Receiving appreciation for one’s job performance is always meaningful, especially when it comes from a supervisor. Imagine, then, Sarah Wood’s reaction when she learned that her longtime supervisor, former School dean and University provost Harvey Fineberg, AB ’67, MD ’71, MPP ’72, PhD ’80, had contributed $100,000 to the Harvard Chan School to endow the Sarah K. Wood Award for Outstanding Staff Performance in her honor. “I am very humbled,” she says. “I adore Harvey and his wife, Mary Wilson, for thinking of this award. I am proud that my name is on it so other people can be recognized.” The annual award honors a staff member who demonstrates the qualities of dedication, competence, positive attitude, initiative, and ability to mentor, encourage, and inspire others, in addition to a demonstrated commitment to the School and its mission—all qualities that Wood displayed during her 21 years as Fineberg’s trusted associate. She hopes the Award will encourage faculty members and others to really get to know the staff who work with them.
Now president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Fineberg has the opportunity to interact with Wood through the China Medical Board, where he is a trustee and she serves as executive administrator to the president. “Faculty and students at the Harvard Chan School rightly garner many awards,” observes Fineberg. “Mary and I wanted to help the School recognize outstanding staff as well, and we could think of no more fitting way to do this than to establish a staff award in the name of our dear friend and exemplary colleague, Sarah Wood.”
Barrie Damson, AB ’56, is a dedicated Harvard Chan champion. He feels so close to the School that he refers to the students as “our students.” As in, “Our students are charged with the responsibility of educating policymakers and the public and working to prevent health problems faced by societies around the world.”
Yet many of the most highly qualified students—those best equipped to shoulder this heavy responsibility—require financial assistance to attend Harvard Chan. To help change this situation, Damson and his wife, Joan, recently established the Damson Family Financial Aid Fund with a gift of $150,000.
“My goal for the Fund is that it help people who will be helping others,” he says. “When you look back at our graduates, you’ll find world leaders, individuals who come back to the School as educators, and distinguished men and women who cover the gamut of health care. These are people who are making a real difference in the world, helping many thousands and perhaps millions of people.”
The impact of financial aid has been on Damson’s radar for quite some time—since his college days at Harvard, in fact. His friend and roommate, one of just a handful of African-American students in his class, would not have been able to attend the College without the scholarship he received. “Wonderful things happen when someone is given an opportunity to go further in life than he or she would have without it,” says Damson, noting that his friend went on to become an orthopedic surgeon.
Although the Damsons have been Harvard Chan supporters for more than 10 years and have previously contributed to other funds at the School—including the Annual Fund, the Dean’s Leadership Fund, the Scholarship Fund, and the Barry R. and Irene Tilenium Bloom Fellowship Fund—they decided to establish their own fund so they could have a more direct connection with the fellowship recipients. The Damsons allocated an additional $10,000 annually as a current-use fellowship gift, which this year was awarded to Cristina Gall, SM ’17, whose studies focus on nutritional epidemiology and in particular the relationship between dietary factors and noncommunicable diseases.
Damson is connected to financial aid in another way as well. A member of the School’s Leadership Council Executive Committee, Damson was the 2015 recipient of the Volunteer Leadership Award. In his honor, a Volunteer Leadership Award Scholarship was presented in his name to a deserving student, Emily Gao, SM ’16, who is studying health policy and management with a focus on health financing and delivery in emerging markets.
“All in all,” says Damson, “I can’t think of a more important contribution to the School than a financial aid fund. The more I get to know the School and learn what it’s doing, the more committed I am to it and the more important I believe it is to our country and our people and the people of the world. This School stands among the top schools across the globe for what its students and faculty have contributed to humanity.”
“Students are the treasure of the Harvard Chan School. Professional education gives students the tools for a lifetime of service. No one elects the field of public health to make the most money they can nor because anyone else has forced them to do it. Everyone who studies public health is genuinely motivated to understand the scientific basis of health and the nature of threats to health; as health professionals, they want to make real change for the better in people’s lives.
“We support student travel fellowships because there are some kinds of learning that cannot occur in the classroom. The opportunity to live and work with local communities provides a hands-on experience that you just cannot duplicate elsewhere. We love the idea of enabling people to gain experience and learning at critical times in their lives—experiences that can sometimes shape an entire career. Providing support to the remarkable and highly motivated students who find their way to the Harvard Chan School is very rewarding. It makes you feel very good about the future and the potential for good embodied in our students.”
—Harvey Fineberg and Mary Wilson helped create the Albina Fund for Student Travel Fellowships, which provides students from the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights with hands-on learning experiences focused on international assistance and global health and development. Mary serves as an adjunct professor in Global Health and Population at the Harvard Chan School, and Harvey was previously dean of the School.
“Improving the quality and effectiveness of humanitarian work is a major focus of our philanthropic efforts, because having well-trained professionals on the ground can mean the difference between helping people when they need it most and making an unfolding crisis even worse.” — Jonathan Lavine, MBA ’92, and Jeannie Lavine, AB ’88, MBA ’92
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health announced a gift of $5.5 million from Jonathan Lavine, MBA ’92, and Jeannie Lavine, AB ’88, MBA ’92, to establish the Lavine Family Professorship of Humanitarian Studies. The professorship will promote the study of a range of humanitarian issues, including the intersection of humanitarian relief, disaster preparedness, and public health.
This gift builds upon the Lavines’ prior investments in Harvard’s humanitarian work. In 2011, they contributed $5 million to the School, establishing the Lavine Family Humanitarian Studies Initiative, which helped to expand the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and support the training and education of humanitarian relief workers at the Humanitarian Academy.
The Lavine Family Professorship is the first professorship in the history of Harvard that is specifically dedicated to humanitarian studies and public health, and one of just a handful of similar professorships in this field worldwide. It is unique in its association with a humanitarian academy and a university-level academic concentration aimed at improving professionalism and efficacy in humanitarian field work and crisis response.
“The Lavines share the conviction that we must address the human side of humanitarian relief—by equipping future humanitarian leaders to translate the most up-to-date evidence into fieldwork to ensure that humanitarian efforts are efficient, effective, and have a lasting impact on the lives of people in conflict and crisis.”
— Michael VanRooyen, MD, MPH Lavine Family Professor of Humanitarian Studies and Director, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
The first incumbent of the Lavine Family Professorship is Michael VanRooyen, MD, MPH. VanRooyen is director of HHI, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a professor at the Harvard Chan School and Harvard Medical School. He has served as an emergency physician and health specialist in over 30 countries affected by war and disaster, including Bosnia, Chad, Darfur-Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, North Korea, Rwanda, and Somalia. He has worked in the field as a relief expert with several nongovernmental organizations, including CARE, International Medical Corps, Oxfam, Physicians for Human Rights, Samaritan’s Purse International Relief, and Save the Children. VanRooyen has been a policy adviser to several organizations, including the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and World Health Organization, and serves on the board of overseers of the International Rescue Committee.
In 2012, VanRooyen founded the Humanitarian Academy at Harvard. The only program of its kind at a major research university, the Humanitarian Academy is dedicated to creating a professional pathway for humanitarian leaders by educating current and future generations of leaders in the field.
The Lavines are active members of the Harvard Chan Board of Dean’s Advisors and have served as co-chairs of the Campaign for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health since 2013.
“Improving the quality and effectiveness of humanitarian work is a major focus of our philanthropic efforts, because having well-trained professionals on the ground can mean the difference between helping people when they need it most and making an unfolding crisis even worse,” says Jonathan Lavine, who serves as Co-Managing Partner of Bain Capital. “Supporting strong leadership at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and the Humanitarian Academy at Harvard is a great way to ensure this important work continues.”
Says VanRooyen, “I am deeply grateful to Jonathan and Jeannie for their support and confidence over the years. The Lavines share the conviction that we must address the human side of humanitarian relief—by equipping future humanitarian leaders to translate the most up-to-date evidence into fieldwork to ensure that humanitarian efforts are efficient, effective, and have a lasting impact on the lives of people in conflict and crisis. Jonathan and Jeannie’s commitment to establishing a permanent legacy of humanitarian leadership at Harvard is a transformative investment for the field and an inspiration to all of us at HHI.”
“This gift is a wonderful example of Jonathan and Jeannie’s visionary philanthropy and inspirational leadership,” says Dean Michelle A. Williams, ScD ’91. “In addition to contributing more than $10 million to support the School’s humanitarian work, they have helped the School develop vital relationships with leaders in business and philanthropy, and they have been a constant source of wise counsel to me and to my predecessors Dean Julio Frenk and Acting Dean David Hunter.”
With this gift, the Campaign has surpassed its initial goal of $450 million, over and above the naming gift of $350 million from the Morningside Foundation of Gerald Chan, SM ’75, SD ’79, and Ronnie Chan.
A $5 million leadership gift from Dr. Deborah Rose, SM ’75, expands the existing Rose Traveling Fellowship Program in support of a new Rose Service Learning Program. Combining educational experiences with engagement in local communities, either domestic or abroad, service learning is a simple yet profound approach by which students help others while participating in academic study.
Dean Michelle A. Williams, ScD ’91, is a longtime champion of service learning. “This is one of the best ways I know for students to gain cross-cultural understanding while pursuing research that advances their professional goals,” she says. “Service learning broadens the horizons of those who participate and provides real value to the people served. And the students come away transformed by their experiences.”
Rose’s generous gift recognizes and builds upon the substantial impact of the Rose Traveling Fellowship Program, which has dramatically broadened opportunities for cross-cultural exchange in both developed and developing countries since it was established in 2010. To date, more than 50 Rose Traveling Fellows have engaged in unique educational and research experiences that have helped shape them as future leaders in public health service and practice.
Expanding on the Rose Traveling Fellowship Program’s support for students and postdoctoral scholars in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, the Rose Service Learning Program will now offer fellowship opportunities to students, postdoctoral scholars, and junior faculty members in all of the School’s departments. “I believe that education, hands-on experience, service to others, reflection, and writing are deeply intertwined,” says Rose.
“Adding a cross-cultural component, whether at home or abroad, encourages a review of one’s most basic assumptions and deepens understanding. Expanding such opportunities to scholars in all departments extends these benefits to all.”
Rose has been committed to cross-cultural public health efforts for decades. A chronic-disease epidemiologist with interests in psychosocial epidemiology, cognitive psychology, health behaviors, demography, and environmental health, combined with sustainable, locally initiated development, she has spent more than 20 years developing and analyzing data from the U.S. National Health Interview Survey. She focused on tracking progress toward U.S. health goals between 1990 and 2010, with an emphasis on monitoring tobacco use in the U.S. and health disparities among Hispanics. She has advised the Ministries of Health of Hungary, Mexico, and Taiwan on best practices for their health interview surveys. Rose is currently working with partners at Yale, the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, the Ministries of Education and Health of Ghana, and the Yamoransa Community Development Committee in an ongoing collaboration to enhance opportunities for computing, education, clean water, sanitation, and local health care for the people of the village of Yamoransa and the surrounding communities. At Harvard, she spearheaded an international conference on “21st Century Identification Systems,” which has become an ongoing project, in collaboration with colleagues at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights.
“I am deeply grateful to Dr. Rose for her vision in promoting the critical priorities of international engagement and service learning at the Harvard Chan School,” says Williams. “Her generosity will ensure in perpetuity that members of our community will have opportunities to gain hands-on experience that prepares them for high-impact careers in global public health.”
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health announced a gift of $2 million from Lisa Schwartz and Mark Schwartz, AB ’76, MBA ’78, MPP ’79, to establish the Schwartz Family Innovation Fund for Climate Change and Sustainability. The Fund will help develop a shared set of resources that can be deployed across the School to further research in the areas of food, nutrition, climate, and sustainability, with a special focus on supporting junior faculty research on climate change and health.
The Schwartzes’ gift will advance the Harvard Chan School’s groundbreaking work in climate science and its efforts to ensure that policymakers and the general public understand the effects of climate change on human health—not just in the future or in remote locations, but also here and now. The gift will strengthen the School’s ability to translate scientific discoveries into sound policies and focus resources on promising efforts in a variety of fields.
“Public health offers an extremely important perspective on why people should care about climate change,” says Lisa. “The Harvard Chan School has a remarkable legacy of impact in this area. Its interdisciplinary and international approach to science and communications is exactly what’s needed to address a problem as complex as climate change.”
Global health and sustainability have been major focus areas for Lisa and Mark for many years. They founded and operated Rainbeau Ridge, a sustainable farm in upstate New York where people of all ages were able to connect with the land, learn to cook, and enjoy locally produced food. Lisa co-authored the book Over the Rainbeau: Living the Dream of Sustainable Farming. Mark is former president and chief executive of MissionPoint Capital Partners, which specializes in impact investing in areas including climate change mitigation and local food systems. They have also served on the boards of numerous education and health-focused nonprofits.
“I am deeply grateful for this generous foundational gift from Lisa and Mark Schwartz and for their invaluable service to the School as members of the Board of Dean’s Advisors,” says Dean Michelle A. Williams, ScD ’91. “I look forward to working with the faculty to support efforts that will focus the attention of policymakers and the public on the intersection of climate change and health.”
With a recent gift of $450,000 to the David E. Bell Postdoctoral Fellowship Fund at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (“Pop Center”), Valerie and John “Jack” Rowe have continued their support for research on population health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The Rowes’ contribution, a renewal of previous gifts to the Fellowship, funds two postdoctoral scholars for two years of research and leadership training in population and development.
Lisa Berkman, the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health and Population, is director of the Pop Center and a longtime friend of the Rowes. “Lisa and Jack worked together at the MacArthur Foundation in the ’80s on the foundation’s Research Network on Successful Aging,” says Valerie. “Now they’re working with MacArthur again—this time, at the Research Network on an Aging Society, rejecting the broader nature of the challenges facing the world today.”
When Berkman became director of the Pop Center in 2007, she brought Valerie into the Harvard Chan School fold. “I believe deeply in the center’s work,” says Valerie. “It has very significant direct relevance to the development of evidence-based policies for many of society’s challenges, including aging, immigration, diversity, and inequality.”
Funding population health research is a natural t for this couple, who combine academics and practice. Valerie taught for years in elementary and middle schools, then earned a PhD and served as a clinical associate professor in the Graduate School of Education at Fordham University, focusing her work on vulnerable children. She is particularly interested in the Pop Center’s research on flexible working hours and volunteering as ways to incorporate people into the workforce. Jack, a physician, is Julius B. Richmond Professor of Health Policy and Aging at Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
Much of the Rowes’ philanthropy over the years has been in the form of scholarships, including for high school and college students. Valerie and Jack realized that funding postdoctoral scholars would bene t the Pop Center while also allowing the fellows to continue their research without incurring excessive debt. Currently, the Rowes are supporting Lindsay Kobayashi, PhD, a social epidemiologist whose main research examines lifetime employment trajectories and early childhood disadvantage and their impact on cognitive health in later life; and Xavier Gómez-Olivé, PhD, who, through the Pop Center’s HAALSI project, studies the link between HIV and noncommunicable diseases in South Africa.
“Valerie and Jack’s generosity has a broad impact beyond helping the Bell scholars today,” says Berkman. “The fellows’ research will contribute to improving population health over the long term. We are so grateful for the Rowes’ continuing support.”
That’s the simple reason why Richard and Christine Siegrist believe now is a critical time to support the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and its students. A gift from the couple created the Siegrist Family Scholarship Fund, which will provide necessary financial support to students studying management and/or health policy in the Master of Public Health program.
It’s a program that has become increasingly important as the battle over health care policy has raged on Capitol Hill—and it’s one that the Siegrists are intimately familiar with.
Rick, MBA ’82, a lecturer on health care management in the Department of Health Policy and Management and director of innovation and entrepreneurship, began teaching at the School in 1985. He’s seen firsthand the impact that students can have—but also the sacrifices they make in order to pursue careers in public health.
“When I look at graduate school, it’s a big commitment for the students and I’d like to help Harvard Chan continue to attract and support students who otherwise might not be able to afford it,” Siegrist says. “After graduation we should give students the ability to take positions where the number one criterion is making a difference. That’s what you can do if you’re not worried about paying student loans in the short term.”
Rick and Chris believe well-informed people with critical thinking skills are needed now in high-impact roles.
“Our students are well-versed in the facts and well-versed in reality and what will work and what won’t work. I think that needs to be a greater part of the dialogue that’s occurring now,” Rick says.
Chris agrees—adding that students leave the Harvard Chan School with an important suite of management skills that will help them create change from within organizations.
“I think it’s important that we teach students about organizational management, particularly on the financial side—how to look critically at what’s going on around them in their future careers,” Chris says. “It’s a skill that many health care professionals don’t have when they come to graduate school, and that frankly some of their managers in the hospitals don’t have either. So it’s crucial that this kind of expertise makes its way into health care management systems.”
Rick says the curriculum in the Department of Health Policy and Management prepares students for future leadership roles by combining classroom learning with real-world experience. According to Siegrist, students leave Harvard Chan well-positioned to act as innovators in their respective fields—forward-thinking public health professionals who can challenge the status quo wherever they’re working.
And he and Chris encourage others to join them in supporting this important mission.
“I’d like to encourage others to consider making a one-time or ongoing donation to fund scholarships for students,” Rick says. Chris agrees, adding that “the decision to give was an easy one. With all that’s going on in the world, we’re looking for ways to support what we think is important.”
A new gift from Lucian Leape, longtime faculty member in the Department of Health Policy and Management, will establish the Patient Safety and Quality of Care Fund. The fund will support both research and education in the areas of patient safety and quality improvement, with no restrictions on the activities to which it can be applied.
Leape is recognized as a leader in the movement to make medical care safer since a seminal 1994 publication entitled “Error in Medicine.” His gift was motivated by a desire to bring fresh thinking into this rapidly developing field. “Patient safety has a huge agenda to address and it’s critical that we bring in new blood to advance the field,” Leape says.
Leape’s gift is a vote of confidence in what he called “the best department of its kind in the country.” He and his wife are firm believers in the importance of unrestricted gifts to universities, and have been making such gifts to HSPH for nearly 20 years.
The opportunity to have a measurable impact on the future of a field to which he is so committed inspired him to make a contribution that would make patient safety a more attractive field for students and junior faculty just getting started out in the field. The Chair of the Department will have substantial flexibility to direct the use of the fund, because, Leape says, he wants his contribution “to be an asset, not a barrier.”
“After serving on a volunteer alumni advisory council at the School, I came to appreciate how much HSPH depends on alumni support. Having been fortunate enough to enjoy some success in starting my own clinics, I wanted to give back. This is why I accepted an invitation to join the School’s Leadership Council.
“Many donors give to a specific cause, such as a program or a professorship, but I have always given unrestricted gifts. Gifts of this type fuel creative and innovative new programs. They also help defray expenses for students in need.
“If we trust the School—and I do—I believe we need to give its leaders the flexibility they need to accomplish their goals. Knowing that I am helping in this way has been very satisfying.”
— James (Jim) Manganello, MPH ’80 member of the HSPH Leadership Council
Receiving appreciation for one’s job performance is always meaningful, especially when it comes from a supervisor. Imagine, then, Sarah Wood’s reaction when she learned that her longtime supervisor, former School dean and University provost Harvey Fineberg, AB ’67, MD ’71, MPP ’72, PhD ’80, had contributed $100,000 to the Harvard Chan School to endow the Sarah K. Wood Award for Outstanding Staff Performance in her honor. “I am very humbled,” she says. “I adore Harvey and his wife, Mary Wilson, for thinking of this award. I am proud that my name is on it so other people can be recognized.” The annual award honors a staff member who demonstrates the qualities of dedication, competence, positive attitude, initiative, and ability to mentor, encourage, and inspire others, in addition to a demonstrated commitment to the School and its mission—all qualities that Wood displayed during her 21 years as Fineberg’s trusted associate. She hopes the Award will encourage faculty members and others to really get to know the staff who work with them.
Barrie Damson, AB ’56, is a dedicated Harvard Chan champion. He feels so close to the School that he refers to the students as “our students.” As in, “Our students are charged with the responsibility of educating policymakers and the public and working to prevent health problems faced by societies around the world.”
“After serving on a volunteer alumni advisory council at the School, I came to appreciate how much HSPH depends on alumni support. Having been fortunate enough to enjoy some success in starting my own clinics, I wanted to give back. This is why I accepted an invitation to join the School’s Leadership Council.