Dear Members of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Community,
I am pleased to communicate with you on this, my first day as the Acting Dean of the School. It has been my honor these past 6 ½ years to work with our outgoing Dean Julio Frenk in my role as Dean for Academic Affairs. Julio has been an inspirational Dean and I wish him every success in his new endeavor as President of the University of Miami.
While a permanent successor is being sought, I want to assure you that I am committed to moving forward rapidly this fall on all of the many programs that Dean Frenk and I have worked so hard to foster over the past six years in collaboration with faculty, staff, students, alumni, and donors. I am pleased to announce the following:
• Earlier this summer, we welcomed to campus the first class of students for our new online/on-campus blended MPH in Epidemiology program. The 55 students in this program — the only online/on-campus program offered at a graduate school at Harvard — completed their first three weeks of onsite learning and are now deeply immersed in the distance learning component of this new degree program.
• A few days ago, our new Admissions website launched to begin recruiting prospective students to our degree and non-degree programs for 2016-2017 – including our newly imagined MPH 45-credit and MPH 65-credit degree programs and our new PhD in Population Health Sciences.
• Later this month, we will welcome nearly 500 highly qualified new students to campus from all over the world to begin their master’s and doctoral degree programs at the School.
• The major review of our research strategy continues with efforts both within the School and in collaboration with the broader University as part of our commitment to “One Harvard.” We recently received an insightful, in-depth analysis of our Life Sciences research programs’ strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities from a stellar group of top scientists and public health experts — led by Nobel laureate and former NIH and NCI Director Harold Varmus. I will be sharing aspects of this report with the faculty in the days ahead as we focus together to ensure that our research efforts continue to work toward solving the major public health threats that challenge our world.
• Our ongoing commitment to addressing issues of diversity and inclusion at the School is reflected in the recent naming of Kimberly A. Truong, PhD, as the Director of Inclusion Programs in our Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Dr. Truong will devise, implement, and improve programs that create opportunities for dialogue and the development of skills, behaviors, and knowledge about equity, diversity, and inclusion. Later this month, the School community will have the opportunity to read and discuss “Covering: The Hidden Assault on our Civil Rights” with the author, Kenji Yoshino, in a project that will engage students, staff, and faculty in a conversation about identity and authenticity.
• We will soon be welcoming the first ever Associate Director of Community Engagement in the Office of Education with a joint reporting relationship to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. This individual will oversee the development and operation of community engagement activities at Harvard Chan, including building and sustaining partnerships between the School and community-based organizations.
• This fall, the School will participate in a major Boston-wide initiative called HubWeek, a festival of world-changing science, technology, art, and thinking sponsored by the Boston Globe, Harvard, MIT, and MGH. HubWeek organizers will produce major events across Boston and Cambridge from October 3-10, including a major public event sponsored by the School to which you are all invited on October 5 from 9 a.m. to 1:30 pm at the Martin Center. At this event, about a dozen of our faculty will speak on “Four Global Health Threats, Four Global Health Opportunities.”
• Our annual Alumni Weekend will be held October 2-3, the weekend running up to HubWeek, providing alumni with the opportunity to return for learning and camaraderie at Harvard Chan as well as the chance to participate in the larger Boston-wide festivities. The focus of Alumni Weekend is “Overcoming Health Disparities: Achieving Health Equity.”
• October will conclude with our annual major event for donors and friends, the Harvard Chan Leadership Council Summit, on October 29-30. This year’s summit focus is “From Cells to Cell Phones: Communications and Health.” The School continues to build on its significant fundraising successes as part of the overall Harvard Campaign. Meeting with our supporters and friends to inspire their continued support for our efforts now and when a new Dean is named will be one of my top priorities as Acting Dean.
• Major events are scheduled for The Forum, Voices in Leadership, Dean’s Distinguished Lectures, and the Rosenau Lectures. Topics will include human trafficking, new cholesterol treatments, drug pricing, climate change and health, and the Nepal disaster follow-up, to name but a few.
• I will be traveling to Asia later this fall to visit our expanding research efforts and educational exchanges in China, which I see as pivotal to the School’s efforts to be a truly global force in public health. In India, we expect to open a new office in Mumbai for the Harvard Chan-India Health Partnership. While in Asia, I also look forward to meeting alumni at events in Taipei and Hong Kong.
It is my goal as Acting Dean to communicate with everyone on a regular basis regarding our progress toward the research, educational, and financial goals that we have set collectively for the School. These are exciting times for the Harvard Chan School and for the field of public health. I look forward to working with you in the days and weeks ahead as we continue this forward momentum that Julio and the entire School community has created to improve the world’s health.
David Hunter
Acting Dean