University to Hold Inaugural NYC Dooley’s Ball

The Emory Alumni Association (EAA) will host the first-ever Dooley's Ball NYC on October 17. The event for University alumni will take place in New York City and will feature live music, dancing and a reception with food and drinks.

According to Michelle Valigursky, the associate director of marking communications for EAA, the organization chose to create the event this year due to the large population of Emory alumni in the New York tri-state area.

"The Emory alumni population [there] stands at around 10,000 alumni, our single largest group outside of Atlanta," she noted. "We wanted to take every bit of Emory's energy and enthusiasm to Manhattan to create an annual social event to remember."

EAA chose to model Dooley's Ball NYC after Dooley's Ball, a concert for University students that takes place on campus every spring, in order to "[pay] homage to one of Emory's oldest campus traditions," Valigursky said.

EAA expects hundreds of alumni and guests to attend the event, which will also include performances by The Indigo Girls – whose members include Emily Saliers ('85C) and Amy Ray ('86C) – as well as The Shadowboxers, whose members include Adam Hoffman ('11C), Scott Schwartz ('11C) and Matt Lipkins ('11C).

Those interested in the event may purchase tickets at various sponsorship levels, which range from $200 to $10,000, on the EAA website.

Emory Point Adds More Businesses

A burger joint, Indian-food restaurant and clothing shop will join several previously announced businesses at Emory Point.

Emory Point is the mixed-use, residential and retail development currently being constructed on Clifton Road across from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) building. The complex is slated to open in the fall with stores and restaurants opening throughout the semester.

BurgerFi, which will open in November in the Tower Building of Emory Point, provides locally-grown, all-natural burgers among several other items, according to the BurgerFi website.

Paradise Biryani Pointe will offer many variations of the rice-based dish Biryani, “with Indian, Persian and Middle Eastern influence in a unique café atmosphere,” the restaurant’s website states. It will open in the Point Building in December.

In addition to these restaurants, the women’s clothing store Loft will become available in November in the Overlook Building.

A complete guide containing confirmed retailers, store locations within Emory Point and the opening dates for each venue is now available here.

Goizueta Appoints New CMC Director

Emory’s Goizueta Business School has appointed Pam Brown the new senior director of the Undergraduate Business Program's (BBA) Career Management Center (CMC) after a four-month nationwide search for candidates.

Brown has served as the director of employer relations and marketing in the Goizueta Masters of Business Administration (MBA) CMC for the past two years. Prior to that position, she served as an associate director and career counselor at the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.

Brown was chosen because she is “an ideal fit” for the position due to her "strategic vision and dynamic personality" as well as her career experience, according to an April 30 statement from Andrea Hershatter, the senior associate dean and director of the BBA Program. The CMC director helps all Business School students with career advising, internships and job searches.

"[Brown] also has extensive professional experience including 11 years in management, training, and consulting with corporations such as Federated Department Stores, Mary Kay Cosmetics, and the Center for Disease Control," Hershatter said, adding that Brown has taught courses in organization and management as well as conducted research in organizational behavior and teams.

Brown holds a Bachelors of Science in Business Management and Economics from Cornell University and a Master’s of Science in Management from Georgia State University, where she specialized in Organizational Behavior and Development.

She has replaced Andy Rabitoy, who left Emory in mid-January to return to Washington state to be closer to his family. He served as CMC director for 3.5 years.

Emory Hospital Receives Top Ranking

U.S. News & World Report (USNWR) recognized the Emory University Hospital as the premiere hospital in the metropolitan Atlanta area and the state of Georgia this past week in its 2012 guide to "America's Best Hospitals."

The Emory University Hospital received national recognition for its work in five different specialties: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, geriatrics, neurology and neurosurgery in addition to psychiatry, according to a July 19 University press release. USNWR also cited the University Hospital's performance in nine other fields, including diabetes, gynecology, orthopedics, and urology.

In addition to the Emory University Hospital, which includes the Emory University Orthopedics and Spine Hospital, USNWR also gave high rankings to three other divisions of the Emory Healthcare System. The Wesley Woods Geriatric Hospital of Emory was ranked second in Atlanta and third in Georgia while the Emory University Hospital at Midtown was ranked fourth in Atlanta and fifth in Georgia. Saint Joseph's Hospital was ranked seventh in Atlanta and 12th in Georgia.

The press release states that USNWR ranked 5,000 hospitals across the nation and included 152 for their list of top hospitals.

Institute Gives $7 Million for AIDS Vaccine Research

Emory University researchers received a $7 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases this past week, which will fund a seven-year initiative at Emory to work on developing vaccines for HIV and AIDS.

The Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), awarded the funding to Emory as part of a larger project amongst research institutes across the nation who have come together to form the NIH's new Centers for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID), according to a July 16 University press release.

Rafi Ahmed, the director of the Emory Vaccine Center, will lead research efforts at Emory, according to the press release. Ahmed, who is a part of the Emory Center for AIDS Research, will collaborate with Emory Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Bali Pulendran, who also works as a researcher at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and Guido Silvestri, chief of microbiology and immunology at Yerkes. Both Pulendran and Silvestri are also members of the Center for AIDS Research.

"Despite the development of lifesaving drugs, the HIV/AIDS epidemic still remains a tremendous challenge, with 34 million infected individuals throughout the world," Ahmed said in the press release. "The intensive approach of CHAVI-ID will give us an excellent chance of accomplishing that."

In order to develop an effective vaccine, Ahmed and his team plan to "work to understand the mechanisms of cell generation after immunization," according to the press release. In addition, they will conduct studies in nonhuman primates at Yerkes in order to test potential vaccines.

Other institutes who will join Emory in conducting HIV and AIDS research as part of the $186 million CHAVI-ID project include the Scripps Rearch Institute and Duke University, which will direct CHAVI-ID, as well as the Rockefeller University/Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Ragon Institute.

In addition to this donation, NIH awarded the Center for AIDS Research at Emory with more than $9 million, the University announced on July 28. This is the third competitive renewal grant that CFAR has received from NIH since 1998.