritus College website. In addition to producing high quality work, Don works quickly, editing each video within a few days, even during the first years of the pandemic when Lunch Colloquiums were being held on a weekly basis.

Gretchen Schulz

Professor Emerita of English, Oxford College

The second recipient of the 2022 EUEC Distinguished Service Award is Gretchen Schulz, Professor of English Emerita in the Division of Humanities on the Oxford College campus of the university. Here are some excerpts from the letter nominating her for that honor that was the joint composition of Ron Gould, Gray Crouse, Marilynne McKay, and Holly York.

Gretchen retired from full-time teaching in 2011. She has been an active, contributing member of the Emeritus College in the decade and more since her retirement. When Gretchen was nominated for her Distinguished Faculty Award in 2014, John Bugge, co-founder of the EUEC, summarized her pre-retirement career at Emory Oxford as “long and illustrious,” praising her “enviable record of research, scholarship, teaching, editing, and public service that testifies to her unflagging commitment to the intellectual life.”

For more than a decade, Gretchen has continued that commitment as an outstanding member of the Mind Matters committee of the Emory Emeritus College. As the leader in recruiting speakers for the Emeritus College Lunch Colloquium series, she has been instrumental in its success as our most popular member activity. As we moved from in person biweekly to weekly virtual meetings during the 2020-2021 pandemic, Gretchen organized a team of members to share speaker recruitment and introduction responsibilities. She has also given colloquiums herself, participated in our Interdisciplinary Seminars, and organized member outings at the Shakespeare Tavern, where she still serves as a consultant.

On the Executive Committee, she has helped form the policies and practices of our organization. She has a keen eye for detail and has always been willing to step up when Emeritus College help is needed. She has proofread our newsletter since its inception and diligently nominates deserving EUEC members for awards and honors. Gretchen has also served as one of Emory’s representatives to AROHE (the national Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education). When Emory volunteered to host the AROHE Biennial Meeting in 2018, Gretchen assumed the two-year-long task of chairing the Program Committee. The Atlanta meeting was lauded as one of the “best ever” and Gretchen went on to co-chair the Program Committee for AROHE’s Virtual Meeting in 2021, notable for its Star Wars’ “Let Us Boldly Go” theme.

Gretchen has long been a warm and welcoming presence to our members at meetings and lectures. In working with the Colloquium programs, she is often the EUEC’s first contact with faculty in departments throughout Emory College and University. Her enthusiasm and energy have made her a goodwill ambassador as well as a leader in making our organization the success it is today.



Paid Volunteer Research Opportunity -- COVID-19 Variant Vaccine

From Julia Bartol of the Emory Children's Center Vaccine Research Clinic:

We are going to begin enrolling adults in a COVID-19 Booster Vaccine Study for a 2^nd Booster that is studying the immune response against potential variants. It will be a Sanofi Booster (protein based) .For more information please click here.

If interested please contact:

ecc.vaccine@emory.edu  

or

Julia Bartol

Clinical Research Coordinator I

Emory Children's Center Vaccine Research Clinic

jbartol@emory.edu | (404)-727-4044



New Members

We recently received a short bio from new member Phyllis Wright:

Phyllis Wright, DNP, AGPC-NP, MPH

Clinical Associate Professor

School of Nursing

Phyllis Wright is an Adult Gerontological Nurse Practitioner, serving as Program Director for the Adult Gerontological NP Program at the School of Nursing. She has a lifelong interest in the geriatric population and now that she is one, preserving health and well-being are uppermost in her research, practice and service.

She currently practices in Cardiology at the Atlanta and Rome Veterans Administration Hospitals, serving the rural Veteran population through telehealth and cardiac rehabilitation integrative care.

Her three basic foundational professional principles--economics of health care practice, integration of all federal, state and local policy, and discovery of one’s self-knowledge--drives the NP program at Emory. Preparing advanced practice nurses to optimize their roles, expand their influence, and sustain improved outcomes for all patients they serve she hopes will be her legacy at Emory.

Finding herself divorced after 46 years of marriage, she has found this past year an awakening and discovering journey that is still ongoing. Reinventing one’s self identity as a single person versus part of a pair has truly been a leap of faith in God’s divine purpose and wisdom.

Phyllis lives in Cartersville, GA—a small town in NW Georgia--and loves anything outdoors like hiking, gardening, yard work, walking, and exploring!



Our resting place on our last walk was Beckham Grove. This lovely little spot is located between the Woodruff Library and Candler Library and across the wide walkway from the back entrance of the hospital. It is a perfect place on campus to read, have a chat with someone, people watch, or simply relax and listen to the gentle sounds of the fountains. I've provided extra photos below showing you more of the area.

According to Emory's website: 

A quiet green space is named in honor of the long Emory legacy of the Beckham family, whose first Emory connection was through Robert Young Beckham, an Emory College student after the Civil War. Other family members with Emory connections include Walter Beckham, Jr., a 1999 Emory Medal recipient, and Walter Beckham III, a member of the DVS Senior Society.

For our next walk let’s take a look at something that’s been on Emory grounds since 1976.  This item is similar to one we visited a year or two ago but is in an entirely different area of campus. And it’s not where you would think it would be, in relation to the person of honor on the plaque. 

Where will you find this on the Emory campus?