Message from the Dean

The theme of this year's World Cancer Day was "Not Beyond Us."

The tagline was used to emphasize that, even though cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the U.S., solutions to the prevention, detection, and treatment of the disease exist and are within our reach. Here at Rollins, we couldn't agree more.

Our researchers are working to advance cancer understanding in innovative ways, including borrowing the sophisticated market segmentation techniques used by tobacco companies to fashion anti-tobacco messages, tracing the connection between sedentary lifestyles and cancer risk, using genetic information to tailor public health interventions, and determining if insurance type influences quality of care.

Rollins is home to the Georgia Cancer Registry, which collects information on each new diagnosis of cancer within the state. This database offers our researchers an incredibly rich resource to mine for their studies in cancer incidence, treatments, and outcomes. These studies range from investigating cancer treatments' impact on fertility in women during their prime reproductive years to assessing which treatment protocols for prostate cancer least impact quality of life. Tomorrow's cancer patients will be better off for the work done at Rollins today.     

Each year the American Association of Schools & Programs for Public Health teams with Pfizer to give five faculty awards recognizing exceptional contributions and achievements. At the recent ASPPH meeting, Rollins faculty claimed two of the five. Solveig Cunningham, assistant professor of global health, received the ASPPH/Pfizer Young Investigator's Award for Distinguished Research in Public Health, which recognizes a single, outstanding research paper published by an early-career investigator. Kara Robinson, associate dean of admissions and student affairs, garnered a new award—the ASPPH Award for Excellence in Student Services, given to an individual who has gone above and beyond in working with applicants and students. Please join me in congratulating these two valuable members of the Rollins team.

In the fall, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of our oldest department, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics. The far-reaching collaborations of this department with scientists all over Emory University and beyond advance the science of medicine and public health on innumerable fronts.

This department's golden anniversary serves as a precursor to our own upcoming milestone. In September, we will be celebrating our 40th year as a program of public health and our 25th anniversary as a school. Watch the Rollins web page, Facebook page, and Twitter feed for more details. I look forward to sharing the celebration of our anniversary with the entire Rollins family.

James W. Curran, MD, MPH
James W. Curran Dean of Public Health