[ Winter 2014 ]
Discovering and promoting solutions to four major global health threats
Harvard School of Public Health has set an ambitious goal of raising $450 million by 2018. Launched on the occasion of the School’s centennial, the Campaign is designed to build on 100 years of scientific discovery and real-world impact. “True to the nature of the School,” observed Campaign co-chair Jonathan S. Lavine, MBA ’92, “this Campaign is focused not just on a set of internal institutional priorities, but on how the School can make a difference in the world.”
The Campaign, announced formally in October 2013, will focus on advancing research, building infrastructure, and supporting the work of students and faculty to address four urgent global health threats:
Old and new pandemics: developing tools to reverse killer diseases, from AIDS and malaria to diabetes and asthma
Harmful physical and soical environments: preventing pollution, promoting healthier lifestyles and communities
Poverty and humanitarian crises: advancing health as a human right
Failing health systems: leading change, changing leaders
“We will transform the Harvard School of Public Health, but more important, equip the School for even greater impact over the next 100 years,” said Lavine.
The School’s Campaign is part of the five-year, $6.5 billion University-wide Harvard Campaign. For HSPH, the October announcement marked the end of a two-year “quiet phase,” during which the School raised $167 million for such critical goals as student financial aid, endowed professorships, and research programs.
“I believe that Harvard School of Public Health succeeds so often because people here are not rigid in their thinking,” said Lavine at the centennial gala and Campaign launch event in October. “Instead, they allow the nature of the complex, life-and-death problems they deal with to shape their approach to finding solutions. These problems demand solutions that cross boundaries, break some rules, and go beyond the conventional. They also demand a kind of stubborn optimism.”
Co-chairs Jonathan Lavine and Jeannie Lavine, AB ’88, MBA ’92, are joined by Richard L. Menschel, MBA ’59, and Ronay Menschel as honorary co-chairs of the Campaign for Harvard School of Public Health.