EAAvesdropping: School of Medicine

Showing posts with label School of Medicine. Show all posts

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Photo of the Day: This time it's personal

This was the scene at the Orlando Museum of Art on Sunday, March 27. More than 100 alumni came out for "Preparing for the Aging Wave: This Time It's Personal," an EAA Faculty Within Your Reach event featuring Ted Johnson, professor of medicine and epidemiology in the School of Medicine.

Johnson doubles as the division director of geriatric medicine and gerontology in the SOM, and his lecture not only included an exploration of important trends in the again of America, there was even a Wii Fit demonstration!

More photos here ...

Sunday, March 27, 2011

The bell cow

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

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

A ripe issue on a green lawn

This year's Classroom on the Green, formerly called Called Classroom on the Quad, centered on an issue hotter than the current heat wave spreading through Emory's campus: health care reform. The green part of the title came from its location on the quad of the School of Medicine (the "green" is on the other side of the building at left).

As its annual signature event, Student Government Association (SGA) invited prominent speakers, like Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and keynote speaker Rear Admiral Steven Solomon, the director of the Coordinating Center for Health Information and Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition, four other speakers with health care-related backgrounds formed a panel that later participated in a Q&A session with those in the audience. Nursing school professor Marcia Holstad moderated the whole event.

Each of the panelists approached the issue in a non-aggressive way, encouraging those in the audience to be patient and hopeful for the future of health care. The following Q&A entertained plenty of open-ended questions about the panelists' opinions of the costs, benefits, and effects of the newly-passed bill.

Despite high temperatures and pollen-crazed bees hovering about, an audience of about 100 students and faculty made their way to the tent on the medical school quad throughout the afternoon. A definite attendance lure, SGA gave out free t-shirts to students who signed up for them. Ironically--or intentionally--the shirts were also green and on them, posed the question of being able to survive health care reform in America.

Although the event was intended to answer that question, the take-home message was this: these are the beginning stages of new legislation and the only thing to do is wait and see what will happen next.

-- Lindsey Bomnin 12C, EAA communications assistant

Thursday, January 28, 2010

No photo today, because ...

... we wouldn't want to be seen as taking sides or promoting one candidate over another. Wouldn't be fair, you know?

On Saturday, January 30, the Emory Arts Competition will culminate in a public gala in the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts' Emerson Concert Hall. This is the second University-wide arts competition; the first took place on November 8, 2008. The winners are here.

For the 2010 competition, you can see all of the entrants in visual arts and music right here. The visual arts category includes paintings, drawings, computer artwork, sculptures, and photography, while the music category will include all vocal and instrumental entries. There is prize money, too, donated by an anonymous lover of the arts ... $1,000 for first prize, $500 for second and $250 for third.

A variety of students, faculty, and staff have made the finals. Oh, and two of the entrants are alumni. Physical therapy graduate student Samuel Crowley 09C 12A performs the song Nineteen Thirty Three, and at the very least, check out the description of the song.

On the visual arts side, Emory alumni are represented by Sarah Blanton 92A 03A, assistant professor of physical therapy in the School of Medicine. Her piece is entitled "Through a Glass Darkly."

So lets hear it for the alumni artists ... but also the artists who are physical therapists. How 'bout them apples?

Tickets are free and the public gala on Saturday is open to all. The competition starts at 8:00 p.m.

-- Eric Rangus, director of communications, EAA

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

If U2 came to Emory ...

So it's U2Tuesday (I think that's how that marketing gimmick is spelled) in Atlanta. In just a few hours, the band will be taking the stage at the Georgia Dome as its 360° Tour rolls into our fair city.

The concert is pretty big news among my friends (as well as a lot of Emory staff members and students). Many of them are going to the show, at least if their braggy Facebook status updates are to be believed. (Full disclosure, I'm going, too, and I made sure all my Facebook friends know it ... I claim no moral high ground).

Anyway, it got me thinking. Is there a way to tell Emory's story using only U2 song titles?

Of course there is. Take a look at our collection below. Feel free to add any new ones.

-- Eric Rangus, director of communications, EAA

A Sort of Homecoming = I love a parade

Acrobat = Enquérir

Bad = These guys. And not in a good way

Beautiful Day = Commencement

City of Blinding Lights = Emory's hometown

Discotheque = This great program

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For = Parking on campus

I Will Follow = Dooley's Entourage

I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight = Dooley's Bal l

In God's Country = Cannon Chapel

Magnificent = What do you think?

New Year's Day = Freshman move-in

Numb = Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine

October = The Quadrangle

One = Emory volleyball

Pride (In The Name Of Love) = King Week

Staring At The Sun = Emory planetarium

Stay (Faraway, So Close) = The dearly departed Turman Residential Center

Ultra Violet (Light My Way) = Emory lantern

Two Hearts Beat As One = This story

Vertigo = Jones Room, Woodruff Library

Walk On = This tour

Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses? = Emory Equestrian

Monday, September 14, 2009

Sweet home Alabama

If "Aging in the 21st Century" was as graceful as Anna Guy 42N makes it look, the conversation would be pretty easy.

Guy (right), 92 years young, was among the attendees at Faculty Destinations: Birmingham, Sunday, September 13, which featured professors Arthur Kellermann 80M from the School of Medicine and Michael McQuaide from Oxford College.

Birmingham Chapter President Laura Kezar 81C 85M, associate dean for students and associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Alabama-Birmingham School of Medicine, welcomed guests. Brian Christine 91M, a physician with the Urology Centers of Alabama, which hosted the event, did as well.

McQuaide and Kellermann had given a version of their "Aging in the 21st Century" talk before, but Faculty Destinations: Birmingham stood on its own. It also drew a broad audience of alumni from almost every Emory school, ranging in age from the 20s to the 90s.

McQuaide led off, discussing views on aging in a historical context. Actually, our 19th century ancestors, and their ancestors, didn't think too much about it, since few lived past 45. Because medical care was primitive, sicknesses didn't last long. Either you were alive, McQuaide said, or you were dead.

Kellermann, one of the nation's most respected emergency room physicians, brought McQuaide's ideas into the 21st century. Life expectancy for many U.S. populations tops 75, although many people may not be able to take care of themselves in their later years. Who will? Now, families must discuss whether loved ones should be resuscitated, if they fall ill. What should they do?

Too often, Kellermann said, these very difficult conversations do not happen, leaving sons and daughters unaware of their parents' wishes, and brothers and sisters tearfully debating who should make what could be a life-altering decision.

But while the subject matter may have felt heavy, the afternoon most certainly was not. More than 1,000 Emory alumni live in Birmingham, and those who spent their Sunday with the EAA were at their sociable best.

None more so than Guy, who lives on her own in an apartment downtown, and, by her own admission, reads every word of every Emory publication she gets her hands on.

Moving with the purpose and dexterity of a woman half her age, powered by enough spunk to light Tuscaloosa, Guy was the afternoon's most memorable presence. And when she spoke, everyone listened.

Following Kellermann's description of a family wracked with the anguish of possibly ending a loved one's life, Guy said her five children know exactly what to do. And what not to do.

"If any of them keeps me here longer than I'm supposed to be, they're going to be in trouble," she said.

Judging by her spirit, that's gonna be a long time coming.

-- Eric Rangus, director of communications, EAA

Friday, September 4, 2009

Photo of the Day: Glenn Memorial Auditorium

It's Labor Day weekend on campus ... soon all this green will turn gold. Glenn Memorial Auditorium (also known as Glenn Church and Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church) is one of the largest (with seating for more than 1,000 people), busiest, and most recognizable buildings at Emory. This angle, though, focuses on Glenn's pastoral side.

In recent years, Glenn has hosted speakers ranging from Salman Rushdie to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, concerts by John Legend and Ben Folds, and comedians of every stripe. It's the home of the annual University Convocation to welcome first-year Emory College students and the diploma ceremonies to say goodbye to graduates of the School of Medicine and the Candler School of Theology. And every Sunday morning, it's the home of Glenn Memorial UMC.