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August 29, 2005
Five strategic themes released, full plan
to follow

BY Michael Terrazas

Nearly two years of work will crystallize late next month, as Emory targets the week of Sept. 19–26 to officially release its strategic plan, titled “Where Courageous Inquiry Leads: A Strategic Plan for Emory University.”

The week will be marked by several appearances by people involved in the planning process—including the Strategic Planning Steering Committee co-chairs, Provost Earl Lewis and Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Michael Johns—at meetings of campus groups and at Emory Weekend, scheduled for Sept. 24–26. The Sept. 26 issue of Emory Report will be devoted to the strategic plan, and other communication materials will be released during the preceding week.

“It’s been a busy summer of organizing, writing, reviewing, rewriting and fine-tuning everything about the plan, and we’re almost ready to share with everyone the fruits of all this labor,” Lewis said. “However, we should remember that—even though we all owe a big thank you to the people who’ve helped put this plan together over the past two years—this marks the beginning of an exciting time for Emory, not the end of one.”

Lewis and Johns are recruiting members for a new committee that will oversee implementation of the plan on a University-wide level. The bedrock of the plan continues to be its individual school and unit plans, over which those schools and units have authority. The central implementation committee will be organized around the five strategic themes identified in the plan.

More details on those themes will be forthcoming in September, but the five titles are:
• Building Faculty Distinction
• Preparing Engaged Scholars
• Creating Community—Engaging Society
• Confronting the Human Condition and Human Experience
• Exploring New Frontiers in Science and Technology

Each theme is further defined by University-wide initiatives. The latter two themes include academic content-specific initiatives that were developed through the Theme Development Brainstorming process. For “Confronting the Human Condition,” the initiatives are:
• Understanding Religions and the Human Spirit
• Understanding Race and Difference
• Implementing Pathways to Global Health

The initiatives involved in “Exploring New Frontiers in Science and Technology” include:
• Neuroscience, Human Nature and Society
• Predictive Health and Society
• Life Sciences

“All of the themes represent cross-cutting, intellectual bridges that will bring our campus together in ways that will have much more impact on society than if we worked individually and in isolation,” Johns said. “These are big questions, and it will take strength, determination and courage to look for big answers. Emory has all of those.”

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