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The next installment of East Tennessee State University’s 2024-25 Great Lecture Series will feature Drs. Brian Johnston, John Rankin and Megan Quinn.

This lecture series celebrates and showcases the work of faculty who have recently been promoted to full professor at ETSU. Faculty play an integral role in the mission of ETSU through their teaching, research and service, and this lecture series provides them an opportunity to share their work with the broader community.

The faculty will deliver their lectures at 2 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 6, in the East Tennessee Room on the second level of the D.P. Culp Student Center. It is free and open to the public.

Johnston, professor and program coordinator for the ETSU Global Sport Leadership Program, will deliver a lecture titled “Leadership Through a Practitioner Lens.” 

He has been part of ETSU since arriving on campus in 1995 as a student athletic trainer. Under the guidance of legendary athletic trainer Jerry Robertson, Johnston began a sports medicine career that included stops at Southeastern Sports Medicine, Greenwood High School and the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

He returned to his alma mater to assist in the creation of the Jerry Robertson BucSports Athletic Medicine Center. In 2001 he was named head athletic trainer, which began a progression within the athletic department that would ultimately lead to his appointment as associate athletic director for Student Athlete Welfare.

In 2015 he made the transition to a faculty member with the creation of the Global Sport Leadership program. Since that transition, he has been dedicated to developing the next generation of sport leaders while still consulting within the athletic department. 

Rankin, professor of history, will deliver a lecture titled “From Hamilton to Historian: My Academic Journey So Far.”

Rankin’s research interests lie in the overlapping themes of imperialism, transnational and global studies, issues of race and racism, the social history of medicine, and gender and society in Georgian England. 

His first monograph, “Healing the African Body in the Age of Abolition,” examines the intersection of health, race and empire in British West Africa, 1800-1860.  He has also co-authored a popular free open educational resources textbook titled “World History Since 1500: A Free and Open Textbook.” 

His forthcoming book “Sex and Scandal in Georgian England” evaluates the role that power, position and gender norms played in how society understood extra-marital affairs. A recent recipient of the ETSU College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Award for Teaching, Rankin teaches courses on the history of medicine, as well as English, Scottish, Caribbean and world history.

Quinn’s lecture is titled “From Local to Global: Stories from an Applied Epidemiologist.”

She serves as professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and associate dean of Community and Global Engagement in the College of Public Health. She is also a member of the Center for Rural Health and Research and the ETSU/Ballad Health Strong BRAIN Institute. Broadly, her research is focused on using applied epidemiologic methods to address issues of public health importance.

She earned her bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan College, a Master of Science from University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, a Doctor of Public Health from ETSU and a graduate certificate in spatial analysis for public health from Johns Hopkins University.

Quinn is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including being named an ETSU Presidential Fellow in 2020 and the 2016 recipient of the Distinguished Faculty Award in Service.

For disability accommodations, call the ETSU Office of Disability Services at (423) 439-8346.