November 2010
Vol. 5, Issue 10
Emory’s Consumption Village Roundabout
Breaks Ground
Helps Save a Breed
I
t may seem counterintuitive to encourage eating an endangered breed to preserve it. But that is exactly what Emory
has been doing for the past year with its purchasing power
by creating a viable consumer market for Heritage turkeys and
Pineywoods cattle.
Later this month, Emory will serve approximately 1,700
Thanksgiving lunches made with Heritage turkey meat, attempting to preserve the endangered breed of turkey. Diners at Emory’s
Cox Hall will feast on the meat from a Heritage turkey, gravy,
dressing, sweet potato casserole,
mashed potatoes and a fresh local
vegetable medley. For those on the
run, Emory’s Grab and Go dining
sections will serve a Heritage turkey sandwich.
Last month at the University’s
Sustainable Food Fair, Emory students and staff were also able
to sample beef from one of the oldest breeds of cattle in the U.S.,
the Pineywoods breed. At the fair, hungry students and staff were
able to sample this distinctive entrée in the form of mini beef
tacos, accompanied by salsas made from local, organic vegetables.
Resurrecting heritage breeds is a slow process since the
numbers are small in the United States. Emory hopes to increase
its numbers so these breeds will always be available to consumers,
even if limited to annual events.
The University has been working on this endeavor with
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (www.albc-usa.org).
Purchasing Heritage turkeys and Pineywoods cattle is consistent
with Emory’s commitment to sustainable foods and protecting
biodiversity. Emory’s sustainability vision calls for 75 percent
local or sustainably grown food in Emory hospitals and cafeterias
by 2015.
Cliff Comments
Cliff shuttles travel on and around Emory’s
campus, including some of the neighborhoods
around campus. If you have comments about
Emory’s transportation system, email them to
shuttles@emory.edu.
W
ith a turn of the shovel, the Emory Village roundabout construction project became official.
On Oct. 6, Emory Village neighbors, business owners and University
faculty and staff joined DeKalb County officials and Alliance to Improve
Emory Village (AIEV) representatives to break ground and signal the
start of a transformational roundabout and streetscape project at the
intersection of North Decatur and Oxford roads near Emory’s main
entrance.
The $2.1 million project, which
has already involved extensive utility
burial and water main replacement,
is a major step in a long-anticipated
effort to revitalize the Village through
traffic calming measures and other
improvements that will encourage
future redevelopment. When complete
next June, the new roundabout will
help promote safer pedestrian access
to the Village.
DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis praised the collaboration between
government, both county and federal, and the community, and said the
roundabout promises to improve safety and the quality of life in and
(Continued on page three)
Funding for Statewide
Trauma System on Nov.
Ballot
L
egislation passed by the Georgia
General Assembly this year gives Georgia voters the chance to
vote “yes” or “no” in the election on
Tuesday, Nov. 2 for the state to charge an annual car registration fee of
$10 to support trauma care throughout Georgia.
If approved, Amendment No. 2 will provide direct funding to
(Continued on page four)
Previous issues of the Community Update are available at www.cliftoncommunitypartnership.org
Research Funding at
Emory Increases 10%
Emory Adds More
‘Gold’ to LEED
Building Inventory
E
mory’s green building
portfolio continues to
develop.
Evans and Few residence
halls recently received LEED
gold certification from the
U.S. Green Building Council
for sustainable design and
construction. They are the
University’s sixth and seventh buildings to receive LEED gold
certification and the 15th and 16th LEED certified buildings in
Emory’s green building collection.
Completed in 2008, Evans and Few halls have incorporated
many sustainable design technologies into the development.
Solar power is used to pump rainwater from a cistern into dualflush toilets. The residence halls are also sustainably-themed
with programming activities aimed at encouraging students to
adopt sustainable habits and practices.
Evans and Few halls were built as part of the University’s
housing master plan to accommodate freshmen, who are not
permitted to bring vehicles while living on campus. The entire
complex is pedestrian friendly, with convenient access to
Emory’s alternatively fueled shuttle, Cliff, and public transportation hub.
S
cientists at Emory University received $535.1 million from
external funding agencies in fiscal year 2010 – an increase of
10.5 percent over fiscal year 2009.
Research funding in Emory’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center
(WHSC) was $500.7 million. The WHSC includes schools of
medicine, public health, nursing, Yerkes National Primate Research
Center and Emory Healthcare.
More than 74 percent of the funds, or $396.5 million, were
awarded by federal agencies, led by the National Institutes of Health
with $350.5 million. NIH funding increased by 17.4 percent over
FY09 and represented 88.4 percent of total federal dollars awarded
to Emory and more than
65 percent of all funding
received.
Over the past five years,
Emory’s research funding
has grown from $353.9 million in FY06 to $535.1 million in FY10, representing a
51.2 percent increase.
“We are extremely
pleased to continue a strong trend of increased funding for our
health sciences research programs,” says David S. Stephens, MD,
vice president for research in Emory’s Woodruff Health Sciences
Center. “A large number of worthy proposals by our excellent faculty
are responsible for our continuing funding success.”
To read examples of funded research projects, go here.
New Milestone for Volunteers Unite for
Public Health
International Service Day
E
mory’s reputation as a destination University has
grown stronger with the opening of a second
building for the Rollins School of Public Health
(RSPH). The nine-story building is named after the
mother of longtime Emory benefactor O. Wayne Rollins
and his brother John, extending the family’s ties with
the school to five generations.
The new building is connected by a glass-enclosed
bridge to the Grace Crum Rollins building. In 2007, the
Rollins family made a $50 million commitment toward
the $90 million cost to construct a second building and
renovate the Grace Crum Rollins building, which was
complete in 1994.
The dedication of the new addition coincides with
several milestones this year – the 35th anniversary of
the public health program, the 20th anniversary of the
school and James Curran’s 15th year as dean.
Since construction of the new building began in
2008, the school experienced record enrollment of new
MPH/MSPH students in 2009 and 2010. What began as
a master’s program with 16 students in 1975 has evolved
to become one of the top 10 public health schools in the
nation with over 1,000 students.
A
lumni, faculty, staff and students of Emory University will unite for
Emory Cares International Service Day on Saturday, Nov. 13. Emory
Cares is one of the University’s most widely recognized means for furthering its mission of serving humanity.
Its popularity has grown annually since
the Emory Alumni Association created
the event in 2003. Through its collaboration and working together, the diverse
membership of individuals that comprise
Emory’s family share a common goal of
service, strengthening their ties to each
other and the University while increasing
Emory’s visibility around the country and
the world.
In the past, event projects have included staffing food banks, preparing
medical supply kits for the CDC, decorating hygiene boxes for children entering
foster care, outdoor projects in public parks and recreation areas, reading to the
elderly and many more.
Emory Cares Day is also being promoted to participants’ family members. It
serves as a reminder that we are all a part of a much larger community and we
can share this experience with families, including children. By including children and teens in volunteer work, we instill a sense of community responsibility
and encourage them to show consideration for those around them.
www.cliftoncommunitypartnership.org
Hotel Floats Ideas for
Soap Savings
E
mory Conference Center Hotel is redoubling its recycling
efforts and adding a few interesting items to the list of those
recycled and reused – used bars of soap
and bottles of shampoo.
“Patrons take full
advantage of the free soap
we provide, but many
guests leave the partiallyused bars behind,” says
Kathy Johnson, general
manager, Emory Conference Center Hotel. “One
of my staff heard about
‘Clean the World,’ a nonprofit group that promotes cleanliness and improved hygiene with
families around the world. The group takes partially used soaps,
cleans and sanitizes them, then processes them for use in the
U.S. and abroad. For example, nearly 8,000 pounds of soap were
distributed in Haiti in August as part of the ongoing relief effort
there.”
The reuse of soap bars is just one area where ECCH is exploring charitable and environmental efforts. “We are also donating
opened but unused shampoo and conditioner containers to Saint
Mark’s United Methodist Church in Midtown for use in their outreach efforts to the local homeless population,” says Johnson.
“We discarded so many used bars of soap and bottles of shampoo,” continued Johnson. “I am thrilled that now, not only are we
reducing the amount of waste we generate, we are recycling it for
use with groups that serve real needs.”
ECCH continues to looking for new and creative ways to support green business practices. Among its efforts:
• Cooking grease is taken from kitchen facilities and reused in biodiesel that fuels part of Emory’s Cliff shuttle
fleet;
• Single stream recycling, a system where all paper fibers
are mixed or co-mingled, that allows ECCH to increase
the amount of materials recycled;
• A third of the hotel guests choose to conserve water and
energy by not having their sheets and towels changed
daily;
• LEED silver certification by the U.S. Green Building
Council for the hotel expansion that opened May 2009;
and
• Certification by Green Seal, Inc., and independent,
non-profit, environmental certification organization
dedicated to promoting environmentally responsible
products and services.
Johnson adds that she “is proud of our efforts to date and we
are always open to new ideas on how to reduce our impact on the
environment.”
Emory Healthcare,
Georgia Tech
Athletics form
Partnership
T
hrough a new multi-year partnership agreement between
Emory Healthcare (EHC) and Georgia Tech Athletics, EHC
will become the “official health care system” for all Yellow
Jacket sports. The partnership builds on and expands the existing
11-year relationship between the Emory Sports Medicine Center
and Georgia Tech Athletics.
The agreement with
Georgia Tech and ISP
Sports, the exclusive multimedia rights holder for
Tech Athletics, will provide EHC with extensive
media exposure, including radio and television
sponsorships, highly
visible signage in Tech’s
three major campus venues (Bobby Dodd Stadium, Alexander Memorial Coliseum and Russ
Chandler Stadium), and prominent advertising in Yellow Jacket
sports publications and on the school’s official athletics website.
“Partnering so closely with Georgia Tech and Ramblin’ Wreck
athletes is an exciting opportunity to support one of the nation’s
premier collegiate athletics programs in its continual quest for conference and national championships across a wide array of sports,
including football, basketball and baseball,” says John Fox, Emory
Healthcare President and CEO. “It is also a tremendous opportunity
to support our Atlanta neighbor, the Georgia Institute of Technology, with whom we share many scientific medical research projects
and initiatives.”
In addition to its affiliation in sports medicine, Emory University has longstanding research partnerships with Georgia Tech in
biomedical engineering, regenerative medicine, infectious diseases,
predictive health and nanotechnology.
(Roundabout continued from front page)
around the Village. The construction project is “evidence of the
continuity and persistence of effort to make a safer and more livable
Emory Village,” Commissioner Jeff Rader said, calling the Village
project a model for Atlanta.
Read more about the planned park near the Village, or learn
more about the roundabout and streetscape project at www.
emoryvillage.org.
www.cliftoncommunitypartnership.org
Statewide Political
Debate Series
Sponsored by Emory
Child Care Centers
Train to Improve
Value
F
ast-forward past the political commercials on local television and mute the attack advertisements.
T
o show appreciation and strengthen the quality of child care
in metro Atlanta, Emory’s WorkLife Resource Center will
sponsor a training event for area child care centers which
make up their child care network. The training session will be held
on Wednesday, Nov. 10 at Zoo Atlanta.
Over the past several months, Emory WorkLife has worked with
Quality Care for Children to create two new training programs that
focus on helping center directors and teachers with management
and organizational issues, as well as creative curriculum design and
preparing children to begin school. The new training material was
approved from Bright from the Start and will be offered at no cost to
network directors that attend the event. Attending directors will also
earn professional training hours for their participation.
The Emory Child Care Network is one of many programs that
have been created by the Emory WorkLife Resource Center. The one
and a half year old center is a virtual program that resides within
human resources at Emory and was created to assist employees with
managing their work-life responsibilities both at home and at work.
The Emory Child Care Network consists of nearly 200 metro Atlanta
child care centers, most of which also provide care to families in the
various communities in which they exist.
For more information about the Emory Child Care Network, go
here.
Last month, candidates for office in Georgia discussed the
issues face-to-face in the latest annual series of political debates,
sponsored by the Atlanta Press Club and televised statewide on
Georgia Public Broadcasting. For the first time, Emory University was a co-sponsor.
Every Sunday in October, Georgia
residents had the opportunity to watch
candidates for U.S. Senate, Governor,
Attorney General and other top offices
during the debate series.
“As an academic community, we believe strongly in the power of ideas and the importance of civil
dialogue between candidates who hold opposing views,” says
Emory President Jim Wagner. “We are honored to be able to
help support the electoral process in our state by underwriting
these debates, along with the Atlanta Press Club.”
In recent election cycles, Emory hosted an Atlanta Mayoral
debate at the Emory Center for Ethics last year, and debates in
2008 for DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer and DeKalb
County Commissioner for Super District 6, which includes
Emory University’s campus. The DeKalb County debates were
sponsored with Emory’s Clifton Community Partnership.
Barnes & Noble at Emory
Hosts Storytime Events
The newly opened Barnes & Noble at Emory University (1390 Oxford
Rd.) will engage students, staff and neighbors with upcoming events and
discussions that include:
• Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. Richard Jay Hutto will read excerpts from “Murder and Madness in Heart of Georgia;”
• Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. Reshma Shah will discuss “How to Make Money
with Social Media;”
• Nov. 11 at 8 p.m. the Poetry Council will meet;
• Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. Diane Lavett will read excerpts from “Still Small
Voice;”
• Nov. 18 at 4:30 p.m., Gary Hauk and Sally Wolff-King will read
excerpts from “Where Courageous Inquiry Leads;” and
• Nov. 30 at 4 p.m., Lawrence Jackson will read excerpts from “Indignant Generation.”
Store hours are Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m.; Saturdays from
10 a.m. until 6 p.m.; and Sundays from 12 until 6 p.m. For more information,
visit http://emory.bncollege.com.
(Trauma continued from front page)
expand trauma services in the state. Georgia currently lags
behind other states in trauma care. The state has 16 trauma
centers, including Grady Memorial Hospital (level 1), but
needs as many as 30. The lack of trauma centers translates
to a higher mortality rate.
Who we are …
Betty Willis, executive director
David Payne, Emory’s senior
Kelly Gray, Emory’s
For more detailed information on any
of the articles inside the Community
Update, please contact:
for Clifton Community Partnership
betty.willis@emory.edu
director of communications for
finance & administration
communications manager for
campus planning and outreach
david.payne@emory.edu
kvgray@emory.edu
404.727.5312
404.727.0996
404.727.9477