Celebrating the 2024 Emory Alumni Awards
The Emory Alumni Awards are an opportunity to reflect on the everyday champions, luminary leaders, and change-makers who call Emory home. This year, we’re honoring four alumni whose stories of triumph and trailblazing serve as an inspiration to us all.
Carlos del Rio 86MR 88FM
When it comes to experts in the field of infectious disease research, one name rises to the top: Carlos del Rio. A renowned clinician and epidemiologist, del Rio attended medical school in Mexico. After graduating, he came to Emory as a medical resident. He returned to Mexico as a physician and educator, and from 1992 to 1996, he was executive director of the National AIDS Council of Mexico.
Now del Rio is a distinguished professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine, executive associate dean for faculty and clinical affairs in Emory’s School of Medicine, and a professor of global health and epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health. He has recently been appointed chair of the Department of Medicine at the School of Medicine.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, del Rio advised municipal, state, and national leaders and was a frequent source for international media to educate the public about the ongoing health crisis.
Del Rio is the immediate past president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He also chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of PEPFAR and is a member of the UNAIDS Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee. Del Rio is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy of Medicine, where he also serves as international secretary.
He has been recognized by the Carnegie Corporation as a “Great Immigrant, Great American” and by the City of Atlanta with the Phoenix Award, the city’s highest honor, for his medical guidance and support during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Del Rio and his wife, Jeannette Guarner 87MR 89FM, are committed to support Emory in many ways. They have endowed scholarship funds to support Latino/Hispanic students at the Rollins School of Public Health and the School of Medicine. In 2023, del Rio and Guarner made a bequest to support the School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases.
C. Robert Henrikson 72L
Emory University School of Law has been intentional about attracting a diverse student body, thanks in part to C. Robert Henrikson. In 2002, he and his wife, Mary, endowed a scholarship fund to support the recruitment of minority students.
After graduating from Emory School of Law in 1972, Henrikson had a successful career at MetLife, Inc. He started his career as a sales representative for the company and became CEO in 2006. Henrikson built the company to be the leading voice in insurance. At the time of his retirement in 2011, MetLife’s portfolio was $450 billion—the largest growth in the company’s history.
Henrikson is a pioneer in the insurance sector, setting standards for insurance and business practices that companies still follow. One of the most trusted voices in the sector, Henrikson has testified in front of Congress several times about retirement, pensions, and employee benefits.
In July 2010, he was appointed by President Barack Obama to the President’s Export Council, the principal national advisory committee on international trade. Henrikson was a board member of the American Council of Life Insurers, a board member of The Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership, and a board member emeritus of the American Benefits Council. He also served on the National Board of Advisors at the Morehouse School of Medicine and the board of directors of the New York Botanical Garden, and he was a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History. Additionally, he served on the Emory Law School Council and the Emory Campaign Steering Committee.
Jonathan Butler 96C
An Atlanta native, Jonathan Butler had always thought of Emory as an option after high school, but it wasn’t until he participated in a summer program at the university that he confirmed his decision to enroll. Since then, Emory has been in his blood.
Butler has left an indelible mark on the Emory Alumni Board and the community it serves. He served on the board from 2014 to 2020, including as secretary and president. He was instrumental in introducing new ways to engage alumni and has consistently sought opportunities to expand the board’s outreach, helping set in motion new awards for community impact and recognition.
Leveraging his expertise and leadership in diversity, equity, and inclusion, Butler has helped Emory become a more welcoming and diverse space for students and alumni. He led the Caucus of Emory Black Alumni from 2013 to 2016. He also played a key role on the Emory Transforming Community Project steering committee and the Emory President’s Commission on the Status of Minorities. Butler provided valuable insights as a consultant to the Twin Memorials Working Group, which seeks to honor the lives of enslaved individuals who helped build Emory's original campus.
Notably, Butler is a founding member and current leader of the Black Emory Impact Circle, which supports causes important to the Black community through the power of collective philanthropic giving.
Butler’s service goes beyond alumni. He actively engages with Emory students to make their experience better. He volunteered as a career coach for Emory Career Network in 2012 and served on the Emory Alumni Board’s Student to Alumni Experience Committee.
Danielle Sered 00C
Danielle Sered began making a community impact while still a student at Emory. In addition to excelling academically, she founded ArtsReach, a program that teaches conflict resolution, prejudice reduction, and sex education through the arts in Atlanta’s public schools and juvenile detention centers. In her senior year, she received the McMullan Award for her service and leadership on campus. She was first female undergraduate at Emory to become a Rhodes Scholar.
Sered is the founder and executive director of Common Justice, a nonprofit that develops and advances racially equitable, accountability-based, survivor-centered responses to violence that do not rely on incarceration. Common Justice operates the nation’s first and only alternative-to-incarceration program for adults charged with violent felonies in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
She serves on many advisory boards and councils, including the Advisory Council to the New York State Office of Victim Services, the Diversity Advisory Committee to the federal Office for Victims of Crime, the New York State Governor's Council on Reentry and Community Reintegration, and the Advisory Board to the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice.
Under her leadership, Common Justice received the 2012 Award for Innovation in Victim Services from the New York Attorney General and the federal Office for Victims of Crime. Her book, Until We Reckon, was named one of Kirkus Review's Best Books of 2019 and received praise from publications including The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
