The UW recently received the largest donation in its history from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The $210-million donation will be used to build a new facility to serve as the center for the Population Health Initiative. This 25-year project aims to improve health locally, regionally, and globally by focusing on human health, environmental resilience, and social and economic equality.
“As a university, we have the ability, we have the responsibility to contribute to the public discourse about the best ways to solve the health challenges of our time,” UW president Ana Mari Cauce said during the initiative announcement.
The new facility, expected to be completed in 2020, will provide a space where professors, researchers, and students will be able to work in their respective fields together.
Thaisa Way, associate professor of landscape architecture, is a member of the executive council for the initiative.
“If you want something to happen, you need to catalyze,” Way said. “This building has the potential to build both the research of public health and global health.”
The initiative is led by an executive council made up of students, senior leaders, and faculty from all three UW campuses. The executive council includes professors from global health, computer science, psychology, oceanography, arts and sciences, geography, and engineering. The initiative aims to catalyze a wide range of disciplines and tactics to address the world’s most complex and crucial problems.
Way emphasized the importance of the initiative’s multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach.
“We are facing challenges that defy being answered by any one discipline,” Way said. “When we work on things together instead of working alone, we have a far greater and deeper reach.”
Though the executive council is mainly comprised of faculty and staff, students play an integral role in the development, process, and future of the initiative.
“As we’re looking at designing new programs and projects, we rely heavily on the input from undergrad and graduate students,” said Derek Fulwiler, director of project strategy and communications.
The council is currently conducting and analyzing the results from an online survey regarding potential projects to form a clearer picture of what the initiative will look like and how it will progress. A preliminary list of projects will be released in January.
“The students are the future of education and the initiative, they are the ones taking on the roles over the next 25 years,” said Kendra Canton, undergraduate student representative for the initiative.
Over time, the initiative will provide more opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students. There will be a Population Health Initiative major and minor, which will allow students to work on projects and conduct research across disciplines. There will be an increase in funding for students to attend conferences as well as to participate in other immersive experiences like internships.
“As we go along in the school year, that’s when we’re gonna need as many student voices as possible,” Canton said.
According to Way, the initiative is largely shaped by the voices of faculty and students, and project proposals, questions, research, and feedback will determine the direction of the program.
“The Population Health Initiative is less about tackling new obstacles, and more about tackling the same obstacles, with a more collaborative and unified approach,” Way said.
Date: November 04, 2016