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What's in a Name?
> A Letter from the Dean
Dedicated:
> Growing Up and Giving Back
Transformation:
> Griffith Leadership Center
Campaign:
> The Michigan Difference at Public Health
Sailing to Success:
> An Atypical Business Adventure
Leadership:
> Dean's Advisory Board
A Lasting Legacy:
> A New Scholarship
Meet the 2008 SPH Alumni Board of Governers |
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Fall 2008
Dean's Advisory Board
 Leadership: The School of Public Health has seen great movement forward in the last decade, expanding its collaborations, establishing new research centers, and elevating its public profile.
Playing a crucial role in that progress is the Dean’s Advisory Board, a body first organized in 1998 by then-Dean Noreen Clark. What started as a small ad-hoc group has swiftly grown into a powerhouse of nationally and internationally recognized leaders in the fields of health management, epidemiology, health entrepreneurship, environmental health, genetics, and more. The group of 23 men and women meet twice yearly to offer advice and counsel to the dean, and share ideas for the school’s future.
“What we’ve tried to do is establish the brand, to let people know ‘What is public health?’ and to identify the Michigan name with it,” says board chair Bernard Tresnowski, who as former president and CEO of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association knows a thing or two about brand name recognition. “We haven’t done as great a job of that as I’d like, but we’re way out from where we started. We never even talked in those terms before, but now that’s the background by which we talk about any of these programs.”
There’s no shortage of ideas and ideals among the board members. They all express a sense of mission and energy.
The board “is not a shy group,” Tresnowski says. “They express their views, and sometimes it can get fairly heated—which Ken [current Dean Kenneth Warner] likes.”
Warner concurs. “I am enormously grateful to each of them,” he says. “The board is a great source of feedback and ideas on both what we’re doing as a school and what we’re contemplating doing. The members are an incredible repository of knowledge, experience, and insight on everything from program development to marketing to fundraising.”
Board member Bob Lane agrees. “It’s been a great forum for people loyal to the school to help the dean see issues in a different light, and for the dean to educate us on some things the school’s doing we aren’t aware of,” he says. “When you get a diverse group of people together, you get a better solution than if they’re all in the same field.”
Lane, who graduated from the school’s Department of Health Management and Policy in 1976, is the chairman of Specialty Health Services, which oversees the implementation of surgical weight loss programs in a wide variety of hospitals. Like other board members, he says one of the great pleasures of serving on the advisory board is getting to connect with current faculty and students. “It’s refreshing,” he says. “It’s almost like being back on campus as a student again.”
He also delights in the opportunity to learn from his board colleagues. “It’s just interesting to be around smart people—even a lunch with the advisory board is interesting. You learn something from everyone.”
Lane, a lead donor to the Michigan Difference campaign, says he’d like to see Michigan known as the undisputed “Number One” school in the country for public health. (U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings have listed SPH as among the top five in the country for the last several years, while Health Management and Policy has been rated number one since the rankings began in 1993.) “Part of our biggest challenge is just educating people about public health,” he says. “Letting them know there are a lot of interesting jobs that are well-paying [and] places where you can differentiate yourself. A lot of students these days are combining fields; there are lots of opportunities.”
Many of the board members are successful business leaders, and they have brought their expertise to bear on issues such as marketing, fundraising, and the accreditation process. “We can weigh in on issues from a different perspective,” says board member Gordon Hassing, a retired vice president of pharmaceutical research and development at Proctor & Gamble. “A university is quite different from a company.”
The board’s support has been crucial in launching the school’s Risk Science Center and Griffith Leadership Center. Both centers are multidisciplinary efforts, dedicated to bringing together the world’s best scientists and health care leaders and policymakers to tackle some of the most challenging problems in public health today.
Hassing, whose career has been largely concerned with product safety and environmental issues, was intrigued when the Risk Science Center was proposed several years ago. “I immediately got on that subcommittee,” he said. He has played an active role in helping the center become a reality, discussing mission and goals with the faculty and administration, helping to secure funding from donors and corporate sources, and serving on the search committee for a new center director.
Each board member brings his or her own expertise to bear, whether offering insight into business strategies or securing essential connections and financial support from Michigan’s many talented and successful alumni. “It’s sort of a love fest in a way,” says Hassing. “You just want to see the school do well.”
“It’s wonderful, it’s very energizing; for us it’s just a great opportunity to stay connected to the school and hear about the great work being done,” says board member Marianne Udow-Phillips, the director of the UM’s Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation and former director of the Michigan Department of Human Services. She has a master’s degree in health services administration from SPH. As an advisory board member, Udow-Phillips has helped secure funds for chronic disease research and assisted with the accreditation process during her tenure. She was the keynote speaker at the Griffith Leadership Center’s “Women in Health Care Leadership” conference last spring. Udow-Phillips has nothing but praise for her fellow board members. At the same time, she thinks the group could benefit from bringing in members from a few more corners of the public health world. “I’d like to see a few people with a grass-roots policy back-ground, since that’s part of our mission,” she says.
With their enthusiasm and expertise, the board continues to propel the school forward. “I know I walk away from the meetings feeling energized and Ken tells me he does,” says board chair Tresnowski.
“I always look forward to the board meetings,” says Dean Warner with a chuckle, “despite the fact that I know they will lead to a lengthy to-do list following their adjournment.”
Meet the Board
Gregory G. Bond, BS, MPH, PhD, Corporate Director: Product Responsibility and Asia Pacific, Director: Environment Health and Safety, Dow (China) Investment Company Limited
Thomas Smith Crane, MHSA, Partner: Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo, PC
Charles Gelman, MPH, President: Gelman Educational Foundation
Gordon S. Hassing, MS, PhD, Vice President–Retired: Research and Development, Pharmaceuticals; Procter & Gamble
John L. Henshaw, MPH, Consultant: Henshaw and Associates, Inc.
Richard C. Jelinek, BSEIE, MBA, PhD, Chairman–Retired: Lifemark Corporation
William H. Krebs, BS, MPHIH, MS, PhD, President: Industrial Health Sciences, Inc.
Joel H. Lamstein, BS, President: John Snow International
Robert M. Lane, MHSA, Chairman: Specialty Health Services Management
Edward O. Lanphier, President and Chief Executive Officer: Sangamo BioSciences, Inc.
Kevan P. Lawlor, President and Chief Executive Officer: NSF International
Dennis J. Paustenbach, MS, PhD, Principal: ChemRisk, Kimberly Purvis, BS, MBA, MHSA, Partner–Retired: Deerfield Partners
Kimberly Purvis, BS, MBA, MHSA, Partner-Retired: Deerfield Partners
Randel E. Richner, BSN, MPH, President: Neocure Group LLC, Richard W. Ronder, MPH, President and CEO: The Columbus Organization
Richard W. Ronder, MPH, President and CEO: The Columbus Organization
Kenneth A. Samet, MHSA, President & Chief Executive Officer: MedStar Health
Carolyn B. Schutte, MS, PhD, Director–Retired: Product Safety, Regulatory, External Relations–Procter & Gamble
Robert J. Sheehy, BS, MHSA, Executive Vice President: UnitedHealth Group
Frederick M. Toca, MPH, PhD, President: Toca Enterprises, Ltd.
Bernard R. Tresnowski, BSPH, MPH, JD, Attorney at Law
Marianne Udow-Phillips, MHSA, Director: Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation
Elizabeth J. Wainstock, AB, AM, MPH, The Corcoran Group Real Estate, Director–Retired: New Business and Alliance Development; Pfizer Pharmaceutical
Gail L. Warden, MHA, President and CEO Emeritus: Henry Ford Health System |
