THOMAS LAVEIST, the new dean of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, is committed to advancing the legacy of the school he now helms and furthering its local and global mission.
“The School of Public Health at Tulane is a venerable school within our field, and I take seriously the responsibility to be a steward of that legacy,” says LaVeist. He is a national expert on issues related to equity and health and Tulane’s inaugural Weatherhead Presidential Chair in Health Equity.
LaVeist joined Tulane this summer after spending 25 years at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where he was the William C. and Nancy F. Richardson Professor of Health Policy and served as director of the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions. In 2016, he joined George Washington University, where he was a professor and chair of health policy and management at the Milken Institute School of Public Health. In 2013, he was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
He recognizes that the school of public health’s important role both locally and globally and proximity to health issues both rural and urban, makes the school distinctive and a place of great possibility. With its location in the southeastern United States, which he said is the epicenter for inequality both historically and today, “We have an opportunity to be a difference maker.”
LaVeist comes to Tulane in the midst of Only the Audacious, the most ambitious campaign in Tulane’s history. The School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine is vital to the campaign, which LaVeist says will help the school raise money for important priorities such as funding scholarships, recruiting endowed faculty, making capital investments, advancing its research mission, and becoming a community partner to help keep New Orleans healthy.
“Donor support is vital to everything that we do,” said LaVeist. “The cost of higher education is prohibitive for many people. So as a society, we’re impoverished because we can’t avail ourselves of that talent. Donor support is vital in helping us to be able to reach those pools of brilliance that we could be educating and preparing for leadership in the future, but for the resources.”
LaVeist is also dedicated to expanding alumni engagement and is in the process of hiring an alumni affairs director. “We want our alums to know we’re serious about being a good steward of the value of their degree, and that we want them to come back and reconnect with us and be a partner with us.”
Are you ready to make a difference? Contact Director of Development Verna Aucoin at 504-314-7631 or vaucoin1@tulane.edu.