ATLANTA--Michael W. Trapp has been elected chairman of the board of the Aquinas Center of Theology at Emory University, succeeding Stanley S. Dennison.

Trapp, Southeast area managing partner of Ernst & Young, will serve at the helm of the center, a group of Catholic scholars on the Emory campus with ties to the Dominican order in the U.S. and around the world.

Carolyn R. Kokenge, president of Foundation Grants Administration, Inc., will serve as vice chairwoman. The new officers were announced Nov. 12.

Under the leadership of Dennison, two professorial chairs of Catholic theology and studies were endowed at Emory. Each chair is supported by an endowment of $3.8 million. Dennison is retired senior vice president of Georgia-Pacific Corp. In the same period, the center formalized financial support for visiting Dominican scholars from Oxford University and other intellectual centers.

“With the remarkable achievements of Stan Dennison’s administration capping the first 11 years of the Aquinas Center’s history, the center can look forward to making further significant contributions to intellectual life in our region,” Trapp said.

He said the board has begun operating as a strategic planning committee towards that end.