Strauss, Emmerling among Carolina community members recognized at 23rd annual Public Service Awards

April 14, 2022

Ronald Strauss, DMD, PhD, and Dane Emmerling, MPH, are among ten Carolina faculty, staff, students and organizations who were recognized at the 23rd annual Public Service Awards on April 12 for outstanding contributions to the campus and broader communities.

At the ceremony, the Carolina Center for Public Service, along with Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz and Provost Chris Clemens, presented the following awards: Ned Brooks Award for Public Service, Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Awards and Robert E. Bryan Public Service Awards.

About the awards:

• Robert E. Bryan Public Service Awards celebrate a specific effort (rather than an overall record) exemplifying outstanding engagement and service to the state of North Carolina. Bryan awards recognize an outstanding undergraduate student, graduate student, faculty member, staff member and officially recognized student organization.
• Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Awards recognize excellence in engaged teaching, engaged research and engaged partnership.
• Ned Brooks for Public Service Awards recognize a staff or faculty member of the UNC-Chapel Hill community who has, in a collaborative and sustained manner, made a difference in the larger community throughout their career.

The awards were held in person this year at the Carolina Club George Watts Hill Alumni Center, the first time the events were held in this format since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Ronald Strauss

Strauss, who is executive vice provost, Adams Distinguished Professor at the UNC Adams School of Dentistry and clinical professor of epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, was honored with the 2022 Ned Brooks Award.

Strauss has served as the executive vice provost of UNC-Chapel Hill since 2008 and as Chief International Officer for over a decade. He holds joint appointments in three schools at Carolina and is a member of the UNC Craniofacial Center. He received the 2022 Ned Brooks Award for a distinguished and sustained record of service to Carolina and the larger community.

Strauss was instrumental in the establishment of the Thorp Community Engaged Scholars program, which has been a documented catalyst for increasing UNC faculty community engagement. As faculty course director, Strauss has consistently demonstrated personal investment in the program, the fellows, and individual programs and community partnerships. He has been a role model for hundreds of UNC faculty who consider him their lifetime mentor in community engagement and service.

Strauss has positively influenced and inspired others to passionately serve. He has achieved all this while tirelessly serving the university in major campus-level administrative roles and continuing to care for young children with craniofacial anomalies weekly in the Adams School of Dentistry Craniofacial clinic. He has also led the UNC Center for AIDS Research Community Advisory Board for decades, and his AIDS course is a testament to his commitment to the HIV community.

One nominator, who was a member of the second class of scholars stated: “Ron’s approach to teaching and connecting made a lasting impression on me as a junior faculty member striving to develop a career that had public service as a cornerstone.”

The nominator continued “as Executive Vice Provost, Ron connects all of the academic deans with the Provost’s office. He approaches this role with the same focus on compassion, mentorship, patience, and service. In both of these settings, Ron demonstrated a type of leadership that is rare. It is grounded in humility and connection. It draws on the strengths of others and builds relationships. It relies on trust and openness. It is leadership that looks beyond the leader and the follower to the community that we are all trying to serve and support.”

Ron’s decades-long service at UNC has positively influenced and inspired others to passionately serve. He has achieved all this while tirelessly serving the university in major campus-level administrative roles and continuing to care for young children with craniofacial anomalies weekly in the Adams School of Dentistry Craniofacial clinic. He has also led the UNC Center for AIDS Research Community Advisory Board for decades now, and his popular AIDS course is a testament to his commitment to the HIV community and to teaching.

Another nominator wrote, “Dr. Strauss is most deserving of this lifetime achievement award. Dr. Strauss has been a pillar at Carolina during times of tremendous transition. He is an incredible leader, mentor, servant and friend.”

Dane Emmerling

Dane Emmerling, doctoral candidate in the Department of Health Behavior at the Gillings School, was named the graduate recipient of the 2022 Robert E. Bryan Public Service Award for his outstanding community engagement over four years of teaching in the Master of Public Health capstone course in the Gillings School and engaged research evaluating training with the Racial Equity Institute.

In Emmerling’s four years serving as a capstone teaching assistant, he has helped recruit, vet and match 39 North Carolina-based organizations to student teams. He has coached 18 teams – each comprised of four or five students, a community partner, and a faculty adviser – on work plans that balance contributions to the capstone partner organizations and their constituents with learning opportunities for students. He has supported, advised and problem-solved with 176 students who collectively provided more than 31,680 hours of in-kind service to capstone partner organizations, provided technical assistance to the development of more than 70 deliverables created for capstone partner organizations’ use and benefit, and has facilitated 16 reflection sessions to support students’ growth and learning.

In addition, Emmerling has exemplified engagement in his own community-based participatory research, working in close partnership with the Racial Equity Institute to evaluate their training programs, which address critical public health and societal issues. Earlier this year, he gave a presentation on this work with partner Deena Hayes-Greene of REI at the University’s fifth Race, Racism and Racial Equity (R3) Symposium.

Additional winners include:

Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Award

• Allison De Marco, PhD (teaching)
• Tonya Van Deinse, PhD, MSW (research)
• Danielle Spurlock, Ph.D (partnership)

Robert E. Bryan Public Service Award

• Will Douthit (undergraduate)
• Allison Constance, JD (staff)
• Robyn Jordan, MD, PhD (faculty)
• William Sturkey, PhD (faculty)
• Hispanic Student Dental Association in the UNC Adams School of Dentistry (organization)

Congratulations to all of the winners.

Read the full announcement on the Carolina Center for Public Service website.

Contact the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health communications team at sphcomm@unc.edu.