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September 28, 2009
Bold thinking, strategic focus propel school and unit plans

Schools and other major academic, research and operating units are Emory’s bedrock, without which it cannot build or aspire to anything of lasting value.

In 2005, Emory’s schools and units developed ambitious and exciting plans that formed the core of the University-wide strategic plan. Emory aspires to transformational leadership on the basis of achievable plans for eminence developed within each of the schools and major units.

Each school and unit has since been charged with reassessing their aspirations, strategies and operating models in light of challenging economic times and smaller resource envelopes to support core operations and strategic investments. Bold thinking, focus and strategic decisions will be essential in propelling schools and units forward to achieve the University-wide vision and goals.

Schools


Candler School of Theology
Candler continues to strengthen its emphasis on practical and public theology, especially focusing on internationalizing the curriculum and conflict transformation/peacebuilding.

Partnering with the nonprofit organization International Relief and Development, Candler sent seven student interns to service sites in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and North America this summer. A second group sponsored by the Halle Institute went to Germany to attend Kirchentag, a large Protestant church festival, and conduct seminars with German theologians. In September 2009, the school hosted “Sharing Best Practices: Internationalizing Theological Education,” where representatives from Candler and 11 other seminaries gathered to discuss current and future models of internationalizing theological education. The introduction of a new dual degree with Rollins School of Public Health further underscores Candler’s commitment to global engagement.

New faculty appointments support Candler’s growth in internationalization and peacebuilding, including a director of international initiatives, David Jenkins; a distinguished senior scholar-in-residence, a position filled by long-time civil rights activist and authority on nonviolent social change, Bernard LaFayette; and an associate professor of Christian ethics and conflict transformation, Ellen Ott Marshall.

James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies
The James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies continues to pursue goals that reflect the strategic importance of doctoral education to the vitality of the greater University. Several recent developments worth noting: A grant from the Council of Graduate Schools funds a Project on Scholarly Integrity being launched this year. The project seeks to build contexts in which ethical dilemmas can be candidly discussed, focusing on students’ development as reflective, informed and responsible researchers.

A grant from the MacArthur Foundation funds the launch of a new master’s program in development practice. Emory’s award is one of ten around the world, aiming to train a generation of development professionals who can address poverty, population health, conservation and human rights as interconnected problems requiring sustained and comprehensive interventions.

This year also sees the launch of a new master’s program in bioethics, a collaboration with the Center for Ethics drawing together faculty from several schools, as well as a graduate certificate in digital scholarship, a collaboration between the Laney Graduate School and the Woodruff Library.

Rollins School of Public Health
As the 2009–2010 academic year begins, a new strategic planning process is expanding the concept of globalization throughout the Rollins School of Public Health’s (RSPH) six departments.

RSPH welcomed more than 450 new students, the largest class in school history, celebrated generous support for its faculty, students and programs, and watched the Claudia Nance Rollins Building top-out in June 2009. Total faculty now number close to 180. Dean James Curran was honored with the naming of the James W. Curran Dean of Public Health endowment. Carlos del Rio joined the RSPH faculty as Hubert Professor and chairman of the Hubert Department of Global Health, Lance Waller was named Rollins Professor and chairman of the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, and a search for a new department chair in epidemiology is close to completion. Midway through Campaign Emory, philanthropic support has brought the school to more than 80 percent of its ambitious goal of $150 million.

Emory College of Arts & Sciences
Emory College looks forward to strategic planning in the coming years that will clarify priorities and strengthen the focus on what makes Emory great. The opportunity this presents is no less than to rethink the nature of the liberal arts college in the 21st century. A new College Revisioning Committee charges some of the finest minds at Emory to move from understanding new economic realities to imagining together what the College should look like in 2015, 2025 and beyond.

Creativity is essential — in all of art, science and humanities research but also in the planning process itself. Creative decision-making invigorates both the teaching and research missions that are at the heart of the Emory experience.

The College’s societal impact will expand, too, with continuing efforts to attract and graduate the nation’s best students. Innovative financial aid programs like Emory Advantage yield an even stronger and more diverse student body. Sophomore Kelly Gracia calls the Advantage scholarship “more than amazing — it’s life-changing.”

Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Nursing dean Linda McCauley, who came to Emory in May 2009 from the University of Pennsylvania, doesn’t think Emory needs to look very far to increase the number of doctoral students in nursing. “The best and brightest doctoral candidates are already here — our undergraduate students,” she says.

“Students get mesmerized by clinical care,” McCauley says. “I want to set a goal of enrolling two students each year to go from BSN into the doctorate program. But we need to educate students as freshman and sophomores in college about nursing science. If we wait until they are juniors and seniors, their schedules have become so tight that they don’t even want to think about staying in school longer.”

In addition to increasing the PhD student pool, McCauley’s recruitment plans will add to the school’s growing roster of research strengths, including maternal-child health, heart failure and alternative approaches to cancer. In the short time since her arrival, the school has experienced dramatic growth in proposal submissions and the funding of several new NIH applications.

School of Law
Emory Law prepares students for more than practice by delivering a world-class education in a student-centered environment where the best and brightest young minds receive the knowledge and practical skills to practice and lead the legal profession.

“Emory is different from other law schools in that a lot of what it teaches you is practical,” says third-year law student Jason Esteves. “Last summer, I interned at a large law firm and quickly saw how much of what I learned at school I was applying to my internship.” Today’s economic realities have changed the legal profession, and law schools must adapt to better equip graduates to enter legal practice seamlessly.

Emory Law is committed to:
• Providing greater opportunities for practical legal study by adapting its curriculum and encouraging experiential learning opportunities.

• Opening additional career options to students by increasing financial support through increased endowment for scholarships and partnering with alumni to provide mentoring and career advising.

• Developing a collaborative learning environment that nurtures intellectual engagement by upgrading and enhancing its facilities.

Goizueta Business School

Leadership is the hallmark of Goizueta Business School’s degree programs. A new MBA curriculum and new leadership programming aim to provide students with individualized and holistic leadership development opportunities that advance their personal and professional growth while enhancing their abilities to contribute to the organizations and communities they serve.

Goizueta is focused on growth in academic areas of exceptional strength and student demand. Recent faculty hires include chaired professors Anand Swaminathan and Ilia Dichev, as well as strong young faculty. The new Center for Alternative Investments provides education, research and analysis for key areas of alternative investments.

Beyond discussing theory, Goizueta educators engage in dialogue with individuals and organizations that shape the environment, like a September 2009 business summit with the New York Stock Exchange Euronext.

Goizueta’s alumni community continues to be a tremendous resource helping students find jobs and internships.

The school is moving into a new phase of growth. Its reputation, student quality and faculty research place Goizueta among the world’s best business schools, and it seeks continuous improvement across all dimensions.

Oxford College
Oxford’s unique program for the first two years of the Emory degree emerged as the most innovative educational program of those discussed at a June 2009 conference funded by the Ford Foundation and attended by higher-education professionals from across the country. This recognition of what came to be called “the Oxford Model” was a significant step forward in achieving one of Oxford’s strategic goals: to be the exemplar of liberal arts-intensive education.

“Both the foundation representatives and the higher ed scholars were impressed with what can be achieved when a college can focus intensely on the possibilities of the first two baccalaureate years,” says Dean Stephen Bowen. This goal continues to guide Oxford’s priorities in efforts from fundraising for capital projects such as a new science building and library to the founding of the Institute for Pedagogy in the Liberal Arts.

A focus in FY10 will be the revision of Oxford’s general education requirements to support specific liberal arts intensive learning. The College will continue to emphasize and support a range of faculty projects in innovative teaching whose findings are disseminated to colleagues across the globe.

School of Medicine
“Are we just to sit there and not say anything?” the medical student asked.

“The hardest thing we have to do is be quiet while the patient processes bad news,” replied Emory internist Lisa Bernstein.

Bernstein was coaching her small “society” group on how to break bad news. The society groups are made up of eight or nine students who are assigned to the same faculty adviser for all four years of the curriculum, their long-term relationship mirroring the ideal relationship between patient and doctor. The groups are an integral part of the School of Medicine’s new curriculum, aimed at transforming medical education by being more hands-on and more patient-centered than ever before and by teaching science in the context of its application to care.

This fall marked the halfway point through the new curriculum for the class of 2011, who have given valuable feedback on what and how they are learning. Both students and faculty are giving the curriculum rave reviews. Increasing faculty-student interaction has proved key to the goal of maximizing both competence and compassion in medical training and in producing doctors who have a lifelong passion for learning and solving problems.