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March 7, 2005
March, April to be busy months for strategic planning

BY michael terrazas

The Strategic Planning Steering Committee has announced the dates of two spring town hall meetings (March 23 and April 20) to collect community feedback about the planning process, and it encouraged all University constituents to mark their calendars for Friday, April 8, from 9 a.m. to noon, when Emory will host a “Futurists Forum” in the Schwartz Center’s Emerson Concert Hall.

First, the town hall meetings will offer Emory faculty, staff and students the chance to comment on the planning process to date and particularly the proposed signature themes. The March 23 town hall will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m; the location and time for the April 20 town hall has not yet been determined.

Futurists Forum
The forum will feature a panel of 13 of the country’s foremost thought leaders in areas of interest to higher education and particularly to Emory; the panelists were selected for their expertise in the areas identified as possible signature themes for the University. During their visit to campus, the “futurists” will consult with the committees examining each proposed theme and offer their perspective on how the themes may or may not offer compelling opportunities for leadership.

“My hope,” said Michael Johns, executive vice president for health affairs and co-chair of the steering committee, “would be that they’ll help us push our thinking forward. Are we looking as far out as we should be? Are we missing something? Those are questions I’d hope they’ll help us answer.”

CNN news anchor Stephen Frazier will moderate the Futurists Forum. As of presstime, panelists include:
• Huda Akil, co-director and senior research scientist, Mental Health Research Institute; and professor of psychiatry, University of Michigan (UM).
• Floyd Bloom, neuroscientist, editor-in-chief of Brain Research.
• James Duderstadt, president emeritus and professor of science and engineering, UM.
• John Evans, chairman and CEO, Evans Telecommunications Co. and the John D. Evans Foundation.
• David Featherman, sociologist, director of social research, UM.
• Harvey Fineberg, president, Institute of Medicine.
• Lee Hood, president, Institute for Systems Biology.
• James Jackson, director, Program for Research on Black Americans; senior scientist, Institute for Social Research, UM.
• Debra Stewart, president, Council of Graduate Schools.
• Catherine Stimpson, dean, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, New York University.
• Bob Weisbuch, president, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship.
• Gail Wilensky, John M. Olin senior fellow, Project HOPE.

Signature theme committees
From both volunteers and nominations, the steering committee has assembled committees of about 30 members each to examine each of the nine signature themes proposed earlier in the semester. The faculty leaders of each group are as follows:
• Citizen as Scholar and Scholar as Citizen: Robert Franklin (theology) and Ajay Kohli (business).
• Critical Inquiry and Creative Expression: Ronald Schuchard (college) and Clinton Kilts (medicine).
• Global Health: Jeffrey Koplan (medicine/public health) and Peter Brown
(college).
• Mind, Brain and Neuroscience: Allan Levey (medicine) and Elaine Walker (college).
• Policy Solutions and Implementation: Marc Miller (law) and Art Kellermann (medicine).
• Predictive Health and Society: Ken Brigham (medicine) and Michelle Lampl (college).
• Race, Racism and Society: Leslie Harris
(college) and Ralph DiClemente (public health).
• Religion, Society and the Human Experience: Laurie Patton (college) and Carol Newsom (theology).
• Societies in Conflict and Transition: Maureen Kelley (nursing) and Martha Fineman (law).

Each committee will meet three times before producing a final report by the end of April. The first meetings will be held March 7–9; the second meetings, tentatively scheduled for March 22–24, will be open to the public at least part of the time; the third meetings are tentatively scheduled for April 11–13. The logistics of planning so many meetings for committees of so many members are formidable; people interested in attending the public meetings are encouraged to check the strategic planning website for the latest dates, times and locations.

Complete rosters for the signature theme committees, as well as the most up-to-date information about meeting dates, times and locations, is available at www.admin.emory.edu/StrategicPlan/.

 

 

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