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Letter from Abroad

Alumni Authors

Emory Medalists

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


As the new president of the Board of Governors, Emory’s foremost alumni leadership group, Greg Vaughn ’87C has a clear vision of what he hopes to accomplish during his term.

“I view our responsibility in selecting alumni trustees as one of the most important things the Board of Governors does. It has a huge, long-term impact on the University,” Vaughn says. “I would like to see more diversity in the type of members who sit on the board. We will, undoubtedly, continue to choose people of influence. But I would also like to see younger alumni and alumni from the not-for-profit community, as well as more women and people of color.”

Vaughn (left) also plans to aim more of AEA’s programming toward the half of Emory’s alumni that has graduated since 1985. “We’d like to become reflective of that younger alumni body, with programming and opportunities that allow them to have a more active voice,” he says.

In fact, Vaughn, who went on to get his medical degree from Harvard after graduating from Emory College, is a prime example of a successful young alumnus who chose to remain actively involved with Emory as his alma mater.

“My heart has always been with Emory,” says Vaughn, now vice president and general manager of NDCHealth, a healthcare information services and technology company in Atlanta. “Harvard provided phenomenal medical training, but I didn’t develop the personal attachment I have to Emory.”

The Board of Governors of the Association of Emory Alumni (AEA) is made up of thirty-six members from constituent alumni groups and seven ex-officio members representing the University, students, and faculty. The board is responsible for overseeing the activities of the AEA, as well as selecting Emory Medal winners, Turman award winners, and alumni representatives to the Board of Trustees. Members are elected to serve up to two consecutive two-year terms.

“Since its creation in the late eighties, the Board of Governors, which represents virtually all of the schools of the University, has been the primary impetus behind the development and execution of the mission of the AEA,” says Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Special Development Programs Robert G. Pennington ’74Ox-’76C-’81L-’81MBA. “As an advisory board, its role is critical in shaping the programs and services provided to our entire alumni population.”

Renelda Mack ’83C (left), the outgoing president of the Board of Governors, got involved with the AEA “because of my strong ties and allegiance to the University, and because it seemed an extension of my participation as an active student on campus.”

After receiving her degree in English literature from Emory, Mack spent a year as a Bobby Jones scholar in Scotland, then went to law school at the University of Florida. She is now chief of the civil rights unit in the State Attorney’s office in the fifteenth judicial circuit in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Mack sees the Board of Governors as an umbrella for all of the University’s constituent alumni associations and strove during her term to strengthen the ties between the school’s associations and the board.

“I also tried to improve the relationship between alumni and students. It's important to show students that Emory graduates are successful and that alumni care about them,” she said. “If we increase alumni involvement, it will help to make the Emory experience more pleasant and memorable and, looking to the future, will develop greater loyalty to and affinity for the University. We want these ties to be long lasting.”

To that end, Board of Governors members met with both the incoming and outgoing presidents of the Student Government Association, strengthened its mentoring program, and endorsed two new annual events–Class Day, for which seniors choose a notable speaker to address them before graduation (this year’s speaker was activist-actor Danny Glover), and the Candlelight Crossover, in which graduates process over the bridge at the Miller-Ward Alumni House after the Senior Dinner, symbolizing their transition to alumni.

“We would very much like to assist students in building school spirit and traditions,” says Mack, who in her role as president of the Board of Governors welcomed the Class of 2003 into the “host of illustrious alumni” during May’s Commencement ceremony.

Mack also initiated the first Emory Alumni Community Service Day on Saturday, November 15, which builds upon Volunteer Emory’s Hunger and Homelessness Week, November 10 to 14.

“On that Saturday in Atlanta there will be students working side by side with alumni, administrators, and faculty at the Atlanta Community Food bank. Emory alumni all across the country will be doing service projects on that day–in Phoenix, Philadelphia, Houston, Austin, Seattle, New Orleans, D.C., West Palm Beach, L.A., Chicago, San Francisco, Nashville, and many other places. Hopefully, this will allow [alumni] chapters to form where none has existed. We’re also looking to expand internationally.”

Mack hopes the Alumni Community Service Day will become an annual event–that at least once each year, alumni across the country and around the world will put on their Emory T-shirts, reach out to their local communities, and do the University proud.–M.J.L.


2003-2004 BOARD OF GOVERNORS - ASSOCIATION OF EMORY ALUMNI

Emory College

Renelda E. Mack ’83C

Rose Eiland Smith ’85C

Margot Rogers ’88C

Tash S. Elwyn ’93C

Robin Thomas ’99C

Cameron P. Taylor ’90C

Walter H. Beckham III ’70C-’77L

Eric J. Tanenblatt ’88C

Pamela C. Pryor ’69C-’70G

Molly Koock James ’89C

Oxford College

John W. Robitscher ’81Ox-’83C-’92MPH

W. Reid Mallard ’84Ox-’86C

Dental School Alumni Association

John MacNamara ’78D

Dan Stinson ’63D

Medical School Alumni Association

Patricia H. Meadors ’73C-’77M

Ramon A. Suarez ’74C-’78M

Nursing School Alumni Association

Barbara Reed ’57BSN-’79MN

Nancy N. Buist ’88MN

School of Public Health Alumni Association

Nancy M. Hunt ’87MPH

Dennis F. Jarvis ’88MPH

Graduate School

Mary B. Huff ’71G

Amalia K. Amaki ’92G-’94PhD

Library School

Kathy Tomajko ’79G

M. Magda Sossa ’76G

Law School Alumni Association

Chet Tisdale ’72L

Jean Zimmerman ’75L

Business School Alumni Association

Andrea J. Casson ’88BBA-’93MBA

Fernando A. Costantino ’00MBA

Theology School

Beth A. Gustafson ’94T

Robert B. Townes IV ’82T

At-Large Alumni Representatives

Jim Bailey ’67Ox-’69C

Elizabeth Ann Morgan ’90L

Gregory L. Vaughn ’87C

Teresa M. Rivero ’85Ox-’87BBA-’93MPH

Lonnie T. Brown Jr. ’86C

Marcie S. Hirshberg ’85MN

Amy Toy Rudolph ’88C-’91L

Walker L. Ray ’62C-’65M

Ex-Officio

William H. Fox ’79PhD, senior vice president for Institutional Advancement

Robert G. Pennington ’74Ox-’76C-’81L-’81MBA, vice president for Alumni Affairs and Special Development Programs

Allison Dykes, associate vice president, Association of Emory Alumni

Francine Cronin, assistant vice president for Annual Giving

Gary Hauk ’91PhD, vice president and secretary of the University

Renelda Mack ’83C, past president, Association of Emory Alumni

Judson B. “Jay” Hodges ’72T-’91DMin, chair, Emory Annual Fund

TBA, co-presidents, Student Alumni Association

John Snarey, president, University Senate

 

 
 

 

© 2003 Emory University