dear

Medical Alumni Association Executive Committee

OFFICERS

Peggy Duke, 77M
President

John Max White, 77M
Vice President

Jeff Pendergrast, 72M
Immediate past president

TRUSTEES

   Carolyn Bannister, 89M
   Peter Gordon, 79M
   John Henry Jr., 82C, 86M
   Janice Johnston, 72C,    77M
   Jeffrey Nugent, 68M
   Anna Paré, 90M
   Thomas Schoborg, 73M
   William Warren, 79M

   REPRESENTATIVES
   BORAD OF GOVERNORS
   ASSOCIATION OF EMORY    ALUMNI

   Patricia Meadors,
   73C, 80M
   Walker Ray, 62C, 65M
(at large)
   Ramon Suarez, 74C, 82M

REGENTS

   James Bland Jr,
56C, 60M
   J. Willis Hurst
   Herbert Karp, 43C,51M
   John Steinhaus
   John Stone

Having served on the alumni board for the past seven years, I have had the pleasure of seeing a number of good ideas proposed by alumni actually come into being—such as a mentoring program for students. In discussions with those alumni who have served as mentors, I have learned that this interaction is as beneficial for them as for the student. I am participating in this program for the first time this year. It is an incredibly easy way to become involved and to make a major contribution and, hopefully, a difference in the life of a future physician. It is my hope as your president for the 2002–2004 term to help bring to fruition many more of your ideas. With the pressures on medicine and the more than 30% decrease in applications to medical school, as reported by Dean Lawley, it is now more important than ever that we actively participate in the nurturing of these students who will be our next generation of physicians, that we maintain an ongoing dialogue with the leaders and decision-makers in the medical school, and that we reconnect with each other for the synergism and simple joy that can bring.

I would like to thank my predecessor, Jeff Pendergrast, for his good idea and example (see page 31) of a lead gift to initiate a scholarship fund on behalf of his class of 1972. We need to do what we can to help attract good people into medicine as well as help make it possible that they are not dissuaded from a career in research, indigent care, or academic medicine simply because they have a staggering debt from the cost of education.

Finally, I would like to congratulate our association’s awardees from the 2001 Alumni Weekend, Drs. Frank Wilson, 52M, and Ken Walker, 63M (see page 34). I sincerely hope you are making plans to attend Alumni Weekend 2002, September 20-21, where classes ending in 2s and 7s will have reunions. It is only a coincidence that your past president, Jeff Pendergrast, 72M, and I, 77M, will be celebrating our class reunions this year. Please come. See you there! (BACK TO TOP)

Peggy G. Duke, MD, 77M
President, Medical Alumni Association

Please welcome Brent Thomas and Jason Chandler, two recent additions to the School of Medicine’s alumni relations team. Brent (far right), the new director of alumni relations, comes from North Carolina, where he worked in development for the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina for the past four years. He is a graduate of Appalachian State, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations and marketing and a master’s degree in higher educational administration. Jason, senior associate director of development, brings several years of philanthropy experience with organizations like the United Way and several universities. He worked on corporate philanthropy and workplace giving for Emory’s central administration before joining the School of Medicine. He has a master’s degree in philanthropy and nonprofit management from the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. (BACK TO TOP)