Summer 2008: Emory’s 163rd Commencement

Congratulations in order: Rosemary Magee 82PhD receives the Thomas Jefferson Award for service to Emory.

Kay Hinton

2008 Faculty Awards and Honors

Remarkable faculty recognized for their service

Ten Emory University faculty members were honored with teaching, research, and mentoring awards presented at the University’s Commencement ceremony May 12. Richard D. Freer, Robert Howell Hall Professor of Law, received the University Scholar/Teacher Award, chosen by Emory faculty on behalf of the United Methodist Church Board of Higher Education and Ministry. For twenty-five years, Freer has guided Emory law students, inspired colleagues, and engaged lawmakers with his charismatic teaching, high standards, and extraordinary knowledge of civil procedure. He has been named the “Most Outstanding Professor” by Emory law students six times, selected as “Professor of the Year” twice by the Black Law Students Association, and received the Emory Williams Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Emory alumna Rosemary Magee 82PhD, vice president and secretary of the University, received the Thomas Jefferson Award in recognition of significant service to the University. Magee serves on the president’s cabinet, working with the board of trustees. A champion of the arts and interdisciplinary scholarship, Magee has helped to shape the Donna and Marvin Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry, the Language Center, the Steering Committee for the Arts, the Candler Library restoration, the Emory Poetry Council, and other such endeavors.

Magee has taught courses on fiction, the culture of the university, Southern women writers, religion in America, and biography and autobiography. She serves on the Emory Magazine Editorial Advisory Board and the board of directors for Art Papers, and is a trustee of the Halle Foundation as well as the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences.

Economics professor Hashem Dezhbakhsh received the George P. Cuttino Award for Excellence in Mentoring.

Emory Williams Award recipients were: Frank McDonald, professor of chemistry; Regina Werum, associate professor of sociology; Michael Elliott, associate professor of English; William Eley, executive associate dean of medical education and student affairs; Ian McFarland, associate professor of systematic theology; Kenneth Anderson, associate dean of academic affairs and associate professor of philosophy at Oxford College; Sarah Freeman, clinical professor of family and community nursing; Steven Culler, associate professor of health policy and management; Nicholas Valerio III, associate professor in the practice of finance; and William W. Buzbee, professor of law.

More online: Video features Thomas Jefferson Award Winner Magee. “The Legacy of Leadership” features the connection between the 2007 and 2008 McMullan Award winners and this year’s Thomas Jefferson Award winner, all honored for their service.