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Emory
Epidemiologist Makes Gift To Support Excellence In Teaching
Advanced Epidemiological Methods |
Academic researchers are usually in the position of
seeking funds not giving them away. However, Emory University’s
David Kleinbaum, professor of epidemiology, has felt passionately
enough about the importance of teaching to make a 75,000 gift to the
University to support excellence in teaching advanced epidemiological
methods. In a past issue of the Emory school magazine, a list of every
gift to the School was published and this encouraged Kleinbaum to make
his donation, he told the Monitor.
$10,000 Spin Off
According to Kleinbaum, the teaching fund he has
started is the first teaching endowment fund in public health and he
hopes it can grow over the next 5 years to $250,000. At that level,
Kleinbaum estimates the fund could produce $10,000 grants without
reducing the value of the endowment itself. His hope is that the fund
could be used to offset faculty salary for talented junior
professors. The Kleinbaum fund has been set up specifically to
support teaching about advanced mathematic models which have been the
subjects taught by Kleinbaum himself over the last 20 years. At
present, the endowment fund will be restricted to supporting Emory
faculty in the Department of Epidemiology.
Knack for Teaching
Kleinbaum told the Monitor that he has had a long
standing interest in teaching. He is quoted in an upcoming article in
the Emory public health magazine, “Even as a kid, I stepped into that
role of explaining things to people.” He told the magazine he taught
his friends and family card games and that his mother told him he had
a knack for teaching. He was the first recipient of the Association of
Schools of Public Health/Pfizer Award for teaching excellence in 2005
and has won comparable awards at Emory. Kleinbaum believes that the
key to teaching is to speak as if you are explaining an idea directly
to a single person.
Proudest Achievement
His
talent has perhaps best been manifest in his production of Activ Epi,
an interactive, introductory textbook in epidemiology created about a
decade ago on CD-ROM technology. Kleinbaum calls this textbook his
most unique (it contains narration, images, video, weblinks,
animation, quizzes, and exercises) and the one he is proudest of.
Because the technology is obsolete, he is seeking funds to adapt the
contents for use on the web. One of his dreams is to offer the
contents of Activ Epi as a free web-based course such as the ones
being offered now on Coursera.
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