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Invest in Accessibility

At Harvard Chan School, we work with purpose and passion toward our vision: A world with health, dignity, and justice for every human being. In order to achieve that vision, we must invest in our students, enabling them to pursue their passions and make a difference in the world.

Sixty-six percent of our students rely on financial aid to attend the School. Students from developing countries, first-generation students, and U.S. underrepresented minority students are more likely than their peers to receive financial aid or decline to attend due to the financial burden. A robust financial aid program ensures that we will continue to attract and educate the next generation of leaders committed to building a healthier world for all.

Financial aid is critical to our ability to achieve our mission. Learn why:

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Our Students

Donor support ensures that we will continue to attract and enroll the world’s most promising future public health leaders. Read more about what motivates our students:

Siale Vaitohi Teaupa

Ending racial disparities in health care is my why.

“I am a person of color who wants to end racial disparities in health care by increasing the diversity of the field.

Growing up, inequities were all around me. I went to school with mostly white peers whose families didn’t seem to think twice about health insurance or doctors’ visits. Much of my home life was spent with my Pacific Islander extended family—cousins who didn’t see doctors regularly and grandparents without health insurance. I know that if they had providers of color, they would feel more comfortable approaching the health care system, and their health outcomes would be better.

As a budding physician and public health professional of color, I want to help ensure people like them seek and receive the best possible care—and I believe that starts by increasing diversity in the field.”

-Siale Vaitohi Teaupa, MPH ’23

Hussein Lalani

Making prescription drugs affordable is my why.

“I grew up watching my grandmother struggle to breathe as she struggled with chronic lung disease. On the weekends, my mom and I filled up her weekly pillboxes with 15 to 20 medicines per day. My family struggled to afford the medicines her doctors prescribed, and we relied on assistance from others. Prescription drugs can be do not work when patients cannot afford them. I’ve seen this first-hand throughout my medical training.

As general internal medicine fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School as well as a masters in health policy student, I see patients in primary care clinic and study how patients use and pay for prescription drugs at the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL). My research focuses on understanding the impact high drug prices have on the costs the patients pay and evaluating the impact of health policies. The challenges in the prescription drug market are a lens into what ails the US healthcare system. I’m eager to make things better for patients.”

-Hussain Lalani, MPH ’23

Mary Kathryn Poole

Eliminating child food insecurity and diet-related disease is my why.

“I aim to eliminate child food insecurity and health disparities in diet-related disease by bridging the gap between research and practice. My objective is to identify best practices for interventions and implementations to help guide policy. My dissertation used three analytical methods to assess the effectiveness of nutrition and obesity prevention initiatives being utilized in education and childcare settings.

I chose Harvard Chan for its unique interdisciplinary doctoral program in Population Health Science and for its leading scholarship in public health nutrition.”

-Mary Kathryn Poole, PhD candidate