Emory faculty and staff are frequently recognized for their work locally, nationally and internationally. The following is a sampling of recent accolades, including multiple leadership awards and honors from professional societies.

Honors highlighted in this column:

• Abebe contributes to Ethiopia’s COVID-19 guidelines
• Brown adds to accolades with Lambda Literary’s Trustee Award
• Gold named co-chair of AJFF evaluation committee
• Kinlaw to help with COVID-19 vaccine work group
• Pecou recognized with South Arts State Fellowship
• Memoir by Ristaino garners award for women’s issues

Abebe contributes to Ethiopia’s COVID-19 guidelines

Abebe Gebremariam, the in-country coordinator for the Emory-Ethiopia partnership, was acknowledged in the Ethiopian Ministry of Health’s “Guidelines for the Management of Pediatric Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” issued in May 2020. He and several other leaders in global public health were acknowledged for their invaluable perspectives in planning Ethiopia’s nationwide COVID-19 emergency response. His contributions were informed by more than a decade of leadership in maternal-infant health promotion and research as part of the Emory-Ethiopia partnership that was launched by the Emory School of Nursing in 2010. 

Brown adds to accolades with Lambda Literary’s Trustee Award

Jericho Brown is the 2020 recipient of Lambda Literary’s Trustee Award, given annually to an extraordinary individual who has broken new ground in the field of LGBTQ literature and culture. The awards – known as the Lammys – celebrate authors who bring necessary, urgent and artful writing into the world.

Brown is Winship Distinguished Professor in Creative Writing and director of Emory’s Creative Writing Program. The poems in his Pulitzer Prize-winning collection “The Tradition” include allusions to everything from Greek myths to Phillis Wheatley, the first published female African-American poet. The book has been referred to as “a collection of masterful lyrics that combine delicacy with historical urgency in their loving evocation of bodies vulnerable to hostility and violence.”

Gold named co-chair of Atlanta Jewish Film Festival evaluation committee

Hazel Gold, associate professor of Spanish and Judith London Evans Interim Director of the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies, will serve as co-chair of the 2021 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival film evaluation committee. 

The committee screens films submitted by directors who hope to show their work at the AJFF, currently one of the largest Jewish film festivals in the U.S. Gold will guide discussions and lend her academic expertise as a cultural studies scholar, especially in the area of Jewish-themed films from Spain, Latin America and Sephardic communities worldwide.

Kinlaw to help with COVID-19 vaccine work group

Kathy Kinlaw was invited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to serve on an Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices COVID-19 vaccines work group. Kinlaw is associate director of Emory’s Center for Ethics and director of the Center's Program in Health Sciences and Ethics.

Pecou recognized with South Arts State Fellowship

Emory alumnus Fahamu Pecou received the 2020 South Arts State Fellowship for Georgia in recognition of his paintings.

South Arts was founded in 1975 to build on the South’s unique heritage and enhance the public value of the arts. The Southern Prize and State Fellowships celebrate and support the highest quality artistic work being created in the South.

Pecou earned a PhD from Emory’s Laney Graduate School in 2018. His work is featured in collections including the Smithsonian National Museum of African American Art and Culture, Societe Generale (Paris), The High Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Seattle Art Museum, Clark Atlanta University Art Collection and Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia.

Memoir by Ristaino garners award for women’s issues

Christine Ristaino’s memoir, “All the Silent Spaces,” won the IndieReader Discovery Award for Women’s Issues.

IndieReader is one of the original review services for self, hybrid and independently published authors. The group launched its awards in 2011 to help notable indie authors reach more readers and receive the attention of top publishing professionals. 

Ristaino is senior lecturer in Italian, teaching Italian literature, culture and language classes. Her book was noted as “a deep and lyrical memoir about how a vicious assault affected all aspects of the author’s life, and how she found strength to not just endure tragedy but transcend it. This book touches on dynamics one might expect – fear, survival, mistrust, recovery – but also on themes one might not – like race, religion, poverty and politics.”