Briefs

Frost named first VP for strategic development
Saying that Emory is poised to capitalize further on its recent gains as a national research university, President Bill Chace announced last week the appointment of Susan Frost,
formerly vice provost for Institutional Planning and Research, to the new position of vice president for strategic development.

“Susan will bring her professional training and experience, her intimate knowledge of Emory, and her broad association with peer research universities to bear on the efforts we as leaders share,” Chace said. “As the new function takes shape, she and I will seek your specific advice about shaping and conducting this work.”

In her time in IPR, Frost has worked on the Luce series, Emory intellectual initiatives and faculty scholarship in Atlanta, the Commission on Teaching and the University Council on Teaching. She also founded the faculty newsletter Academic Exchange.

Johns Hopkins issues report on subject death
Johns Hopkins University released a report Aug. 29 calling its institutional review board (IRB) system “grossly inadequate,” adding that it is weaker than those at other universities.

The panel of outside experts, convened to review the June 2 death of a volunteer in an asthma research study, did say they were “pleased with the corrective action plan submitted to the [Office for Human Research protections] and their acceptance of it,” and were “confident that these actions will correct and improve clinical research at Johns Hopkins.”

Prior to the corrective action plan, the review panel described the relationship between Hopkins and federal officials as “adversarial” and said Hopkins IRBs were overwhelmed and rarely discussed experiments before voting on them.

In 1999, Emory increased its monthly human investigations committees from two to four as part of an effort to upgrade its own IRB processes.

Passings
A memorial service will be held Sept. 8 for Rebecca Dillard, assistant director of admissions for the School of Medicine, who died July 28 after a 10-month battle with cancer. She was 49.
Mrs. Dillard spent 25 years in the medical school, starting as a secretary in the admissions office. When John Stone became director of admissions in 1981, Mrs. Dillard was promoted to assistant director. She graduated from Agnes Scott College, where she played tennis after winning a doubles state championship for Newnan High School in 1968.

“She liked everyone,” said May Nelson, administrative assistant in medical school admissions. “She was a real people person; applicants enjoyed talking to her. She was a good person to work with because she worked her way up through the office and knew all the steps. She’ll be hard to replace.”

Her memorial service will be held Sept. 8 at 4 p.m. at the Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation at 1025 Mt. Vernon Highway in northwest Atlanta.