J. Pollard Turman 34C 35L 73H, namesake of Emory's highest award for alumni service, believed in supporting leaders. He had a nickname for leaders, too. One that kind of sticks in your mind.

Bell cows.

Now, there aren't many cattle roaming near the Emory campus, although there used to be back in the days before paved roads (and over on Oxford campus, the occasional bovine explorer will find his way into Seney Hall), so it's understandable if the reference flies over your head.

But according to the story, Turman called men and women who were natural leaders "bell cows." The cows were so named because of the bell around their necks. Wherever the bell cow leads, the herd follows. Such as it is with leadership.

And in 2011, the Bell Cow is Walker Ray 62C 65M 68MR.

President Jim Wagner presented Ray with the J. Pollard Turman Alumni Service Award at a banquet and ceremony in the Miller-Ward Alumni House on Thursday, March 24. A pediatrician in Atlanta for more than 35 years, Ray has served in a variety of Emory roles, including a stint in 2006-07 as president of the Emory Alumni Board (EAB), which is where I met him.

I enjoyed working with Ray immensely. He was (and is) approachable, humble, intelligent but not overbearing, sincere, and funny. All great qualities in the leader (and in a doctor, for that matter). He is a leader who you want to follow. And that's probably the best kind. He's someone who will cross a room to say hello to you. And that means a lot.

The Turman award itself was created by the Frabel Glass Art Studio here in Atlanta and as you can see in the photo above, it manages to be be beautiful and whimsical. Not pictured above is the $25,000 check presented to the Turman recipient by the Tull Charitable Foundation. The recipient may direct that grant to any Emory program he chooses.

Ray chose five: the School of Medicine, the Candler School of Theology, Oxford College, the Department of Pediatrics, and the EAB Leadership Scholarship. Lots of people drove home happy.

For more about Ray, read the April 2011 edition of EmoryWire. It'll be out Tuesday, March 29.

-- Eric Rangus, director of communications, EAA

The first day of Emory's King Week 2011 began with service projects scattered across Atlanta and concluded with a compelling panel discussion about service in Glenn Auditorium.

Monday, January 17, was Emory's traditional "Day On," a nice, orderly change of pace following nearly a week's-worth of snow- and ice-related mayhem in Atlanta. Students and alumni alike planted trees in the King Historic District and volunteered at several nonprofits here in the late civil rights leader's hometown.

Then at 7:00 p.m., several of those volunteers as well as a variety of other guests attended the panel discussion, "Open Doors and Open Minds: The Intersection of Race and Gender in Service."

Before the speakers (two Emory alumni among them), took the stage, a pair of Emory's a cappella groups, Dooley Noted (above) and AHANA, warmed up the crowd. Pleasantly, the energy didn't dissipate when the conversation began.

Asked how service came to play a role in her life, panelist Renelda Mack 83C, the founder of Emory Cares International Service Day for former president of the Emory Alumni Board (EAB), credited her mother, a teacher, who worked in Belle Glade, FL, one of the state's poorest communities.

"I saw a compassionate group of teachers who served students and the rest of the community, not just educationally, but spiritually." said Mack, now chief of the civil rights in Florida's state attorney's office.

"It was a logical extension of their work," Mack continued. "In that environment, luxuries were few but love was abundant. The value of service was not taught, but something I caught by being in that atmosphere."

Moderator Doug Shipman 95C, an EAB member and CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, kept the conversation lively, and deftly wove King's words into the discussion. Shipman's reference to King's "World House," an image from his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize lecture, led to one of the most intriguing points of the night.

All the panelists agreed that Americans are quick to come together to help each other when it's needed, and that community service can break down many barriers. It's what happens after that service is over and we return to our normal lives where we might need to take a second look.

"We can live next door to folk, but rarely invite them into our homes," said panelist Young Hughley, CEO of Resources for Residents and Communities of Georgia. The "World House," Hughley said, is about "more than just coming to someone's aid. It's about having a one-on-one relationship and learning more about your Hispanic neighbor or gay brother."

Could that notion--that service breaks down the barriers that for whatever reason are standing pretty high in our day-to-day lives--be worth further exploration?

It was a fascinating thought as the first day of Emory's nine-day-long King Week closed.

-- Eric Rangus, director of communications, EAA

More often than not, I’m your friendly blogger recapping the latest young alumni happy hour that I’ve been to, but I figured it was time to share what I actually do here at the Emory Alumni Association (EAA) Although, I think my dream job would be just going to happy hours.

After the bustle of the day's-worth of meetings, walking into the Alumni Leadership Reception last Friday night was a welcome sight to see.

Hosted by the Emory Alumni Board (EAB) it was a holiday gathering of sorts for the EAB members and their counterparts from Emory's school and unit alumni boards. The festive decorations at the Miller-Ward Alumni House set the scene for a beautiful evening.

We made a beeline for the appetizers (I’m a sucker for tiny pastries), grabbed a glass of champagne and made the rounds. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, and I was delighted to see such a diverse group of alumni gathered in the holiday spirit.

Once everyone had grabbed their gifts and been hurried onto the shuttle (which was no easy task to steal people away from their food and new friends) to attend the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, we counted the evening a success and headed off to Joia for the Young Alumni Holiday Party.

The Atlanta young alumni celebrated the seasons with festivities at Joia Restaurant and Lounge at the aptly named “Joia to the World” (haha, get it? Yeah, it’s a stretch, we know) holiday party.

Roughly 160 Atlanta young alumni piled into the Midtown joint, which boasts living window models, (yeah, awkward if you don’t realize that they’re alive until they move), picked their list (naughty or nice), ate from a cupcake tower by Love n’ Cupcakes with flavors only Keebler Elves could dream up: champagne wedding, southern red velvet, and homemade hohos (all of which give the dancing sugar plums a run for their money), and took advantage of the several mini-class reunions which seemed to be centered around the open bar.

The official party wrapped early--around 10:00 p.m., after all, with a migration across the street to the Irish pub Ri Ra for the unofficial after-party. After all, leprechauns are the new elves.

-- Kelley Quinn 08B, coordinator, Emory Alumni Board, and Cassie Young 07C, coordinator, alumni programs

About 130 Emory alumni are members of the Emory Alumni Consulting Group (EACG), a new EAA-sponsored group whose goal is--as the name implies--to bring together alumni who are professional consultants. A decent amount of those 130 attended the first mixer for Atlanta's EACG members on Friday, November 13, at Loca Luna in Midtown. Steering committee members (left to right) Adrian Tonge 02C 07MBA, Aditya Rao 08B, Adriana Hernandez 04PH, Will Porteous 06B, and Joe Durbin 97C, are pictured above.

Brian Rutter 03MBA, a member of the Emory Alumni Board (EAB) and a consultant himself, offered words of encouragement and stressed the importance of building the Emory network. He noted that all alumni play vital roles in building and expanding the network, not just for themselves, but for current students--the next generation of Emory alumni.

The EACG provides opportunities for networking, professional development, and online collaboration among alumni and students. This fall, Atlanta members of the EACG provided mock interviews and seminars for students at Goizueta Business School and through The Career Center. More service activities and continuing education are planned for the spring.

Membership is open to alumni from all Emory schools who work in consulting. Getting involved is easy, visit E-Connection, Emory's online career networking site (registration is required), find the “Emory Alumni Consulting Group,” and submit a “Group Membership Request.”

-- Carolyn Bregman 82L, director, alumni career services, EAA

Earlier this year, Lori Northcraft 09A 10PH (left) received an email notifying her that she'd been nominated for the Emory Alumni Board (EAB) Leadership Scholarship, and award so new she hadn't heard of it ... and hadn't applied. Until she got the email.

"As I started completing the application and thinking back to what I had been involved in at Emory," Northcraft said. "I started realizing that, you know, maybe I actually had a chance at this scholarship."

More than just a chance as it turned out.

Northcraft and Sacha Munro 11C (right) are the first recipients of the alumni-financed EAB Leadership Scholarship, and a more worthy or personable pair would be extremely difficult to find.

The EAB created the Leadership Scholarship in 2007 to recognize students whose actions, beleifs and passions have improved their community. For Northcraft (the graduate recipient) and Munro (her undergraduate counterpart) that statement couldn't be truer.

In early September, Munro and Northcraft sat down with me to discuss what the EAB Leadership Scholarhip (and Emory) means to them. Their edited conversation is below. To listen to the full podcast on iTunes U, click here. (You must have the iTunes program on your computer to access the interview.)

Eric Rangus, EAA: Tell us a little about yourselves.

Sacha Munro 11C: I am majoring in political science, and I am involved in various things around campus. One of my main commitments is the Residence Hall Association. I’m the vice president of programming. And I’m also a member of the Student Alumni Association.

Lori Northcraft 09A 10PH: I am a dual-degree physical therapy and public health student. I am a native Oregonian who chose Emory specifically for this brand-new program. One of my main accomplishments has been participating in the South Georgia Farm Worker Health Project, where physical therapy students and faculty members go to South Georgia and team up with physician’s assistants and physician assistant students to provide pro bono medical care to migrant farm workers and their families.

Read more of the abridged interview in the October 2009 issue of EmoryWire.

The full interview (which is about 10 minutes) is here.

--Eric Rangus, director of communications, EAA

They actually sang the alma mater. In tune, right words and everything. Four thousand voices, led by President Jim Wagner and a couple of dozen upperclassmen, marked the Class of 2013's first day at Emory with song.

Saturday, August 22, was freshman move-in and the start of Orientation Week for new students in the Emory College of Arts & Sciences. The morning started with a little bit of cloud cover and a remarkable coolness in the air. Not the typical heat and oppressive humidity of an August morning in Atlanta, but a crisp hint of fall before the day began to warm up. It was appropriate weather for the start of an academic season and very welcomed by the students, families, and staff (including President Wagner and his cabinet) who were hauling boxes into the freshman residence halls.

The Class of 2013 has a lot of mosts associated with it. Most culturally diverse, most geographically diverse, most prepared in terms of academics, etc. On Saturday, what was most evident is that they are young and excited. They looked fresh out of the package, completely lacking that slightly jaded, cooler-than-thou attitude that seems to arise with finishing a semester or two of college.

I worked the Orientation Fair on Saturday and got to watch the crowd change as the day went on. Early in the morning I saw whole families with a student in tow, but as the afternoon wore on I saw many more students come through together. New roommates (and new friends) exploring campus for the first time stopped by the table.

The clusters of students sans families grew larger during the President’s Dinner and Coke Toast that evening. While Mom & Dad desperately tried to get a cell signal on McDonough Field in order to find their newly-minted freshman, the students gladly flocked together through the line for barbecue.

The dinner and Coke Toast marks the Class of 2013's official welcome to Emory and induction to the Emory alumni community of more than 108,000 strong. They were welcomed indeed, by Emory Alumni Board (EAB) President Crystal Edmonson 95C, who led the ceremony, and President Wagner, who reminded them to cherish every moment of the time they spend here. Aluminum bottles clinked, toasts were drunk, and new friends shared a meal and a Coke. Best of all, when the crowd stood to sing the alma mater, everyone sang along.

--Kate Lawlor 01C, director of alumni and student leadership, EAA

I love Emory and so do you!

If you like flowers, love Emory, and live in Birmingham, AL, I probably saw you at the Birmingham chapter’s Lullwater Day Celebration at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens this past Sunday, June 13.

I'm Laura Zimmerman, assistant director for regional programs with the EAA, here to get you up to speed on all things alumni and floral.

Although the Birmingham event (photos to come) was nearly spoiled by severe weather (who doesn’t enjoy strolling through gardens in torrential downpours?!?), we had a wonderful turnout of nearly 60 alumni and guests. Alumni representation spanned six decades and nearly every school.

The event succeeded at engaging retired alumni as well as recent graduates and everyone in between—including our youngest guest of the day, one-month-old son of Scott 89Ox 91C and Kelley Walton, who was being primed no doubt for the Emory Class of 2031.

Just like the Lullwater Day Celebration invitation suggested, this event provided alumni and their families the opportunity to meet one another and bring an Emory tradition to one of Birmingham’s most beautiful green spaces.

After a weekend of “all-gardens, all-the-time” (first Callaway Gardens for the EAB meeting and then Birmingham Botanical Gardens for the Lullwater Day Reception), I guess you could say that I found my botanical heart. I still have a black thumb though.

-- Laura Zimmerman, assistant director, regional programs, EAA

The Emory Alumni Board (EAB) held its annual summer retreat at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, GA, this past weekend. It was Emory’s first time taking this group to Callaway, which is located about 80 miles southwest of Atlanta, close to the Alabama state line. (Many of our cell phones kept switching back and forth between eastern and central time, which was kind of amusing!) It was very hard not to relax in Pine Mountain. Beautiful woods, gardens, lakes, and farms surround you, and that atmosphere—along with a lot of hard-working alumni—made our conference a great success!

Click here to see a slide show, highlighting activities (alumni) from the whole weekend!

Members flew in from as far away as California. Several spouses and partners came along, too. It’s always great to meet the families of those we work with throughout the year. The weather was gorgeous for the most part; only a light summer shower or two the whole weekend.

Most people arrived on Friday, just in time for our welcome reception that evening. Refreshing summer cocktails were the beverage of choice and many convened on the patio as evening turned into night.

Following breakfast on Saturday, a welcome from EAB President Crystal Edmonson 95C kicked off our workday. In our morning session, we discussed everything from our “Board of the Future” to our first EAB Leadership Scholarship recipients.

After lunch (which featured the best and largest cookies of any conference center I’ve been to!), afternoon business included a special session with Susan Cruse, senior vice president for development and alumni relations, who discussed EAB involvement in Campaign Emory. Subsequent sessions touched on University career services and thinking about the “Big E.” That’s “Emory.”

Before breaking for the day, we recognized members who were rotating off the board, some having served for six years! We also welcomed the incoming executive committee for 2009–10 and outlined upcoming goals.

Once that was finished, free time began. And there was a lot to do at Callaway—pools, lakes, nature trails, gardens, golf—just to name a few! Two of my EAA colleagues, Kelley Quinn 08B and Missy Rodil, and I headed out on foot and made our way toward the nearby lake. We walked around it, checking out the water skiers and swimmers, and then strolled through some gardens and a vacation cottage (which we all registered to win—fingers crossed!).

Then it was time to freshen up for dinner. We had a cookout indoor-style, including shrimp kabobs, chicken, baked potatoes and peach cobbler (we are in Georgia, ‘natch)—a delicious way to end the day and the retreat overall.

-- Lindsay Topping, assistant director, annual giving, Emory Annual Fund

Have we really not updated EAAvesdropping since May? Dang ... I'm sorry about that. It's not like there isn't anything going on here at the EAA or with Emory alumni. In fact, the next couple of weeks are packed with alumni activity.

If you like flowers in the Southeast, this weekend is for you. On June 12-13, the Emory Alumni Board is meeting at Callaway Gardens near Pine Mountain, Ga. On Sunday, June 14, the Birmingham Botanical Gardens will host more than 50 Emory guests to pay homage to the University's Lullwater Day tradition. EAAvesdropping loves flowers, so we'll be at both events. Don't miss our updates!

EAAvesdropping also loves lawyers, and Emory law alumni in Houston (June 18) and Dallas (June 19) will be busy hosting Richard Freer, Robert Howell Hall Professor of Law.

And for whoever's in New England on Thursday, June 25, the EAA will be hosting Faculty Destinations: Boston, featuring Justin Remais, assistant professor of environmental and global health, and director, Global Environmental Health Program in the Rollins School of Public Health. The intriguing title of his talk, A Snail in the Sun: Global Climate Change and Infectious Disease in China and Beyond, should be enough to draw a great crowd.

More than 3,500 Emory alumni live in the six New England states. The Red Sox are on the road, so what else is there to do but head to the Back Bay Hotel for Faculty Destinations? A 6:30 p.m. reception with Dr. Remais will kick off the evening; the lecture will follow one hour later.

These are just a few examples of what's going on in the Emory alumni world. For the most comprehensive list of alumni activities, visit the EAA's event calendar.

Keep reading EAAvesdropping, too. Vacation is so over ... lots of event updates are coming and we have three new interns you'll be meeting really soon. Have a great weekend!

-- Eric Rangus, director of communications, EAA

Greetings! I am Lindsay Topping, manager of the Emory Alumni Board (EAB), which is a group of 38 + members representing all of the different schools and units at Emory. They also come from all over the United States. I plan their quarterly meetings, and last Friday, March 6, we took the group to historic Oxford College, since many of them had never been there before. It was great to see how excited everyone was to spend the day at Oxford and how impressed they were with this community, even during their first moments on campus.

I am a newbie to Oxford, as well. This recent trip was only my fifth trip there. Several of my previous visits were due to the fact that my two brothers —Jason Topping 07Ox 09C and Carson Topping 09Ox – are Oxford alums, and I wanted to get a taste of their experiences there (and make sure they were behaving!).

We could not have asked for a more beautiful day at Oxford. The skies were blue and cloudless. The flowers were starting to bloom with the newly warmer temperatures in Georgia. And the students were pumped to be going on Spring Break beginning later that afternoon.

Four of our EAB members, all Oxford alumni, served as hosts for the day—Jim Bailey 67Ox 69C, Ed Cloaninger 91Ox 03C, Isam Vaid 93Ox 95C 99PH and Art Vinson 66Ox 68C. We took the board on tours of the main campus and of the new sustainability initiatives happening at Oxford, ate in their dining room with Oxford students, staff and council members, spent time in the Student Center hearing and discussing hot topics at Emory and were invited to Dean Stephen Bowen’s home for a reception at the end of the day. We couldn’t have asked for a better day at Oxford and hope to take this board back soon. If you have not visited this campus, it is a must do, plus it’s where Emory all began!

Click here to see a slideshow from the day (photos by Tom Brodnax 65Ox 68C).

Lindsay Topping, manager of the Emory Alumni Board, EAA