Celebration of Faculty Eminence offers opportunities for recognition and reflection

Sept. 27, 2022

Sixty-one newly tenured and promoted faculty, 39 named professors and four faculty members recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) were honored Sept. 21 during the Celebration of Faculty Eminence 2022 at the Emory Student Center. The event’s speakers celebrated the honorees while noting Emory’s deep commitment to eminence.

Throughout the event, speakers defined the core dimensions of eminence: the opportunity to pursue research uninhibited by disciplinary boundaries, talented and diverse colleagues and students, collegiality and collaboration, the recruitment and retention of faculty as well as philanthropic support. 

Those tenets were key points in the celebration’s opening video in which Dianne M. Stewart, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Religion and African American Studies; Kathryn Yount, Asa Griggs Candler Chair of Global Health; Ian A. McFarland, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Theology; and Venkat Narayan, Ruth and O.C. Hubert Chair in Global Health and executive director of the Emory Global Diabetes Research Center, reflected on their own practices and experiences. 

President Gregory L. Fenves, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Ravi V. Bellamkonda and Jonathan K. Layne 79B 79L, vice chair of the Board of Trustees and chair of the board’s Academic Affairs Committee, echoed the voices in the video. 

“Emory is defined by you, our brilliant and dedicated faculty, who elevate our aspirations, our success and our mission to serve,” said Fenves, addressing inductees into the AAAS. “Now, each of you have set a standard for excellence… As accomplished scholars, as artists, as scientists, you are engaged teachers and mentors of the next generation, eager to guide and inspire our students, to see them flourish both here on campus and throughout their lives.”

Speaking to the newly tenured and promoted faculty, Bellamkonda drew attention to their potential impact on the university. “Now you are Emory. Emory’s future is determined by your actions, your scholarship, your mentorship of a junior colleague and the time you spend with our students.”

Layne, speaking to a number of Emory donors in attendance, picked up a thread from the opening video: “Named professorships are the highest academic award that we can bestow on the faculty member … and are the cornerstone on which many of our academic and research programs are built,” he said. “They allow faculty to explore novel ideas, which can lead to breakthroughs, advances and discoveries.” 

The long-term effects of philanthropy are what Venkat Narayan spoke about in the opening video: “Fifteen years ago, if Emory had not invested in global health, our current footprint … would have been very limited.” 

What does the investment in eminence mean to individual faculty members? As Ian McFarland also noted in the video, “[Donors] have the confidence that it’s going to be worthwhile, and that’s really inspiring.”

  • Sa’ed Atshan, PhD | Associate Professor of Anthropology
  • Dana Barr, PhD | Professor of Environmental Health
  • Ravi V. Bellamkonda, PhD | Professor of Biology
  • Gordon Berman, PhD | Associate Professor of Biology
  • Alexander Bolton, PhD | Associate Professor of Political Science
  • Karida Brown, PhD | Professor of Sociology
  • Rasheeta Chandler, PhD, RN, NP-BC, FAANP, FAAN | Associate Professor of Nursing
  • Cari Jo Clark, ScD, MPH | Associate Professor of Global Health
  • Christina Crawford, PhD | Associate Professor of Art History
  • David J. Cutler, PhD | Professor of Human Genetics
  • Musa W. Dube, PhD | Professor of New Testament
  • Laura Emmery, PhD | Associate Professor of Music
  • Jennifer C. Felger, PhD, MSc | Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
  • Aisha Finch, PhD | Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
  • Seth Goss, PhD | Associate Professor of Japanese Linguistics
  • Ellen Gough, PhD | Associate Professor of Religion
  • Ilana Graetz, PhD | Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management
  • Jill Hamilton, PhD, RN, FAAN | Professor of Nursing
  • Joyce Ho, PhD | Associate Professor of Computer Science
  • Darren Lenard Hutchinson, JD | Professor of Law
  • Susan E. Hylen, PhD | Professor of New Testament
  • Samuel Jenness, PhD | Associate Professor of Epidemiology
  • Wei Jiang, PhD | Professor of Finance
  • David J. Katz, PhD | Associate Professor of Cell Biology
  • Dionysios Kavalieratos, PhD | Associate Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine
  • Yonggang Ke, PhD | Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
  • Ross Knecht, PhD | Associate Professor of English
  • Katia Koelle, PhD | Professor of Biology
  • Matthew Lawrence, JD | Associate Professor of Law
  • Felipe Lobelo, MD, PhD | Associate Professor of Global Health
  • Malinda Maynor Lowery, PhD | Professor of History
  • Matthew Lyle, PhD | Associate Professor of Accounting
  • David Marriott, PhD | Professor of Philosophy
  • Nader Massarweh, PhD | Associate Professor of Surgery
  • Lauren McCullough, PhD, MSPH | Associate Professor of Epidemiology
  • Sameena Mulla, PhD | Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
  • Stephen O’Connell, PhD | Associate Professor of Economics
  • Michael Leo Owens, PhD | Professor of Political Science
  • Chikako Ozawa-de Silva, DPhil | Professor of Anthropology
  • Mirko Paiardini, PhD | Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
  • Rohan Palmer, PhD | Associate Professor of Psychology
  • Miguel Rueda, PhD | Associate Professor of Political Science
  • Phillip Zhe Sun, PhD | Professor of Radiology and Imaging Sciences
  • Mehul Sutha, PhD | Associate Professor of Pediatrics
  • Beth Reingold, PhD | Professor of Political Science and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
  • Jyothi Rengarajan, PhD | Professor of Medicine
  • Philip Santangelo, PhD | Professor of Biomedical Engineering
  • Effrosyni Seitaridou, PhD | Professor of Physics
  • Nicholas T. Seyfried, PhD | Professor of Biochemistry
  • Falguni Sheth, PhD | Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
  • Aaron Siegler, PhD, MHS | Associate Professor of Epidemiology
  • Alicia Kay Smith, PhD | Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics
  • Fred Smith Jr., JD | Professor of Law
  • Suhas Sridharan, PhD | Associate Professor of Accounting
  • Dietrich William Stout, PhD | Professor of Anthropology
  • Shakira Suglia, ScD, MS | Professor of Epidemiology
  • Yong Wan, PhD | Professor of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology
  • Whitney Wharton, PhD | Associate Professor of Nursing
  • Briana Woods-Jaeger, PhD | Associate Professor of Behavioral, Social and Health Education Sciences
  • Jens Wrammert, PhD | Associate Professor of Pediatrics
  • Hao Wu, MS, PhD | Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
  • Sharon Horesh Bergquist, MD, FACP | Pam R. Rollins Professor of Medicine
  • Victor G. Corces, PhD | William P. Timmie Professor of Human Genetics
  • Jacobus Cornelis de Roode, PhD | Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology
  • Musa W. Dube, PhD | William Ragsdale Cannon Distinguished Professor of New Testament
  • Christine Ekenga, PhD | Rollins Assistant Professor of Environmental Health
  • Matthew Charles Freeman, PhD | Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Environmental Health
  • Kali Nicole Gross, PhD | National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of African American Studies
  • Darren Lenard Hutchinson, JD | John Lewis Chair for Civil Rights and Social Justice
  • Thomas Jarrett, MD | Henry B. Tippie Professor of Medicine
  • Wei Jiang, PhD | Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Finance
  • Peng Jin, PhD | Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Human Genetics
  • Dean P. Jones, PhD | Dean’s Eminent Investigator
  • Kevin Michael Kalinsky, MD, MS | Louisa and Rand Glenn Family Chair in Breast Cancer Research
  • Jonathan Lyle Kaufman, MD | David Bankes Glass Multiple Myeloma Endowed Professorship
  • Sachin Kedar, Jr., MBBS, MD | Cyrus H. Stoner Endowed Professorship in Ophthalmology
  • Baek Kim, PhD, RPh | Schinazi Family Distinguished Professorship in Biomedical Research
  • Lauren Frederica Klein, PhD | Winship Distinguished Research Professor of English and Quantitative Theory and Methods
  • Allan I. Levey, MD, PhD | Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Neurology; Goizueta Foundation Endowed Chair for Alzheimer’s Disease Research
  • Valérie Iréne Loichot, PhD | Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of French and English
  • Malinda Maynor Lowery, PhD | Cahoon Family Professor of American History
  • Sara Joyce Markowitz, PhD | Winship Distinguished Research Professor of Economics
  • David Marriott, PhD | Charles T. Winship Professor of Philosophy
  • William Maffitt McDonald, MD | Reunette W. Harris Chair in Psychiatry
  • Shannon Leigh Meeks, MD | John and Elaine Mitchell Chair in Hemostasis
  • Razieh Nabi, PhD | Rollins Assistant Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
  • George R. Painter III, PhD | George R. Painter, III Distinguished Professor
  • Chrystal Mary Paulos, PhD | David H. Lawson, MD Professor for Cancer Research
  • Khalid Shibly Salaita, PhD | Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Chemistry
  • William M. Shafer, PhD | Dean’s Eminent Investigator
  • Subhadra Shashidharan, MBBS | Kirk R. Kanter Chair of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery
  • Theodore A. Smith, PhD | Charles Howard Candler Professor of Divinity
  • Samuel J. Sober, PhD | Winship Distinguished Research Professor of Biology
  • Jessica B. Spencer, MD, MSc | Anne Winship Bates Leach Distinguished Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics and Reproductive Endocrinology
  • Eric John Sundberg, PhD | School of Medicine Endowed Professor of Biochemistry
  • Lena H. Ting, PhD | McCamish Foundation Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Engineering
  • Elizabeth Jane Tong, MD, MPH | Rollins Distinguished Clinician
  • Brian P. Vickery, MD | Marcus Professor in Pediatric Immunology
  • Yong Wan, PhD | School of Medicine Endowed Faculty Professor
  • Jennifer Johnson Zreloff, MD | Amy Rollins Kreisler Professor of Medicine

Carlos del Rio, MD

  • Executive Associate Dean, Emory School of Medicine and Grady Health System
  • Leon L. Haley Jr. MD Distinguished Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Emory University School of Medicine
  • Professor, Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health
  • Co-Director, Emory Center for AIDS Research
  • Co-PI, Emory-CDC HIV Clinical Trials Unit and the Emory Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit

Martha Albertson Fineman, JD

  • Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law
  • Founding Director, Feminism and Legal Theory (FLT) Project
  • Founding Director, Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative (VHC)

William H. Foege, MD, MPH

  • Emeritus Presidential Distinguished Professor of International Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University

Hank Klibanoff, MA

  • James M. Cox Jr. Professor of Journalism, Emory College of Arts and Sciences
  • Professor of Practice, Creative Writing Program
  • Director, Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project

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