Fueling a School’s Growth

The R. Randall Rollins Building increases the school’s footprint to more than 500,000 square feet. The elegant 10-story building, which is filled with natural light, houses 10 new classrooms, faculty offices for the Hubert Department of Global Health, a training room, multifunctional collaboration and event space, and three outdoor terraces. 

Every aspect of the building’s design was intentional, building off lessons learned from the previous two facilities. “All of the classrooms and spaces were designed for ultimate flexibility,” says Vanda Hudson, senior director of fulfillment services. “The furniture is flexible and easily moveable so the spaces can be configured for a variety of work—open or closed, quiet or collaborative. Additionally, there is no shortage of conference rooms and group study rooms in the new space, providing our community with plenty of options when it comes to meeting or studying.”

The latest technology has been embedded throughout the building to foster that flexibility, perhaps most noticeably in the lobby. That is where the Pulse digital signage system resides—a series of multiple interactive monitors used for floor-to-ceiling digital storytelling. “The Pulse is very stylish and is the centerpiece of the audio-visual technology we’ve implemented in the building,” says James Leonard, chief information officer.

Classrooms and other spaces are equipped with technology to support maximum flexibility so they can accommodate in-person classes, remote learning, or a hybrid option. Students and faculty can wirelessly share screens from their laptops on large room monitors, and equipment captures audio and, if desired, video so lectures can be referenced later or archived. 

The new building includes a dedicated training room, long on the school’s wish list. The Deborah A. McFarland Global Training Room is outfitted with multiple screens and flexible furniture, giving it the ability to be easily transformed for multiple learning situations. Named for a longtime faculty member, this room is meant to accommodate single- or multiple-day trainings hosted by Emory groups or other community organizations. 

Also, the R. Randall Rollins Building was designed with hospitality in mind. “One of the guiding principles in the design phase was to make the building welcoming to the broad community of students, staff, faculty, and external partners,” says Hudson. “And we see it happen daily. I’ve seen nursing students gathered in a student lounge area. A research team from the O. Wayne Rollins Research Building came over to find a spot to meet and work. You can find people from all over the university gathering in small groups all around the building.”

Another guiding design principle was integrating all three buildings to form one Rollins community. Buildings are connected by bridges and tunnels on the first floor, plaza level, and lower level. Facilities are deliberately distributed among the three buildings. 

“The design creates ‘strategic inconvenience’,” says Hudson. “For example, the labs are in the Claudia Nance Rollins Building. The Rollins Café is in the Grace Crum Rollins Building. Dancing Goats Coffee and the student center are in the R. Randall Rollins Building. So, everyone ends up moving through all three buildings rather than remaining isolated in one small area, which builds a sense of community.”

While buildings are the most visible and concrete manifestations of the Rollins family’s generosity, support for the educational and research mission of the school through endowments has been equally transformative. In early 2022, the O. Wayne Rollins Foundation pledged its most generous financial commitment to the school to date—$100 million to establish two endowment funds. 

The Rollins Fund for Faculty Excellence is dedicated to recruiting and retaining exceptional senior faculty by nearly doubling the number of the school’s endowed faculty positions and by providing early career support for Rollins assistant professors. The Rollins Fund for Student Success will increase the number of merit scholarships given to public health students. This fund may also provide students with career-enhancing experiences through the Rollins Earn and Learn work-study program and global field experiences.

Last year’s landmark gift is but the latest in endowment support. The family funded the O. Wayne and Grace Crum Rollins Endowment, which provides the dean flexibility in responding to the school’s highest priorities and has enabled the endowment of three department chairs and six assistant professors. These positions allow seasoned faculty the freedom to grow their research and junior faculty the opportunity to launch their research careers.

In addition, the family has honored friends by naming the following positions: the Michael M.E. Johns Distinguished Professor in Health Policy, the Wilton Looney Distinguished Professor in Cardiovascular Research, and the Stephen D. Clements Jr. Distinguished Professor in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention.

After 9/11, the family established the Center for Public Health Preparedness and Research, which has been active in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and other man-made and natural disasters. In 2018, the Rollins family established the Rollins Distinguished Professorship in Substance Use Disorders.

These endowments have been transformative for faculty recipients. Tim Lash, DSc, MPH, the O. Wayne Rollins Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology and chair of the Department of Epidemiology, has used the funds to support doctoral students in research that is creative but not funded by grants. For example, one of his doctoral students is looking at whether the onset of the pandemic reduced adherence to endocrine therapy in breast cancer patients in Georgia.

 “A gap in endocrine therapy can increase the risk of recurrence, and with everyone staying home during the pandemic, we wanted to see if that impacted treatment adherence,” says Lash. “The study is too specific and small to be funded, but it’s very important.”

Lash also uses his endowment to support faculty in career development and leadership courses.  “Having the ability to use these funds to make differences in things that would otherwise be hard to support elevates the whole department,” he says.

Alvaro Alonso, MD, PhD, MPH, is the Stephen D. Clements Jr. Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention. The position was named to honor the eminent cardiologist who has long cared for the Rollins family. Alonso uses the funding to support doctoral students in their studies to advance cardiovascular disease prevention. 

“These funds allow students to attend conferences where they can present their work and network with colleagues,” he says. “The funds support research for which they would otherwise not be able to get funding. These things really contribute to their development and their ability to be successful down the road.”

Alonso also uses the endowment funds to obtain research data. For example, he is currently studying the link between gestational diabetes and the future risk of cardiovascular disease. 

“With just the data we have available at Emory, I would not be able to do this study,” he says. “But funds from the Rollins family allow me to obtain data from a vast database—in this case, we looked at 200,000 people who have been pregnant. Having access to this kind of data allows us to answer questions we otherwise would not be able to.” 

As the Rollins Distinguished Professor of Substance Use Disorders, Hannah Cooper, ScD, believes having such a role at a school of public health is a landmark. “For so long, substance use disorders have been treated as criminal and legal issues, not public health issues,” says Cooper. “But Rollins has always been an outlier, with Jim Curran, who focused on HIV, including those who acquire it through drug use, as a public health issue, and Claire Sterk, who put the health of the people who use drugs at the center of her academic career. The Rollins investment in this issue built on the strengths Jim and Claire established and propelled us to become a leader in this critical area.”

More concretely, the endowment has allowed Cooper and the school to become leaders in the field of substance use disorders in several ways. Cooper has a leadership role in Georgia’s Multi-Stakeholder Opioid and Substance Use Response Plan. She is currently working to build awareness and research around the role of drug use in driving maternal mortality. Georgia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the U.S., and the nation has one of the highest rates among high-income countries. What is often unnoticed, says Cooper, is the role drug use plays in these rates. 

“In Georgia, the second leading cause of maternal deaths is overdoses,” says Cooper. “In some states, it’s the leading cause. I’ve been using some of that important Rollins endowment to build up research programs to elevate evidence around drug-related harms during pregnancy and the postpartum period.”  

The endowment has also allowed the school to establish a predoctoral training program for students in substance use disorders, which currently supports five students. 

“We would not be where we are today without the Rollins family,” says Fallin. “Their support of our facilities and our endowment has allowed us to attract and retain the brightest and most dedicated faculty, students, and staff. People around the world will live longer, healthier lives because of the investments the Rollins family has made in public health.”

Story by Martha Nolan
Designed by Linda Dobson
Illustration by Charlie Layton