Global Health Nexus, Summer 2002

Emilie Godfrey Is First “RAAHP”er of the Year Awardee

Ms. Emilie Godfrey, the administrator of the NYU Oral Cancer Research for Adolescent and Adult Health Promotion (RAAHP) Center, has won the inaugural “RAAHP”er of the Year Award. The NYU Oral Cancer RAAHP Center was established last fall with a seven-year, $8.3 million grant from the NIH to investigate why African Americans and Hispanics have a higher incidence of oral cancer as well as higher mortality rates. The “RAAHP”er of the Year Award will be presented annually to the individual who excels in expanding communication among RAAHP Center investigators.

The award was presented to Emilie by Dr. Ralph V. Katz, chairman of the Department of Epidemiology and Health Promotion and the grant’s principal investigator, at a dinner honoring RAAHP Center board members. “During those frantic first four months leading up to the submission of our more than 1,200-page grant application,” said Dr. Katz, “Emilie was our ‘grant production office.’ She assembled and organized vast amounts of materials from our 11 collaborating universities and agencies ranging up and down the East Coast from Puerto Rico to Boston, and maintained open channels of communication among all 50 of our collaborating coinvestigators. While there were many wonderful people who played pivotal roles in securing the grant, there was no doubt in my mind who our first “RAAHP”er awardee should be.”

As RAAHP Center administrator, Emilie brings to her assignment a wealth of experience as a research administrator and coordinator, having coordinated large, multicenter clinical trials ranging from 30 to 300 sites in a variety of medical studies. In addition to her administrative responsibilities, Emilie, a certified dietitian-nutritionist with a master’s degree in clinical nutrition, also serves as an adjunct assistant professor of epidemiology and health promotion, and recently developed and taught a nutrition component as part of the new clinical simulation laboratory course given during the first year of the D.D.S. program. “From the low-key, almost leisurely manner in which she approaches colleagues, as contrasted with the typically rushed workplace pace,” says Dr. Katz, “to the presence of flowers and tablecloths at working luncheons and interview sessions, to the high quality of the nutrition course she created, Emilie brings a style and special touch—a touch of class—to every activity she undertakes.”