Richard Wallace: School Promoter
Richard Wallace thinks the "business" of student recruitment can be similar, in some respects, to marketing. Wallace is the school's new senior admissions officer, and the "product" he promotes is public health education.
As a recruiter, Wallace is a salesman and a showman. A lifelong musician and performer, he relishes holding an audience's attention and enjoys opportunities to explain his passions to listeners. "What would the world do without public health?" he asks. "Public health is one of those enterprises that is very, very important to the world community. I'm passionate about that so it's easy for me to express that enthusiasm."
Richard
Wallace, senior admissions officer, is enthusiastic about being at HSPH
and he plans to infect potential students with his fervor for the school.
Wallace began recruiting for the school during the summer. His excitement for the task comes, in part, from public health problems he has witnessed in the communities that he's lived in: "I've seen a lot of people abuse drugs. I know a lot of people infected with HIV, and I know people who've passed on because of AIDS. These problems aren't just disturbing--they're devastating."
When Wallace talks to potential applicants, he expresses his hopes that the fields of public health offer solutions to societal problems. These discussions, he says, aren't "necessarily on biostatistics or epidemiology--they're of philosophy, of having a mission, and of dealing with the challenges that face the human race."
One of his goals is to increase the diversity of the HSPH student body. The school is one of Harvard's more diverse schools, but it could be better. And there are challenges to further diversification, according to Wallace: "There is a perception on the part of some under-represented students that Harvard is unreachable." His job is to convey that, while Harvard does have high standards, those standards are colorblind.
For some, historical examples of Boston's racial prejudice tarnish Harvard's appeal. Citing the well-publicized busing riots of decades past, Wallace says, "It's my job to enlighten people that behaviors have changed and Boston has moved with the times."
One of the keys to increasing diversity is through networking. He hopes to involve people of color from both the student body as well as the faculty. He hopes to receive help and suggestions for ways to increase the numbers of under-represented students. "Everyone knows someone who knows someone," he says, adding that the power of relationships is often stronger and more effective than any strategy cooked up by a committee sitting around a table.
Before joining the school, Wallace was director of admissions and enrollment at the Boston Conservatory. It was there, he says, that he learned that specialized attention was crucial to effective recruiting.
"You've got to know your material and be passionate about your school. If you can excite people and electrify them, it helps create a sense of interest."
He does acknowledge that there are limits to what he can do as a recruiter. "We can pull them in the door," he says. "But after that it's out of our hands. It's up to the faculty to decide who is accepted." And then there are the continuing problems of paying for the educationa burden for all students, but one that is often particularly challenging for minority students.
Wallace, when not on the road marketing the school to potential students, can be found in the Admissions Office, Kresge G-4.
