Notes from a Fellow Buckeye

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you had a wonderful semester. Thank you for all that you do for your students, patients, and our community. You contribute significantly to the lives of so many and I am grateful for your tenacity and determination.

We are looking forward to commencement next month in our beloved Ohio Stadium. Our students proved that their diverse talents and perspectives can be woven together to create solutions that do incredible good. Please know that your dedication is the reason our students are so successful worldwide!

In my second State of the University address, delivered last week, I was thrilled to laud our many successes, including:

• Our RAISE initiative — short for Race, Inclusion, and Social Equity — with which we are recruiting new faculty to consider the inequities in our society and history and to better represent our diverse student body.
• Implementing the Scarlet and Gray Advantage program to give undergraduate students the opportunity for a debt-free education.
• Ohio State’s role in attracting Intel’s new semiconductor campus to Ohio.
• A new Ohio State Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering, where our scientists and engineers will use the properties of quantum mechanics to transform communications, computation and sensing.
• The new Gene Therapy Institute that will support the rapid expansion and utilization of gene therapy globally.
• Your commitment to service in myriad ways.
• A record $1.24 billion in research and development.

None of our accomplishments would be possible without you.

In June 2020, former Ohio State President Michael V. Drake commissioned the Task Force on Racism and Racial Inequities. The committee conducted listening sessions and engaged with students, faculty and staff across campus. This process is detailed in the task force’s report, which has been shared with me and Executive Vice President and Provost Dr. Melissa Gilliam, and is now available on the Office of Diversity and Inclusion website. The report describes grand challenges and suggests action steps to advance Ohio State as a community whose values reflect unflinching principles of fairness, equity and opportunity.

The task force also established a pair of ad hoc committees on the naming of university spaces and the university’s collaboration with Ohio Penal Industries and the use of labor of incarcerated individuals in the university solid waste program.

Informed by the work of the ad hoc committee on naming of university spaces, in partnership with the Board of Trustees, in November 2021, the university developed a comprehensive procedure for community members to submit requests to review names conferred on university entities, buildings and other campus spaces, and has since worked to operationalize this procedure, including establishing a process for intaking requests and forming a standing advisory committee of students, faculty and staff. More information about this process is available on the Office of Academic Affairs website. Additionally, a committee has been stood up to address recommendations regarding our work with incarcerated persons.

My gratitude goes to the task force members for their hard work. Special thanks go to our co-chairs: Dr. James L. Moore III, vice provost for diversity and inclusion and Ohio State’s Chief Diversity Officer, and Dr. Tom Gregoire, dean of the College of Social Work, for their tireless and continued efforts to strengthen our community.

The task force’s report will also be an important input as we develop future priorities associated with the university’s Shared Values Initiative, which is advancing a campus-wide culture change with an eye toward how we can live our values every day at Ohio State. The Shared Values Initiative calls for collective reflection and evaluation that lead to meaningful action that reinforces our ethical culture and enhances how we achieve our core work of teaching, learning, research and service.

Our Shared Values Initiative and the action steps recommended by the task force will work in harmony to inform our work to create a campus-wide framework for excellence in diversity, equity and inclusion as well as our continued commitments to academic freedom and freedom of expression. Provost Gilliam is leading this effort and will work closely with the campus community.

Ohio State Day of Giving

Day of Giving is an incredible celebration, bringing together Ohio State alumni, family and friends from around the globe to champion our Buckeyes and their potential to make our world a better place. On May 3, you can make transformational impacts on the lives of students, their families and our communities by supporting scholarships as part of the Scarlet & Gray Advantage program, which will empower Buckeyes to control their own financial future and prepare for success after graduation. Save the date and join us May 3 for Day of Giving!

Celebrating success

Dr. Betty Lise Anderson, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is the recipient of the 2022 Public Service Award from the National Science Board. The National Science Board Public Service Award honors individuals and groups that have made substantial contributions to increasing public understanding of science and engineering in the United States.

Dr. Ayanna Howard, dean of the College of Engineering, has been elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Ranthony A.C. Edmonds was selected as a 2022 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Early Career Fellow in recognition of exemplary career achievements; support of diversity, equity and inclusion in her community; and commitment to applied mathematics, computational science and data science.

Two Ohio State faculty members were awarded Guggenheim Fellowships for 2022. Dr. David Brakke, Joe R. Engle Chair in the History of Christianity and professor of history, and Dr. Krzysztof Z. Stanek, professor of astronomy, are among the 180 American and Canadian scientists and scholars the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation honored this year. They were chosen after a rigorous application and peer review process that included nearly 2,500 applicants.

Dr. Darryl B. Hood, professor of environmental sciences in the College of Public Health, and Dr. Barbara Jones Warren, a professor of clinical nursing and director of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Specialty Track in the College of Nursing, were awarded the 2022 Ruth C. Bailey Award for Multicultural Engagement.

Dr. Melissa Bailey, an associate professor in the College of Optometry, was named Ohio State’s Innovator of the year for 2022.

Dr. Katelyn Swindle-Reilly, assistant professor in the College of Engineering, was named the 2022 Early Career Innovator of the Year for her work on treatments for conditions such as age-related macular degeneration and other retinal diseases.

Dr. Hamish Fraser, director of the Center for the Accelerated Maturation of Materials, will contribute expertise in high-strength alloys as part of a project with Lehigh University.

Thank you for being valued members of the Ohio State community.

As always, go Buckeyes!

Sincerely yours,

Kristina M. Johnson, PhD
President