Strategic action to shape the future of Harvard Chan School
To the Harvard Chan community:
I’m glad so many of you were able to join our hybrid Town Hall earlier today. I’m writing to expand on the information I shared at that meeting about how we will work together to ensure our School continues to lead the world in advancing public health.
Over the past year, we have made significant progress toward our shared vision of a more agile, accessible, and accountable School grounded in rigor, innovation, and impact. Together, we have taken steps to expand our reach and strengthen our foundation: developing a new strategy for non-degree education; opening enrollment for our first fully online Master of Science degree; creating new research partnerships within and outside Harvard; expanding support for faculty seeking foundation funding; and launching an industry engagement strategy.
Now, we are ready to take the next step toward our vision: development of a new strategic plan. Following consultations with many members of our community, I have named a Strategic Steering Committee (SSC) to advise me in this work. The SSC will help shape our collective efforts to build a resilient, sustainable School that models the very best in public health research and education while navigating through a rapidly changing landscape.
The SSC will be co-chaired by Meredith Rosenthal, C. Boyden Gray Professor of Health Economics and Policy and Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, and Jorge Chavarro, Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology and Dean for Academic Affairs. Both Jorge and Meredith bring to their SSC leadership a deep commitment to the School’s success, a passion for our mission, and a forward-looking perspective in support of our vision.
The SSC will drive the overall planning process and integrate recommendations from two new working groups.
The Education Working Group will be co-chaired by Brent Coull, Professor of Biostatistics, and Nancy Turnbull, Senior Associate Dean for Educational Programs. It will recommend short- and long-term action plans to help us:
- Continue to attract and train top students from around the world in the face of emerging challenges such as new limits on federal loans.
- Deliver outstanding and highly relevant education that gives public health leaders at all stages of their careers the knowledge and skills to address current and future challenges.
- Capitalize on synergies between degree and non-degree programs and ensure that our offerings in both arenas align with our mission, demonstrate impact, and support the School’s financial goals.
The Research Working Group will be co-chaired by Sonia Hernandez-Diaz, Professor of Epidemiology, and Kari Nadeau, Chair of the Department of Environmental Health. The group will recommend short- and long-term action plans to help us:
- Nurture partnerships across the School, across Harvard, and with institutions and communities worldwide to confront the most urgent challenges of our time.
- Develop creative strategies to support innovative fields often overlooked by traditional funding streams.
- Chart the future of high-impact, fearlessly innovative public health research even in the face of potential cuts to federal funding.
This process is designed to be highly consultative. Where appropriate, each of the working groups will gather insights from the Harvard Chan community and other stakeholders. At key points, they will hold community sessions to solicit feedback on their draft action plans. The SSC will synthesize their findings and integrate them with the vision and strategic actions we have already taken.
I know well what a challenging year this has been, and I am grateful for all you have done to help us navigate these challenging and often painful times. In addition to the strategic planning process that I have outlined here, I will be soon launching a community building initiative to strengthen belonging and connections. I’ll share more about that next week.
During this time of austerity, it may seem counterintuitive to talk about creating a brilliant future for the School. But this is the very moment when we must engage to think about renewal. That is my responsibility as Dean — and it is our opportunity as a community.
Thank you for all that you do every day.
Best,
Andrea
Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD
Dean of the Faculty