Lunch Colloquium -- Monday, March 27, 2023

“Microbusinesses Creating Social Vitality in

Atlanta’s Underserved Communities”

Peter Roberts and Erin Igleheart

This presentation will speak to the oversized impact of microbusinesses in community economic and social vitality. Dr. Peter Roberts, Professor of Organization and Management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, will describe the pronounced microbusiness gaps observed in marginalized neighborhoods across the U.S., as well as the likely causes and effects of those gaps. Then, Erin Igleheart, Director of the Start:ME program at Goizueta, will describe how the program works within several Atlanta communities by engaging participating program mentors and entrepreneurs. 

Founded in 2013, the Start MicroEnterprise Accelerator Program (Start:ME) strengthens underserved communities in metro Atlanta by empowering entrepreneurs within them to start and grow resilient microbusinesses. When local microbusinesses thrive--generating income, creating jobs, occupying spaces, and providing role models--their neighborhoods thrive as well. While entrepreneurial potential is uniformly distributed, access to knowledge, networks, and capital is not. Start:ME operates 3-month, place-based programs providing business training, mentorship, and grant investment capital. To date, the program has served 351 microbusinesses around Atlanta--62% led by individuals from low-to-moderate income households, 71% led by women, and 81% led by people of color. We have also invested $322,000 in peer-selected capital. Collectively, Start:ME alumni companies support 566 jobs and $14.7 million in annual revenue.

To support Start:ME’s success, Goizueta Business School partners with trusted, nonprofit quarterbacks operating in and serving communities, including Friends of Refugees in Clarkston, East Lake Foundation in East Lake, and Focused Community Strategies and Purpose Built Schools Atlanta in Atlanta’s Southside. Alongside these community partners, coalitions of business associations, civic officials, housing providers, neighborhood associations, nonprofits, and schools ensure that Start:ME programs are truly local and embedded. This allows us to build ecosystems, while supporting businesses that enhance communities.

About Peter Roberts:

Peter is Professor of Organization & Management at Emory University and was the founding Academic Director of Social Enterprise @ Goizueta. He also serves as Academic Director of Specialty Coffee Programs for Goizueta's Business & Society Institute.

His research interests relate to how the behavior and performance of organizations evolve over time. Currently, he directs his interests in entrepreneurship and organizational performance toward topics in the field of social enterprise. His current projects focus on social entrepreneurs and accelerators, on microbusiness development, and on the global specialty coffee industry.

For the past several years, he has been cultivating several programs which focus on making markets work for more people, in more places, in more ways. This led to the establishment of the global Entrepreneurship Database Program, the Start:ME accelerator program, and the Transparent Trade Coffee and Grounds for Empowerment programs.

Peter's PhD is from the University of Alberta. Before taking up his current position at Emory University, Peter served on the faculties of Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Australian Graduate School of Management.

About Erin Igleheart:

Erin Igleheart is the Director of the Start:ME Accelerator, which strengthens Atlanta area communities through micro-entrepreneur development. Start:ME is a program of Goizueta’s Business & Society Institute. Prior to joining Goizueta, Erin worked in finance and consulting. She has a Masters in International Policy from Stanford University and a Bachelors in Commerce and Spanish from the University of Virginia.

Sheth Distinguished Lecture -- Monday, April 10, 2023

Hank Klibanoff

Author, Journalist, Professor of Practice, Emory Creative Writing Program

Sheth Distinguished Lecture on Creativity in Later Life*

Hank Klibanoff, a veteran journalist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and a Peabody Award-winning podcast host, is a Professor of Practice in Emory's Creative Writing Program. He co-authored The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation that won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for history.

Prior to joining Emory, Klibanoff was a reporter and editor for more than 35 years, holding various reporting and editing positions in Mississippi, at The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer and serving as a managing editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has an undergraduate degree in English from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

He directs the Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project at Emory University (coldcases.emory.edu), for which students examine Georgia's modern civil rights history through the investigation of unsolved and unpunished racially motivated murders. His podcast based on the project, titled "Buried Truths," produced by WABE public radio station has won Peabody, Robert F. Kennedy, and Edward R. Murrow awards. The fourth season, underway now, relies on personal letters, investigative files, case notes, and legal proceedings to bring to life the unjust murders of two black men killed without legal cause in 1958 Terrell County.

*Made possible by a generous donation from Dr. Jagdish and Mrs. Madhu Sheth

The lecture is offered as a hybrid meeting -- if attending in person it will be held in the Miller-Ward Alumni House in the newly renovated and renamed "Alumni Hall." Box lunches will be provided free of charge. If you plan to attend via Zoom, a link will be emailed to all participants before the meeting.



Last Call for Nominations - Bianchi-Bugge Excellence Awards

The Bianchi-Bugge Excellence Awards are named in honor of Eugene Bianchi, Professor Emeritus of Religion (1930-2022) and John Bugge, Professor Emeritus of English (1941-2018), co-founders of the Emory University Emeritus College.

Applicants may request non-renewable, twelve-month grants up to $2,000 to cover expenses incurred in pursuit of a broad range of activities, including, among others, research and writing, lecturing, training, development of teaching materials, and presentations at academic conferences, as well as presentations at public and related events in the community.

Applications, which are due March 28, 2023, are open to all retired members of the Emory University Emeritus College. Recipients of the award, selected from among the applicants, will be made by the Emeritus College Honors and Awards Committee.

Among criteria for selection, special consideration, to the extent possible, will be given to proposals describing projects exemplifying Gene Bianchi’s dedication to human endeavors that “promote the public good,” a sentiment shared and encouraged equally by his longtime colleague John Bugge. To promote the public good, as a practical matter, Bianchi believed in our seeking work, professional and personal, that can help aid society in overcoming its sometime “negative tendencies” and lead “toward personal and collective peace,” shaped by commitment to caring, compassion, empathy, and selflessness.

Applicants should submit the following:

1) A letter of application (limited to two pages) that describes in some detail the project to be undertaken - its purpose, the means of achieving that purpose, and its relevance to the applicant's own personal and professional development

2) a simple budget (1 page) that estimates costs and explains how requested funding would be employed; and

3) an up-to-date curriculum vitae (limited to two pages) that specifically highlights activities undertaken since retirement. 

The criteria for selection will include:

• The potential the project shows for promoting the public good
• The relationship of the proposed project to the applicant's demonstrated qualifications
• The projected value of the project to the applicant's field or discipline
• The feasibility of completing the project within the term of the Award
• The pertinence of the project to resources readily available to the applicant

Grant recipients will be asked to agree to the following conditions: 

• Submission of a written report to the Awards and Honors Committee after completing the term of the Award, but no later than September 30^th of the year following the award
• Formal acknowledgment of the Bianchi-Bugge Award and the Emory University Emeritus College in any published work that results

Preference will be given to those who have not been previous recipients of the award.

Applications should be mailed to The Awards and Honors Committee of the Emory University Emeritus College at The Luce Center, 825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329, or sent by email to emeriti@emory.edu. As noted above, applications must be received by March 28, 2023.





AROHE News

 (Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education)

AROHE Idea Exchange Webinars

Through primary research conducted and published by the National Institute for Dementia Education, Vivid-Pix, an AROHE sponsor, has developed “Don’t Let Your Memories Fade” – a program that connects people through photo reminiscence. Join us for this webinar to learn more about using photos to:

• Exercise your brain – it is the best way to thrive as you age.
• Learn how to interact with friends and loved ones as they are impacted by the detrimental effects of aging: isolation, loneliness, cognitive decline, and dementia (including Alzheimer’s).
• Learn how to interact with “children of all ages” – including grandchildren – to share your stories with them – and hear their stories too!

There is no charge to attend. Everyone is welcome, so please forward this information to others who might be interested.

To register for this webinar, please click here.



Wednesday, May 10, 2023

10:00 am PST

11:00 am MST

Noon CST

1:00 pm EST

We are finding our way after the pandemic, including making new friends and losing connections from previous groups and circles. Retirement organizations can help retirees navigate these changing relationships. Join AROHE members to discuss and learn new ideas from each other. If you have an idea that you or your retirement organization has tried related to this, you are encouraged to share.

To register for this webinar, please click here.



Member Activities

Ron Gould

Goodrich C. White Professor Emeritus

Ron recently gave two plenary lectures, organized and spoke in a special session on Extremal Graph Theory at the 54th Southeastern Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, March 6-10, 2023.

The talks:

Plenary 1, March 6: "Have You Ever Meta-Conjectured?"

Plenary 2, March 7: "Looking for Saturation in all Kinds of Places."

Special Session Talk, March 7, was on the Saturation Spectrum of Odd Cycles.

And if the above wasn't enough, he also spoke at the Southeastern Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society at the Georgia Institute of Technology, March 18-19, 2023. The title of his talk was "On the Saturation Spectrum of Odd Cycles."

Jagdish Sheth

Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing

Jagdish Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Chaired Professor of Marketing in Goizueta Business School, has been recognized by SprinklingSmiles and Asian Pacific American Council of Georgia (APAC) for his contributions to various local and global communities with the Community Achievement Award in honor of Dr. Narsi Narasimhan.

New Members

New members are the lifeblood of any organization.

Please make a special effort to welcome them to the EUEC!

Christina Drenkard, Associate Professor Emerita of Medicine

Sandi Dunbar, Charles Howard Candler Emerita Professor of Nursing

Karen Mann, Professor Emerita of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Reynaldo Martorell, Robert J. Woodruff Professor Emeritus of International Nutrition

Mark Nanes, Professor Emeritus of Medicine



Upcoming Events of Interest at Emory

Reading James Baldwin: Race, Love, and Humanism Great Works Seminar

The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry

Emory University

1635 N. Decatur Rd

Thursday, March 23, 2023, 6:30 – 8pm EDT



It is accurate to say that James Baldwin is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. His writings passionately engage themes of race, identity, sexuality, freedom, integration, equality, and love. For many, love conjures up feelings of deep romance, flights of fancy, pristine happiness. Infused in Baldwin’s work, however, is a conception of love that “takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” There is nothing infantile in such a construal of love. Rather, love is a site of “quest and daring and growth,” as Baldwin says. We will discuss a few works by Baldwin (essays and works of fiction) through Baldwin’s courageous love. Hence, through the lens of Baldwinian love we will address: what is Baldwin’s understanding of whiteness? How does he understand what it means to be racialized as Black? How does Baldwin understand the American democratic experiment? My hope is that we will come to appreciate how painfully relevant Baldwin’s voice functions in our contemporary moment. Works to be read include, The Fire Next Time, “Sonny’s Blues,” “Going to Meet the Man,” and others.

This seminar will be moderated by 2021-2022 Fox Center Senior Fellow George Yancy and will meet from 6:30-8:00pm on the following Thursday evenings: March 16, 23, 30 and April 6, at the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry, 1635 N. Decatur Rd. Participants are expected to attend all four sessions. Everyone from the Atlanta community is welcome and invited to join us for this free seminar. Complimentary copies of the above titles will be available for a no-contact pickup at the Fox Center. Participation is limited, and reservations are required. For further information and to reserve a spot on a “first-come basis,” email the Fox Center at foxcenter@emory.edu.

The Chamber Music Society’s next Cooke Noontime Concert will be at the Carlos Museum again featuring pianist Jasmin Arakawa, who was hailed by Gramophone for her “characterful sparkle”, in a varied program including works by Haydn, Price, Godowsky and more.

The Friday noontime event is already full, but Dr. Arakawa will also give a public Masterclass @ 10 AM on Saturday March 25 in Tharp Rehearsal Hall @ the Schwartz Center. No registration required for the Masterclass, and parking at Fishburne and Oxford Road decks is free on weekends.

All ECMSA concerts and events are free of charge.

An Evening of Carnatic Music with violinist Sruti Sarathy and vocalist Shiv Subramaniam

Friday, March 24, 2023, 6pm

Location: Cannon Chapel -- 515 South Kilgo Cir NE, Atlanta, GA 30322

Contact: Harshita Mruthinti Kamath harshita.kamath@emory.edu

Women of Wikipedia: An Intersectional Edit-a-thon 2023

Wednesday, March 29, 2023, 1 – 3pm EDT

March is Women's History Month, so Join us for Emory University's 8th annual Women of Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, when we update Wikipedia's entries on women and their contributions. We'll be on Level 3 of the Woodruff Library in rooms 312 and 314. We have a limited number of workstations, so please bring a laptop with you.

Walk-ups are welcome, but we ask that you RSVP in our Google form if you want food at: emorywikiwomen.com

You are also encouraged to pre-join the dashboard for Women of Wikipedia - An Intersectional Editathon - 2023. The dashboard will automatically keep track of your contributions with periodic updates. Check back later to see the impact you've made!

Sponsored by Emory Libraries, Emory Center for Women, Student Digital Life, and numerous student organizations. Counts as a JPE 610 session.

Details and other information, as well as additional campus events can be found on the Emory Events Calendar.

If you'd like to share an event/program of interest before the next newsletter (April 5, 2023), please contact Dianne Becht Dianne.becht@emory.edu

The beautifully lighted trees on our last walk can be found evenings at the Schwartz Center. The night I took the photos was during an evening listening to the Emory Symphony Orchestra. I think most of you are quite familiar with the Schwartz Center, but for those of you who may not be, here's some information:

The Donna & Marvin Schwartz Center for Performing Arts is a 90,000-square-foot multi-discipline performing arts facility on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Built in 2003, the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts is home to state-of-the-art performance and rehearsal spaces where students, faculty, and world-renowned guest artists combine their talents and hard work to share culture, beauty, and provocative work. The 2022–2023 season marks 20 years of world-class performances at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts with music, dance and theater.



This next place is not only pleasing to look at, it's also a great area to sit and enjoy lunch on a sunny day.



Where will you find this on the Emory campus?