Corporate and Foundation Collaborations

Strategic alliances for greater good

The following selection of recently awarded grants exemplifies the outstanding achievement and national recognition earned by members of the Harvard Chan community. Each grant reflects not only the exceptional caliber of our faculty and researchers, but also the transformative impact of their work addressing critical public health challenges, advancing equity, and fostering innovation on a global scale. 

Mary T. Bassett, AB ’74, MD ’79, MPH, Director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, received a $780,733 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in support of a national consortium of researchers examining how the racial wealth gap has shaped Black health disparities. The program explores how bold, evidence-based interventions—like reparations—may close longstanding gaps in life expectancy and mortality. 

The Gates Foundation awarded over $600,000 to Wafai Fawzi, MBBS, MPH ’89, MS ’91, DrPH ’92, the Richard Saltonstall Professor of Population Sciences, to design and lead an effort to evaluate digital health strategies to support adolescent health in Tanzania and Uganda. Working in collaboration with Makerere University in Uganda and the Africa Academy for Public Health in Tanzania, Dr. Fawzi’s team seeks to boost nutrition literacy, improve supplement adherence, and test how digital access can empower teens—especially girls—to make informed health decisions, while building capacity in local research institutions. 

The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation awarded $600,000 to Amber Weiseth, DNP, MSN, RN, Director of the Delivery Decisions Initiative at Ariadne Labs, to identify mechanisms of improvement for postpartum care by focusing on teamwork and communication between delivering hospitals and community health centers. Through a collaborative process involving clinicians and community members, the team aims to bridge gaps in care and ensure families stay connected to critical postpartum support after childbirth. 

David R. Williams, PhD, MPH, Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health, received nearly $300,000 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Williams’ project aims to understand how the 2024 presidential election affected the mental and physical health of communities across the United States, especially populations facing social, economic, and racial inequities, and aims to inform strategies that support community well-being during times of heightened national stress. 

The Breast Cancer Research Foundation awarded nearly $225,000 to Walter C. Willett, MD, MPH ’72, DrPH ’80, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition for a research project to examine how overall dietary patterns—as well as specific foods like cruciferous vegetables—affect a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer and her chances of survival after diagnosis. Utilizing the School’s large cohort studies that have followed participants for decades, Dr. Willett’s team hopes to identify eating habits that can help reduce risk and improve outcomes for those affected by breast cancer. 

Anqi Wang, PhD, a research fellow in the Department of Epidemiology, was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Cancer Society, under the mentorship of Professor Lorelei Mucci, MPH, ScD. This three-year fellowship will provide $217,500 in support of Dr. Wang’s research into the impact of the loss of the Y chromosome—a genetic change that can occur in aging males—on prostate cancer risk and how the disease progresses. The project will explore the interactions between genetics and lifestyle factors like diet and smoking and aims to establish stronger evidence to enable enhanced prostate cancer prevention and personalized care.