Office of the Dean

Welcome Back

Dear Harvard Chan School community,

Greetings and welcome to a new academic year! As we collectively take a deep breath and prepare for another busy year ahead, I would like to take a moment to celebrate some important developments that took place over the summer.

Fundraising
In fundraising news, I am pleased to report on the resounding success of the seven-year Campaign for Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which officially ended on June 30. The Campaign brought in a total of more than $932 million against a goal of $450 million and, as a result, it transformed the School, gave us a new name, and helped shape a brighter future for the countless people who benefit from the work we do every day. The Campaign’s success also stimulated new lines of exploration and discovery, helped double institutional support for tenure ladder faculty, helped launch multiple new degree programs, drove innovation and collaboration in science and education, established three powerful new research centers in three departments, helped launch new programs for fieldwork and service learning, and opened our doors to hundreds of students who would not have been able to study here without financial aid.

A few Campaign highlights I am especially pleased to share include:

  • 4,472 gifts totaling nearly $26 million for student financial aid;
  • 17 gifts totaling $34.6 million for faculty professorships;
  • 1,769 gifts totaling more than $94 million for education; and
  • 9,269 gifts from Harvard alumni, including more than 8,000 Harvard Chan alumni, totaling an extraordinary $457,855,699.

These numbers represent a truly historic accomplishment for which our wonderful donor community and our offices of External Relations, Communications, and Alumni Affairs, as well as faculty, staff, and researchers across the School should be applauded. Yet we acknowledge that gaps remain. We have much work still to do to enhance financial support for students and faculty, to foster innovation and collaboration in research, and to build a physical campus that supports and accelerates the extraordinary work that takes place throughout the School.

We will celebrate the success of the Campaign, the generosity of all those who contributed to this achievement, and the future made possible by this outpouring of support from 4:00 – 8:00 pm on Friday, September 21. If you would like to join us for this celebration, please RSVP here by the end of the day today.

Leadership and faculty announcements
As most of you are aware, we have made a number of significant leadership announcements in recent weeks:

  • Erin Driver-Linn has assumed the newly created position of Dean for Education;
  • John Quackenbush has succeeded Xihong Lin as chair of the Department of Biostatistics and the Henry Pickering Walcott Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics; and
  • Mary Bassett has joined the School as the new director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights and FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, building on the legacy of professor Jennifer Leaning and her predecessors.

These appointments bring new strength and energy to the School in strategically critical areas, and I am eager to work with each of these leaders to advance the School’s strategic goals. Please join me in thanking Xihong and Jennifer for their leadership, and in congratulating Erin, John, and Mary and supporting them as they get underway in their new positions.

As you know, Professor Ashish K. Jha has been a critical member of my leadership team over the past year. I have promoted him to a new role as Dean for Global Strategy. In this capacity, Ashish will provide support to major global initiatives at the School, ensuring we execute on a cohesive vision for our engagement with partners around the globe. He will continue to be a strategic thought partner for me and will help me oversee our external programs and philanthropic activities.

Finally, I am pleased that Professor Arnie Epstein has agreed to serve as Senior Academic Advisor to the Dean. Arnie has deep knowledge of the School, having served as Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management for many years. In addition to being a leading expert on access to care and quality of care, he has a unique, broad vision about social policy enriched by his years of experience in public service. Arnie will continue his tenure as HPM Chair, and his knowledge and expertise will be of great value as we make strategic decisions on various issues facing the School.

There are a number of new faculty appointments and promotions to celebrate, including:

  • Sebastian Bauhoff’s appointment as assistant professor of global health and economics;
  • Kevin Croke’s appointment as assistant professor of global health;
  • Christopher Golden’s appointment as assistant professor of nutrition and planetary health;
  • Donald Halstead’s appointment as lecturer on epidemiology;
  • Majken Jensen’s promotion to associate professor of nutrition;
  • Erica Kenney’s appointment as assistant professor of public health nutrition;
  • Michaela Kerrissey’s appointment as assistant professor of management;
  • Junwei Lu’s appointment as assistant professor of biostatistics;
  • Margaret McConnell’s promotion to associate professor of global health economics;
  • Rajarshi Mukherjee’s appointment as assistant professor of biostatistics; and
  • Mingyang Song’s appointment as assistant professor of clinical epidemiology and nutrition.

I am also delighted to announce that the following faculty members have been named to endowed professorships:

  • Tianxi Cai as the John Rock Professor of Population and Translational Data Sciences;
  • Jessica Cohen as Bruce A. Beal, Robert L. Beal, and Alexander S. Beal Associate Professor of Global Health;
  • Francesca Dominici as the Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population and Data Science;
  • Yonatan Grad as the Melvin J. and Geraldine L. Glimcher Associate Professor; and
  • Marc Weisskopf as Cecil K. and Philip Drinker Professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Physiology.

Communications
On the communications front, we recently wrapped up a six-month engagement with Lippincott, a communications strategy firm known for its work with many of the most familiar global brands. Our communications team and a working group comprised of faculty and staff from several departments worked with Lippincott to explore perceptions of both the School and the broader field of public health. Community members, colleagues from other Harvard schools, leading supporters, and non-Harvard-affiliated thought leaders participated in one-on-one interviews, focus groups, and an online survey. Altogether, more than 850 individuals contributed their thoughts and opinions to help shape a messaging platform aimed at inspiring interest and enthusiastic support for the School’s public health mission. Two important new resources have grown out of this work:

  • A new content and visual identity guide
    The content guide is intended to help staff, faculty, academic appointees, and others to communicate effectively with nonacademic audiences about the Harvard Chan School, our role in the world, and the programs and resources we provide. The content guide, which is drawn from the Lippincott work as well as earlier branding and messaging efforts, can be used as a reference or as a template for preparing materials and presentations. You should feel free to copy or adapt the language you find here as you see fit.

    The visual identity guide is a flexible system intended to standardize and coordinate design at the Harvard Chan School. Consistently following these brand guidelines in the use of logos, colors, and other aspects of the School’s visual system is particularly important because we are a complex institution that might be difficult for external audiences to understand and relate to. A strong and unified visual identity is an asset that benefits every department, center, and program at the School.

  • An all-new website describing what we are calling the “Harvard Chan Frontiers”
    Originally dubbed the Dean’s Priorities, these five Frontiers represent key targets for research and fundraising as we look ahead to the post-Campaign era. They are:

o   Reimagining aging

o   Overcoming violence

o   Confronting climate change

o   Cultivating well-being and nutrition

o   Conquering epidemics

The Frontiers—together with the important data science, health policy, statistical, and other work required to translate scientific breakthroughs into real-world impact—are intended to capture a broad spectrum of the School’s important work and present it to external audiences in bold and exciting terms that inspire audiences to take action.

Research Strategy Task Force
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of the many faculty and senior administrators who participated in the Research Strategy process.

The official Research Strategy sets the broad vision for the School’s approach to research through the year 2030. Implementation began with the formation of four taskforces, which met throughout the spring. The work of these groups culminated in a half-day retreat in June, where the taskforces proposed action in the following areas: (1) internationally-based research; (2) research enabling platforms; (3) facilitation of interdisciplinary research and team science; and (4) funding development and diversification. The retreat provided the opportunity for the task forces to identify synergies related to research resource needs.

The Research Strategy process has been defined by substantial faculty engagement, including the efforts of 47 primary faculty and 11 senior administrators on quads and taskforces, as well as many others who provided input and feedback. While endorsed and coordinated at the highest-levels of School leadership, the content of the Research Strategy document, and now the identification of priorities for implementation, have been primarily faculty-driven. The result of this tremendous faculty engagement is a set of proposed priorities that we believe will offer critical support to faculty research portfolios and strengthen the School’s overall research enterprise. The proposed priorities range from improving visibility of existing services to enhancing opportunities for collaboration to investing in transformative technology. Ultimately, the goal of this process is to ensure a strategic approach in developing the School’s research portfolio.

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At every opportunity I have to take stock of what is happening at the School, I am amazed by the productivity and commitment of people throughout our community. Your efforts on behalf of our public health mission power an engine of progress that is making the world a healthier, safer, happier, and more just place. It is an honor to serve as your Dean, and I look forward to another year of advancing the frontiers of public health together.

Sincerely,

Michelle A. Williams, ScD
Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Angelopoulos Professor in Public Health and International Development,
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Kennedy School