Winter 2012 philanthropic impact
[ Winter 2012 ]
Carson Family Renews Scholarship Support Across HSPH
Russ and Judy Carson renewed their support for the Carson Family Scholarship Program at Harvard School of Public Health. Established in 2001, the program has bolstered scholarship funding for students throughout the School. The Carsons also provide generous support to HSPH students through the Carson Family Fellowship in Health Policy and Management. Since 1994, nearly 100 students, with financial assistance from the Carson Family, have attended the School to gain the skills needed to become public health leaders, and more will soon be funded. Russ is a founding partner of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, one of the nation’s largest investment firms specializing in the purchase of privately owned companies in the information services and health care industries. Judy is the founder and executive director of Learning to Look, a program that teaches art appreciation to inner-city children.
Kay Professorship Attracts Leader in Maternal and Infant Health
Stephen Kay decided to establish a new professorship in epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health with a straightforward goal: to alleviate sickness and reduce deaths. Kay, who has also supported student financial aid at HSPH, called the School “extraordinary.”
Kay, AB ’56, MBA ’58, PA, a Goldman Sachs senior director and longtime Harvard supporter, said the first person to be named the Stephen B. Kay Family Professor of Public Health—Michelle Williams, who is the new chair of the Department of Epidemiology—has conducted impressive research on the health of mothers and infants. “I hope that her work can save lives,” he said.
Formerly a professor of epidemiology and global health at the University of Washington School of Public Health, Williams is an expert in women’s reproductive health and child health. Her work focuses on integrating genomic sciences and epidemiological research methods to identify risk factors, diagnostic markers, treatments, and prevention targets for disorders that contribute to maternal and infant mortality. She currently has research and teaching collaborations with epidemiologists in Chile, Ethiopia, Peru, and Thailand.
David Hunter, Vincent L. Gregory Professor in Cancer Prevention and Dean for Academic Affairs, commented that in addition to conducting important research, Williams has “a stellar track record of mentoring.” Earlier this year, President Barack Obama presented Williams with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.
Hunter added that having named chairs provides crucial support for department leadership, such as setting strategic direction or recruiting talented faculty. The establishment of the Kay Professorship, he said, “was very helpful in trying to attract Michelle here from her highly successful, well-established career at the University of Washington.”
For Maternal Health, a Crucial Boost
$12 million Gates Foundation grant to HSPH supports one-of-a-kind task force
Each year, more than 340,000 women around the world die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. To help lower that alarming number and improve maternal health in developing countries, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded Harvard School of Public Health a three-year, $12 million grant for an initiative called the Maternal Health Task Force (MHTF)—a sort of one-stop shop for all maternal health information and research around the world. According to Gates Foundation senior program officer France Donnay, the MHTF “is the only consensus building forum that exists on maternal health.”
The MHTF was established in 2008 at EngenderHealth, a global organization involved in family planning, maternal health, and gender equity. It was led at the time by Ana Langer, who is now professor of the practice of public health and coordinator of the Dean’s Special Initiative on Women and Health at HSPH. Donnay says the Gates Foundation award should help build on the MHTF’s previous efforts and strengthen its research and education components.
Langer calls the Gates grant crucial. “Without the Gates Foundation’s support, the task force would not exist,” she says. Over the next three years, the MHTF will fight for improved maternal health on several fronts around the world, with emphasis on three countries struggling hardest with the issue: Nigeria, Ethiopia, and India.
For example, the group will widely disseminate the latest scientific news about maternal health, primarily through a website currently available in four languages and soon to be available in more. It will encourage and support major research and innovation. And it will create internships for students at maternal health organizations.
“There are many very good maternal health projects and programs in the world,” explains Donnay. “But there is only one place where you can get such a wealth of information and fully understand what’s going on in the field—and that’s the Maternal Health Task Force. We think that being hosted at a prestigious school of public health will elevate its credibility, its convening power, and its level of recognition.”
Two Gifts Support Work on Checklists and Global Health Systems
HSPH Associate Professor Atul Gawande’s research group recently received two generous gifts in support of the Health Systems Innovations Research Fund. Support from Mala Gaonkar, managing director of Lone Pine Capital LLC, and an anonymous donor will help Gawande and his colleagues develop clinical systems innovations with high public health impact and enduring value by reducing harm to patients and improving treatment results. Current projects include development and testing of the World Health Organization’s safe childbirth checklist for improving neonatal and maternal health; development of systems for improved end-of-life care; and investigation of methods for hospital management to improve patient care. Gawande’s team has also begun researching the patterns underlying effective and ineffective implementation of the WHO Safe Surgery Checklist. And Gawande is developing a surgical checklist program to reduce patient harm in the most common crisis situations in operating rooms and high-risk specialty surgery.
Gift from Former Dean Bloom Supports Financial Aid
Barry R. Bloom, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and Joan L. and Julius H. Jacobson Professor of Public Health, made a gift to complete the endowment for the Barry R. and Irene Tilenius Bloom Fellowship Fund at Harvard School of Public Health. A group of Bloom’s friends and colleagues, with other supporters, created the fund following the end of his 10-year tenure as dean in 2008. The fund provides critical financial aid—one of Bloom’s priorities as dean—that can transform a student’s vision of a public health career into a reality. Recipients will be selected on academic merit, leadership potential, and commitment to improving public health in fields and areas of the world in greatest need.
Medtronic Grant Supports Global Health Education Overhaul
A new grant from the Medtronic Foundation will help support an ambitious effort by Harvard School of Public Health and several international partner institutions to transform health education for public health leaders, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health professionals around the globe.
The project aims to create new curricula for up-and-coming health professionals at a time when chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer are on the rise. Technology will play a key role; the Internet will be used to disseminate information about best practices in health education as well as workable solutions to health problems. A portal will serve as a clearinghouse for information, a virtual gatheringplace for faculty and students, and a platform for virtual meetings, workshops, and focus groups.
“Global health is at a crossroads, and education is critical to training the next generation of leaders to meet these challenges,” said Ian Lapp, HSPH associate dean for strategic educational initiatives. “We greatly appreciate the Medtronic Foundation for being the first to support this effort.”
The two-year, $500,000 grant to fund HSPH’s “Teaching to Transform Global Health” initiative comes from the Medtronic Foundation, part of then Minnesota-based medical technology company Medtronic. Through the initiative, experts from HSPH and its partner institutions will develop a competency framework that will inform global health education at the School and help health educators worldwide develop new curricula at their institutions.
Heather Page, director of the Medtronic Foundation, says the company chose to fund HSPH’s “Teaching to Transform” initiative because “it connects public health concerns with medical education. This is crucial if we are going to provide health care for ‘the bottom billion’ ”—those who live in the world’s poorest nations. The impetus for the initiative stems from a critique of health professional education outlined in a 2010 Lancet report by HSPH Dean Julio Frenk and Lincoln Chen of the China Medical Board.
The Medtronic Foundation is also renewing its support for another HSPH initiative: the China Initiative Senior Executive Education Training Program, which since 2005 has offered four-week programs to help Chinese health policymakers and senior health executives develop strategic vision, technical knowledge, political skills, and an ethical orientation toward formulating and implementing health policy. Medtronic, which has funded the initiative annually since 2006, is now providing another $750,000 for three years.