Release date: June 13, 2006
Contact: Beverly Cox Clark at 404-712-8780 or beverly.clark@emory.edu

Ono Named Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives

Emory University has named Santa Ono to the newly created post of vice provost for academic initiatives. Ono, who currently is associate dean of students and GlaxoSmithKline Professor of Biomedical Sciences at University College, London (UCL) also will serve as deputy to Provost Earl Lewis and as professor of ophthalmology at the School of Medicine. He will begin his new post on July 3.

“Santa’s considerable administrative experience in strategic planning and student academic services, as well as his enthusiasm for innovative research and teaching, are ideal for this new role. I am confident he will make great contributions to the university and provide key leadership as we work to achieve Emory’s immediate and long-range goals,” said Lewis.

As vice provost, Ono will work with other senior staff to coordinate the implementation of the university’s strategic plan and oversee specific projects.

“It is a distinct honor to join Emory,” said Ono. “Emory is a stunning institution, both steeped in tradition and renowned for its pioneering spirit. But it is the university’s future that has attracted me to join the provost’s office. On the landscape of leading global universities, there are very few that will keep pace with what shall be accomplished at Emory in the next 10 years.”

Ono is a graduate of Towson High School in Lutherville, Md., and received his undergraduate degree in biological sciences at the University of Chicago. Ono received his Ph.D. in experimental medicine from McGill University, and his postdoctoral training in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at Harvard University, where he was a Helen Hay Whitney Fellow.

In 1992, Ono was appointed assistant professor of medicine, pathology and biology at The Johns Hopkins University, where he won both the American Diabetes Association Career Development Award and the Investigator Award from the National Arthritis Foundation. In 1996, Ono was recruited back to Harvard University, where he was an associate professor and director of the Immunity, Inflammation and Transplantation Focus Group at the Schepens Eye Research Institute. He was recruited to the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) chair at UCL and Moorfields Eye Hospital in 2001.

As an administrator, Ono has served on admissions and strategic planning committees for the past 15 years at Hopkins, Harvard and London universities. He has been highly active in forging global links between universities and in promoting diversity at UCL, where he helped draft the university’s race equality policy.

As a scientist, Ono has published more than 125 articles and scholarly abstracts and has been continuously funded as a scientist-researcher since 1985. Ono serves on the Medical Research Council’s Medical Advisory Board and College of Experts, and the Hypersensitivity, Autoimmune and Immune-Mediated Diseases Study Section of the National Institutes of Health.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

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