Emory Magazine - Summer 2023

CULTIVATING WELL-BEING

HOW EMORY HELPS STUDENTS FIND BALANCE OF MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT

WELL + BEING FEATURES

18 25 30 36 38

THE POWER OF NAPS

Alumna Tricia Hersey

preaches the importance of rest as resistance

MINDFUL MOMENTS

Self-care tips from faculty and alumni experts to use in daily life

BUILDING A COMMUNITY OF CARE

Inside Emory's renewed focus on student well-being

A WELCOME SENSE OF BELONGING

Making connections through shared passions

LOST IN A BRAIN FOG

Medical researchers explain why many of us are feeling so sluggish

Assistant

Art Director

Elizabeth Hautau Karp

Creative Director, Publications

Peta Westmaas

Photography

Kay Hinton

Contributors

Susan Carini 04G, Carol Clark, Holly Crenshaw

80G, Wendy Darling, Mary Loftus, Michelle Ricker, Kelundra Smith

Copy Editor

Susan Carini 04G

Production Manager

Stuart Turner

Advertising Manager

Jarrett Epps

Stephen Nowland

Sarah Woods

Vice President, Communications and Marketing

Luke Anderson

University President

Gregory L. Fenves

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No. 23-EU-EMAG-0063 ©2023, a publication of the Division of Communications and Marketing.

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The comments and opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily represent those of Emory University or the staff of Emory Magazine.

Dear Emory alumni and friends of the university,

How do you define progress? In the three years I’ve been at Emory (hard to believe it’s gone by so fast!), progress takes many forms — from the gradual changes in our students as they grow and learn, year after year, to life-changing discoveries and the launch of new, cutting-edge programs and facilities.

Let’s start with our students. Progress is seeing them find their pathways, flourish in their studies and then achieve the milestone of graduation. On May 8, on our historic Quad, I joined more than 5,300 graduates, along with their friends and families, to celebrate the Class of 2023 at Emory’s Commencement ceremony. Despite a few raindrops at the beginning, our new graduates brightened the morning with their joy and enthusiasm.

And what an incredible class — brilliant, ambitious, caring students eager to answer the challenge of this year’s Commencement speaker, social justice advocate Anthony Ray Hinton, who urged them to serve others and “be great human beings.” I know they’re bringing his words to life.

I'm thinking of students like Marion Luther Brittain Awardwinning undergraduate Sandra Bourdon. She’s a first-generation college student who created a preorientation program for her peers focused on exploring spirituality, served as president of Emory’s Voices of Inner Strength Gospel Choir, mentored high school students and researched clean-water initiatives.

Then there’s Audric Donald, a graduate of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, who has worked to improve awareness of Alzheimer’s and dementia in African American communities while also inspiring more African American men to become nurses. His next plans are to work as a public health nurse while attending graduate school.

Or consider Nicole Felix-Tovar, this year’s student Commencement speaker, who blended studies in human health, anthropology and human biology, and volunteered as an EMT with Emory Emergency Medical Services, while pursuing her goal to become a physician after she completes a master’s degree in bioethics.

Just a week before Commencement, a huge crowd of supporters and Atlanta partners gathered at the Emory University Hospital Midtown to cut the ribbon opening the state-of-the-art Winship Cancer Institute at Emory Midtown. Made possible with support from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, this magnificent new 17-story facility brings inpatient and outpatient cancer services, precision diagnostics and oncology research into one location, serving cancer patients in Atlanta and across Georgia.

The Winship Cancer Institute is Georgia’s only National Cancer Institute (NCI)–designated Comprehensive Cancer Center –– among the top tier of cancer centers in the United States. And that NCI designation is associated with survival rates up to 25% greater than non-NCI centers.

From creating new targeted therapy to treat children with high-risk Hodgkin lymphoma to leading a practice-changing national study that found postmenopausal women with certain types of breast cancer can forgo chemotherapy, and so much more, Winship scientists are propelling a paradigm shift in cancer care.

For patients, their families and caregivers, our new cancer center in Midtown is a beacon of hope. And for the Emory physicians, clinicians, nurses and researchers who’ve devoted their careers to preventing, treating and ending this devastating disease, it offers a powerful place to ease the burden of cancer. That’s progress at Emory.

Gregory L. Fenves President Emory University

EXCITED ABOUT OUR PROGRESS President Gregory L. Fenves

THE BIG PICTURE

MEDITATIVE MOMENT

Emory’s Buddhist Club, a student-led group supported by the Office of Spiritual and Religious Life, gave its members a final meditation session before spring finals.

Visionary Leaders

Emory welcomes two new distinguished deans to guide Emory and Oxford Colleges.

Barbara Krauthamer, an award-winning author and historian, has been appointed as the next dean of Emory College of Arts and Sciences. Formerly the dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at University of Massachusetts Amherst, she took the helm of Emory University’s largest school on July 1.

A member of the history faculty at UMass Amherst since 2008, Krauthamer served from 2017 to 2020 as dean of the university’s Graduate School, holding a concurrent position as senior vice provost for interdisciplinary programs and innovations from 2019 to 2020. She has also served on the faculty at New York University.

During her time at UMass Amherst, she advanced a compelling vision for a liberal arts education that promotes innovation at the intersection of the humanities, sciences and technology, working closely with leaders in nine colleges to promote interdisciplinary initiatives and support research opportunities for faculty and students across the disciplines.

“I think what makes Emory distinctive is a sense of service — that at this institution, education and research are in the service of human good,” Krauthamer says.

“We’re at a crucial moment for higher education, and I believe that Emory College’s strengths in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences provide critical avenues through which we can prepare students to understand the human experience and move the world forward in productive, fulfilling ways.”

Badia Ahad, an acclaimed teacher, innovative scholar and seasoned academic leader, has been appointed as the next dean of Oxford College of Emory University. Ahad currently serves as vice provost for faculty affairs and professor of English at Loyola University Chicago. She will begin her service at Oxford on Aug. 1.

As dean, Ahad will be the chief academic and administrative officer for Oxford College, which serves almost 1,000 Emory first- and second-year students on its own campus in Oxford, Georgia. She also will bolster Oxford’s connections to the Atlanta campus and contribute to university-wide goals.

“I think my most important role as dean will be to ensure that students, faculty and staff have the tools and the resources that they need to be and to do their best,” Ahad says. “I want students at Oxford to have an academic experience that not only cultivates intellectual rigor and curiosity, but also helps them find their own sense of purpose and how that purpose is going to serve others.”

Ahad’s broad leadership experience speaks to her commitment to developing outstanding scholars at all levels. As Loyola’s vice provost for faculty affairs, she recently launched a research program designed to spark innovative ideas to address real-world challenges, supporting teams of faculty members and students to tackle issues in education, immigration, food access, housing and religion. She also is a nationally recognized expert on faculty development, having led academic training for the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity.

Barbara Krauthamer named dean of Emory College of Arts and Sciences

Badia Ahad named dean of Oxford College

CELEBRATING EMORY’S Class of 2023

A LOOK BACK AT THE UNIVERSITY’S 178TH COMMENCEMENT CEREMONIES THAT WELCOMED 5,376 NEW GRADUATES.

Amorning that started with rain and the threat of thunderstorms wasn’t enough to dampen the spirits of Emory’s newest graduates and their loved ones. That spirit won out, too, as by the end of the ceremony the sun was shining — an apt metaphor, perhaps, for graduates who persevered through the COVID-19 pandemic and whose time as students was full of transitions.

Music from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Brass

Quintet set the tone as family and friends began filling up the Emory Quadrangle by 7 a.m. For the undergraduate, graduate and professional students, May 8 ushered them into an alumni base more than 162,000 strong.

“This is a day that has been years in the making,” said President Gregory L. Fenves. “It started with a dream, a goal, a thought that you could reach this level and earn a degree from one of the finest universities in the world.

“Along the way, there was inspiration, discovery, self-knowledge and moments that shaped you and changed you forever,” Fenves said. “Class of 2023, each one of you has a story. A path that is singular. And only you understood what it took to achieve your goal.”

This theme of personal journeys was present in different ways throughout the ceremony. And not a single speaker shied away from the notion of obstacles and adversity.

Student speaker Nicole Felix-Tovar 23C, who majored in anthropology

and human health and biology, shared advice that has seen her through the last four years as she juggled school, work and volunteering with Emory Emergency Medical Services.

When Felix-Tovar shared struggles with her parents, her mom offered the reminder that she’s not perfect. But far from a harsh truth, Felix-Tovar said, “I think those words are one of the truest expressions of love and compassion I’ve ever experienced. And today, I would like to share the meaning, love and compassion of those words with you.”

Emory students are known to be high-achieving and focused on success. These standards can ratchet up expectations, creating a journey full of stress and turning students into their own worst critics. “Now I’m going to be my mom and say what she says to me to all of you: you are not perfect and you don’t have to be,” Felix-Tovar reminded attendees. “On your journey to accomplish your big goals and dreams, you are allowed to fall down and fail. You’re allowed to make mistakes, change your mind and just be who you are.

“You don’t have to be perfect to be loved, valued and appreciated, and you have inherent worth regardless of your accomplishments. Each of us has our own unique path, and if we were

perfect, then we’d all just be replicas of the same person,” Felix-Tovar said.

Activist, writer and justice advocate Anthony Ray Hinton, the keynote speaker, spent 30 years on Death Row in Alabama for crimes he didn’t commit. After his freedom was secured by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), Hinton became an EJI community educator and tireless advocate for abolishing the death penalty.

“Tomorrow is a new dawn. You’re going to fall, but I beg you to get up,” said Hinton, who before speaking was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters. “Your plan will not always proceed the way you planned it in your mind. Life will throw you a curve. I know for a fact that at the age of 29 it threw me a curve that I was not expecting. But I truly believe that all of us are born with the instinct to survive whatever comes our way.”

Hinton — who received an honorary degree along with philanthropists and health care advocates James Cox Kennedy and Sarah Kenan Kennedy — also reminded attendees to take the good with the bad. “I am one who believes that when it rains, you should walk in the rain,” Hinton said. “For 30 years the rain was not allowed to fall on my body. Not one drop. So I embrace the rain and I want you to realize that the sun will shine again. Enjoy today.”

These words carried the 5,376 graduates who were awarded 5,525 degrees into their next chapters, which reach far and wide. This year’s class hailed from 54 U.S. states and territories and 67 other nations.

— Michelle Ricker and Kelundra Smith

SEE MORE ONLINE AT MAGAZINE.EMORY.EDU, INCLUDING CLASS OF 2023 STATS, FULL CEREMONY RECORDINGS and profiles of graduates.

A GRAND EVENT (Left) Soon-to-be graduates wait for their big moment as they convene on the Atlanta campus Quad for Emory's 2023 Commencement. (Top) Keynote speaker and social justice activist Anthony Ray Hinton addresses the students. (Bottom) A student proudly displays one of their next major goals in life.

Sandra Bourdon

Undergraduate Brittain Award Recipient

When Sandra Bourdon 23C has her heart set on something, there’s no stopping her. She applied to school through the QuestBridge National College Match program and only had one place on her list: Emory. She had visited campus twice on high school field trips to the Michael C. Carlos Museum, but wasn’t sure she’d be able to attend due to her family’s finances. When Bourdon

HONORING EMORY’S SHINING STARS

Meet the students, faculty and staff who received the university’s most prestigious annual honors.

was admitted with a full scholarship, she was ecstatic about the opportunities that Emory would hold for her as a human health major with a concentration in health care innovation, but she was also ready to help others.

Bourdon grew up in Warner Robins, Georgia, seeing her parents volunteer at church and cook for the

sick and needy. She brought that spirit with her to Emory and her commitment to service on and off campus has earned her the 2023 undergraduate Marion L. Brittain Award, Emory’s highest student honor.

The youngest of five children, Bourdon says she was the first of them to move so far from home

for college. As a first-generation college student, she stayed in the Empowering First residential community on campus and still serves as a mentor to high schoolers through the Emory Pipeline Collaborative. “First-gen students are less likely to ask for help because they’re used to doing things on their own,” Bourdon says.

On campus, Bourdon quickly found a sense of belonging in the Office of Spiritual and Religious Life (OSRL). She has served as president and secretary of the Voices of Inner Strength (VOIS) Gospel Choir. As a leader, she helped promote the VOIS Forever fund, which established a $100,000 endowment to secure the choir’s future. She also created the Welcoming Interfaith and Spiritual Exploration (WISE) PreOrientation Program. In WISE, incoming students talk about, and explore, different belief systems and spiritual pathways before their first semester.

Outside of OSRL, Bourdon served as co-coordinator of the Menstrual Product Initiative. Through a BeWell grant, she helped provide up to three months of products to students facing period poverty. Her service also extended beyond campus. In her sophomore year, she earned a coveted Field Scholar Award from the Emory Global Health Institute to study water cleanliness in Guatemala. Due to the pandemic, the work was remote, but she was still able to contribute ideas to a distribution plan for water-filtration systems throughout the country.

— Kelundra Smith

Elsa Mekonnen Graduate Brittain Award Recipient

During her time as a graduate student in Emory’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Elsa Mekonnen 23N became known for putting scholarship and service into practice. As a Woodruff Fellow, a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and a registered nurse at Emory Healthcare for nearly a decade, she’s no stranger to teamwork.

Her peers describe her as a driven, passionate and kind clinician who centers patient care in everything she does — all while balancing her role as a working mother of two. Mekonnen was named the 2023 graduate Brittain Award winner.

As an Emory registered nurse, Mekonnen was a frontline worker during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I was questioning whether I wanted to put myself and my family at risk with something like this,” she says. “Coming to work was very stressful and I had to do some soul-searching to decide if this was the profession for me.”

Eventually, she realized how deeply she enjoyed helping people. “I didn’t want to put myself at unnecessary risk, but I felt it was a risk I could take. I knew how to protect myself while still helping others.”

Still, she wanted to be able to do more and decided to pursue a master of science in nursing degree. “Being a provider was a way to expand my capabilities, so going to Emory to become a nurse practitioner was a perfect fit,” she says.

Those technical and clinical skills support Mekonnen’s current role as a research nurse practitioner in nephrologist Jeanie Park’s human integrative physiology laboratory at Emory’s School of Medicine.

“I take care of patients and advance scientific knowledge and nephrology. So I

still get to help patients, which I wanted to do, and hopefully help medical science, too,” she says.

While in her master’s program, Mekonnen helped coordinate student volunteer opportunities, such as sorting medical supplies with MedShare in Decatur and gardening at Lullwater Preserve during Emory Cares Day. She also volunteered in Peru as part of an immersion trip through the Lillian Carter Center, the hub of global education for Emory’s School of Nursing.

Her drive to serve others blossomed thanks to multiple events in Mekonnen’s life. “As a child of immigrants from Ethiopia, I am reminded of how lucky I am to have access to these opportunities,” she says.

— Michelle Ricker

PHOTOGRAPHY KAY HINTON AND STEPHEN NOWLAND

Ira Schwartz

Exemplary Teacher of the Year

Ira Schwartz grew up as part of a Jewish family in New York City. “I was one of those curious and annoying kids who was constantly asking questions. A city kid who liked being out in nature,” he says. “My mom was a kindergarten teacher, my dad was a first-generation college student — after being in the U.S. Army during World War II, he went to law school and became an attorney. I’m not sure they understood my fascination with science and medicine, but they were always supportive of me wanting to become a doctor.”

Schwartz may have become a doctor — an eclectic medical career that has included work in pediatrics, epidemiology and refugee relief work — but he has spent the latest chapter as a much beloved professor at Emory. For his impact in the classroom and beyond, he was named Emory’s 2023 Exemplary Teacher of the Year.

He originally came to Georgia to train as a “disease detective” for the Centers for Disease Control and

TEACHERS TOP

Prevention (CDC) in its Epidemic Intelligence Service — his work studying drug-resistant malaria in Africa taking him to Kenya, Tanzania and the Congo. He wound up back in Atlanta, where he got married to a lawyer and they had a daughter. A final CDC job took him to Nairobi, Kenya, but his family ultimately settled in Atlanta.

Schwartz joined the university as a faculty member in 1991. Teaching at the School of Medicine and Rollins School of Public Health, he excelled at connecting with and mentoring students. Many of them say Schwartz played a critical role in their evolution throughout medical school and continues to be a role model for them in their lives and careers.

Today, Schwartz fills multiple roles at Emory. He’s an associate professor of family and preventive medicine, assistant professor of global health and behavioral sciences and health education, associate dean for medical education and student affairs, and dean of admissions for Emory School of Medicine.

Schwartz is proud of the school’s work. “Our faculty are intentional about educating our students with this goal: Emory medical school graduates are prepared to practice excellent medicine anywhere in the world,” he says.

— Mary Loftus

The Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award is presented to faculty members from each of Emory’s four undergraduate schools during Commencement every year. The award recognizes a record of excellence in undergraduate teaching. This year’s honorees are:

HARSHITA MRUTHINTI

KAMATH, Visweswara Rao and Sita Koppaka Associate Professor in Telugu Culture, Literature and History, Emory College

JOHN KIM, associate professor in the practice of organization and management, Goizueta Business School

MANUELA MANETTA, assistant teaching professor, Department of Mathematics, Emory College

PAUL OSER, teaching professor of mathematics, Oxford College

MICHAEL LEO OWENS, professor of political science, director of graduate admissions and placement, Emory College

KATHERINE M. PFEIFFER, assistant clinical professor and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program assistant director, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

The Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education recognizes outstanding scholars who excel as teachers. One faculty member in each of Emory’s seven graduate and professional schools is given the award annually. This year’s honorees are:

RAJIV GARG, associate professor of information systems and operations management, Goizueta Business School

AMANDA I. GILLESPIE, associate professor of otolaryngology, Emory School of Medicine

KIMBERLY BOB SESSIONS

HAGEN, assistant research professor, Rollins School of Public Health

JOEL B. KEMP, assistant professor of Hebrew Bible, Candler School of Theology

EMMANUEL Y. LARTEY, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Pastoral Theology and Spiritual Care, James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies

MATTHEW B. LAWRENCE, associate professor of law, School of Law

ERICA MOORE, assistant professor of nursing, School of Nursing

Jon Howell

Thomas Jefferson Award Recipient

“The goal was never to be the best Division III (DIII) team; it was to create something uniquely Emory.”

Those are the words of Jon Howell, coach of the men’s and women’s swimming and diving team since 1998 and winner of this year’s Jefferson Award, which “honors faculty and staff who have significantly enriched the intellectual and civic life of the Emory community through personal activities, influence and leadership, usually over the course of many years.”

Both things have been true: Howell has been the driving force behind the most competitive teams in Emory athletics history, and he has created a program honoring Emory values such as service and commitment to excellence.

“DIII provides a wonderful platform, but I wanted to transcend it,” Howell says. “My focus, and that of our entire coaching staff, has been on how can we support swimmers beyond their time in the pool, helping them

become scholars and leaders.”

In other words, Howell and his staff are thinking about the athletes’ personal development and care for others.

Deemphasizing the pursuit of records is possible because, as Howell says, “at Emory, we can do things outside the box. Emory champions excellence, and we receive incredible support from the Emory community.”

Howell has guided the Eagles to 15 NCAA DIII National Championships since 2005, including wins for both the men and women in 2017. He has overseen 58 individual and 51 relay national champions.

For these accomplishments and more, he has received National Coach of the Year honors eight times, including at the 2017 National Championships, where he won for both the men’s and women’s teams. The Collegiate Swimming Coaches of America, in 2021, named him as one of the 100 Greatest Coaches of the Past 100 Years.

“While the stats are impressive, the person behind those numbers is equally remarkable,” says associate coach Cindy Fontana. “He has us consistently asking ourselves what worked, what didn’t work, why and what can we do better? His guiding principle is how can we best set up our student-athletes for success.”

Howell adds: “Our athletes are overachievers. They want to swim at a high level, but they are equally invested in their academics.” — Susan Carini 04G

PHOTOGRAPHY KAY HINTON, STEPHEN NOWLAND AND GETTY IMAGES

Medical Science History Mosaic

For more detailed images of the mosaic and to discover more Hidden Emory, visit magazine.emory.edu.

HIDDEN

EMORY

OVERLOOKED SPACES. FORGOTTEN PLACES. LITTLE-KNOWN OBJECTS AND OBSCURE ARTIFACTS.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KAY HINTON

TEXT BY ROGER SLAVENS

Measuring 66 feet long and three stories high, the enormous Medical Science History Mosaic — the creation of Italian-born artist Sirio Tonelli — remains largely known only to those who have stepped inside the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Administration Building (WSHCAB) on Emory’s Atlanta campus. The mosaic boasts more than 2.5 million small tiles that stunningly convey a broad swath of medical history, including depictions of more than 30 key historical figures and events across this towering work of art.

Tonelli, considered a master Byzantine iconographer, has created mosaics, frescoes, stained glass windows and designs in marble, bronze and wood that grace the interiors of more than 100 churches and other buildings throughout the United States. His mural was commissioned by Emory and installed in 1996, thanks in part to the championing efforts of John Skandalakis (1920-2009), the university’s director of the Centers for Surgical Anatomy and Technique. Skandalakis knew of Tonelli through the artist’s work on Atlanta’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral and helped bring his artistic vision to Emory, where he adapted his classical style and techniques to help visualize the historical mission of Woodruff Health Sciences.

The mosaic, located in the lobby of WSHCAB at 1440 Clifton Road, can be viewed by the general public during normal weekday hours.

BUSINESS IS CHANGING. ARE YOU?

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Explore Goizueta’s part-time and full-time graduate degree options and keep your career moving forward.

The ordinary person looks at Georgia’s Stone Mountain and sees a solid, unmovable monolith. Emory paleontologist Anthony Martin, who thinks in geologic time, sees something more akin to a giant sugar cube.

Ever since the crystalized mass of igneous-born minerals rose from deep underground, pushed by the upwelling of magma that formed the Blue Ridge Mountains around 350 million years ago, the giant rock’s flanks have faced continuous assault — and not just from weather and water.

Stone Mountain “is fighting a battle against life, and life is winning,” Martin writes in the preface of his new book, “Life Sculpted: Tales of the Animals, Plants and Fungi That Drill, Break and Scrape to Shape the Earth.”

Martin, professor of practice in environmental science, is a geologist and paleontologist focused primarily on ichnology — the study of traces of life such as tracks, burrows, nests and tooth marks. Among his discoveries are the only known burrowing dinosaur and the oldest bird tracks in Australia. His other passion is great science communication, which his books exemplify. “Life Sculpted” is a follow-up to Martin’s 2017 book “The Evolution Underground: Burrows, Bunkers and the Marvelous Subterranean World Beneath Our Feet.”

Chiseling Away at Planet Earth

The current volume, also aimed at anyone interested in Earth sciences, goes beyond burrowing to cover how myriad forms of life have broken down the hard substrates of rock, shells, bones and wood during the past billion years. “Yes, life can be hard,” Martin quips, “but life also makes everything less hard every day. Bioerosion shapes the world, literally. It’s changed entire ecosystems.”

Bioerosion has also changed human history. Martin cites the wood-boring clams that perforated the hulls of the Spanish Armada, helping tip the odds toward the English Navy in 1588, when it won a decades-long fight for maritime dominance.

Bioeroders come in all sizes, he writes, from microbes that transport calcium away from rock and shells to elephants that dig caves with their tusks to obtain salt. Bioeroders can change the soundscape as well as the landscape.

In a chapter titled “Your Beach Is Made of Parrotfish Poop,” Martin describes hearing “a crunching and popping reminiscent of sugary breakfast cereals meeting milk” while snorkeling over a Bahamian reef. The crunching, he explains, is actually the sound of parrotfishes biting out chunks of the reef with jaws and teeth capable of breaking apart rock. Reefs and the surrounding shallow-marine environments have been shaped by millions of years of such fishes gnawing on coral and defecating sediments. Martin doesn’t just want readers to visualize and hear bioerosion. He also wants them to smell it. He describes how dinosaurs chewed up rotten wood to get at insects and how insects, in turn, bored into the limb bones of large Jurassic dinosaurs that apparently became trapped in a stinking mud pit of decomposing flesh in Colorado.

The book gives many examples of bioeroders closer to home. Georgia “hosts small, furry, bone-destroying beings that descend from the trees and eat skulls,” Martin writes. He knows this from personal observation of squirrels that relentlessly gnawed a cow skull to bits he and his wife had hanging in their courtyard. “It’s their calcium supplement,” he says. — Carol Clark

SLOW GOING Anthony Martin, author of “Life Sculpted,” sees life through a different lens of time, spanning millions of years.

PALEONTOLOGIST ANTHONY MARTIN SHARES HOW ANIMALS, PLANTS AND FUNGI HAVE SCULPTED AND BIOERODED THE EARTH OVER EONS.

BUILDING THE FUTURE

The future of research and health care at Emory were forever changed this spring when two new, innovative facilities were opened.

THE NEW HEALTH SCIENCES RESEARCH BUILDING II, the largest facility if its kind in Georgia, is an eight-story, 350,000-square-foot edifice designed to house more than 1,000 researchers, including 130 principal investigators, from across a variety of specialties including: pediatrics, biomedical engineering, Winship Cancer Institute, cardiovascular medicine, the Emory Vaccine Center, radiology and brain health. The $313 million cost for the project was funded in large part through a $200 million gift from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, as part of a total $400 million gift to Emory University in 2018 — the largest gift in university history.

INNOVATION AND COMPASSION COME TOGETHER IN THE NEW WINSHIP CANCER INSTITUTE AT EMORY MIDTOWN, a patientcentered, multidisciplinary cancer care center integrated with innovative research to provide the best patient outcomes and a personalized patient experience. Located on the Emory University Hospital Midtown campus, the facility comprises 17 stories and more than 450,000 square feet on three acres. It was made possible in part with a transformational $200 million gift from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation.

A GOOD INFLUENCE

Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, has been named to Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2023. An Emory faculty member for three decades, Lipstadt is on a leave of absence from her role as Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies in the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies and the Department of Religion. President Joe Biden nominated Lipstadt to serve in the ambassador role. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in March 2022 and sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris in May 2022. For the Time 100 list, Lipstadt is among 13 honorees in the “Titans” section, which also includes Beyonce, Lionel Messi, Elon Musk and Angela Bassett, among others.

POOL PARTY

The Emory men’s swimming and diving team captured the NCAA Division III champion title for the second year in a row and the third time in team history. In addition, across the four-day tournament, the team won national championships in five events, secured 24 All-America podium finishes and saw 13 All-America Honorable Mentions. The Eagles also established new Division III records in the 200 medley and 800 freestyle relays. Meanwhile, the women’s team claimed national runners-up for the second straight year and the fourth time in team history. Across the tournament, the women collected three national championships, four national runners-up, 17 All-America honors and 10 All-America Honorable Mentions. Tomasz Rossa was also awarded Women’s Diving Coach of the Year and graduate student Taylor Leone was also named Division III Women’s Swimming & Diving Academic All-America Team Member of the Year.

UP (WAY UP!) FOR DEBATE

Emory Woodruff Debate Scholars

Eugenia Giampetruzzi 23C (right) and Grace Kessler 24C capped their three-year powerhouse partnership by finishing as the second-ranked team following the collegiate National Debate Tournament (NDT) this year. Giampetruzzi also captured the award for the second consecutive year. She is the first woman and fourth debater to win back-to-back top honors in the NDT’s 77-year history. “I could not be more proud of our team, and I feel great about the future of the program,” says Mikaela Malsin 10C, director of debate at Emory University.

SPECIAL

DRAWING

STRENGTH

FRO M A

P ower

Candler School of Theology alumna Tricia Hersey, founder of the Nap Ministry, is an evangelist for the importance of rest — not just as a way to be more productive, but also as a generative place to dream, become more aligned with yourself and resist grind culture.

By Kelundra Smith

Illustrated by Becki Gill

t was around 2014, and Tricia Hersey found herself bone-tired. It wasn’t the kind of tired that could be easily resolved by a spa visit or a girls’ weekend. It was the kind that had built up over decades and demanded a more drastic solution.

Enrolled at Emory’s Candler School of Theology, Hersey was working toward earning her master of divinity degree. Her schedule was filled to the brim. A typical day started at 5:30 a.m., waking up early to study before getting her son off to school. She had to take a bus and then a train to get to Emory for class. After three classes, she headed to her workstudy job, and on some days, she also went to an internship. It was usually midnight by the time she got home. She had been doing this routine day in, day out for more than a year.

In Hersey’s New York Times best-selling book, “Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto,” she recalls this time, writing, “During final exam season, I watched people live in the library, never once leaving, bringing sleeping bags to lie under tables and in between the bookshelves. I spent numerous times living in the library for overnight group study sessions with classmates during finals week.”

To cope with the stress of her long days — and nagging lack of sleep — Hersey started taking short naps on campus. She slept on the Quad, in Cannon Chapel, in the library, on any surface she could find. She fell asleep with books on her chest, which reminded her of her grandmother.

In her book, Hersey notes that Grandma Ora rarely sat still, but when she did it was to rest her eyes. What was her

grandmother tapping into during those stolen moments of rest? Could she discover something while resting that she couldn’t while she was going through the motions?

Hersey found that the content inside the books seeped into her in a deeper way than when she was cramming to write papers. Rest also allowed her to imagine a different and better life for herself and her family. She didn’t have to do more to become more.

“Sleep is a generative space; it has helped everything make more sense,” Hersey says. “When I started to miss assignments, I got better grades. I was taking naps with books on me. I wasn’t reading them, but I was dreaming about it.”

Hersey started experimenting with rest and encouraged others to do the same. Then she hosted a collective napping experience as a project for her master’s degree. She expected a handful of people to come, but instead 50 people from the Emory community showed up. She decorated a space with pillows and mats on the floor and played soothing music. Attendees were invited to lie down and close their eyes while Hersey recited a guided meditation, giving everyone permission to rest.

When the one-hour experience was over, Hersey realized that she was onto something bigger. Something that would eventually lead to the Nap Ministry, which today boasts hundreds of thousands of followers — though not in the usual sense.

"Because I’ve been trained as an activist and organizer since I was 18 years old, I knew that no healing could take place alone,” Hersey says. “Everything is about community care and the collective. I wanted the experience to be offered

“Sleep is a generative space; it has helped everything make more sense. ... When I started to miss assignments, I got better grades. I was taking naps with books on me. I wasn’t reading them, but I was dreaming about it.”

EVANGELIZING EASE As the founder of the Nap Ministry, Tricia Hersey leads collective nap sessions at churches, yoga studios and other spaces around the country. In these sessions, she invites people to lie down and relax as she leads them in centering and deep breathing exercises.

collectively to resist and make a statement about the idea that we can be off the clock. We can bend time and slow down.”

REST AS SOCIAL JUSTICE

Before she uncovered the power of rest, the constant anxiety created by systemic prejudice compounded by the stress of juggling motherhood, work and graduate school had left Hersey feeling drained. But it was the type of sacrifice she had known most of her life. She grew up on Chicago’s South Side witnessing her parents working themselves to the bone to give to those in need.

When Hersey enrolled at Candler, she thought about becoming an ordained minister who would take the

community justice work her family did to a heightened level. However, two important books she read at Emory changed Hersey’s perspective on what ministry could look like.

First, she read the 1969 book “Black Liberation Theology” by James H. Cone, which was published in the midst of the Black Power, Black Arts

and Black Is Beautiful movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the book, Cone talks about Christianity from the perspectives of Black people who see God as aligned with justice, freedom and abundance. “Black Liberation Theology” presents religion as a bridge to liberation from oppression.

Hersey also read “Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies” by John W. Blassingame, a 1977 book that compiles testimonials from enslaved Africans talking about plantation life. They worked 16 to 18 hours per day with very little to eat or drink. They describe the aches and pains in their bodies from the expectations of working virtually nonstop. Picking cotton, rice, tobacco and sugar cane in this way was the fate of many African Americans up until the mid-1900s when widespread technology started to transform agricultural production.

She saw too many parallels between the lived experiences of her ancestors and her own family. She was barely getting five hours of sleep trying to trying to manage all her responsibilities — while taking public transportation because she sold her car to help pay for graduate school. During this time, Hersey often thought about her father, elder Willie J. Hersey, whom she watched spend decades working long hours for the railroad and then ministering to the sick and weary on nights and weekends. He died far too young from complications after a triple bypass heart surgery at the age of 55.

Hersey also realized how social media culture glamorized endless work. Posts and images carrying the hashtags #RiseandGrind and #TeamNoSleep flooded her newsfeed. Grind culture, which Hersey describes as a collaboration between capitalism and white supremacy, was taking over. The idea of not sleeping until death was one that her ancestors and elders suffered under for centuries, and it didn’t sit well in her soul.

From childhood, like many of us growing up in the U.S., she had been taught that if she got good grades, worked hard and did the right thing, she would prosper. But she learned from her family and the Black community that there were systemic factors and biases — often superseding merit and hard work — that determined who got to achieve material success and who didn’t. After all, Hersey was constantly

working and still barely keeping the lights on. “The idea of connecting your worth to how much you get done and the socialization and brainwashing of grinding starts at birth,” Hersey says. “In ‘Rest Is Resistance,’ I talk about my son, and how the culture teaches us to ignore our bodies as children. Perfectionism is a tenant of white supremacy work culture. It has us all in a chokehold.”

A culture built on “humans working at a machine-like pace,” as she describes it, felt dangerous. The idea that people were only created to serve a capitalist economic system was out of line with everything she had been taught as a child about God as a keeper, protector, deliverer and stronghold. Something had to give.

“I think we need to distance ourselves from any system that is trying to suppress us,” Hersey says. “If you realize that you are a divine human being, there’s a leaping.”

However, there was one thing that had never failed her, and that was her imagination. Hersey is a trained puppeteer who used to perform at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. She is also a poet and writer. While at Emory, Hersey took additional classes in the dance and theater departments. For her, art and spiritual well-being are connected, and part of her work at Candler was trying to figure out how she could blend art and ministry.

And it’s at the intersection of art and spirituality that the Nap Ministry came to be.

REST AS RESISTANCE

After that first collective napping experience

Hersey led in graduate school, word spread fast and demand grew. The self-proclaimed Nap Bishop started hosting collective nap experiences

at Yellow Mat Yoga and then at a Presbyterian church in Grant Park. She also posted affirmations and proclamations on social media to spread her message about resting.

If churches and temples are supposed to be places to connect, be inspired and build community, then the Nap Ministry is gaining parishioners daily. It currently boasts more than 500,000 followers on Instagram, but unlike social media influencers, Hersey’s goal is not to gain more followers. She actually wants people to log off and rest.

“Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto” was published by Little Brown, Spark in October 2022 and quickly became a critically acclaimed bestseller. The book is dedicated to Hersey's father, who she thanks for purchasing luggage from Sears when she said she wanted to go to the moon. In the book, she describes how naps have changed her life, how she began to deprogram her mind and body from grind culture and the importance of accessing “the dream space.”

“Rest has taught me that God is in control, and I’ve always known that,” Hersey says. “I’ve learned deep trust. I’ve seen my body change. My body is the site of deep liberation. Rest has allowed me to deconstruct harmful beliefs in a way I’d never been able to do before.”

As a manifesto, the book features repeated mantras throughout, such as “Our collective rest will save us,” and "You must resist anything that doesn’t center your divinity as a human being.” These meditations and affirmations aren’t meant to be sticky notes that collect dust, but rather to serve as catalysts to change hearts and minds.

“This is an invitation for people to heal from individual and collective trauma,” Hersey says. “Everything that has caused a degrading of your divinity must be healed. It’s about being an outlier.”

“I’ve learned deep trust. I’ve seen my body change. My body is the site of deep liberation. Rest has allowed me to deconstruct harmful beliefs in a way I’d never been able to do before.”

Slumber Time

Can't rest? Reading these guides will put you to sleep—on purpose.

Tricia Hersey, founder of the Nap Ministry, reached a mainstream audience with her teachings when she published “Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto” last fall. The book, which quickly became a New York Times bestseller, encourages readers to take naps, rest and daydream to heal from the daily grind of doing it all. It also inspires readers to push back against capitalistic — and racial — oppression that expects us to toil relentlessly and exploits “the same engine that enslaved millions into brutal labor for its own relentless benefit.”

Throughout the pages of her manifesto, Hersey calls out our problematic approach to rest and shines a light on how to use napping as a catalyst for imagining and dreaming our way to a new state where rest is celebrated rather than looked down upon as laziness. She shares the story of how she grew to realize that our worth shouldn’t be tied to how much we “produce” — especially in a system that grinds us down — and teaches readers how we should exalt in our humanity and reclaim our power as an act of resistance.

This spring, the Nap Bishop — as she calls herself — released a card deck packed with 50 powerful rest practices to help readers embrace rest as a form of self-care and personal liberation. Each of the beautifully illustrated cards comes with an empowering affirmation and a simple practice geared to foster rest and imagination. Rooted in social justice and infused with spirituality, these cards are designed to uplift anyone suffering from the toxic effects of grind culture.

Both “Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto” and the Nap Ministry’s Rest Deck are available for purchase at Amazon and other popular booksellers.

REST AS A BIRTHRIGHT

Nowadays, Hersey travels around the world hosting collective napping experiences and advocating for rest. During those experiences, she invites people to find a spot to lie down, takes them through a centering and breathing exercise and encourages them to sleep. She’s made a couple of stops at Emory along the way, including a virtual visit to art history professor Dana Haugaard’s class in 2021.

Hersey also developed the Resurrect Rest School, where she has reading and rest sessions for people looking to liberate themselves from grind culture. Still, with increased asks of her time, energy and talents, Hersey says she turns down 90% of the requests she receives — and rests for at least three hours per day.

“Even before I started the Nap Ministry, I believed in saying ‘no,’” Hersey says. “I’ve done a lot of healing work around the need to be a people pleaser. People have been brainwashed to believe there is a four-step way to get to healing or liberation, but this is a lifelong wellness practice.”

Looking back on her time at Emory, Hersey says she is grateful for the community she found here. Classes with professors Teresa L. Fry Brown and Robert M. Franklin Jr. made being an African American student in her program less lonely.

She also found solace in her peers and in the knowledge that she was not alone in her struggles. Looking back, she has a bit of advice for current students.

“I would’ve told myself it’s okay to fail,” Hersey says. “Failing has been a major beautiful lesson for me. Once you understand that it’s okay, it’s a part of our experimentation as humans. We’re taught to be perfect and follow the rules, but I would have told myself to be more expansive in my thinking. Failure has taught me the most as an artist, scholar and mother.”

MINDFU L MOMENTS

Emory experts share tips — from intentional breathing to embracing nature — for bringing balance back into your life.

Feeling stressed out?

Stop, take a moment and explore these insights and practical exercises from the Emory community to help you infuse some mindfulness into your daily life. Cultivating present-moment awareness not only can reduce that stress but also improve focus and concentration, enhance emotional resilience and foster a sense of inner peace even in the most hectic of times.

SURF’S UP! Shelby Stanger 02C

GO WILD

Shelby Stanger 02C, host of REI’s “Wild Ideas Worth Living” podcast and author of the new book “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life”

I’ve been fascinated by adventure and mesmerized by its profound effects ever since I was a kid. I didn’t grow up outdoorsy, but as a teen through my twenties, I taught surf lessons at an all-women’s surf school. Women would come for a weekend or week-long clinic, learn to ride a few waves, and shortly after, one of them would call me saying they quit their job or ended a relationship that was no longer serving them or that they were moving across the country to a place with a beach.

I was so intrigued by this phenomenon, I made it my life’s work to study people who chased the “will to wild” and their own wild ideas — full-time — first as an adventure journalist, then as an adventure podcaster, and most recently as an author.

I learned doing a wild idea, an idea that might scare you, but

involves being in nature in the wild — something as simple as signing up for a surf lesson, going for big hike or making a commitment to watch the sunrise every day for a month — could have a profound effect on someone’s mindset and life. I’ve interviewed hundreds of people who did just this, including a mom who became an ice-climbing guide at age 55, a retired sales executive who biked from Alaska to Mexico and even a married couple who skied to the South Pole while the wife was going through menopause. Here are four tips I’ve learned over the decades on how going wild can give you a greater sense of well-being:

1. NATURE IS HEALING. In nature, our blood pressure often decreases, our nervous systems relax, and we can make decisions more easily. A 2019 study proved even as little as 20 minutes of nature a day can reduce the stress hormone, cortisol.

2. Being in nature provides the chance to EXPERIENCE AWE AND FLOW. Think about the times you have seen a magical sunset, a giant redwood tree, a dolphin leap in the ocean, or a bird swoop down and grab a worm or a snake. Chances are it stopped you in your tracks. You could have been having a bad day before. But when you see something like that, it’s a pattern interrupter. You often soften, and you become kinder. When you look up at a sky of stars, or a giant redwood tree, or jump into an ocean, you often realize how small we are yet how much more connected we are to each other.

Stanger’s debut book, “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life” is published by Simon and Schuster and available at bookstores and REI Co-Op locations nationwide. The book was nominated as a must-read by the Next Big Idea Book Club, co-founded and curated by acclaimed writers Malcom Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant and Daniel Pink. You can also subscribe and listen to her REI podcasts “Wild Ideas Worth Living” and “Vitamin Joy” at Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.

3. Adventuring forces us to BE PRESENT. When riding a wave or hiking near a ledge, you have to slow down and pay attention or you’ll fall. Being so present, surrounded by so much beauty, can be cathartic. Nature doesn’t judge who you are, how much money you have, or what you look like. And she provides a lot of great lessons. You can’t have rainbows without rain.

4. Last but not least, going wild allows you to BUILD COURAGE. Surf a wave that scares you, climb a steep mountain, go on your first hike or just try snowboarding for the first time. Afterward, you can’t help but feel more badass. That badassery will stay with you forever.

TIP #2:

STOP AND TAKE A BREATH

Khalia Williams, associate dean of worship and spiritual formation at Candler School of Theology

When we’re busy and stressed, it’s important to learn how to slow down, stop for a moment and then take in a deep breath. If you can pay attention to your breathing and your body, you can often identify what’s going on and release the tensions. It also brings greater clarity to your day. And with more clarity, you make better decisions — healthier decisions.

I received a grant from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion a few years ago to explore a breath-centered pedagogy. In my research, I worked with a breath coach here in Atlanta for an entire year. I learned how to breathe intentionally and became versed in the theories and the science behind breath-work.

If you want to do something beyond just taking a quick, momentary break for breath during a hectic day, here’s a SIMPLE MEDITATIVE BREATHING EXERCISE that I’ve led for Mindfulness Mondays at Candler:

1. Put on some relaxing music and sit comfortably. It can be in your office chair or in the meditation pose of your choice, it doesn’t matter — just get comfortable.

2. Take a deep breath in and then exhale.

Breathing is an involuntary activity. And with our minds racing to do a million other things, we rarely pay attention to our breath — the very thing that keeps us alive.

I am a trained dancer, and breathing is part of what I learned long ago to enhance the ability and the stamina of my performance. That’s always been a built-in part of my makeup as I’ve been dancing for almost 40 years. As the associate dean of worship and spiritual formation at Candler, I oversee all of our chapel services. And at the start of a lot of our services, I invite everyone to take a deep breath, because there’s part of taking a deep breath — and paying attention to that breath — that brings you into the moment.

We should all be breathing more intentionally in our everyday lives.

On average, with typical breaths, we are using less than 30% of our brain capacity. But if you increase the amount of oxygen that you can take into your body, you increase your brain function. Too often we’re forcing our brain to work on overdrive and we’re not feeding it properly. When you feed it, you’re increasing your capacity to not only think but also decrease stress and regulate emotions. One way to maximize your breathing is to do a body scan. This is a meditative exercise that helps you pay attention to each part of your body as you take successive breaths. First, you take a deep breath in and then exhale slowly. As you do so, starting at the very top of your head, think about and feel that spot and pay attention to where the tensions are.

As you exhale, breathe into that space to relieve the tensions, the tightness. And then you move down your body slowly, to your face, your neck, your shoulders, your chest and arms, all the way down to your toes, repeating this process until you’ve released some tension from your body.

3. Slowly close your eyes (but read the rest first!).

4. Draw your mind to a place you love. Somewhere you can be all day every day without interruption. And then slowly . . . think of it how it sounds . . . of how it looks . . . of how it smells . . . of how it tastes . . . of how it feels . . . when you are actually there.

5. Now put all of these things together and let your mind go free. Let it wander through the experience, feeling your body relax in the moment.

6. Breathe . . . breathe with it. Breathe for the moment in that place.

7. When you are ready, come back to where you are sitting.

8. Slowly open your eyes.

9. Take a deep breath in and exhale. May peace reside with you today.

SLOW DOWN, GET CLOSE AND BE AMAZED

from some horrific car accident or scene of a shooting. He’d open up the patient’s chart to show me the chest x-ray that our trauma teams had just taken and then grill me on what I saw. He asked me what I would be concerned about and what the likely treatment plan would be. He would tell me to get close to the information in front of me, notice the details, think a few steps ahead of the team and always ask questions.

I never learned Isatu’s last name and I only knew her for about three weeks, but she changed my life. I met her on Jan. 1, 2015, in Sierra Leone. She had Ebola and was near death. Isatu was only 3 years old, and at that time children under the age of 5 had only about a 20% chance of surviving the disease. She was a fighter though, and she was resolutely playful. Astoundingly she beat the disease. The day before I returned to my then-home in New York City, I got to have a dance party with her as she continued to recover from one of the world’s most deadly viruses. She taught me to be amazed, always.

Here are THREE KEY LESSONS

I’ve learned that you can put to practice in your daily lives:

1. SLOW DOWN. Take a pause, take a breath, see your team and the people around you. Let go of the false hierarchies of names, titles, credentials and see people as people, for who they are.

2. GET CLOSE. Take time to look closely at art, an image, at those you love, in the eyes. Put down your phone and ask questions of humans (not Alexa or Google). Savor the flavor of your coffee in the morning, notice the details of the steam rising from the cup. Listen closely to music or a podcast on your way into work. Find details and then …

“Florence Richardson was a pediatric nurse. She taught me how to start IVs on the smallest and sickest of children while exhibiting the calmest, coolest, chilliest approach even in times of great stress. She didn’t have many credentials behind her name, like so many people in nursing, medicine and health care, but she was immensely wise. She could cool the temperature of our trauma bay where we frequently saw some horrific stuff. She did so by showing us how to pause, take a breath and slow down.

Mike Green, a flight nurse at that same emergency department, would pull me aside after we stabilized a patient whom his team had flown in

In my current role at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, I help address systemic, structural and individual-level ways to support the well-being of our teams. Our teams include everyone who is a part of Emory Healthcare, Winship Cancer Institute, the Schools of Nursing, Medicine and Public Health, the National Primate Research Center and Emory’s Global Health Institute. That’s a ton of people — some 33,000. When I think about the well-being of the individual, team and organization, I think about the lessons that I learned from Florence, Mike and Isatu. Florence and Mike have since passed away, so I work to carry on their legacies while celebrating the amazing survivorship of Isatu.

3. BE AMAZED. Be surprised, laugh out loud and cry when the emotions touch you (essentially laughter and tears come from the same, human-connected source). Understand how small you are in the scheme of things and that there is a universe of creativity, joy and love inside of you, and everyone around you. Surveys show that people who embrace the capacity to be amazed live longer, more fulfilling lives.

TIP

FIND MORE MINDFULNESS TIPS from Emory experts online at MAGAZINE.EMORY.EDU

STUDENT FLOURISHING STARTS WITH

STUDENT WELL-BEING

As you read through this issue, you’ll learn that the Emory community is deeply committed to the health and wellness of students. The Student Well-Being Fund supports this commitment, creating and sustaining programs that help them thrive in all aspects of their lives. Make your gift today.

Together.emory.edu/studentwellness

Building a

Community

Most students attending universities right now were born into the post-9/11 world, an era heightened by fear and dominated by 24/7 coverage of global conflict and political divisiveness.

They’re the first generation to have grown up as smartphone natives with the power of the internet — and its vast stores of uncurated information — right in their pockets.

They saw the rise of social media and its reality-warping impact that taunted them with the false perfection of their peers’ lives and reduced complex, nuanced ideas into simple, addictive memes.

Add to the mix a devastating and isolating global pandemic, and it’s no wonder there are so many studies

Today’s college students aren’t afraid to speak out about their mental health and overall well-being. And Emory is listening closely — engaging them directly in the process to create the best environment for them to flourish.

of Care

today that show record numbers are struggling with depression, anxiety and loneliness.

Yet many people from older generations still have the gall to ask: What’s wrong with young people today?

Ignoring this tired rhetoric — every generation complains about the ones that follow — the only right answer to such a question is that there’s nothing wrong with young people today, says James Raper, Emory’s associate vice president for health, well-being, access and prevention. Instead, he says they are responding appropriately to the world around them.

“At this age, their frontal lobes are still developing,” Raper says. “Imagine the impact of the past 20 years on their incredibly vulnerable brains.”

He likes to use an ecology analogy to point out what’s actually wrong: pinning the culpability on the people rather than their environment. “If we were scientists called to a pond where a significant percentage of the native frog population was struggling, we wouldn’t blame the frogs,” he says. “We would be taking a close look at their ecosystem and considering the ecology’s impact on the frogs. We are now taking the same systems-level approach as we work with college students.”

Yet, at the same time — and despite all these stressful factors — this current generation of high school and college students has evolved some amazing abilities and resilience, Raper says.

“Young people today are particularly in tune with both their needs and the needs of others like no other generation before them,” he says. “They are much more aware of the importance of their mental, emotional and physical well-being, and have become fluent and comfortable in talking about these once socially taboo topics. They are teaching us how to dismantle many of the stigmas long attached to it.”

In addition, they have a desire to partner and engage in deep conversations about the world they are inheriting. “They are not afraid to get involved and raise their voices,” Raper says.

Emory has been listening closely to what they have to say.

“What we’re hearing is that when they look at the overall college experience, students today value a university’s

KAY HINTON

STORY BY RO G ER SLAVENS

approach to well-being almost as much as they do its academic prowess and reputation,” says Enku Gelaye, Emory’s senior vice president and dean of Campus Life. “That’s a major shift.”

On campus tours, Gelaye says, prospective students and their parents used to primarily focus their questions on courses of study, the quality of the academic facilities and what notable teachers and researchers were on faculty. But now they’re increasingly asking about well-being: What resources exist to help give students a smooth transition from high school? How easy is it to access and use the recreation center? What kind of psychological counseling is available?

Such listening hasn’t gone unanswered. It’s turned into concrete action. A national search process brought Raper to Emory last summer to launch a renewed focus and a more holistic approach to student health and well-being, building up Emory’s emphasis on student flourishing. Gelaye explains that the establishment of the new role serves Campus Life's strategic realignment and aims to bolster integrated health and well-being services, programs and initiatives for Emory’s broad community of undergraduate, graduate and professional students.

“The diversity of identities on Emory’s campuses makes us richer,” Raper says. “It forces us to think about well-being not just for individuals, but our community as well. It means we can’t create a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, we have to make our well-being offerings inclusive of all our different identities. We have an opportunity to make a much bigger tent.”

Graduate student Neeti Patel 24PH agrees. “One of the things that I deeply value about Emory is its diversity — not just in terms of ethnicity, culture and gender, but also the interests and experiences of its students,” says Patel, who is working on a master’s degree from Rollins School of Public Health and serves as president of the Graduate Student Government Association.

She believes that while some aspects of social media are bad, others have expanded young people’s worlds. “A lot of us grew up more exposed to diversity because we were connected to others from all around the globe through our computers and phones,” Patel says. “I think that really helps us engage in more cultural humility and makes us more willing to try to understand each other and accept differing opinions.”

In his role, Raper oversees Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), the Office of Health Promotion, the Office of Respect and Student Health Services. He brings more than 20 years of experience in higher education and tens of thou-

sands of hours providing direct counseling and consultation to students, along with an expertise in collaborative strategic planning, administrative leadership and classroom teaching. He had previously served as assistant vice president of health and well-being at Wake Forest University.

“What we’re hearing is that when they look at the overall college experience, students today value a university’s approach to well-being almost as much as they do its academic prowess and reputation.”

ENKU GELAYE Senior Vice President and Dean for Campus Life

Raper is not the only national expert who’s been added to Emory’s well-being effort. Following a similarly competitive search, Kristina K. Bethea Odejimi joined the university this June as the inaugural associate vice president of belonging, engagement and community and dean of students. “Kristina has a collaborative spirit, a passion for student engagement and a demonstrated commitment to student flourishing,” Gelaye says.

With more than a decade of comprehensive experience in student affairs, Odejimi most recently served as dean of students at Bowdoin College, one of the top liberal arts colleges in the U.S., where she had broad responsibilities including overseeing student conduct, case management, international student services and new student orientation, as well as counseling and wellness services, health services and student accessibility.

She’s a passionate advocate for making sure university students feel a welcome sense of belonging on campus.

“Well-being centers on balance, allowing individuals and communities to pursue their full potential,” Odejimi says. “Students who feel like they belong are freer to live authentically and comfortably pursue their passions. Students who find community are more likely to be engaged in their educational experience and have a positive connection to the world around them. This perception directly impacts their sense of well-being.”

Odejimi and Raper bolster a Campus Life leadership team that was already strong and includes Associate Vice President

and Athletics Director Keiko Price, who also manages student recreation and fitness, and Vice President David Clark, who oversees student housing, residence life, sorority and fraternity life, dining services and much more. “The goal with bringing new expertise on board and restructuring Campus Life is to create programs that resonate with our students and allow every one of them to be able to take advantage of the extraordinary opportunities and resources available to them during their time at Emory,” Gelaye says.

UNCOVERING AND UNDERSTANDING STUDENT NEEDS

In his first year at Emory, Raper has already made a big impact. He’s engaged students in a comprehensive mental health survey, called the Healthy Minds Study, to gather data, both quantitative and qualitative, to create a better picture of the university’s well-being needs.

“It’s the gold standard in assessing mental health and well-being in student communities,” Raper says. “It also looks at student perceptions around the related services we provide. And it helps us develop a sustainable and targeted strategy for our community and to allocate well-being resources where they are most needed.”

He also created a Student Well-Being Advisory Committee to engage students in the process and make sure an inclusive, diverse group has a seat at the table with top administrators where their voices and ideas can be heard and turned into sustainable action.

Rachel Lebovic 23C has been one of the most active students on the committee, and Raper says he has greatly enjoyed working with her over the past year. Soon after Emory announced his hiring, she emailed him asking him if they could meet once he arrived on campus. “Rachel is one of many exceptional Emory students who wants to engage and partner with us and use her voice to effect change,” Raper says.

A native of Toronto, Lebovic has suffered more than a decade of being bounced around in the mental health systems of both the U.S. and Canada. Her illness proved difficult to treat and included intensive inpatient treatment during particularly acute episodes. A huge turning point in her struggles came two years ago was when she was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. “That’s when everything finally started to make sense,” she says. “It helped explain why I’ve been so resistant to treatment.” At Emory, she’s had success working with CAPS counselors and Student Health Services providers who referred her to the Emory Autism

Center. Doctors there subsequently enrolled her in the Emory Oaks program at the School of Medicine. “It’s a fairly new program the university created to help students on the autism spectrum cope with college life,” she says.

Lebovic also formed a strong bond with an Emoryreferred therapist in the Atlanta community, and at last college life became what she had always hoped it to be: exciting, full of friends, mind-expanding. But she’s driven to use her experiences to become an ardent advocate for improving mental health resources at the university and other communities. In the fall, she will be focusing on the intersection between mental health and public health as she pursues a master’s of health sciences degree at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

KRISTINA

“I hope to one day work at the interface of public health and medicine to work on prevention and early intervention,” Lebovic says. “We shouldn’t be waiting until people are critically ill or in crisis to start helping them. It shouldn’t be a competition of ‘who’s sick enough’ or ‘who’s sickest’ among those in need to see who gets treatment.”

Meanwhile, this summer Lebovic is staying on at Emory to continue her work with Raper on well-being projects — and has even arranged to get internship credit for her upcoming master’s program. She is particularly excited that the Healthy Minds Study will provide crucial data on student needs. “A lot of students who don’t understand the system say we just need to hire more clinicians at CAPS or something

“Students who feel like they belong are freer to live authentically and comfortably pursue their passions."

K. BETHEA ODEJIMI Associate Vice President of Belonging, Engagement and Community and Dean of Students

like that to address perceived gaps,” she says. “But the data will help show us where students are really struggling and point to ways we can meet them where they are.”

College will always be challenging, Lebovic says. “But for many students, Emory might be the first safe place they’ve been in years,” she says. “I truly feel like Emory is a safe, nurturing environment where students who’ve had hardships — like me — can finally start to work through their problems and get the help and support they need.”

THE FUTURE OF WELL-BEING AT EMORY

Looking at the future of well-being at Emory, Raper wants to broaden and normalize the community’s ability to discuss mental health and support mental health. “We will continue to bolster the downstream clinical services, including our newly expanded focus on trauma care in the Office of Respect,” he says. “But it also includes catching students a little more upstream with well-being coaching services, a program we are significantly expanding that will serve as a resource to meet emerging student needs that either aren’t clinical or before they might become clinical.”

This will have the added benefit of defraying some of the demand on the university’s clinical mental health services, freeing up demand at CAPS and psychiatry services and thus increasing access for students who do need more intensive clinical services, he notes.

Additionally, at a highly competitive university like Emory, Raper strongly asserts that academic rigor and well-being should not be diametrically opposed. “We understand how students feel the pressure to be perfect and how that impacts their mental states,” he says. “We need to foster an environment where students can remember that they already met a high bar by getting into Emory. They’ve already proved that they’re enough academically and as human beings.”

Raper believes that if student well-being is improved, academic performance should improve naturally, too — sans the stress. “We’re having robust conversations with faculty to ensure the entire campus community is involved, particularly as we’re developing our campaign centered on dismantling perfectionism set to launch this fall.”

The drive to be perfect is a problem ubiquitous among many university students. While some moderate anxiety can help us perform well, Raper states, collectively the university needs to explore opportunities to reduce some of the

unnecessary pressures it might place on students so that they can flourish academically, creatively, intellectually and socially.

“It's tough because students have spent their high school years competing academically to get into top schools like Emory and then when they get here, it’s like we’re asking them: ‘Why are you all so stressed?’ That’s so unfair to them,” Raper says. “One of my goals is to create a community that reinforces and reminds one another they are already enough — to create empathy and love among students and faculty and everyone on our campuses so our students can explore and pursue their passions unburdened.”

“One of my goals is to create a community that allows its members to be enough — to create empathy and love among students and faculty and everyone on our campuses.”

JAMES RAPER Associate Vice President of Health, Well-Being, Access and Prevention

During Emory’s 178th Commencement this May, student speaker Nicole Felix-Tovar 23C addressed perfectionism and how difficult it was for her to juggle classes, work and volunteering with Emory Emergency Medical Services during the past four years — all while thinking she had to be perfect at everything.

In calls to her parents explaining the pressure and her struggles, her mom often reminded Felix-Tovar that she was not perfect. “I think those words are one of the truest expressions of love and compassion I’ve ever experienced,” Felix-Tovar told her graduating classmates. “On your journey to accomplish your big goals and dreams, you are allowed to fall down and fail. You’re allowed to make mistakes, change your mind and just be who you are.”

She continued: “You don’t have to be perfect to be loved, valued and appreciated, and you have inherent worth regardless of your accomplishments. Each of us has our own

unique path, and if we were perfect, then we’d all just be replicas of the same person.”

Another upstream area Raper is excited to see Emory embrace as a community is contemplative practice. “Mindfulness is a real-life skill set that we’d like to develop in our students, faculty and staff,” he says. “We implemented it at scale at my previous institution and it became transformative for our community, and I’m hopeful it could have a similar impact here at Emory. Contemplative practice feels daunting to start, particularly for folks who feel like they need to get it ‘right.’ But once you get used to the idea and try it, it helps to create deeper self-awareness and grounding in the moment. It can be the antidote to what ails many of us.”

Better communication about Emory’s wide array of well-being programs and services is also a major item on the Campus Life agenda for the near future. Too often students are confused about how to find and access these offerings.

“Emory has wonderful resources around mental health, clinical counseling, physical fitness, meditation and selfcare practices, but it matters how often and where we are sharing this information with students,” Odejimi says.

Meeting students where they are — which includes a host of different and ever-changing social and messaging platforms — is key to their success, Raper adds.

“We also are working to enhance and centralize our well-being communications into a simple, single hub,” Raper says. “We have all these amazing resources for students at Emory and they often don’t know how to access them and use them. Moreover, how we construct and evolve our physical spaces for integrated and holistic community well-being will also be a critical component of our strategy.”

Business student Khegan Meyers 24B concurs that communications and other gaps have been an issue in the past, but he has been impressed with the progress made in the past year and is excited about the future of well-being at Emory. As the current president of the undergraduate Student Government Association, Meyers has been directly involved in discussions with university leaders about well-being issues. “It’s been amazing that James Raper and others have not only been actively listening to student feedback, but also that they are actually taking steps to fill gaps and take programs and resources to the next level,” he says. “I strongly believe that this presence and engagement with the student body, this willingness to learn different perspectives, will ultimately lead to the best kind of outcomes.”

WELL-BEING RESOURCES

Attention to well-being is foundational to student flourishing at Emory and in their lives beyond the university. Here’s a look at some of the key ways Campus Life supports student well-being.

STUDENT HEALTH SERVICES

A wide variety of outpatient clinical services such as physical examinations, confidential HIV testing, women’s health services and allergy injections and immunizations.

RECREATION AND WELLNESS

Fitness centers and fun programs to help students stay physically active through play, exercise and competition.

COUNSELING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES (CAPS)

Confidential short-term individual therapy, couples therapy, group therapy, community referrals and workshops to help students better manage anxiety and support their mental health.

OFFICE OF HEALTH PROMOTION

Proactive education and individualized consultation and coaching on a variety of health topics including mental health, holistic well-being, alcohol, drugs, sleep, nutrition and sexual health.

OFFICE OF RESPECT

Confidential, 24/7 support to students with concerns related to sexual and relationship-based harm.

WELL-BEING COACHING

Individualized care centered on problem-solving, skill building and a holistic approach to well-being that’s designed to help students cope with struggles before they become more acute.

CLINICAL NUTRITIONISTS

Education, consultation and medical nutrition therapy to help students make informed choices about their diets and eating habits.

MEDITATION SPACES

Many spaces on Emory’s beautiful campuses provide opportunities for students to relax and recharge in the natural world.

TELEHEALTH

Partnership with independent company TimelyCare provides students with a greater range of flexibility when seeking health care.

A WELCOME SENSE of belonging

1 2

WITH NEARLY 500 STUDENTLED CLUBS, SPORTS TEAMS AND ARTS GROUPS THAT SUPPORT A DIVERSE RANGE OF INTERESTS AND IDENTITIES, EMORY STUDENTS HAVE oodles of options to connect with others over passions new and old while building community. These images, many taken by students themselves, showcase the richness and vitality of nonacademic pursuits on our campuses, where students can find their place, their purpose and a sense of belonging.

1. MULTIVERSE OF CONNECTIONS

Student organization fairs at both Oxford and Emory campuses, like this one held last fall at the start of the school year, help students find classmates who share the same interests and identities.

2. SPECIAL SURPRISES

3. BOXING DAYS

Through Emory Recreation and Wellness programs, students have plenty of opportunities to stay fit and have fun. Groups such as Emory CHAARG, which empowers women to feel confident in the gym and try things like kickboxing, bolster the possibilities.

4. RIDING RULES

Biking is a popular mode of transportation to get around campus, as well as good exercise, but for many cycling fanatics, that’s not enough. Emory Bike Social is a very popular and active organization that plans longer group rides, giving students a chance to explore Atlanta.

5. A SOURCE OF PRIDE

Emory’s Office of LGBT Life supports student-led organizations at both the Atlanta and Oxford campuses and helps students build community through a wide array of programming and activities, including participation in last year’s Atlanta Pride Festival.

Emory welcomes a diversity of identities, abilities and ethnicities and celebrates these differences. Events like the Black Joy showcase, held this past year by the Oxford SGA, helps build a stronger sense of community on our campuses.

7. HELPING OUT

Whether it’s Emory Cares, Earth Day or a more impromptu need, students have plenty of chances to do something for the greater good through volunteering opportunities and serving their communities, as this outdoorsy crew helped with a campus clean-up.

6. EMBRACING DIVERSITY

LOSTIN A

BY MARY LOFTUS

If you find yourself unable to focus, struggling to remember daily tasks or feeling extreme mental fatigue, you’re not alone.

While COVID-19, especially the long form of the disease, has caused a noticeable uptick in cognitive dysfunctions, “brain fog” was a problem long before the pandemic struck — and numerous other culprits can cause it.

Emory researchers clear up some of the mysteries behind this debilitating condition and offer up some practical strategies to cope with it.

More than 22% of people infected with COVID-19 report brain fog as a symptom. Sufferers say their brains feel “broken,” causing problems with focus, memory and energy levels, and sometimes even outright physical pain.

However, COVID-19 is just one of many illnesses and conditions — from menopause to migraines, Lyme disease to chemotherapy — that cause it. We asked Emory medical experts to help us better understand brain fog’s various causes and manifestations, as well as to share some advice for people who find themselves mired in its stuporous vapor.

LOOKING AT LONG COVID

While most people recover from mild COVID-19 symptoms over the course of one to two weeks, long COVID patients can suffer from lingering symptoms, including cognitive complaints and brain fog, for months or even years. Nearly one out of every five adults who have had COVID develop long COVID, defined as symptoms lasting three months or more, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Alex Truong, Emory assistant professor of pulmonology, works with patients at Emory’s Executive Park post-COVID clinic. “A lot of our patients come in with very, very similar symptoms of brain fog, fatigue and shortness of breath,” says Truong. “It’s very rare

that someone comes in with a singular issue. It’s always a host of issues. Most of the time, patients are complaining that their brain fog and fatigue are the biggest limiters of their activities of daily living — their ability to get back to work, the ability to go back to school or take care of their kids.”

Some patients experience severe enough cognitive difficulties and fatigue that they have had to quit work or go on a leave of absence. But long COVID and brain fog are still sometimes met with skepticism and impatience, whether by doctors, employers, friends or family.

“I worry that a lot of the symptoms are subjective: brain fog, shortness of breath, fatigue,” says Zanthia Wiley, Emory associate professor of infectious diseases. “When there are no lab tests to confirm it, some patients are less likely to be believed. Research will provide some of these answers through better testing mechanisms and treatments, so we will have more to offer people.”

Multiple studies are being conducted on postacute sequelae, the medical term for lingering symptoms of a SARSCoV-2 infection. The patient interviews have resulted in vivid descriptions of brain fog. Subjects say they have “muddled or fuzzy thoughts,” that their brain feels like it has “a bad wi-fi connection to a router,” that their thoughts are “in slow motion” or disappear like “smoke” or a “dream.”

Brain fog, they say, has impacted their abilities to work at their job, do household chores, recall facts, read, write, focus, multitask, drive safely or even put together a coherent sentence. And the symptoms and their severity often get worse as the day goes on.

“Brain fog is one of the primary symptoms of long COVID, often persists and can be quite debilitating for some,” says Tiffany Walker, assistant professor of medicine at Emory, who practices internal medicine at Grady Hospital in Atlanta.

Walker co-founded the Grady post-COVID clinic and co-established a multisite long COVID regis-

SUBJECTS SAY THEY HAVE “MUDDLED OR FUZZY THOUGHTS,” THAT THEIR BRAIN FEELS LIKE IT HAS “A BAD WI-FI CONNECTION TO A ROUTER,” THAT THEIR THOUGHTS ARE “IN SLOW MOTION” OR DISAPPEAR LIKE “SMOKE” OR A “DREAM.”

try and biorepository. She is also current co-principal investigator of an Emory subsite for the RECOVER (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery) initiative of the National Institutes of Health.

“Unfortunately, we have found that even some COVID-19 survivors that do not notice symptoms of brain fog actually have evidence of cognitive impairment on comprehensive neurocognitive testing,” she says. “There are high rates of depression and anxiety in long COVID, and these illnesses can lead to brain fog as well, but it is important to note that brain fog certainly occurs independent of mood disorders and should not be entirely attributed when they exist concurrently.”

Walker says there is concern that COVID-19 can result in neurodegeneration, which is currently under investigation. “There are no FDA-approved treatments for long COVID–related brain fog,” she says, “but current strategies target guidance on techniques to compensate and cognitive pacing by avoiding overburdening cognitive loads.”

A BRIEF HISTORY OF BRAIN FOG

One of the first mentions of brain fog was in 1850 by British physician James Tunstall. He described it as a type of mental exhaustion experienced by lawyers,

writers, teachers, students and other “brainworkers” as a consequence of “overworking [the] mental facilities without sufficient bodily fatigue.”

This early precursor to what we now identify as brain fog was included in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition) as a “culture-bound” syndrome associated with excessive academic strain.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, brain fog was most often associated with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia (known as “fibro fog”).

Chronic fatigue is a debilitating and complex disorder characterized by intense fatigue that is not improved by bed rest and that may be worsened by exercise or mental stress. Patients describe not only persistent and overwhelming physical fatigue but mental fatigue as well, characterized by slow thinking, difficulty focusing, confusion, forgetfulness or “haziness” in their thought process.

A brain-imaging study conducted at Emory by psychiatrist Andrew Miller in 2014 showed that patients with chronic fatigue syndrome may have reduced responses, compared with healthy controls, in a region of the brain connected with fatigue. Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome had less activation of the

basal ganglia, as measured by fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging).

“We chose the basal ganglia because they are primary targets of inflammation in the brain,” said Miller, William Timmie Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory and lead author of the study. “Results from a number of previous studies suggest that increased inflammation may be a contributing factor to fatigue in chronic fatigue syndrome patients and may even be the cause in some patients.”

His team’s more recent data also suggests that these inflammation-related changes in the basal ganglia may be related to a depletion in dopamine, which can be reversed by the administration of drugs that increase dopamine’s actions in the brain or the blockade of inflammation.

“These exciting findings may provide new approaches to treating fatigue and brain changes in the future,” Miller says.

OTHER LIKELY CULPRITS

From chemotherapy to menopause to insomnia, a sizable host of other illnesses, conditions and even medications can cause brain fog.

Chemotherapy can result in what has been called “mental fog” or “chemo brain,” which is usually short-term but can

also last for months or years after treatment.

“Chemotherapy does not only kill cancer cells but can have systemic effects throughout the body, including healthy cells within the brain,” says neuro-oncologist Madison Shoaf of Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute. “When particular regions of the brain are affected, people can experience various cognitive challenges, such as difficulty with focus, multitasking, and shortterm memory.”

These symptoms can be exacerbated by other factors like poor sleep, fatigue and mood changes that may be experienced during cancer treatments. “The duration of symptoms can vary from person to person, but for those with persistent symptoms, neurocognitive rehabilitation may be helpful,” she says.

Depression, anxiety, stress, drugs (legal or illegal) or alcohol, insomnia, aging, jet lag, Lyme disease, antihistamines, lupus, hormonal changes during pregnancy, too much screen time … all have been associated with brain fog.

One of the most common is menopause.

“Many women complain of brain fog during menopause, which is actually worse during the perimenopausal transition than after menopause has occurred,” says Mary Dolan, Emory professor of obstetrics and

gynecology. “It can be difficult to tease out — is there brain fog because they are not sleeping well (due to disrupted sleep from hot flashes) or mood changes, which can be hormonal? Or are there brain-processing changes due to hormonal fluctuations or aging?”

A bit of good news has emerged, says Dolan, a certified menopause practitioner: “Some data imply that even though there is a trend for memory to be worse during the menopause transition, memory after the transition may be as good as it was before.”

Sleep disturbances in and of themselves can cause brain fog. Some of the factors that cause sleepless nights or disrupted sleep are more common in midlife, such as sleep apnea (sometimes related to obesity), restless leg syndrome, stress, anxiety, depression, becoming caregivers for aging parents and some medications.

CHANGING HABITS CAN HELP

“While brain fog has become a term commonly used since COVID-19, it refers to a constellation of cognitive and emotional symptoms such as poor concentration and memory that were common prior to COVID-19 and remain prevalent as a result of common lifestyle factors,” says Sharon Bergquist, Pam R. Rollins Professor of Medicine and director of Emory Lifestyle Medicine and Wellness. “For example, stress, lack of sleep, inadequate exercise, poor diet, prolonged sedentary time and many other factors can all contribute to lack of mental clarity. While COVID-19 can cause neuroinflammation, for many people the symptoms of brain fog may not be related to COVID-19.”

In general, Bergquist says, “It’s more helpful to address the factors that are within your control. Many of our patients experience improvement by adopting habit changes. There is a lot of scientific literature supporting the benefits of exercise, social engagement, learning new tasks. A Mediterranean dietary pattern has been shown to improve cognitive function. And there is emerging support for the benefits of intermittent fasting.”

Lifestyle improvements not only may help reduce brain fog, they also reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia. “The bottom line,” she says, “is that we can all benefit from putting effort into strategies that optimize brain health.”

8 WAYS TO FIGHT THAT FOGGY FEELING

Given that brain fog can be caused by a host of different ailments, advice varies on how to address it and no magic pill exists. But techniques have emerged that have been proven to help across the board. Emory’s Mary Dolan and Sharon Bergquist offer these lifestyle tips for reducing brain fog and improving general health.

1. SET LIMITS: Especially if you are suffering from a concurrent condition like COVID, cancer or a difficult pregnancy, take it easy and don’t push yourself. Get plenty of rest.

2. BE GOOD TO YOURSELF: Maintain an extensive social network. Consume a healthy diet. Don’t smoke. Alcohol in any amount can make brain fog worse. Drink fluids, especially water.

3. TAKE A WALK: A brisk 10-minute walk to break up sedentary time improves vigilance and cognitive performance

4. RELIEVE STRESS: Talk to a friend or counselor. Meditate. Exercise. Identify and reduce your stress triggers.

5. PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR GENERAL HEALTH: Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) may contribute to mental decline, so aim for normal cholesterol, weight and blood pressure to help protect your brain.

6. GET GOOD SLEEP: Use regular hours to sleep each night. Don’t get too warm while sleeping. Avoid caffeine. Limit screen time right before sleep. If lifestyle changes don’t help, see a sleep specialist

7. REDUCE INTERRUPTIONS: Resisting the constant urge to check emails and texts improves concentration and ability to work through complex tasks.

8. CREATE BALANCE: When dividing time between work obligations and caring for family, remember that taking care of your own needs is equally important

MULTIPLYING LIFE BY THE POWER OF TWO

Folk-rock singer-songwriters

Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, better known as Indigo Girls, believe that fate brought them back together at Emory, where they solidified their musical aspirations and began to embrace social activism.

By Holly Crenshaw 80G

a new career-spanning documentary, “It’s Only Life After All,” Indigo Girls singer-songwriters Emily Saliers 85C and Amy Ray 86C describe the homesickness and homophobia they felt when they each went away to different colleges. After Saliers’ two years at Tulane University and Ray’s one year at Vanderbilt, the musical partners headed back home to Atlanta.

“The fact that Amy and I both transferred to Emory at the same time, it was grace. I really believe that,” Saliers says in the film.

Grace has been a constant throughout the Grammywinning duo’s career, which now includes 16 studio albums (seven gold, four platinum and one double platinum) and more than 15 million records sold. That achievement is even more remarkable because they’ve flourished for nearly four decades with little support from mainstream music media. After bearing the brunt of sexist criticism and

hurtful humor early on, Indigo Girls have now achieved the status of queer icons whose music and social activism anchor a beloved community of fans and followers.

Saliers and Ray made their tentative first steps toward friendship as 9- and 10-year-olds at Laurel Ridge Elementary School in Decatur. Later on, at Shamrock High School, they discovered the almost mystical power of their harmonies and began singing and playing guitars together.

But it was at Emory in 1985 that they “became Indigo Girls and stayed Indigo Girls,” Saliers says. No longer living in separate cities and studying at separate universities, they agreed it was time to prioritize their music, and Emory served as their springboard.

EARLY GIGS Amy Ray (left) and Emily Saliers performed at the Moonshadow Saloon in Atlanta circa 1985. (At right, top) A poster promoting a B-Band concert on Emory’s campus before the duo started using Indigo Girls as a moniker. (At right, bottom) A schedule of the band’s mini-tour and local gigs in March 1986.

“It was the ground that we arose from,” Ray says. “I don’t know how else we would have done it, honestly.”

“Emory felt more open, with more different kinds of people there,” she adds, “and I felt more comfortable for some reason. I don’t know why, but you just match with different things at different times in your life. So Emory was a good place for me, and I also felt like I had a lot of access to the music community in Atlanta.”

Ray’s ties to the university span several generations. Her parents both graduated from Emory, her grandfather

studied theology here, and her brother and one of her sisters attended Emory School of Medicine.

Meanwhile, Saliers’ father, Don E. Saliers, joined the faculty of Candler School of Theology in 1974 and retired in 2007 as the William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Theology and Worship. In 2015, he rejoined the school, where he serves as theologian-in-residence. She attended church services on campus while Cannon Chapel was still under construction and is an ardent supporter of the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, where she funded a room in her parents’ honor.

The duo retains vivid memories of promoting their music while at Emory — playing at Turman Hall, hanging posters around campus, selling their first single, “Crazy Game,” in front of the student center, performing at The Dugout (an Emory Village bar where a Chipotle now stands) and the Moonshadow Saloon (now an Emory shuttle bus station on Johnson Road). After Saliers graduated first, Ray’s forgiving professors made allowances for her to go on tour while still juggling classes.

“The fact that Amy and I both transferred to Emory at the same time, it was grace. I really believe that.”

—EMILY SALIERS 85C

A self-described English nerd, Saliers loved English professor Floyd Watkins’ seminal class on William Faulkner, one that Ray regrets not taking because she lacked the time. Ray, who majored in English and religion, namechecks religion professor Jack Boozer and creative writing professor Frank Manley as particularly influential instructors. Both students were blown away by their first African American studies class, which Ray says was “a wake-up call around race.”

“The civil rights movement is so much a part of Atlanta, and at some point, it felt like Emory was almost cordoned off from that,” she says. “So it’s cool to see it actualized in a way that’s really concrete, and it makes me proud to have gone there.”

CAREERS CAPTURED ON FILM

Filmmaker Alexandria Bombach’s documentary “It’s Only Life After All” screened at multiple film festivals this year, including the world premiere at Sundance in January. The movie — which is hoped to receive a larger release later this year — charts their political awakening as Saliers and Ray moved from safer mainstream causes to more intersectional grassroots work. They now devote themselves to issues ranging from trans youth and voting rights to immigration, death penalty and gun reform. They remain involved with Honor the Earth, a nonprofit they co-founded in 1993 with environmentalist Winona LaDuke that supports sustainable Native communities and Indigenous environmental justice.

The film also tracks the duo’s evolution as musicians and songwriters. Handheld video footage shot by Ray and her late father captures their trajectory from cozy venues like the Little Five Points Pub in Atlanta to ornate symphony halls and massive outdoor arenas. In on-screen testimonials, fans describe the connectedness and sense of belonging they feel at an Indigo Girls show, no matter the size of the venue. Amid the isolation of COVID-19 lockdowns, the duo’s livestreams felt like a lifeline, particularly to their LGBTQ+ listeners.

The documentary’s sold-out Atlanta Film Festival screening at The Carter Center on April 23 was a nostalgic homecoming of sorts, with fans, friends and family members smiling and sighing as they re-experienced the duo’s baby-faced beginnings and hard-won successes. Behind their public personas, though, Ray admits in the film to wrestling with vanity and anger. Saliers describes how alcoholism nearly destroyed her health and career before she became sober. Both were initially uncomfortable

watching their lives play out on screen.

“When I watched it, I thought, oh my God, I still have so much work to do,” Ray says. “But then I think, it may be painful to watch all that, but the benefit is, if you can step back from it and get over your ego enough, you can actually learn from it.”

The introverted Saliers says she had “a bit of a vulnera bility hangover” afterward, especially talking about being in recovery. “But it’s like coming out,” she adds. “It’s much more important to be your true self and share your story, especially in a documentary.”

Overall, what the filmmaker captured was “the pain fulness of growing up,” Ray says. “It may not always be ar chived as well for others as it was for us, but everyone goes through it. You really get a sense of everybody at the same time trying to become the best version of themselves.”

CREATIVITY KEEPS FLOWING

Their most recent album, “Look Long,” knits together the past and the present, with one song inspired by their college years (“When We Were Writers”) and another that ponders parenthood (“Favorite Flavor”). The duo has been busy touring this spring and summer to showcase their new work and classic songs. You may also see Saliers and Ray in cameo roles in the new independent film “Glitter & Doom,” a queer jukebox musical based on their songbook that’s set to release later this year.

Saliers, 60, lives in the Decatur area with her wife, Tristin Chipman, and their daughter.

This year she’s been deeply involved with three different musical theater projects: a production of “Starstruck” with Tony-nominated Beth Malone; anoth er based on Saliers’ song “Country Radio” (“I’m just a gay kid in a small town / Who loves country radio”), and

“It was the ground that we arose from, I don’t know how else we would have done it, honestly.”

—AMY RAY 86C

a third inspired by the film “The Gospel of Eureka,” which focuses on an unlikely alliance of drag queens and evangelical Christians.

Ray, 59, resides in North Georgia and has a daughter with her partner, Carrie Schrader. A confessed workaholic, she tours with her side project, the Amy Ray Band, whenever her schedule allows. Her latest release, “If It All Goes South,” reflects her frustration with — and her faith in — the complicated, bittersweet duality of her homeland, where the ugliness of Confederate monuments and the beauty of primordial pine forests coexist.

Despite her solo success, “My mom and dad always reminded me, anytime I’d do a solo project, ‘Well, your solo stuff is great, but remember, the magic is in the Indigo Girls,’” Ray says. “They’d never let me forget it, you know? So that’s a good thing — because it’s like when you get married in public. Part of the reason you do it is because

NOT TAKING ANYTHING FOR GRANTED

These days, they hope to temper the demands of touring and focus more on family and friends. Still, after a lifetime of collaboration, their mutual respect — along with the shock and wonder they felt when they first combined their voices — remains intact.

Saliers says looking back, it feels like she and Ray were fated to come together. From elementary school on, it seemed predestined that side by side, they would multiply life by the power of two.

“It’s kind of strange and mysterious,” she says. “It makes me think that we were really aligned in a way that we weren’t even aware of.”

In hindsight, Ray says, “You can’t discount all the support you have from your family and your friends and the people in the community who were willing to stick by you and put up with your temper tantrums and whatever foibles you had and still be right there cheering you on as artists. That’s what you hope in a community

She adds: “I think the responsibility

don’t just take it for granted. You take anything for granted, and I don’t take Indigo Girls for granted.

I remember, constantly, how lucky

MAKING

early promotional photo of Saliers (left) and Ray.

Realizing the Full Power of Emory

2O36 inspires investment in people for the benefit of people.

2O36 is more than just a campaign. It’s an opportunity for Emory to transform the world — by contributing to boundary-pushing advancements that will spark change, inspire wonder and catalyze action. By investing in people for the benefit of people.

Emory alumni and donors understand that when we work together, no dream is too big and no challenge is insurmountable. The problems we face can be daunting — cancer, racism, climate change and more. Through 2O36, Emory will realize the full power of our students, faculty members and research strengths, bringing to life an ever-promising future.

Nearly 99,000 people have invested in Emory during 2O36 so far — 65% of them making gifts of less than $250 and 55% making first-time gifts. Learn more about a few of the donors who are driving positive change through their investments in Emory’s mission. We hope they inspire you to explore where you, too, can make your mark at together.emory.edu/Give2O36.

CELEBRATING SCHOLARSHIPS Endowed scholarship recipients with Cammie Rice (fourth from right), the 2O36 Campaign Cabinet school and unit co-chair, at “A Scholarship Celebration” in March 2023.

$991m FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

$49 O m TO SUPPORT EMINENT FACULTY MEMBERS

“SIMPLY PUT, WE CONTINUE TO SUPPORT EMORY OUT OF GRATITUDE. EMORY PROVIDED US WITH AN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE, LIFE-CHANGING EDUCATION, ONE THAT VALUED CRITICAL THINKING. HELPING EMORY CONTINUE EDUCATION IS A PRIVILEGE.”

KEEPING COLLEGE AFFORDABLE

As retired physicians, Karen Sharrar 66C 70M and her husband, Robert “Bob” Sharrar, appreciate both their educations and the scholarship assistance that made earning their degrees possible.

“I received a great education at Emory, both in the college and the medical school,” Karen says. “I had great teachers, colleagues and friends, and it was just a good experience all around.”

$443m TO HELP STUDENTS FLOURISH

$396m FOR BRAIN HEALTH RESEARCH

Karen, an emergency medicine physician, worked for the Philadelphia Medical Center and the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Hospital. Bob, an epidemiologist, still does some consulting work.

“Since we both had scholarships to help with college and medical school, it’s proper for us to help the next generation coming up, and we are happy to do it,” he says.

Together, they’ve created the Drs. Karen Moore Sharrar and Robert Gene Sharrar Scholarship with a preference for students pursuing environmental science degrees. Karen, who volunteers with the Delaware Valley Ornithologic Society and a local land trust, has long been active in environmental causes. “I think helping students who are studying environmental issues is a good thing,” she says.

4O,5OO GRATEFUL PATIENT DONORS

$1 O m IN SUPPORT OF

12,5OO FACULTY AND STAFF SUPPORTERS AS OF APRIL

28 ALUMNI DONORS

Bob agrees. “I’ve always worked in public health, and environmental issues are public health issues,” he says. “I hope the students who receive our scholarship apply what they’ve learned to climate issues, in particular. We need more expertise in that area.”

But the major driving force behind the scholarship is affordability. “When I graduated from medical school, I had a small amount of debt, but it isn’t

You can help students achieve great things. Learn more about the power of scholarships at 2036emory.com/scholars23

Karen and Bob Sharrars:

PHYLLIS HIERS 67C JOHN HIERS 67C 74G TWO OF FIVE DONORS WHO HAVE GIVEN TO EMORY FOR 55 CONSECUTIVE YEARS

anything like what people experience today,” Bob says. “I don’t like to see young people starting out in life with huge college loan debt.”

Helping Emory students avoid debt “is a good investment, for sure,” Karen says. “Since we both had scholarships, it feels right to help other young people in this way.”

Srisha Jayakumar 22Ox 24C is a Sharrar Scholarship recipient. She works as an undergraduate researcher in

Diana Blair:

SUPPORTING RESEARCH AND FACULTY NEEDS

The care Diana Blair received at Emory saved her life 21 years ago. In gratitude, she established a research fellowship in the Emory Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics.

The Diana and Bryan Blair Research Professorship allows researchers to study the causes of gynecological diseases and to devise better treatments so that women get earlier, more effective care. Alicia Smith, vice chair for research and professor of gynecology and obstetrics, is the

the environmental science lab of Associate Professor Eri Saikawa and studies the effects of mining on climate. “I’ve been able to pursue connections between health and the environment in an interdisciplinary way,” she says. Jayakumar, who plans to apply to medical school once she graduates, says the scholarship helped her “take advantage of everything Emory has to offer. I am so grateful for the Sharrars’ generosity, and I hope to pay it forward one day.”

first recipient of the professorship. “I believe that investing in professorships is one of the most effective ways to fuel innovation and discovery and to accelerate scientific advances,” Smith says.

Now Blair is taking advantage of Emory’s new Faculty Eminence Initiative to upgrade the existing fellowship to a distinguished professorship. Established by President Gregory L. Fenves to encourage new endowed professorships, the initiative offers a 2:1 match for donors making $1 million gifts (professorships) or $2 million gifts (distinguished professorships).

“The match was a powerful incentive,” Blair says. “Emory truly saved my life, and I’m happy to contribute in this way.”

Blair was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer in late 1997 after several misdiagnoses from multiple providers. She sought treatment at Emory University Hospital, and met with Ira Horowitz, the John D. Thompson Professor and chairman of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Emory University School of Medicine. Horowitz agreed that her situation was dire, and he performed surgery the next day.

Blair began chemotherapy at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University the following week. “I had six rounds of chemo three weeks apart,” she says. The grueling schedule was successful, and Blair became one of Emory’s biggest fans.

Gratitude inspired her to give back to Emory — through philanthropy and service. An active member of the Campaign Council as well as Emory’s Board of Visitors, Blair says, “I preach Emory as much as I can to my friends and family. I’ve been so impressed with President Fenves and everything he’s doing, and I’m blessed to be able to help.”

Rob Friedman:

HARNESSING AI TO IMPROVE HEALTH CARE

Rob Friedman’s philanthropy is guided by a simple maxim: Generate the highest social good.

In the early 1980s, Emory Healthcare helped save his father’s life through a complicated triple-bypass surgery, which was rare at the time. The innovation, and its impact on his family, stuck with him and inspired him to include Emory School of Medicine in his estate plans.

Through the 2O36 campaign, Friedman has expanded his philanthropic giving to support Emory Precision AI for Health Institute, helmed by Anant Madabhushi. “I am particularly excited by Professor Madabhushi’s vision to innovate, deploy and translate AI technologies in medicine and health within the Emory Healthcare ecosystem, while reducing health disparities with these powerful technologies.”

Madabhushi is one of Emory’s newest faculty members, and, like Friedman, a loved one’s health challenge influenced his career path. He lost his aunt to triple-negative breast cancer and realized that — even though he was not a physician — the technology he was developing could lead to better, more targeted treatments. “I wasn’t treating breast cancer,” he says, “but I could make a contribution.”

Leveraging his expertise in AI for precision medicine, Madabhushi is working to develop AI as an interdisciplinary initiative between technologists, humanists, social scientists and health care specialists across the university.

“The potential of this work is limitless,” Friedman says. “Most insidious diseases are incredibly complex, but with AI, we can combine enormous amounts of patient data with powerful computing power to develop truly individualized medical treatment. With this new capacity, we have a chance to come up with less toxic treatments and even

outright cures. Some of the worst diseases —Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, cancer — could become things of the past.”

Friedman’s enthusiasm and optimism for a brighter future in health made him a natural choice to co-chair the School of Medicine’s 2O36 campaign efforts.

“Not only do I want to expand my personal philanthropic support for the School of Medicine, but I want to connect more potential benefactors with this work,” he says.

“Emory has big goals that require lots of funding. No donation is too modest. Every gift adds up to fuel this great mission.”

Learn more about how Emory is leveraging AI to save lives, mitigate health disparities and alleviate the financial and physical toll of disease in season two of 2O36: The Podcast at 2036emory.com/podcast6

For more about Emory’s campaign to transform the future, visit 2O36.emory.edu

RECENT BOOKS

by Emory Alumni

UNTIL ALL YOU SEE IS SKY

George Choundas 92C 95L

This selection of nonfiction essays is a report from the front lines of a first-generation American life: growing up as the outsider, parenting without a clue and persevering in plague times. Award-winning short-story author George Choundas here tells true stories with playful language: He sits in the lobby of the Boston Parker House Hotel at dawn to write and imagines what is going on in every head but his own; he survives in a new elementary school by means of “The Illiad”; and many more.

While every free-speech case explored reveals the amendment to be multifaceted — with both boundaries and boundlessness — Greenky wades through the complexities and equips the everyday American with the essentials they need to understand.

WOMEN’S WORK: HOW CULINARY CULTURES

SHAPED MODERN SPAIN

Rebecca Ingram 98Ox 00C

WHEN FREEDOM SPEAKS: THE BOUNDARIES AND THE BOUNDLESSNESS OF OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT

Lynn Greenky 82L

Born from Greenky’s work teaching a course at Syracuse University on the First Amendment, “When Freedom Speaks” provides an accessible exploration of the past, present and future of free speech in the United States.

In a moment in which famous chefs, Michelin stars, culinary techniques and gastronomical accolades attract moneyed tourists to Spain from all over the world, the Spanish government has declared its cuisine a part of Spanish patrimony. However, what does that mean for the modern Spanish women responsible for most of the nation’s daily cooking? “Women’s Work” offers a sharp reading of diverse sources that reveals the paradoxical messages women have navigated throughout Spain’s history while conducting the day-to-day cooking that shaped their lives.

about the desire to travel to Rome. At least some of us tourists are looking for la dolce vita. We dream of more than a change of scene. We long for a change of soul. The wonderful thing is that, for centuries, philosophers and other seekers have been using the Eternal City to think through what it means to live well. “Rome as a Guide to the Good Life” is an exploration of both the city and the visions of life inspired by it, an eclectic guide that blends history, art, literature, religion and philosophy. THE

DURIAN CHRONICLES: REFLECTIONS ON THE US AND SOUTHEAST ASIA IN THE TRUMP ERA

Sally Tyler 82Ox 84C

ROME AS A GUIDE TO THE GOOD LIFE: A PHILOSOPHICAL

GRAND TOUR

Scott Samuelson 01G

There’s something special

Foul-smelling yet delicious, the durian fruit’s dissonant dual nature is used by Tyler as a metaphor for recent policy and political trends in the U.S. and Southeast Asia. The book’s essays tackle topics from criminal justice and drug addiction to fashion activism and artistic censorship. Tyler’s work analyzes the U.S. retreat from multilateralism at a time when complex global problems — climate change, economic inequality, the coronavirus pandemic — require even greater collaboration.

class notes

first osteopathic medical school at an HBCU.

Cecil Bruce Wilson 57C 61M received the 2020 James Wood Hicks Lifetime Award from the Physicians Society of Central Florida.

60s

Richard Julian Bagby 62C 66M 67MR 72MR received the 2021 James Wood Hicks Lifetime Award from the Physicians Society of Central Florida.

Clarence Hunt Brown III 62C 66M received the 2022 James Wood Hicks Lifetime Award from the Physicians Society of Central Florida.

70s

Barbara E. Mattick 72C published “Teaching in Black and White: The Sisters of St. Joseph in the American South” with Catholic University of America Press in December 2022.

80s

Martha Hofmeister 80C 80G, a litigation partner with law firm Shackelford, Bowen, McKinley & Norton was selected the 2022 recipient of the Dallas Bar Association’s Al Ellis Award for community involvement.

Tyler Childs Cymet 84C was named provost/vice president for institutional effectiveness at the Maryland College of Osteopathic Medicine at Morgan State University. The college is a public/private partnership and will be the

Melody McCloud 85MR wrote and published the book “Black Women’s Wellness: Your ‘I’ve Got This!’ Guide to Health, Sex, and Phenomenal Living” in January 2023.

Edward H. Merrigan Jr. 89L was promoted to the rank of major general in the U.S. Army Reserve in September 2022. In his civilian career, Merrigan serves as a circuit court judge in Broward County, Fla.

Jeffrey Schwartz 89M was appointed chair of the department of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at Loyola University Medical Center (LUMC) and Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago in December 2022. He had been with the medical staff at LUMC since 1998.

Austen works to elevate how people of color are portrayed in marketing and advertising.

Eric Christ 93MBA was named chief product officer at Inclusivv, an early-stage company that helps organizations have conversations that matter. He lives in Peachtree Corners, Ga.

Dan Owens 92Ox 94C, CEO of Emory University Hospital Midtown, was installed as chair of the Board of Trustees of the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) in November 2022. Owens, who has served on the GHA Board since 2017, will lead the board in developing strategies for GHA hospital members, advocating for the highest-quality care for patients and supporting adequate reimbursement for hospitals.

Carrie J. Williams 96C has joined law firm Goodell DeVries’ Appellate Practice Group. Williams held a 16year tenure at the Maryland Office of the Attorney General where she headed the criminal appellate division, serving as principal counsel for criminal policy and, before that, division chief of the criminal appeals division. As head of a state appellate division, Williams argued more than 50 cases before the Supreme Court of Maryland (Court of Appeals) and hundreds of cases in the Appellate Court of Maryland (Court of Special Appeals). She even briefed a handful cases at the United States Supreme Court.

by EdTech Books in 2023.

Allison R. Colón 99L joined law firm Irwin Fritchie Urquhart & Moore of New Orleans, La., as counsel in the firm’s construction law practice.

00s

Julie Collazo 98Ox 00C and her husband, Francisco Collazo, co-founded the organization Immigrant Families Together, which is featured in the 2022 documentary “Split at the Root,” available on Netflix.

J. Antonio “Tony”

DelCampo 89Ox 91C was named the 2022-23 president-elect of the State Bar of Georgia. DelCampo has served on the board of governors for 16 years and currently works at DelCampo Grayson Lopez in Atlanta.

Danielle House Austen 93C was named 2023 Advertising Woman of the Year by the Chicago Advertising Federation. Austen is founder and CEO of fluent360, a Chicago-based agency focused on shaping the multicultural marketing industry. Today, the agency boasts a multifaceted team of more than 100 employees spread across three offices in Chicago, New York and Nashville, as well as a roster of Fortune 500 clients. As a proud African American woman born and raised on the South Side of Chicago,

Jamila Charlise Fairley 96B served as producer on the 2022 documentary “Bella! The Women’s Place Is in the House” about U.S. congresswoman and activist Bella Abzug, which was selected as one of two winners of the Library of Congress Lavine/ Ken Burns Prize for Film. Kip Hart 94Ox 96C has been selected as one of 20 participants in LEAD (Leadership, Exploration, Advocacy, Development) for Career and Technical Educators (CTAE). The yearlong experience is a leadership-development program sponsored by the Georgia Association of Career and Technical Educators, the CTAE Resource Network and the CTAE Division of the Georgia Department of Education. LEAD CTAE is designed for educators who wish to gain valuable skills and knowledge in the areas of team building, leadership, business engagement, legislative advocacy, policy, communication, instruction and economic development.

Matthea Susan Marquart 97C co-edited “Interactive Synchronous Online Class Sessions: Using Adobe Connect to Maximize Its Pedagogical Value” published

Stephen Bailey 01C, co-founder and CEO of ExecOnline, an online leadership-development service, was recognized as an EY Entrepreneur of the Year New York 2022 Award Winner.

YOUR KEY TO CLASS NOTES

AH: Allied Health

BBA: Goizueta Business School (undergraduate)

C: Emory College of Arts and Sciences

D: School of Dentistry

DNP: Doctor of Nursing Practice

FM: Fellowship in Medicine

G: James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies

H: Honorary degree

JM: Juris Master

L: School of Law

M: School of Medicine

MBA: Goizueta Business School (graduate)

MSN: School of Nursing (graduate)

MR: Medical resident

N: Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

OX: Oxford College

MPH: Rollins School of Public Health (graduate)

PhD: All doctor of philosophy degrees

T: Candler School of Theology

SUBMIT CLASS NOTES TO: eurec@emory.edu

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The Wise Heart Seeks Knowledge

THE CROSSWORD EDITION

By Roger Slavens and

Darling

Test your college memories with this all-Emory-themed crossword. Inspired by the puzzles created by the university social media team for students on Instagram earlier this year, this special edition challenges your knowledge of Emory traditions, famous alumni and more.

(Be sure to follow Emory on Instagram @emoryuniversity for future fun and puzzles.)

Good luck!

Answers can be found on page 54 (but don’t peek before you’re done!).

14.

ACROSS

18. Perennial plant and a giant among Emory families

21. A shirt, a shoe, a comma, a college

22. Heart of Atlanta campus

23. A hot city to work, live and study in

24. 10th Emory president and namesake of the School of Theology

25. Skeletal lord of misrule

1. Corporate leader and namesake of the School of Business

3. Church Emory has been affiliated with since its founding

5. Home to squirrels, geese, joggers and the Emory president

6. These Emory girls rock

8. Museum home to mummies and more

9. These student-athletes soar

10. Biblical walled city or first name of Pulitzer Prize–winning poet

13. A library with any other name wouldn’t smell as sweet

16. Laughing cartoon bird would love to work out here

19. Namesake of School of Public Health and numerous Emory buildings

20. Bombarding chapel

17.

Wendy

2. A terminal degree and a common alumni profession

4. Wednesdays at Emory

7. Emory’s 21st president

11. Global spiritual leader and good friend of the university

12. Health-minded nextdoor neighbors, abbrev.

First-year students start their journey with this toast

15. Former U.S. president and Emory professor

Lawyer, amateur golfer, co-founder of The Masters, alumnus

“

I’m profoundly deaf due to spinal meningitis as a child, and Emory helped me overcome obstacles (financial and otherwise) to become a doctor. That’s one of the reasons I made a planned gift to support scholarships at Emory School of Medicine and Rollins School of Public Health. As an oncologist, I have a lot of opportunities to talk about, not just goals of care, but also legacy planning with patients. It’s surprising how many people haven’t considered making a bequest, even though the paperwork is not difficult. Each time I encourage someone to leave a legacy, I remember the satisfaction and joy of planning my own.”

Michelle Ludwig 05M 05MPH Oncologist

Associate Professor, Baylor College of Medicine

Growing gifts with purpose giftplanning.emory.edu • 404.727.8875