Jay Bernhardt | |
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| Born | 1969 (age 54–55) Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Education | Rutgers University (BA, MPH) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (PhD) |
Jay M. Bernhardt (born 1969) is an American public health specialist and academic. Bernhardt has served as the president of Emerson College since June 2023. He was previously the dean of the Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin from 2016 to 2023.
Bernhardt was born in 1969 and grew up in East Brunswick, New Jersey. [1] He attended Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, where he earned a B.A. in sociology and minored in computer science. He earned a Master of Public Health (MPH) [2] degree from Rutgers and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Bernhardt earned his Ph.D. in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) [3] with an interdisciplinary focus on health communication. [4]
He's been inducted into honor societies including the Cap and Skull Society at Rutgers and the Order of the Grail-Valkyries at UNC, and received awards including the Everett M. Rogers Award for Excellence in Health Communication and the Jay S. Drotman Memorial Award from the American Public Health Association. [5]
Bernhardt began his academic career as an assistant professor in the School of Health and Human Performance at the University of Georgia in 1999 before joining the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in 2001. From 2005 to 2010, Bernhardt worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he directed the National Center for Health Marketing, overseeing and advancing the agency's communication, marketing, partnerships, and new media innovations. [6] In 2010, he joined the School of Health and Human Performance at the University of Florida, where he served as department chair, professor and center director. He joined the University of Texas at Austin in July 2014 as professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relation. [7] Later, he helped establish the Center for Health Communication and served as its director. [8] In 2015, he was named as the interim dean of the Moody College of Communication. [9] [10]
Bernhardt became the sixth dean of the Moody College of Communication on March 1, 2016. [11] Bernhardt's tenure has led to the development of many new programs including a four-year honors program, [12] B.A. degree in communication and leadership [13] and a “study away” program in New York City known as UTNY. [14] He increased graduate student funding and the four-year graduation rate to 80 percent, among the highest on campus. [15] He's recruited more than 50 new faculty members and established new research centers, institutes and programs. [16] [17] He's also prioritized issues of diversity, equity and inclusion and established the college’s first associate dean position with this portfolio. [18]
The Jay M. Bernhardt Award for Staff Excellence at the University of Texas is named in his honor. [19]
In June 2021, Bernhardt became the thirteenth president of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, succeeding M. Lee Pelton. [20] He has appointed notable leaders during his administration, including Alexandra Socarides as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, and Matthew Boyce as Vice President of Enrollment Management. [21] [22] After extensive negotiations, he successfully concluded a historic agreement with the Emerson College Full-time Faculty Union (ECCAAUP). [23] The agreement, effective from September 1, 2023, to the end of the 2028 academic year, features substantial salary increases aimed at enhancing faculty recruitment and retention. [23]
As the President of Emerson College, Bernhardt became the source of much controversy. On the day of his investiture ceremony, a protest for Palestinian liberation led to the arrest of 13 individuals, 12 of which were Emerson students. [24] [25] Additionally, 11 of those arrested were people of color. [26] Tensions continued to rise, eventually culminating in the arrest of 118 students by the Boston Police Department on April 25, 2024. [27] [28] [29] [30] The perceived lack of support and safety provided by Bernhardt was criticized heavily by students, leading to the Student Government Association calling for his resignation. [31] [32] As of October 2024 [update] , he still acts as the President, even amidst continued criticism. [33] [34]
His research is focused on digital health through the application of communication and technology to public health and healthcare. He was among the first to research wireless mobile technology for health-related data collection and personalized text messages, and the application of new and social media for health communication. His research has been funded by the National Institutes for Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the CDC, and other agencies and foundations. [35]
The University of Texas at Austin is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 52,384 students as of fall 2022, it is also the largest institution in the system.
Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, and in Well, Limburg, Netherlands. Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of oratory," the college offers more than three dozen degree and professional training programs specializing in the fields of arts and communication with a foundation in liberal arts studies. The college is one of the founding members of the ProArts Consortium, an association of six neighboring institutions in Boston dedicated to arts education at the collegiate level. Emerson is also notable for the college's namesake public opinion poll, Emerson College Polling.
The University of Texas at Dallas is a public research university in Richardson, Texas. It is the northernmost institution of the University of Texas System. It was initially founded in 1961 as a private research arm of Texas Instruments.
The Berkeley Beacon is the student newspaper of Emerson College, founded in 1947. The paper is published weekly on Thursdays during the fall and spring semesters of Emerson's academic year.
The College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin offers 10 Bachelor of Arts majors, 42 Bachelor of Science majors, and 20 graduate programs to more than 11,000 undergraduates and 1,400 graduate students. The college employs over 370 faculty. Many of the programs are consistently ranked in the top ten nationally, according to U.S. News & World Report (2019), including: Analytical Chemistry (4th), Applied Math (9th), Artificial Intelligence (8th), Computer Science (10th), Computing Systems (8th), Computing Theory (7th), Cosmology/Relativity/Gravity (10th), Ecology, Evolution and Behavior (6th), Mathematics Analysis (7th), Plasma Physics (3rd), Programming Language (8th), and Topology (8th). It was established in 1883.
M. Lee Pelton is the President and CEO of the Boston Foundation, the community foundation serving the Greater Boston area since 1915. A native of Wichita, Kansas, Pelton studied English literature at Wichita State University and Harvard University. He then held various deanship positions at Colgate University and Dartmouth College before becoming president of Willamette University (1998-2011) and Emerson College (2011-2021). On June 1, 2021, Pelton took the helm at the Boston Foundation.
A Doctor of Public Health is a doctoral degree awarded in the field of Public Health. DrPH is an advanced and terminal degree that prepares its recipients for a career in advancing public health practice, leadership, research, teaching, or administration. The first DrPH degree was awarded by Harvard Medical School in 1911.
The Moody College of Communication is the communication college at The University of Texas at Austin. The college is home to top-ranked programs in advertising and public relations, communication studies, communication and leadership, speech, language and hearing sciences, journalism, and radio-television-film. The Moody College is nationally recognized for its faculty members, research and student media. It offers seven undergraduate degrees, including those in Journalism, Advertising, and Radio-Television-Film, and 17 graduate programs. The Moody College of Communication operates out of the Jesse H. Jones Communication Complex and the Dealey Center for New Media, which opened in November 2012.
Pradeep Kumar Khosla is an Indian-American computer scientist and university administrator. He is the current chancellor of the University of California, San Diego since August 1, 2012.
Richard Bowen Loftin, better known as R. Bowen Loftin, is an American academic and physicist who was the 22nd Chancellor of the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Prior to his appointment as chancellor, he served as the 24th president of Texas A&M University.
Alan Michael Garber is an American physician and health economist, currently serving as the 31st president of Harvard University since January 2024.
Gregory Louis Fenves is an American engineer and academic who is the 21st president of Emory University. He previously served as the President of the University of Texas at Austin from 2015 to 2020.
The Moody Pedestrian Bridge is a pedestrian bridge in Austin, Texas on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. It connects two buildings within the Moody College of Communication across a street.
Jay Carter Hartzell is an American economist and the 30th President of the University of Texas at Austin. Additionally, he holds the Centennial Chair in Business Education Leadership and the Trammell Crow Regents Professor in Business at UT Austin.
Physics, Math, and Astronomy Building is a high rise building on the University of Texas at Austin campus, in the U.S. state of Texas. The building was completed in 1972, and houses the astronomy, mathematics, and physics departments, as well as the Kuehne Physics Mathematics Astronomy Library.
Katrina Alison Armstrong is an American internist, currently serving as the interim president of Columbia University since August 2024. She concurrently serves as CEO of Irving Medical Center and as dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences at the university.
Vincent Gordon Bourdeau is a political scientist, currently serving as the 13th president of the City College of the City University of New York since December 2017.
Javier Reyes is an American economist who is the 12th and current chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, as well as Professor of Finance at Isenberg School of Management. Reyes is an economist and the first Hispanic to serve as the chancellor of UMass Amherst.
Pro-Palestinian protests at the University of Texas at Austin began on April 24, 2024, organized by the Palestinian Solidarity Committee in response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas War. The protests have included sit-ins, marches, and encampments on campus, calling for the university to divest from companies linked to Israel's actions in Gaza. The demonstrations escalated when university officials, with support from local and state law enforcement, intervened to disperse protestors, leading to multiple arrests and sparking criticism over the suppression of free speech on campus. Despite arrests and clashes with police, the protests have continued, drawing significant attention and raising debates about civil liberties and the role of university administration in managing campus protests.
| Authority control databases: Academics |
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