The Difference You Make
2026 Alumni and Donor Impact Report
Welcome, and Thank You
What a year it’s been—and what a community you are.
Your generosity this year made a real, tangible difference: in students learning to lead, discover, and shape the future of public health; in the labs and classrooms where our faculty produce work that changes how the world understands health; and in the School’s ability to move forward with confidence. This report shows you how.
1,403 alumni and friends gave $21.6M to Harvard Chan School.
Every gift matters. Whether you supported financial aid, gave unrestricted support that leadership can direct where it’s needed most, or made a major gift that will shape this School for generations, your investment is apparent everywhere: in our people and programs, our classrooms and labs, and in every graduate who carries it into the world.
We’re also grateful to everyone who showed up this year—at events, in your cities, at Alumni Weekend, in conversations with colleagues and friends. You extend our reach.
This was a year of genuine progress, even in an uncertain environment for academic research funding. Your support allowed our leadership to protect what matters most and invest where the opportunity was greatest. At a moment like this, private philanthropy is what sustains the independence and continuity of science that saves lives.
The students, faculty, and researchers you’ve come to know through our stories this year are living proof that this mission matters. So are you—our alumni and friends, carrying that same proof into communities around the world. The best is ahead of us.
With deep gratitude,
Liz DeLucia
Vice Dean for Development and Alumni Relations
Every gift at work
We’re grateful that when we asked for your support, so many of you answered. Each gift—whether someone’s first or their latest—represents a choice to stand with us. Your support kept our researchers discovering, our students learning, and our mission strong.
Participation by the numbers
1,403
Total donors
592
HSPH alumni donors
150
Donors from other Harvard schools
475
First-time donors
661
Non-alumni individual donors
These contributions, collectively, are the foundation beneath everything Harvard Chan School does. Unrestricted gifts provide our leadership with the flexibility to seize opportunities and respond to challenges as they arise.
$3.1M total in unrestricted giving
Most of the School’s funding—federal and non-federal sponsored research, tuition, and endowment income—is earmarked for specific purposes. That’s what makes unrestricted gifts so valuable: it’s the funding we can direct to wherever it’s needed most.
A gift of $25 and a gift of $25K do different things for our budget, but they mean the same thing to us: each is a vote of confidence in this School and the people it educates—a professor remembered, a friendship formed, a belief that this work must continue for the next generation.
Supporting Harvard Chan School means supporting the people who are asking—and answering—the questions that matter most. It’s an investment in science, in collaboration, and in the next generation of public health leaders.
—Kathleen Ruddy. She trusts that her support will be directed where it’s needed most.
Read her full story
The future leaders you’re supporting
Harvard Chan students are studying the issues shaping our future—chronic disease, health disparities, healthy aging, climate and health—preparing to lead the next generation of public health innovation. Your support ensures they can pursue that work, regardless of their financial circumstances.
Every gift brings us closer to a Harvard Chan School where financial circumstances never stand between talented students and their dreams. We’re not there yet, but with your help, we will be.
$3.6M
given to financial aid
Financial Aid
When you support financial aid, you’re not just funding a degree. You help exceptional people to access an education that shapes their careers, often making the difference between a talented student choosing Harvard Chan or going elsewhere. Because of you, financial barriers don’t stop these future leaders from answering the call to serve.
46%
of students receive financial aid from the School
Abby Charles, DrPH Candidate
Abby Charles, a DrPH candidate born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, brings a rare vantage point to public health: her own experience living with lupus. That perspective drives her work leading Community Health Worker Initiatives at the Institute for Public Health Innovation, where she oversees peer health worker networks focused on health equity, women’s health, and HIV. Financial aid is what makes it possible for leaders like Abby to access the advanced training that turns that experience into systems-level change.
Akshay Narayanan, MPH ’26
Akshay Narayanan spent years working in India’s shelter homes and orphanages, where he saw firsthand which children thrived and which struggled—and became convinced that lasting change requires systems built around health, stability, and confidence, not skills alone. At Harvard Chan, he’s researching how health and social welfare systems can better reach overlooked children and families. Financial aid is what allows students like Akshay to bring that firsthand knowledge to a Harvard Chan education and turn it into data-driven solutions that can scale.
Cora Cunningham, SM ’26
Cora Cunningham, a Rose Service Learning Fellow, returned to Rwanda to expand a household water filtration project, building on work she began in 2024. Partnering with local organizations, she helped distribute nearly 200 filters, tested water for E. coli contamination, and supported community educators who use dance and storytelling to teach families how to maintain their filters. “Lasting change is built in collective movement, gratitude, and togetherness,” Cunningham wrote. “Together, we are mighty.”
Teaching and research at work
Our faculty and researchers have transformed how the world understands public health—leading the fight against infectious disease, uncovering the dangers hidden in everyday environments, and producing the evidence that shapes policy for millions. As the broader funding landscape shifts, your support ensures our most talented researchers can stay focused on breakthrough science and on training the next generation of public health leaders.
$13.5M
for faculty support, teaching, and research
Rita Hamad, professor of social epidemiology and public policy
Before she was a social epidemiologist, Rita Hamad was a family doctor in the San Francisco Bay Area. Now, as faculty director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, she’s bringing that same instinct—treat the whole person—to the policies that shape health at scale.
Samuel “Sam” Lapp, PhD ’26
A postdoc studying the biology of skeletal muscle, Sam Lapp has always been drawn to figuring out how things work. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis during his degree, he now sees his research on how muscles respond to exercise and recovery as connected to his own future.
Michael Van Rooyen, Lavine Family Professor of Humanitarian Studies
Before he helped establish the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Michael Van Rooyen was answering emergency calls in Chicago’s ERs. Now, as the Lavine Family Professor of Humanitarian Studies, he’s bringing that same instinct—run toward the trouble, not away from it—to some of the world’s most dangerous crisis zones.
Gifts that catalyze change
Some gifts transform what’s possible. This year, visionary donors made gifts that will reshape entire fields of study and create lasting impact for generations. These donors recognize that the most pressing public health challenges require bold, sustained investment in solutions that go beyond traditional approaches.
The Nutrition Round Table (NRT), collectively provides support toward efforts like the Nutrition Source Website Fund and the Nutrition Fellowship Fund.
William Rom, an alumnus and member of the Alumni Council, supports Environmental Health and recently made a $50,000 gift to C-CHANGE.
The Weintz family created the Weintz Humanitarian Impact Fund after changes to federal research funding impacted work at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.
Institutional funding for greater good
Our faculty’s groundbreaking research draws support from foundations and corporations across nearly every corner of public health—from health policy and cancer immunology to nutrition and immigrant health equity. These partnerships build the diversified funding base that strengthens our institution’s resilience and moves ambitious science forward.
Legacy in Action
Through planned gifts and bequests, donors ensure Harvard Chan School will continue its mission for generations. Every planned gift represents a personal decision to make public health part of one’s legacy. These gifts provide the stable support that enables ambitious research, attracts top faculty, and helps students who might not otherwise be able to attend Harvard Chan School.
$2.3M in planned gifts and realized bequests
For the School and its people
Barry Bloom led Harvard Chan School as Dean from 1999 to 2010 and spent his career believing in the power of strong institutions. “I believe in institutions,” he once said. “I think science only flourishes if the institutions that enable intellectual life and interactions flourish.” Before his passing, Bloom included Harvard Chan School in his bequest—a lasting expression of that same conviction, ensuring his support continues for generations of students and faculty yet to come.
Where this community gathers
Your generosity is just one way you’ve shown up for Harvard Chan School this year. Every time you share our research, attend an event, or advocate for evidence-based health policy, you strengthen our community and extend our impact far beyond campus. We’re grateful to the alumni who mentored students, made connections, and shared their own stories through this year’s programs.
Many of these gatherings—including a Virtual Alumni Town Hall—featured Dean Baccarelli sharing updates on the School’s strategic planning process, opening that conversation to alumni and inviting their perspectives along the way.
15
Events for alumni
782
Alumni attended events
719
Alumni book club members
272
Active alumni volunteers
Alumni and Reunion Weekend 2025
More than 200 alumni, students, faculty, and guests returned to campus last September for Alumni and Reunion Weekend 2025, themed Power of Why: Uniting for a Healthier Future. The weekend featured a full slate of sessions on storytelling, AI, and philanthropy, along with the presentation of the 2025 Alumni Awards to five honorees advancing public health across the country.
Fireside Chat, Miami
On January 29, Dean Baccarelli and Amanda Yarnell of the Center for Health Communication marked 40 years of the Center’s impact—from its designated driver campaign to today’s work with health influencers. “Expertise in contemporary health communications is fundamental to a world-class public health school fit for 2026 and the coming decade,” Baccarelli said.
Fireside Chat, Washington, D.C.
On March 18, in Washington, D.C., Dean Baccarelli and alumnus Dr. Rashad Massoud, MPH ’93, discussed the challenges facing academic public health today—and a shared vision for what comes next. “Our alumni and friends are true partners in this work,” Baccarelli said.
Global Night of Networking, Boston
On March 25, alumni and friends gathered at Dillon’s in Boston for the Harvard Chan School Global Night of Networking meet up, part of Harvard’s annual worldwide alumni gathering held in more than 100 cities.
India Research Center Celebrates
On May 19 in New York City, alumni and friends marked ten years of the Harvard Chan India Research Center—a decade of public health collaboration across India.
Looking forward
Public health advances have added roughly thirty years to the average human lifespan over the past century, and Harvard Chan School has been at the center of that progress. Investing in this School means investing in the people who do the work: the faculty producing rigorous science, the students learning to lead, and the researchers translating discovery into real-world solutions. That is the investment your support represents, and it is what continues to guide us forward.
This year, we sharpened our focus on the science of healthy aging—not just adding years to life, but life to years—and deepened our commitment to translating research into real-world impact through new platforms like the Advanced Learning Academy, launched this spring to bring Harvard Chan School expertise directly to working professionals and organizations around the world.
We also strengthened our partnerships with industry and institutions worldwide, because the way Harvard Chan approaches problems—grounded in evidence and built to solve real problems—is exactly what these partners are seeking. Aging populations, emerging pandemics, climate change, chronic disease: these are some of the challenges our faculty, students, and researchers are already at work on, and your generosity is what enables them.
Your support made this progress possible, and it will shape what comes next. We would be honored to keep building alongside you—toward a healthier world where every person has the chance to thrive.
