Emory faculty and staff are frequently recognized for their work locally, nationally and internationally. The following is a sampling of recent accolades, including awards for professional contributions and leadership appointments.
Honors highlighted in this column:
- Winship faculty members chosen for career development program
- Alonso’s first book garners Latinx scholar award
- Anderson honored for contributions to social justice
- Modern Language Association honors Cho’s book
- Corbett and Dunham honored as ASBMB fellows
- Wellness Coaching program staff earn certifications
- Hanciles’ book on global Christianity earns multiple recognitions
- Hylen appointed as Journal of Biblical Literature’s general editor
- Blood Cancers Today names Lonial as editor
- Nursing leaders win big at research conference
- Festschrift award presented to Kwok
- Nduom selected for Early Investigator Advancement Program
- UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame inducts Price
- Rothbaum receives Lifetime Achievement Award
- NRG Oncology taps Torres for research implementation working group
- Black Women in the Wilderness initiative receives national award
Winship faculty members chosen for career development program
Olatunji Alese and Jessica Williams of Winship Cancer Institute have been named to the first cohort of the Diversity in Clinical Trials Career Development Program. Launched last year by the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation and partners, the program is designed to foster clinical and translational research that is community informed, designed and conducted.
Alese, associate professor of hematology and medical oncology, specializes in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers. Williams, assistant professor of medicine in the division of rheumatology, specializes in systemic lupus erythematosus.
Alonso’s first book garners Latinx scholar award
The first book by Antonio Alonso, “Commodified Communion: Eucharist, Consumer Culture, and the Practice of Everyday Life” (Fordham University Press, 2021), received a 2021 Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI) Book Prizes award. The award recognizes the best books written by a junior Latinx scholar on theology or religion each year. Three awards were presented this year in honor of the Hispanic Theological Initiative’s 25th anniversary.
Alonso is assistant professor of theology and culture and director of Catholic Studies at Candler School of Theology.
Anderson honored for contributions to social justice
Emory historian Carol Anderson, whose research and award-winning books address the ways racial inequality affects the creation and unraveling of U.S. policy, has been selected for the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize. The award honors those who have made outstanding and lasting scholarly contributions to racial, ethnic and religious relationships.
Anderson is a leading scholar whose work attempts to reshape current debate through a more thorough understanding of history. She is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies. Read more about the award.
Modern Language Association honors Cho’s book
Hwisang Cho, assistant professor of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures, received honorable mention for the 28th Annual Modern Language Association Prize for a First Book, for an outstanding literary or linguistic study that is the first book-length publication by a member of the association. Cho’s winning monograph is “The Power of the Brush: Epistolary Practices in Chosŏn Korea” (University of Washington Press, 2020).
Corbett and Dunham honored as ASBMB fellows
Anita Corbett and Christine Dunham are among the 28 new fellows of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. ASBMB fellows are recognized for their outstanding commitment to the society and accomplishments in research, education, mentorship, diversity and inclusion, advocacy and service to the scientific community.
Corbett is Samuel C. Dobbs Professor in Emory’s Department of Biology, a PhD advisor in the Emory School of Medicine’s MD/PhD program and a member of the cell and molecular biology research program at Winship Cancer Institute. Dunham is a professor of biochemistry in the Emory School of Medicine.
Wellness Coaching program staff earn certifications
Three Campus Life team members recently passed the exam for certification by the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching. April Flint and Alyssa O’Keefe from Athletics and Recreation and Elizabeth Peeler from the Office of Health Promotion join previously certified colleagues Brandi Benton of the Office of Health Promotion and Elaine Miller from Case Management. According to the organization’s website, “The mission of the NBHWC is to lead the advancement of health [and] wellness coaching by establishing professional standards and collaborative partnerships.”
Hanciles’ book on global Christianity earns multiple recognitions
Jehu Hanciles, D.W. and Ruth Brooks Professor of World Christianity at Candler School of Theology, won Christianity Today’s 2022 Book of the Year Award in the Missions & Global Church category for his book “Migration and the Making of Global Christianity” (Eerdmans, 2021). The annual awards honor the books most likely to shape evangelical life, thought and culture.
Hanciles’ book also has been named to Choice’s 2021 Outstanding Academic Titles list. Choice is a publishing unit of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.
Hylen appointed as Journal of Biblical Literature’s general editor
Susan E. Hylen, associate professor of New Testament, has been appointed general editor of the Journal of Biblical Literature (JBL), the fourth woman in the publication’s 142-year history to serve in the role, and the second from Candler. Former Candler associate dean and professor Gail R. O’Day served as editor from 2000 to 2006. Hylen previously served as the journal’s inaugural associate editor beginning in 2020. Her term as general editor will run through 2024. In the role, she will work with the journal’s associate editors, editorial board and Society of Biblical Literature Press staff to review manuscript submissions and produce four issues annually. Published by the Society of Biblical Literature, JBL is a quarterly periodical that promotes critical and academic biblical scholarship.
Blood Cancers Today names Lonial as editor
Sagar Lonial, professor and chair of hematology and medical oncology, was named editor of Blood Cancers Today. The new publication from the Society of Hematologic Oncology provides hematology and oncology professionals with daily-updated news, education, research and analysis. Lonial is chief medical officer for Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University and holds the Anne and Bernard Gray Family Chair in Cancer.
Nursing leaders win big at research conference
Four Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing faculty members are Southern Nursing Research Society (SNRS) award winners.
Professor Eun-Ok Im is the 2021 SNRS Distinguished Researcher awardee. The purpose of the SNRS Distinguished Researcher Award is to recognize the contribution of an individual whose established program of research has enhanced the science and practice of nursing in the southern region. Assistant professor Jessica Wells is the 2022 Southern Nursing Research Society Research in Minority Health awardee and associate professor Kate Yeager received the 2022 Research in Nursing Health Authorship Award. Assistant professor Glenna Brewster was selected as the 2022 Rising Investigator by the Aging/Gero Southern Nursing Research Society Research Interest Group. They were honored during the SNRS Annual Conference awards luncheon in New Orleans. Learn more here.
Festschrift award presented to Kwok
Dean’s Professor of Systematic Theology at Candler School of Theology Kwok Pui Lan was honored with a Festschrift presented at the 2021 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. Co-edited by Rita Nakashima Brock and Tat-siong Benny Liew, “Theologies of the Multitude for Multitudes: The Legacy of Kwok Pui-lan” (Claremont Press, 2021) includes an essay from assistant professor of American Religious History Helen Jin Kim highlighting Kwok’s influence and impact at Candler specifically.
Nduom selected for Early Investigator Advancement Program
Emory associate professor of neurosurgery Edjah K. Nduom was accepted into the first cohort of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Early Investigator Advancement Program (EIAP). Nduom is a neurosurgical oncologist at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. The EIAP was created by the NCI to support junior investigators from diverse backgrounds as they advance to independent investigators. The program aims to enhance professional skills, guide preparation of an R01 grant application, provide access to a mentoring and peer network and grow a community of emerging, diverse researchers from across the country. Learn more about the program.
UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame inducts Price
Former UCLA swimmer Keiko Price, Emory’s director of athletics, joined the ranks of Bruins’ sports immortals in a Feb. 18 ceremony at the Hall of Fame. The organization’s website describes Price: “A 22-time All-American and NCAA postgraduate scholarship recipient, Keiko Price shattered records and broke barriers during her four years at UCLA. As a freshman in 1997, she earned a team-best 26 first-place finishes and was awarded the team's Most Outstanding Newcomer/Freshman. The following three years, she earned the team's Most Valuable Swimmer award and was a three-time Pac-10 All-Academic selection. In 1999, she won the Pac-10 championship in the 100 Free with a winning mark of 49.54. Price once held five different Bruin records, and her best mark of 48.59 in the 100 free still ranks No. 3 all-time at UCLA. A member of the U.S. National Team, she qualified to three Olympic Trials.”
Rothbaum receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Professor of psychiatry and founding executive director of the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program Barbara Rothbaum received a lifetime achievement award at the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies annual meeting.
The award is given to medical researchers working to advance treatments for traumatic stress. Rothbaum, who is considered a leading authority on post-traumatic stress disorder, was recognized for her work on innovative psychological treatments for PTSD, especially digital virtual reality tools.
In her role with the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program, Rothbaum works with the Veterans Administration and other stakeholders to deal with increased PTSD diagnoses among post 9/11 veterans who served in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
NRG Oncology taps Torres for research implementation working group
NRG Oncology’s Health Disparities Committee has named Mylin Torres co-leader of its research implementation working group. The committee’s overarching goal is to understand and address health disparities to reduce the unequal burden of cancer in the U.S. NRG Oncology conducts multi-institutional clinical and translational research with emphases on gender-specific malignancies including gynecologic, breast and prostate cancers and on localized or locally advanced cancers of all types.
Torres is a professor of radiation oncology who treats patients at the Glenn Family Breast Center and co-leads the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University.
Black Women in the Wilderness initiative receives national award
Campus Life’s Center for Women at Emory and its director, Chanel Craft Turner, were recognized by the National Women’s Studies Association with the 2021 Outstanding WGEC Program Award for the Center’s Black Women in the Wilderness program.
Black Women in the Wilderness explores the use of outdoor recreation, self-care skill building and community engagement as tools for building health and well-being for Black women at Emory.
“This award recognizes the work of women’s and gender equity centers as sites of feminist praxis and celebrates specific programs/initiatives developed and implemented by a center,” according to Jen Ash, NWSA’s interim executive director.