Category: Uncategorized

“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

“For seven years, we have been losing honeybee populations at an alarming rate, but until 2012, no one could say why. That’s when we published a paper tracing this loss to a group of pesticides called neonicotinoids. As a result, the European Union took action to ban agricultural use of those pesticides for a two-year period, beginning on December 1, 2013, in hopes of sparking the resurgence of honeybee populations.

“Why is this so important? The future of global agriculture—and our food supply—hinges on our ability to address such issues. Approximately one-third of the foods we commonly consume—apples, pears, blueberries, strawberries and so on—requires pollination, and honeybees happen to be the most effective pollinator for agricultural production. Not to mention other crops such as almonds and, of course, honey and other products we get more directly from honeybees.

“We were extraordinarily fortunate to have Wells Fargo Foundation fund our initial research, which explored why pesticides don’t kill honeybees right away, but rather, over the winter season, the colony disappears. The gifts we receive from corporations and foundations are timely and critical to our work—especially in light of the significant drop in government funding over the past decade.”

— Chensheng (Alex) Lu, Associate Professor of Environmental Exposure Biology, Department of Environmental Health

“Everyone should be able to enjoy healthy, prosperous, vibrant communities and neighborhoods. Plus, when communities are strong, businesses are strong. It all cycles together. We can’t have a strong economy without a healthy population.

“This is why we are thrilled to be collaborating with Harvard School of Public Health—an organization so clearly in the forefront of finding ways to integrate health into the larger concept of corporate social responsibility and sustainability. I don’t know of any group doing as much in this area and doing it so well. Through our support of the Center for Health and the Global Environment, Wells Fargo is helping to develop a clearer understanding of alternative energy sources—including its relative costs and best practices designed to protect human health. This is directly related to energy lending, an important aspect of our business.

“We are also very excited about groundbreaking research on the worldwide declines in honeybee colonies. This is a hugely important issue since bees are necessary to pollinate crops, and a massive loss of honeybees is likely to result in billions of dollars in agricultural losses. Again, this research is directly tied to our business goals and the economy, as Wells Fargo is a large agricultural lender, and our agricultural customers rely heavily on bees. We’ve funded a number of studies to understand colony collapse disorder and what’s causing it, with the goal of helping to prevent this potential disaster from unfolding.

“When we think about human health, we are taking a proactive stance and focusing on long-term impact. We can’t rely on Band-Aids. Prevention is the smart way to go.”

— Stephanie Rico,  Vice President of Environmental Affairs, Wells Fargo

“My father, Leonid Snegireff, MD, earned both his master’s degree (in 1939) and doctorate (in 1942) at the School of Public Health, and he later became a professor there. He was one of the first scientists to link lung cancer and cigarette smoking, publishing a paper on the topic in the early 1950s. At the time, this was very new, and there was obvious opposition to his findings. But he had the courage of his convictions and went about his business studying links between cancer, chemicals, and radiation.

“I have always wanted to honor my father at HSPH, and this gift is my way of doing that. Public health is tremendously underfunded, and yet it makes an enormous difference in global well-being. We are extremely blessed in this country, and I think it is important that those of us who live in a country that is blessed give back.”

—Sergei Snegireff

“As Sergei and I talked about his father’s legacy, I came to a much greater understanding of how critical public health is to the entire world. I sometimes think it should be called something other than ‘public health,’ because people often think of public health as being limited to initiatives such as free vaccines. In fact, it is so much more than that—it touches every aspect of our lives. All of us need to be educated regarding what public health is, so that we can more fully appreciate its benefits.”

— Sandi Snegireff

Sergei and Sandi Snegireff’s planned gift will establish the Leonid Sergius Snegireff Fellowship in honor of Sergei’s father

“I became passionate about maternal health during my obstetrics and gynecology rotation at Muhimbili National Hospital, the largest hospital in Tanzania. Seeing mothers suffering and even dying due to preventable pregnancy complications was heartbreaking. Why should women just die like that? I thought of the families they left behind, of their spouses and other children. This is why I decided to change my focus from individual patient care to the population level—to public health.

“I’ll never forget how I felt when I received my acceptance letter to Harvard School of Public Health. It was a dream come true. Even though attending Harvard meant leaving behind my beloved husband and two young children in Tanzania, I knew that it would be worth it. What I worried about was how I would pay for my tuition and living expenses. Without financial aid, I truly could not be here.

“I came to HSPH not just for myself but also for the millions of Tanzanians who are eager to see improvements in health for everyone. I am so very grateful to the donors whose gifts make it possible for students like me to do more to improve the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.”
— Mary Mwanyika-Sando, MPH ’13, Carson Scholar and Maternal & Child Health Services Coordinator, Management and Development for Health, Tanzania

 “As the first director of the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy, which includes six Schools, my admiration for the School of Public Health has grown. The Department of Nutrition, under Professor Walter Willett’s leadership, has become a top priority of mine. The Department’s research agenda and strong emphasis on training doctoral students are both exemplary. I have a deep appreciation for the critical importance of financial aid in attracting the best and the brightest students, and enabling them to complete the program in a timely fashion.

“I am pleased that my husband and parents, Muriel and David Pokross, joined me in establishing a multigenerational endowment for doctoral student aid in the Department of Nutrition, which we will continue to support. We sincerely believe that these students will foster a ripple effect worldwide, as they graduate and go on to influence many others.”

— Joan Curhan, former Director of Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy and Harvard College Secondary Field in Global Health and Health Policy and Chair of the HSPH Nutrition Round Table Steering Committee
 

“While working in the supermarket industry, I learned that countries where the population is most in need of improved nutrition often suffer from the worst food distribution problems. As a professor of marketing, I became interested in how these populations could be better served.

“We have focused on HSPH because its students, especially those from other countries, really need the assistance. The School truly is proficient in its use of gift monies, and donors can have great impact with their support.”

— Ronald Curhan, MBA ’57, DBA ’71, Professor Emeritus, Marketing Department, School of Management, Boston University and member of the HSPH Nutrition Round Table

“Investments in public health are very efficient because we eliminate disease before it happens. It would be very difficult to find any other cause where a relatively small amount of support can have such a broad impact. I am especially impressed with the School’s work on finding ways to contain health costs. When we make health systems more efficient, we free up resources to help many more people.

“The School’s goals and mission are aligned with my personal goals and my personal values, which is why I became a donor. We want to make life better. If you see this as part of your own personal mission, then the School of Public Health is one of the best possible places to put your support.”

— Fair H. Wang, SM ’92, Chair, Department of Anesthesiology, Eden Medical Center, Castro Valley, California; member, HSPH Leadership Council

“It is so important for the School to have flexible money to invest in new ideas, but money that comes without strings attached is hard to come by. I want to help with that.

“When you write a new proposal, you obviously can’t use funds that have come from other grants. You need a little pot of money from which you can draw to leverage key priorities. For example, we spent about $30,000 on development of a proposal that, in 2011, led to an almost $14 million grant from the Gates Foundation for the Maternal Health Task Force. In this way, with relatively little money, we managed to leverage a very large project.

“We also use flexible funds to open opportunities to students. For instance, we are now supporting a doctoral student’s participation in a family planning conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This trip will significantly increase the visibility of our work, and it will also be a wonderful career step for her. These additional opportunities cost so little compared to what they bring—in this case, a wonderful champion for global reproductive health.

“I truly believe in the mission of this School, and I want my colleagues to have the flexibility to advance their amazing portfolios. I know how limited our unrestricted resources are, and—in a very, very modest way—I want to help overcome some of these challenges.”

— Ana Langer, Director of the Women and Health Initiative

“As a doctoral student in the 1970s, I became fascinated with ways of melding technology with public health, and that interest has stayed with me. While I went on to a career in technology, I remained passionate about public health, and ten years ago was delighted to become a founding member of the HSPH Leadership Council. Over the years, my connection to the School has become very much a family commitment, with my wife, Paula, having a particular interest in women and health.

“What’s stepped up my involvement in recent years is the HarvardX initiative, which has allowed the School to offer global online classes in fields ranging from biostatistics and epidemiology to climate change. Taken together, they add up to far more than the sum of their parts, enabling the School to bring public health knowledge to India, China, and many other places around the world.

“The HarvardX initiative is outstanding on three levels: vision, mission, and people. The vision is to use technology to advance public health worldwide. The mission is to expand the availability of public health education, which HarvardX does through reducing costs, vastly increasing the number of students reached, and improving student experience. The people include Dean Frenk and Dean for Academic Affairs David Hunter—both absolutely stellar champions of the use of these technologies.

“The School is tremendously well positioned to advance the good of the world through HarvardX. I can obviously pick and choose in deciding where to get involved. But when that vision-mission-people triumvirate lights up, how can you not support that?”

— Steve Sneddon, SM ’77, SD ’79 and Paula Sneddon, members of the HSPH Leadership Council’s Executive Committee

“Our commitment to Harvard School of Public Health is closely linked to the four years John headed the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. foreign-aid agency dedicated to fighting global poverty through sustainable economic growth within the framework of good government. This experience drove home the critical importance of disciplined rigor and tangible results, and we saw both at HSPH.

“There are many worthy causes, but we were in search of an organization that would have a significant and lasting impact on the health and well-being of people around the world, especially places where we have lived. As we acquainted ourselves with the work that HSPH is doing globally, it became obvious that the School represented our best way to make a constructive and meaningful contribution.

“The particular pathway we have chosen to accomplish this goal is through providing funding for talented students from around the world to pursue their educations. We want to set them free to pursue dreams that would otherwise be impossible for financial reasons.”

— John and Irene Danilovich, members of the HSPH Leadership Council, donors of the endowed Danilovich Family Fellowship