They have a dreamBequest by Chris, A63, and Sue White to benefit urban families, page 3

Sustainable innovationThree engineering projects earn grant award from Dow Chemical, page 6

You can hear me nowVerizon’s Jeannie Diefenderfer, E84, supports engineering students, page 7

That light on the hillFletcher student of human rights law preparing to return home to Ghana, page 8

RemembranceDr. Dan Kaplan, M56, honors parents with classroom naming gift, page 10

FOR TUFTS UNIVERSITY | SPRING 2009

PAGE 4: FOCUS ON STUDENT

RESEARCH HEART AND

SOUL OF THE ACADEMIC

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A belief in the value of education—and of liberal arts education in particular—led Gregory Randolph, A81, and his wife, Christine Dudziak Randolph, J81, of Larchmont, N.Y., to establish the scholarship fund that bears their names at the School of Arts and Sciences.

“My Tufts education has been an important influence on my life, and I want to make sure that others have that opportunity,” says Greg, managing director of Greenhill & Co. in New York City. The Gregory G. and Christine D. Randolph Scholarship Fund will support A&S students who have demonstrated financial need.

Both Randolphs say that Tufts had been, for them, a special place. “It afforded me the opportunity to chal-lenge myself in many ways, while forging friendships that, in some cases, have become lifelong,” Christine says. Her husband concurs, saying, “The lifelong friends I met included my wife!”

Classmates, now married,

ART PETROSEMOLO

The Randolphs

AT ITS HEART, TUFTS IS A RESEARCH UNIVERSITY. We not only educate new students, we also generate new knowledge in every discipline represented in the university.

At some institutions, teaching and research are occasionally characterized as being in tension. Not at Tufts. In the classroom, great students ask questions that we cannot answer. These questions often become the foundation of our research. Our students become our collaborators in seeking answers, a process that in turn informs the teaching of the next generation of students. I can tell you from personal experience that nothing is more exciting for a student or a faculty member than to collaborate in the discovery of new knowledge.

Whether compiling data on the effectiveness of antibiotics or developing an environmentally friendly solar cell, both graduate and undergraduate students are actively involved in this process of inquiry and investigation. This issue of Blueprint documents the extraordinary accomplishments of our students and underscores why we must continue to invest in them. What you see here has happened with your active involvement and support. We are grateful for your philanthropy, especially in these challenging times. I think you will agree that our students are worthy of your generosity.

Sincerely,

Lawrence S. Bacow, President

A message from President Bacow

“ I can tell you from

personal experience

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“ WE HAVE A CHANCE TO BREAK A

CYCLE AND HELP THE FIRST KID

IN A FAMILY GO TO COLLEGE.”In 1993, 73 third-graders in one of Washington,

D.C.’s toughest neighborhoods were told they would have the chance to go to college. Chris White, A63, and his wife, Sue, sponsored the

pupils in the “I Have a Dream” program, and for the next 15 years provided them with the support—academ ic, emotional, family, financial—they needed to succeed. Many of the youngsters have since gradu-ated from colleges around the country.

Now the Whites have turned their attention to Tufts. They have announced they intend to make a bequest to the university that is to be used for scholar-ships for inner-city students.

“We have a chance to break a cycle and help the first kid in a family go to college,” says Chris White, a board member at Teach for America and the National Junior Achievement Foundation, who has helped form charter schools around the District of Columbia.

White, a travel-industry entrepreneur, is founder of Krisam Group, the leading national sales organization for hotels, and its sister company, Global Events Partners. “Compared to what I do for a living, which is book hotel rooms, helping inner-city students is going to look a little better on my tombstone,” he says.

“This is my chance to seriously give back to Tufts,” White says. “I’ve always felt that going to Tufts was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Now there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for the university.”

Rebecca Scott, Tufts’ director of gift planning, says, “Financial aid and scholarships are perfect types of estate gifts because there always will be students who need financial support in order to receive the benefit of a Tufts education.”

By including such a gift in their estate plans, Scott says, the Whites were making “a statement of faith in the future of the university they love.”

Aid fund will benefit urban scholars

Chris White with Christi Venable, left, and Nicole Lane, two parti-cipants in the “I Have a Dream” program during its inaug ural year.

Financial aid is, in their view, an important cause. “On a personal level, financial aid gives an educa-tional opportunity to a deserving student, while diversifying the student body, maximizing the learn-ing benefits for all students,” Christine says.

Greg says, “The aim is to make a high-quality liberal arts education available to people who otherwise may not be able to afford it, particularly in these difficult economic times.”

“The Randolphs’ gift will help Tufts to continue attracting and admitting bright young men and woman committed to using their Tufts education to make a positive difference in the world,” says Christopher Grugan, senior associate director of development for Arts and Sciences. “Generations of Tufts students will be the grateful beneficiaries of their philanthropy.”

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News of the Beyond Boundaries Campaign Spring 2009

NICK WACHIRA, F08, F10, (above) a master’s degree candidate in international business at the Fletcher School, has been researching the mobile- banking phenomenon in his native Kenya for a case study in microfinance.

The local bank and corner ATM are taken for granted in the United States. Not so in Africa, where relatively few people have access to financial services. In Kenya, the telecommunications firm Safaricom has introduced a service called M-PESA to respond to a critical need. The service enables the transfer of money by mobile phone, otherwise known as mobile banking. Mobile banking gives secure access to financial transactions for people who are poor or isolated and who would otherwise not

be able to fully take part in the economy. One-third of cell-phone users in Kenya now use the service to conduct their financial transactions.

“This is a big deal for a continent like Africa where nearly two-thirds of the population have no access to a basic bank account and keep their savings under the mat-tress,” says Wachira.

A generous gift by Thomas Schmidheiny, H99, and his wife, Suzanne, established Fletcher’s Master of International Business degree program that has enabled Wachira to take his interest in technological develop-ment a step further. He joined with Fletcher classmates to initiate a conference on regulation of mobile bank-ing in Kenya this May. The “M-Banking 2009” confer-

“At the undergraduate level, there’s no better way to learn than being

involved in the process of discovery,” says Jamshed Bharucha, Tufts’

chief academic officer as university provost and senior vice president.

“That’s active learning, much more powerful than passive learn-

ing: It means putting undergraduates together with faculty members

who have active research underway so they can be involved in discov-

ering new knowledge in the laboratories, studios, archives, and in the

field, rather than just reading about it in textbooks or in articles.

“ Research is at the heart of the student experience in every academic discipline.”

STUDENTS’ RESEARCH

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SAMANTHA JORDAN, A06, D10, (left) was the only dental student chosen to participate in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-National Institutes of Health (HHMI-NIH) Research Scholars Program, which brings 42 top health-sciences students from across the country to the NIH to pursue a year’s biomedical research. Cedar Fowler, M10, a student at the School of Medicine, joins her among the HHMI-NIH Research Scholars, who will visit several NIH labs before choosing the research proj-ect they will pursue. “I am thinking of doing a public health program once I graduate, so I would like to work in an epidemiology lab,” says Jordan. As a Tufts under-graduate she majored in biochemistry and worked in the lab of Larry Feig, professor and director of biochemistry at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences in the School of Medicine. She studied the Ras protein, which is involved with normal cell communication, and its relation to cancer progression when functioning abnormally. As a dental student she has continued her work with the Ras protein in collaboration with Jonathan Garlick, director of the School of Dental Medicine’s Division of Cancer Biology and Tissue Engineering.Editor’s note: A version of this profile originally appeared in Tufts Dental Medicine, summer 2008.

LAURA TRUHLAR, A09, (below) a chemistry major from Windham, N.H., has been an undergraduate research assistant to David Walt, professor of chemistry. She has worked alongside doctoral students, and has synthesized penicillin as part of a project to compile data on the effectiveness of different types of the antibiotic. The experience led her to decide on a career as a phar-macist. After Tufts she hopes to enroll in an accelerated pharmacy program. “I wasn’t thinking about pharmacy when I started research, but I really enjoyed it,” she says. “My Tufts experience exposed me to all the pos-sibilities and gave me a better sense of what I could do.” Perhaps discover a life-saving drug? “I don’t know,” she says, “Maybe!”

ence hosted by Fletcher’s Center for Emerging Market Enterprises and the Kenya School of Monetary Studies, which is owned by the Central Bank of Kenya and the country’s Ministry of Finance, focused on how to balance regulation and innovation in the emerging field of mobile money transfers in Kenya and around the world.

“I am optimistic that a combination of good political leadership and technology can be used to advance devel-opment in this part of the world,” Wachira says.

Wachira, a former managing editor of the Business Daily of Nairobi, says he was drawn to Fletcher because of its mul-tidisciplinary approach to education. “This has allowed me to bridge my interest in business and international affairs, to which I had been exposed as a financial journalist.”

“As for graduate education, research is at the core, particu-

larly at the doctoral level,” he continues. “In all the sciences and

engineering, Ph.D.-level training essentially is research. You can’t

separate research from graduate education.”

This edition of Blueprint spotlights student researchers at

the undergraduate and graduate level who personify the spirit of

discovery at work in Tufts’ classrooms and laboratories.

“MY TUFTS EXPERIENCE EXPOSED ME TO

ALL THE POSSIBILITIES AND GAVE ME A

BETTER SENSE OF WHAT I COULD DO.”

— LAURA TRUHLAR

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NEARLY 20 YEARS AGO Tufts became the first university in the nation to establish an institu-tional policy to conduct research, education, and operations in a manner that safeguards the environ-ment. Dow Chemical honored Tufts’ commitment to environmental sustainability by choosing the univer-

sity as one of six worldwide to participate in Dow’s Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge.

Tufts graduate students competed for three prizes of $10,000. From the more than 40 proposals submit-ted, an interdisciplinary selection committee last fall chose three winning projects. They were:

Chemica re rds engin er s abiliDow Chemical rewards engineering sustainability

“Development of Broad Spectrum Vaccines for Honey Bees,” by Noah Wilson-Rich, AG10. Honey bees are of tremendous ecological and economic importance for their role as pollinators, yet they are dying. A disease called Colony Collapse Disorder is responsible for recent declines in honey bee populations worldwide, but empirical data as to the disease’s cause remain elusive. Scientists have detailed many hypotheses for why honey bee populations are declining. One is that honey bees have a weak-ened immune system and thus increased susceptibility to disease. An important overtone to most of the hypotheses is that something has changed in the environment—pesticides, for example, or new or stronger disease pressures—and these changes have weakened honey bee health. This project

makes a case for a novel solution to bolstering honey bee immunity through the development of broad spectrum immunization.

“Green Microfabrication Technology for Use in Silk-Based Polymer Photovoltaics,” by Stanley Eosakul, E08, EG09, and Konstantinos Tsioris, EG08, EG13, of the Ultrafast Nonlinear Optics and Biophotonics Laboratory in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. This project is a collaborative effort to create an environmentally friendly, micro-fabricated solar cell consisting of regenerative, sustainable, and biodegradable materials. An all-green photovoltaic device would harness solar power while reducing greenhouse gases associated with fossil-fuel-based energy sources.

“Farm Conservation Policy in a Concentrating Agricultural Industry: Evaluation and Development of a Framework for Sustainable Livestock Production,” by Melissa Bailey, VG03, N10. With livestock production in the United States becoming more concentrated as farms raise more animals on less land, the government has become more involved in the way livestock producers manage the environmen-tal effects of farm operations. A significant nonregulatory tool has been a federal farm conservation program called the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) that supports better manure man-agement on livestock farms. This research project seeks to under-stand the role of EQIP in promoting sustainable livestock production with a focus on water quality and manure management issues.

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Left to right: Noah Wilson-Rich, Stanley Eosakul, and Konstantinos Tsioris

JEANNIE HYUN DIEFENDERFER, E84, (right) spoke no English when at 13 she emigrated from South Korea to the United States. Today, as senior vice president of global engineering and planning for Verizon, she oversees a worldwide organization of more than 10,000 employees in more than 60 countries; 3.6 million miles of fiber-optic cable; the world’s largest Internet backbone; and opera-tions through every major satellite and undersea cable system in the world.

The School of Engineering helped her get where she is today. Now a trustee and engineering overseer at Tufts, she recently established the Jeannie H. Diefenderfer Endowed Scholarship Fund to support a new generation of exceptional students in the engineering school.

“This scholarship is established to help those stu-dents who may otherwise not have the opportunity to experience what I enjoyed for four years during my time at the Tufts School of Engineering,” she says.

“Tufts prepared me well to excel in the corporate world through a combination of technical knowledge

and analytical thinking skills. It is my hope that future leaders of every kind will be developed here at Tufts and that this scholarship can play a small part in making that a reality.”

Engineering Dean Linda Abriola said she was thrilled by the gift, because endowing scholarships is one of the school’s greatest needs.

“On average, engineering stu-dents require more aid than those in other fields because we have a greater percentage of public-school students and first-generation college atten-dees,” Abriola said. “As part of Beyond Boundaries, we are poised to expand our role in developing future engineer-ing leaders regardless of their family’s financial means.

“Thanks to gifts like Jeannie Diefenderfer’s, our stu-dents are gaining the resources they need to succeed in a dynamic field of study.”

Verizon exec funds scholar-ships for aspiring engineers

A lecture series on ethics debuts this fall, made possi ble by a $40,000 gift from an anony-

mous member of the School of Engineering’s class of 1999.

The Knox Lecture Series in Engineer-ing Ethics is named for Kim Knox (left), the school’s associate dean for undergraduate education, an advisor and mentor to the series’ benefactor. One lecture will be given per semes-ter at the school’s Gordon Institute.

“Dean Knox is an excellent example of a person who behaves in the most ethical way,” says her colleague Lewis Edgers, associate dean for undergraduate curriculum develop-ment and professor of civil and envi-ronmental engineering. “It is entirely appropriate that this series is named in her honor.”

Gordon Institute Director Rob Hannemann says the lectures will be aimed at engineering undergraduates but designed to be accessible to the entire Tufts community. “The series focuses on moral and ethical issues that engineers face as new science is applied to products and services,” Hannemann says. “Examples include the implications of new biotechnol-ogy and the role of engineering in sustainable development.”

“I am honored that Tufts has received this gift in my name,” Knox says. “My hope is that our stu-dents—especially undergraduates—in the School of Engineering will be inspired to act courageously and responsibly in their careers as they face situations of enormous impor-tance that affect people’s lives.”

Lecture series on ethics named for Dean Knox

“ THE SERIES WILL FOCUS ON MORAL AND ETHICAL

ISSUES THAT ENGINEERS FACE AS NEW SCIENCE

IS APPLIED TO PRODUCTS AND SERVICES.”

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Spring 2009

Scholarship helps restore hope for student of human rights law

who convinced him to apply to the University of Ghana and helped pay his first year’s tuition. Later, because his friend pressed him to, he took the GRE and applied to graduate school at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. There, on a full scholarship, he learned about The Fletcher School, knowing instantly that he wanted to apply but realizing that he would be able to attend only if offered financial aid. The Board of Overseers Scholarship—created dur-ing Beyond Boundaries: The Campaign for Tufts—made Fletcher a reality for Yakah. “When I learned from Fletcher that I received full aid, I couldn’t believe my luck. I was just so grateful.”

As grateful as he was for his good fortune, he knew that luck should not be enough: “The only reason I’m at Fletcher is because I met one person who wanted to help me. That’s not how the world should be.” Yakah was fueled by a desire to help create new systems in Ghana, systems that would reward hard work no matter how fortunate anyone may be.

Growing up poor in Ghana, under a military regime, there were certain things Theo Yakah took for granted: police brutality, hunger, insecurity, the impossibility of ever attending college.

When his father died, just as Yakah was graduating from high school, he was more convinced than ever that life would be difficult—and that higher education was out of the question. He focused on the need to help support his family and found a job as an HIV-education coordinator at a non-governmen-tal organization (NGO) in Ada, a small town about 65 km east of the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

Now a master’s degree candidate at The Fletcher School, Yakah looks back with a mixture of wonder and hope—wonder because of the luck that has led him here, hope because of his determination to return to Ghana and help improve life there.

Yakah was working at the NGO when he was befriended by an American Peace Corps volunteer

He remained uncertain about the avenues for change. Despite his posi-tive feelings about the job he’d had, he was skeptical about Western humanitarian aid organizations, ques-tioning whether such groups can make a large-scale difference. “I thought that there are a few people with good inten-tions and good plans, but it’s impos-sible for them to achieve real change. I worried it was all just rhetoric.”

It was Hurst Hannum’s class on human rights law that helped restore optimism. Professor of International Law at Fletcher and a foremost scholar in international human rights law, Hannum has served as counsel in cases before the European and Inter-American Commissions on Human Rights and the United Nations; he also has been a member of the boards of several international human rights orga-nizations. In his classes, he challenges students to shed their emotional preju-dices about human rights work.

“Many students come in with unrealistic expectations about what human rights law can achieve,” he explains. “I engage them in a way that encourages more critical thinking.” At the same time, he conveys a historical understanding of the successes in the human rights field. “Knowing what the constraints are doesn’t mean you have to accept them,” he says.

Hannum’s particular mixture of realism and hope has been powerful for Yakah, who now wants to run for public office in Ghana and, among other things, try to foster meaningful conver-sation about human rights protections there. “Professor Hannum took away the despair for me,” says Yakah. “He made me see that the struggle between ordinary people and state power is a long one, but any incremental way you can push back helps.”

Hurst Hannum and Theo Yakah

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Tufts M.D./Ph.D. student Eric Nelson was volunteer-ing in a hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, during a

severe outbreak of cholera that had sent hundreds of patients into the hospital. A father, cradling his son, gripped Nelson’s arm, looked into his eyes, and pleaded, “Please. We need your help. Our son is very sick.”

“I tried to reassure the father that his son was in good hands,” recalled Nelson. “That’s when he told me that he had already lost two children to cholera that year and that this was his last child.”

“Some researchers get stuck in a lab and forget who they are work-ing for,” said Nelson, who recently completed his dissertation on the bacterial genetics of cholera transmission, and has just finished his third year of medical school. “But that kind of experience really gets you out of bed. It motivates you.”

His experiences working internationally motivated Nelson to join other medical students in 2002 to push for a program at Tufts to help budding scientists, doc-tors, and public health researchers learn about global health issues firsthand.

“I really applauded the students’ efforts, and I got behind them 100 percent,” says Harris Berman, M.D., professor of public health and former dean of Public Health and Professional Degree Programs at Tufts University School of Medicine. “In a rapidly globalizing world, doctors need to be able to think globally. Even if you practice medicine in the U.S., patients are com-ing in from all over the world.”

With funding from alumni and friends during Beyond Boundaries, Berman worked with the students to launch the Global Health Initiative, which now sends more than 30 Tufts medical students each year to internships in such locales as Panama, Tanzania, Uganda, and India. Participants include students like

Minisha Kumar, who spent a summer educating young women in Southern Peru about reproductive health, and Solil Sud, who treated everything from snakebites to malaria as a volunteer at a public health clinic in Mangalore, India.

“These students build language skills, gain cultural sen-sitivity, and develop clinical experience with illnesses like tuberculosis or malaria, which they may not see again during medical training in the U.S.,” says Berman, a former Peace Corps physician who has practiced medicine in India, Nepal, and the South Pacific.

The Global Health Initiative equips Tufts medical and public health students to do a world of good—either at home or abroad. Nelson, himself, recently worked with a team of researchers to create a promising new cholera vaccine. He says the new vaccine will ideally be cheap, easy-to-use, and will not require refrigeration. That way, it will be available to all residents of develop-ing countries—even those who have limited access to health clinics.

“That’s who we’re working to help,” says Nelson. “It’s about that boy with cholera in the hospital in Dhaka, and his parents. We have to keep them in mind.”

TUFTS’ GLOBAL HEALTH INITIATIVE SENDS MEDICAL STUDENTS TO DEVELOPING NATIONS

Harris Berman and Eric Nelson

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A foundation that chose to remain anonymous could have simply made a gift toward the new Agnes Varis Campus Center this past October. Instead it lit a fire within the Cummings community: an all- or-nothing challenge to match a $250,000 grant to the Agnes Varis Campus Center Auditorium by the end of December 2008.

It would have been a stiff challenge even in the best of times. Nonetheless, it sparked an outpouring of gen-erosity. Together—just under the wire—alumni, faculty, staff, parents, and others came through with 125 gifts and pledges, most under $1,000. Alumni formed the largest donor contingent (75), 22 for the first time.

Through the Take a Seat Campaign (www.tufts.edu/vet/giving/opportunities), many donated a minimum of

$1,000 to name one or more seats in honor of a person, class year, or pet. Benefactor Agnes Varis named seats for family members, including cats Mishi, Kallee, Zeus, and Kiki Varis. Clinical Biomedical Sciences faculty and staff pooled resources for several seats in memory of the late Joanne Melesky, who had worked in the department. Mayer Administration Building staff also banded together to name a seat.

Tania Kozikowski, V04, and Jane (Remeika) Gardiner, V04, used Yahoo and Facebook to mobilize 12 of 80 class members to honor the late director of the Tufts Ambulatory Service, Howard Levine, D.V.M., with a named seat. “We all appreciated our education at Tufts, but saw things that were lacking, including a better lecture hall,” said Kozikowski, associate veterinarian at Alamo Pintado Equine in Los Olivos, California. “We hoped to play a small part in changing that.”

The $500,000 raised by this challenge will go toward the $1.5 million left to raise for the auditorium.

CUMMINGS COMMUNITY RISES TO “TAKE A SEAT” CHALLENGE

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Dr. Daniel Kaplan, M56, (below) says he owes his successful career as a radiologist to his late parents, who as young teenagers escap-ing czarist oppression immigrated to America on their own. His father worked as a house

painter in Chelsea, Mass., to support their family through the Depression.

After Dan Kaplan worked his way through Harvard College, he presented his diploma to his mother. When he finished Tufts

School of Medicine, he gave his diploma to his father. “They earned them,” says Kaplan, “I owe them an enormous debt of gratitude.”

Now Kaplan again will pay tribute to his parents—Joseph and Sylvia Kaplan—this time with a gift to name a classroom in the renovated Sackler Building at the School of Medicine in their memory. If his parents were here to see it, Kaplan says, they would be “honored beyond belief.”

“This is a marvelous place to direct a gift because it will benefit generations of students on a daily basis, enhancing their educational experience,” he says. With his $100,000 gift, Kaplan says he also wanted to express his appreciation. The medical school, he

explains, enabled him to experience a radi-ology career in both academic and public spheres that has been “gratifying and satisfy-ing on so many levels.”

Kaplan’s gift has been doubled under a chal-lenge by the Jaharis Family Foundation.

Through their family foundation, Overseers Steven Jaharis, M87, and Michael Jaharis, M87P, contributed $15 million toward the renovation of the Sackler Center, the cre-ation of a new Clinical Skills and Simulation Center, and financial aid.

The project is transforming both education and the quality of student life at the school. The clinical skills center and three floors of the Sackler building already are open and in use by students.

Under the Jaharis challenge, Tufts agreed to raise an additional $7.5 million to release a portion of the Jaharis gift for scholarships once the construction projects are complete.

Kaplan was among the first to step forward in response to the Jaharis challenge. “There is an adventurous spirit and outlook at Tufts, and my family and I are both excited and delighted to commit to its success, both present and future,” he says. “Giving back is its own reward.”

School of Medicine alum

dedicates Sackler

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Involvement with Tufts is something Marjorie Cohen Stanzler, J73, A09P, and her husband, Paul, A09P, enjoy—so much so that they plan to remain as co-chairs of the Tufts University Parents Committee even after their son, Matt, A09, graduates in May.

“Supporting a university is always a worthy effort for anyone, particularly for a parent,” Paul says. “Education is the single greatest engine of social mobility in our society, and Tufts is one of the leading engines in the fleet.”

The Parents Committee is a diverse group of parents who support Tufts’ mission through their own philan-

thropy and serve as ambassadors for the university, helping foster a sense of community among Tufts parents. The Stanzlers invite parents to use the program as a resource to answer any vexing parental ques-tions and as an entry point through which to gain access to all that the Tufts community has to offer.

As co-chairs of the committee since September, the Stanzlers have tried to make new Tufts parents feel as welcomed as they felt when they first began volunteering for the university.

The Stanzlers have been especially active in Parents Weekend. “The parents have as much fun as the students,” Paul says. “There are activities from dawn till dusk.” Margie says they were motivated to take on the Parents Committee post by their respect for President Bacow, who has “taken the school to a whole new level,” and by the “great education” the school has provided their family. “We have so much respect for the school and for the president that it really motivated us to do more for the Tufts community.”

“We have received tremendous parental gratification in seeing our son thrive at Tufts,” says Paul, senior counsel at the Boston law firm of Burns & Levinson. “Supporting an institution that means so much to my wife and son is something special.”

Margie is director of programs at the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center, an orga-nization housed at Massachusetts General Hospital and named for the late husband of her sister, Ellen Cohen, J79, that promotes compas-sionate health care. She says that her sociology major at Tufts gave her more than a great education. “Tufts taught me aca demically, socially, and politically—all skills I have used throughout my career in health care.”

Encore performance for Parents Program leaders

Interested in helping to make a differ ence for Tufts? Please contact Tufts University Advancement at 617.627.3200 or campaignleaders@tufts.edu

Chair, Board of TrusteesJames A. Stern, E72, A07P

PresidentLawrence S. Bacow, Ph.D.

ProvostJamshed J. Bharucha, Ph.D.

Campaign ChairsPamela K. Omidyar, J89 Pierre M. Omidyar, A88 Alan D. Solomont, A70, A08P Jonathan M. Tisch, A76

Honorary ChairsWilliam S. Cummings, A58, M97P, J97P Dr. Bernard M. Gordon, H92 Daniel F. Pritzker, A81, A12P Karen M. Pritzker, J83, A12P

Executive CommitteeKathryn C. Chenault, Esq., J77 Steven B. Epstein, Esq., A65, A96P, A01P, A07P, AG04P Nathan Gantcher, A62, H04 Martin J. Granoff, A91P Daniel A. Kraft, A87Joseph E. Neubauer, E63, J90P Agnes Varis, H03

University AdvancementTufts University 80 George Street Medford, MA 02155

617.627.3200 giving@tufts.edu

Blueprint

University Advancement 80 George Street, Medford, MA 02155

TRAVELING BY BLACKHAWK AND CHINOOK helicopter to Mosul, Iraq, James Blockwood, A04, tried to stay alert while being dead tired and “colder,” he says, “than I’d ever been after spending winters in Boston.” He recalls thinking: “What have I got myself into?”

Stationed in Iraq for four months with the United States Department of Defense, Blockwood worked up to 18 hour days, seven days a week, providing counter-terrorism intelligence to U.S. military and civilian offi-cials, coalition partners, and the Iraqi government.

Yet when crisis hit the U.S. economy—and with it, universities like Tufts—last fall, Blockwood reached

“Mildred Burrows was a woman way ahead of her time,” says long-time friend and adviser Jan Miller of Caldwell Trust Company. “She was a voracious reader and was especially interested in health and nutrition. She always shared copies of Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter with friends in her Florida retirement community.”

Ms. Burrows’ interest in nutrition was reflected in how she orga-nized her estate plans as well. She bequeathed approximately 20 percent of her estate to support the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Her generosity will leave a lasting legacy by helping to further the school’s mission.

“I wish that we had been able to thank and recognize Ms. Burrows while she was alive. Her kindness and interest will always be remem-bered,” says Dean Eileen Kennedy of the Friedman School. “From her hav-ing been a member of the Charles Tufts Society, Ms. Burrows will ben-efit the work of Friedman School stu-dents and faculty for years to come.”

DONOR PROFILE: JA OOD, A04DONOR PROFILE: JAMES BLOCKWOOD, A04

into his own pocket and sent his alma mater a generous donation at twice the young alumni leadership level— all the way from Iraq.

“In today’s economy, people are really hurting, and I’m trying to do my part,” says Blockwood.

Caryn Karo, assistant director of development for the Tufts Fund, says, “Since I first met James in 2006, he has always offered to go above and beyond what Tufts has asked of him. This time, despite his own difficult circum-stances while serving away from his family and friends in Iraq, he recognized a need in our own small community.”

At Tufts, he was president of his class, student co- chair of President Bacow’s Task Force of the Undergrad-uate Experience, and co-president of the Black Men’s Group, while serving two years as a resident assistant.

By declaring a “lifetime commitment to Tufts,” Blockwood says he hopes to be a role model to his peers, and show them that any donation, no matter what size, makes a large impact at Tufts.

“Small sacrifices I make today will allow a future Tufts student to receive financial aid, study in another country, or engage in thought-provoking research as part of a fellowship.”

At his home in Alexandria, Va., Blockwood works full time for the Pentagon and is pursuing graduate studies at Johns Hopkins. He has a master’s degree from the National Defense Intelligence College, where he is presi-dent of the alumni association.

“Tufts defined who I am, and gave me every opportu-nity to do the things I want to do in life,” Blockwood says.

Bequest to Friedman School of Nutrition will further its mission

VERONIKA LUKASOVA