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Meeting Alumni
Last week, Peggy Dean Glenn and I went to NYC to meet with some of our alumni in the area. When I meet with alumni, I am always so impressed by what they have accomplished and the many worlds in which they work. One of the people we visited was Gary Toenniessen, MSPH, PhD, a 1968 & 1971 alumnus of Environmental Sciences and Engineering. Gary is interim president of the Gates-Rockefeller AGRA Initiative and Managing Director at the Rockefeller Foundation, and we visited him there. His office has a fabulous view of New York City and the Empire State Building. I have been very impressed by the Foundation’s long history of investing in transformative research and demonstration projects. When Judith Rodin, PhD, became President, the Foundation focused its efforts on demonstrating impact. Gary himself has had tremendous impact. One of his accomplishments is in being part of the team that developed “golden rice,” a nutrient rich product that could make a huge difference in the nutritional status of the developing world if it can be gotten to people.
The possibilities for what one can do with a public health degree are limitless.
We also saw Clarence Pearson, MPH, and his wife Laurie Norris. Clarence is a 1952 alumnus of Health Behavior and Health Education. I first met Clarence when he lectured to one of my classes at the University of Michigan. Clarence had a noteworthy career working for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (Met Life). Recently, he has had fascinating experiences consulting with the United Nations, AARP and writing a series of books on global issues with Laurie Norris. Clarence and Laurie have been great friends of the School. Several years ago, they turned the very tragic death of Clarence’s son Scott into positive action when they helped to support the development of an advocacy program under now Interim Chair Jo Anne Earp, ScD’s leadership. A forthcoming issue of the North Carolina Medical Journal will focus on critical issues related to advocacy.
This week…
is going to be one of those non-stop weeks with back-to-back meetings every day. I am really looking forward to meeting Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize winner who took microcredit to a national level and showed convincingly how it could improve lives. He will be lecturing at the Kenan-Flagler Business School this week.
Have a good week and happy Monday. Barbara
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The views expressed in this blog are Barbara Rimer’s alone and do not represent the views and policies of The University of North Carolina or the Gillings School.