Dartmouth taps world health pioneer as next president
By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff
Dartmouth College named Harvard medical anthropologist Dr. Jim Yong Kim as its 17th president today, making the Korean-born physician the first Asian-American to head an Ivy League school.
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Kim, a 49-year-old expert in AIDS and tuberculosis, is internationally renowned for his groundbreaking work delivering healthcare to developing countries. He will replace James Wright, a historian and former Marine, who will step down in June after 11 years at the helm to promote college opportunities for wounded veterans.
Members of Dartmouth's Board of Trustees said Kim is the ideal leader for the college at this time because of his lifelong commitment to teaching and mentoring young people in the field of global health.
They also praised his record in heading international agencies such as Partners in Health, a nonprofit he founded with colleagues while students at Harvard Medical School, and for his ability to prod countries for funding while overseeing the World Health Organization's first major effort to promote AIDS treatment.
Dr. Paul Farmer, a co-founder of Partners in Health who has worked with Kim for 25 years, said he expects Kim to use his new post as a bully pulpit to address the problem of medical care delivery to underserved communities, from urban America to rural Africa.
"Jim is going to galvanize the movement for health equity," Farmer said. "To have a physician teacher at the head of a university will seize the imaginations of young Americans and help build this wonderful movement around global poverty issues. Part of me feels like we're not so much losing Jim as gaining Dartmouth."
Kim will take over the college at a tumultuous moment in higher education, with the nation’s wealthiest schools in the midst of making deep cuts in response to plummeting endowments. Dartmouth has lost at least 18 percent of its once $3.66 billion endowment, which funds more than a third of the college’s $700 million operating budget.
The 5,900-student Hanover, N.H., college has announced plans to lay off staff, freeze salaries, reduce work hours, and postpone construction projects. As president, Kim faces the challenge of keeping Dartmouth competitive with the larger, wealthier Ivies, raising money to increase financial aid to the middle- and upper-middle class, and keeping salaries at a level high enough to attract and retain top faculty talent.
"We were comforted by the fact that Jim has experience managing and leading complex organizations that have been transformative in the way they have sought to solve the global health problem," said Charles E. Haldeman Jr., chairman of Dartmouth’s Board of Trustees.
Albert G. Mulley, Jr., associate professor of health policy at Harvard Medical School and chairman of the presidential search committee, said the committee was impressed by Kim's fund-raising record for various global health initiatives -- whether it's $60 million a year for Partners in Health, a $45 million Gates grant to target multidrug resistance to tuberculosis, or getting Canada to pledge $100 million to treat AIDS patients in third-world countries.
"He's had lots of experience securing funds from governments, private foundations and individual philanthropists," Mulley said. "More important is the impact he has as a communicator."
One of Kim's top priorities is to ensure that low-income students have access to top-notch education in the same way he's brought world-class healthcare to poverty stricken countries. Kim said he is commitment to maintaining Dartmouth's policy of admitting both American and international students without taking into consideration their families' ability to pay, especially in light of the recession.
As Dartmouth president, he hopes to improve "the way we deliver our most-cherished social goals," healthcare and education, while maintaining the balance between training students for jobs and giving them a broad education in the humanities, social sciences and scienes, Kim said in a phone interview during his drive to Hanover during the snowstorm this morning. He'd also like to direct the resources of Dartmouth's medical, business, and engineering schools toward global health delivery on a wider scale.
"The challenge is to not lose our focus in providing a great liberal arts education but also preparing students to make a difference in the world," he said. "These are the people who are supposed to have aspirations and goals that are truly unimaginable to us today."
In 2003 while serving as top adviser at WHO, Kim was the driving force behind a new urgency in AIDS treatment, increasing treatment in Africa eightfold within two years.
Although many clinicians worried about patients showing resistance to the antiretroviral drugs or serious side effects and argued for more testing, Kim responded at the time by saying that delays were not an option.
“You have to take chances, instead of debating endlessly,” Kim said during a 2003 Globe interview. “I don’t know exactly the way to do it right now, but let’s get started, let’s figure it out, and let’s do it.”
Previously, Kim had helped write global protocols for overseeing the treatment of patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis, patients other medical professionals had largely written off as untreatable.
His was awarded a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2003, and he was elected in 2004 to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
Born in Seoul, Kim grew up in Muscatine, Iowa. His father, a dentist, taught at the University of Iowa and his mother received her doctorate in philosophy there. Kim was valedictorian and president of his senior class, as well as quarterback for his high school football team.
He majored in human biology at Brown University, and now chairs the department of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School. Kim also directs the health and human rights center at the Harvard School of Public Health and is chief of the division of global health equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
His wife, Dr. Younsook Lim, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital, gave birth to their second son on Friday night. The couple’s oldest son, Thomas, is 8.
"My hope is to really take up the legacy of [former Dartmouth President John Sloan] Dickey and to think in this age, even with the economic crisis, what it would mean to live up to his ideal of making the world's troubles our troubles," Kim said.
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Dr Farmer says he has worked with Dr Kim since Dr Kim was 14 years old.
I don't think so.
and he has already given himself a 600 billion dollar bonus.
Dr. Kim is 49. Dr. Farmer working with him for 25 years means they began working together when Dr. Kim was 24, not 14.
Mr. Bergstrom, you counted your fingers wrong. Dr. Farmer has worked with Dr. Kim for 25 years. Dr. Kim is now 49 years old. How old was Dr. Kim when they started working together? (Answer: 24, not 14, years old.)
jaminjm , Where does the 600 billion dollar bonus come from? Why are you so jealous of an Asian American becoming the president of an Ivy League school?
jj bergstrom doesnt know how to substract... it would be 24 years old...
You should check your math.
49-25=24 years old (the age of the average medical student). Clearly this is why JJ isn't going to be president of Dartmouth!
to JJ Bergstrom,
Check your math.
Dr. Farmer said he worked with Dr. Kim for 25 years. Dr, Kim is 49, that would have made him 24 not 14... Take a math course
Dr. Kim is 49 years old. Dr. Farmer worked with Dr. Kim for 25 years, meaning they worked together since Dr. Kim was 24 years old, not 14!
I'm glad he's going to save the world. Who's going to save Dartmouth?
49-25=24. They have known each other since Kim was 24.
He sounds like a fantastic leader and professor. Good for Dartmouth!
Clearly, JJ Bergstrom didn't attend Dartmouth.
I am told that Dr. Kim's address in Hanover this afternoon resonated with students and faculty. He sounds like a wonderful man and the right person to lead this very special institution.
Does he have a brother who wants to work at Brandeis?
I think this is a great selection. I just hope that he doesn't let Dartmouth get too research oriented- there's a reasion why it calls itself a college, even if it is, for all intents, a university.
Just when we thought the news couldn't get any worse!
Growing up near the school, I am happy to see some diversity in the area. Now far removed in south florida, Dartmouth is a great school with a great hospital and engineering program. I hope he does grow Dartmouth's reach globally, and perhaps his background can keep the good citizens of that area (many still my friends) employed.
In case you didn't know, white people got ahead for years without spying on other people. They got ahead on their brains.
For those that do not know Dr. Kim, he has worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor in countries like Peru and Haiti. This is not a man who has sat back and taken in some millions of dollars in salary as some investment banker. I've met him and the people he worked with at Partners in Health and these people have built a hospital and a clinic in poor areas far away from any sort of real facilities. And they are successfully treating these poor people. So please don't mock this man as some sort of big shot looking to make money at the head of Dartmouth. As the article says, he will likely use his stature to further his goals of caring for the poor and fighting disease. He really is a sincere person.
I agree with Amy. Dr. Kim is wonderful person. He has spent his life dedicated to improving healthcare and is quite an accomplished academic , fundraiser, and physician. I don't understand the nastiness on this blog. The comment regarding spying is truly just stupid, and I'm uncertain as to its relevance. It is a reference to his being Asian? If so, nothing I can say can help you in your ignorance. Did you miss the piece about growing up in Iowa and being QB on his high school football team? He is so "American". (Not that it matters.) Hopefully this will ally your paranoia and help you get a good night's sleep.
All the best to Dartmouth and Dr. Kim. The world needs more people like him.
Very happy about this selection!
I had the luck to meet Jim Kim many years ago, when he was running Partners in Health out of a basement in Cambridge. He and Paul Farmer were already doing tremendous work among the poor of Haiti, as well as poor Haitians in Boston. Looking back, I am amazed that he spent so much time talking to me, a total stranger. He was one of the humblest, most sincere, quietly intelligent people I have ever met in my life. Over the years, our conversation certainly inspired me to return again and again to rethink issues of poverty and equity. The world needs more humans like him. I applaud all his accomplishments and hope for many more years of incredible productivity.
I am currently a student at Dartmouth, and I'm excited to see what Dr. Kim will bring to the college. His address to the campus today was great, and I can't wait to meet him personally and hear more about his plans for the school.
As a fellow Asian American with keen interest in improving the delivery of healthcare, I see him an inspirational leader and look forward to his contributions that he will make at Dartmouth.
I called my wife when I heard this on the news this a.m. this is an example of good news to reverse the recent spate of nothing but bad news. Jim Kim and Paul Farmer are 2 amazing individuals who used their Ivy League educations to do good in the world, and they have achieved an enormous amount of good. Dartmouth is very fortunate to have Dr. Kim as its new leader
As a Dartmouth Alum from the 70s, I am thrilled. This guy is exactly the kind of leader we need to teach/lead our kids. In his speech to the college he quoted, John Hopkins, a previous Dartmouth president, in summarizing his philosophy, "The worlds problems are our problems". I can't think of a better message for young adults. Bravo Dartmouth! I am proud of you.
Hi everyone, and especially other PIH devotees, what do you all think of this appointment?
Personally, I'm worried. I understand Dr. Kim wants to be in a position of leverage, so he can train more leaders in social equity. But I'm worried as president of Dartmouth he'll lose some of the passion -- the sense of absolute, inarguable moral highground -- he's exuded when I've heard him speak about global health issues. Will the day-to-day rigors of being an Ivy League president (especially the endless capital-raising campaigns) leave time for advocacy, reflection, and solidarity in the PIH mold? Am I right to be worried?
Please interpret my questions with a "hermeneutic of generosity." I count myself among the many who have been inspired and galvanized by Dr. Kim and PIH's work. (My email is daflood@gmail.com if anyone would like to discuss.)
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
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