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 n a move that his new boss just down the street from CDC calls the "perfect match at the perfect time," Jeffrey Koplan has joined the Woodruff Health Sciences Center as its new vice president for academic health affairs.
In that role, the internist, health economist, and immediate past director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will turn his attention to advance the planning, research, and academic strategies across the schools of medicine, nursing, and public health as well as the Yerkes Primate Research Center and Emory's extensive network of clinics, hospitals, and community health centers. Koplan joins Emory on the heels of six years of aggressive restructuring, including strengthening research and education programs. The health sciences center has more than doubled its research funding to more than $233 million annually, launched an extensive building program, and recruited new talent. A new set of challenges lie ahead to further develop research and education programs to meet a changing health care environment and new research opportunities, says Michael Johns, executive vice president for health affairs. It's a good fit. Koplan personifies the interdisciplinary spirit that Emory fosters. He has become the nation's leading spokesperson for the integration of public health into medicine and nursing and for broadening the way health professionals approach health care. His leadership in both the public sector at CDC and the private sector at the Prudential Center for Health Care Research dramatically changed health-related research and the health of the nation. He joined the CDC in 1972 as an epidemic intelligence officer, then left 22 years later to head the Prudential Center. He has served as a clinical professor in Emory's School of Medicine for 12 years and has had an appointment in Emory's Rollins School of Public Health since its founding in 1990. He also holds academic appointments at Morehouse Medical School, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health, and has been a visiting lecturer at many other schools. As vice president for academic health affairs, Koplan follows David Blake, who in 1997, took what was then a new position to reshape research programs and set into motion priority research initiatives in such areas as such as cancer and genomics. Koplan will build on these achievements, looking closely at several Emory initiatives to which he brings special expertise, including health economics, outcomes research, international health, bioterrorism, biotechnology, vaccines, and cancer. His wife, physician Carol Koplan, is an adjunct assistant professor in the Rollins School of Public Health. |
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 s is tradition on Match Day, fourth-year medical students gathered with family and friends in the atrium of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Administration Building, had their photo taken as a group, then crowded around a table inside, laid out neatly with 100 envelopes containing letters telling them where they would spend the next year. At the stroke of noon on March 21, Emory medical school senior Janet Witte (below) joined 23,000 applicants across the country in the National Resident Matching Program. Witte literally jumped for joy before receiving congratulations from her friends for matching with Harvard's program at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she will concentrate on psychiatry and public health.
Of Emory's 2002 graduating class, 95% matched with the residency programs of their choice. Of those, 26 new physicians will remain in Emory's affiliated residency training programs. Another 50 will go into primary care, 10 are planning on emergency medicine, and seven are headed for obstetrics/gynecology. Emory graduates matched with residencies in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Six will have military appointments, and three are deferring their residency. Nineteen matched for second-year residency programs. |
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Anne Bigelow, surgical services, Emory Hospital, received the Presidential Award from the Society of Otorhinolaryngology and Head/Neck Surgery. RSPH Dean James Curran serves on the advisory board of the International AIDS Trust as well as the Institute of Medicine's committee on the future of academic health centers. At the international meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, Mario Digirolamo, professor emeritus, medicine, received the Albert Stunkard Life Achievement Award for scholarship and mentorship in obesity research. Radiation oncologist Carl J. D'Orsi, program director of the Winship Cancer Institute's division of breast imaging, is overseeing development and operation of the Avon Foundation Comprehensive Breast Care Center at Grady. Joyce Essien, director of the Center for Public Health Practice at RSPH, and other members of the ZAP Asthma consortium received the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Award for Campus-Community Collaboration, which includes a $10,000 grant. Paul Fernhoff, pediatrics, serves on the national March of Dimes' newborn screening advisory committee. Jonathan Flacker, medical director of the Grady Geriatrics Center, received the Silver Star Award, which honors individuals who promote healthy aging and have made significant contributions to the senior population. William Foege, presidential distinguished professor of international health, RSPH, has received the American Medical Association's Dr. Nathan Davis Award in the category "Member of the Executive Branch Serving by Presidential Appointment." He was nominated for the award by Jeff Koplan, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Three fellows -- Erik Folch, Isabel Hernandez, and Carlos Franco Paredes -- with the Emory Aids International Training and Research Program at the RSPH won a prestigious essay contest on the health of developing countries, sponsored by the Harvard University Center for International Development. Don Giddens, chair of the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory, will become dean of the College of Engineering at Tech in July. Robert Guyton, chief of cardiothoracic surgery, is president-elect of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and will become president in January. Emory Hospitals CEO John Henry is chair of the Georgia Hospital Association, which represents some 188 hospitals and health systems. Sheryl Heron, emergency medicine and assistant residency director, was appointed by Governor Roy Barnes to the Georgia Commission on Family Violence. Arthur Kellermann, chair of emergency medicine, is a special adviser to Lt. Governor Mark Taylor on the development of a statewide trauma system. Doug Lowery and Marilyn Margolis, emergency department directors at Emory University Hospital, appeared on the Halloween episode of NBC's popular medical drama, ER. Reynaldo Martorell, chair of the department of international health in the RSPH, advises the health consequences of population change panel of the Wellcome Trust, a foundation based in the United Kingdom. Emory Heart Center director, Douglas Morris, was one of the first torch bearers to carry the Olympic flame as it made its way from Atlanta to Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. He was selected in recognition of his commitment to exercise and fitness as an essential element of cardiovascular health. Joyce Murray, professor of nursing, is president-elect of the National League for Nursing and will begin her term as president in January 2003. Charles Nemeroff, chair, psychiatry and behavioral sciences, was named Psychiatrist of the Year by the Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association. He is also editor-in-chief of Neuropsychopharmacology. In 2003, Robert Rich, the School of Medicine's executive associate dean, research and strategic initiatives, will serve as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Immunology. Rene Romaro, pediatrics, received the Golden Apple Award for patient, family, and staff education at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Marla Salmon, dean of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, serves on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Board of Trustees as well as the Institute of Medicine's committee on the future of academic health centers. The work group on training and education led by Sandra Sexson, chief of adolescent psychiatry, received the "Catchers in the Rye" Award from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. |
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Aryeh Stein, associate professor of international health, RSPH, has been named director of the nutrition and health sciences program in the division of biological and biomedical sciences of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The program brings together faculty from public health and medicine, the graduate school, CDC, and the American Cancer Society to provide training and research opportunities for doctoral students. Stephen Warren, chair, human genetics, is on the editorial board of NeuroMolecular Medicine as well as the advisory boards for molecular medicine at the University of Toronto, the National Dysautonomy Foundation, and the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. Clyde Watkins, medicine, spearheaded the 10th annual Christmas canned food drive for the general medical clinics at Grady Hospital. Emory and Morehouse physicians and staff collected enough cash and food to feed 210 families in Fulton and DeKalb counties. Carol Webb, psychiatry and behavioral sciences, was named by Governor Roy Barnes to the state Board of Examiners of Psychologists. Guang-jer Wu, microbiology and immunology, is a member of the National Institutes of Health recombinant DNA advisory committee. |
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Web version by Jaime Henriquez.