A NOTE FROM THE PROVOST
Welcome to the inaugural edition of News from the Office of the Provost! Through this bimonthly publication, our office will keep you informed about academic affairs at Georgia State University.
In an institution with more than 2,000 faculty members and 53,000 students, sometimes news can get lost in the shuffle of our work. This newsletter is intended to close this gap, sharing news about important events, faculty accolades, opportunities for departments and colleges/schools, and updates on strategic initiatives that have elevated Georgia State’s reputation for innovation, research and scholarship.
In this edition, you will learn more about the Commission on the Next Generation of Faculty, an exciting university endeavor. The Commission is charged with identifying challenges and opportunities for addressing faculty recruitment, retention and engagement. You will continue to hear more in the upcoming weeks about the Commission’s research, including November focus groups, a spring climate survey, and more.
The newsletter will also keep you informed about developments in the Next Generation Program, our initiative to create innovative research and scholarly clusters. You will find more about the successes of the Next Generation Program’s predecessor, the Second Century Initiative (2CI), through faculty profiles, faculty Q&As as well as profiles of graduate students supported by the 2CI Fellows program. This section will appear in each edition of the newsletter.
We invite you to read more about all of the exciting events and initiatives taking place within academic affairs at Georgia State. For updates between newsletters, please visit https://provost.gsu.edu.
Sincerely,
Risa Palm
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
NEWS
Commission for the Next Generation of Faculty
The Commission for the Next Generation of Faculty is investigating issues of diversity and inclusion as they relate to the recruitment, retention and engagement of faculty members.
Work by members of the Commission addresses a Georgia State strategic goal. Goal 4, Initiative 3 of the university’s Strategic Plan charges the institution with becoming a nationally recognized model for leadership in inclusion.
This November, the Commission will form focus groups for further qualitative insight, and will distribute a survey to provide quantitative measures this spring. Participation in both is very important to complete this vital work. Keep an eye out for emails with further updates about these activities and how faculty members can participate.
The Commission will provide a report of findings and recommendations to the provost in mid-2019.
Through the Commission, Georgia State seeks to take its spirit for innovation to establish programs that will become nationally recognized and adopted by showing that it is indeed possible to move the needle.
To learn more about the Commission, visit http://nextgencommission.faculty.gsu.edu.
Call for Nominations: Faculty Awards
Awards include the Regents’ Teaching Awards, Regents’ Professorships, the Alumni Distinguished Professorship, the Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award, the Exceptional Service Award, the Instructional Innovation Award, the Institutional Effectiveness Award and appointments as Distinguished University Professors. Deadlines vary, with the first award’s nominations due Oct. 22.
To read more about the awards and deadlines for nominations, please visit https://faculty.gsu.edu/for-continuing-faculty/.
Request for Proposals: Round 4 of the Next Generation Program
Georgia State seeks highly innovative proposals for the fourth round of the Next Generation Program, which has expanded the university’s research and scholarship.
For the fourth year of the Next Generation Program, the call for proposals challenges faculty and deans to design innovative research hubs. Are there new and/or emerging areas of research that we could or should establish? As technology continues its rapid evolution in virtually all areas, how will Georgia State meet the challenge of producing relevant and high impact research, scholarship and creative work?
The deadline for letters of interest is Oct. 26. Learn more about this exciting program by visiting https://nextgen.gsu.edu/call-for-proposals-next-generation-program-ay-2018-19/.
Women Inspire Lecture Series Begins Nov. 7: The Confidentiality of Genomic Data After the Golden State Killer Case
The Women Inspire lecture series for 2018-19 begins with a Nov. 7 talk by Leslie Wolf, Distinguished University Professor and director of the College of Law’s Center for Law, Health & Society. The event will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in Room 120 of Centennial Hall, 100 Auburn Ave. N.E.
The talk will cover confidentiality of genomic data after the Golden State Killer case in California, where investigators tracked down a suspect through genomic data the man had uploaded to a genealogical website.
Millions of Americans have shared their genomes with companies to learn more about their ancestry. The recent arrest of the Golden State Killer case highlighted how law enforcement and others may be interested in accessing such databases. This presentation will address the implications of the Golden State Killer case for the hundreds of millions of Americans whose genomic data are held in clinical and/or research databases, based on research Wolf and her colleagues have conducted on federal and state legal protections for genomic data.
Wolf, who shares a joint appointment with the Georgia State School of Public Health, conducts research in a variety of areas in health and public health law and ethics, with a particular focus on research ethics. Her work has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Cancer Institute, the National Human Genome Research Institute, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Greenwall Foundation. This work includes empirical research on conflicts of interest, research with stored biological materials, certificates of confidentiality, institutional research board web guidance, and HIV-related laws and policies.
Visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/women-inspire-speaker-leslie-wolf-tickets-51292681792 for free reservations to this lecture.
News from the Next Generation Program
Faculty Profile: Erin Fuse Brown
For Erin Fuse Brown, the Next Generation Program’s predecessor initiative fulfilled a long-desired opportunity to engage in scholarship in her specialty and form collaborations which have built the university’s reputation for health law.
Read more about Fuse Brown, an Associate Professor of Law and member of the College of Law’s Center for Law, Health and Society, on the Next Generation Program website, at https://nextgen.gsu.edu/2018/04/18/the-second-century-initiatives-return-on-investment-faculty-collaborations-erin-fuse-brown/.
Second Century Initiative (2CI) Graduate Fellow: Alex Thomas
The 2CI Fellowship program allowed Ph.D. student Alex Thomas to excel in work that’s led to a prestigious fellowship from the National Institutes of Health.
Thomas earned the prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA), a highly competitive predoctoral fellowship awarded by the NIH. With the support of his advisor Dr. Bingzhong Xue, a professor of biology, Thomas is attempting to discover how ghrelin is integrated by the part of the nervous system responsible for communication between the brain and other bodily extremities: the peripheral nervous system.
Read more about Thomas, including his work under the late Dr. Timothy Bartness, at https://nextgen.gsu.edu/2018/09/24/former-second-century-initiative-fellow-receives-prestigious-graduate-nih-fellowship/.
News from the Office of the Provost is a bimonthly e-newsletter highlighting news and activities in academic affairs at Georgia State University. For questions about the newsletter, email [email protected].