Impact
THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
A MAKING HISTORY PUBLICATION
•
SPRING 2016
Coming
Clean Recent GW grads take on the global sanitation crisis.
Impact
THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY A MAKING HISTORY PUBLICATION
LEADING AND INNOVATING Dear GW community,
EDITOR: W. Gray Turner, MPS ’11
I recently had the pleasure of experiencing GW’s 191st Commencement with approximately 25,000 members of the university community—graduates, family, and friends. In the days leading up to the ceremony on the National Mall, students escorted their families around campus and hauled boxes out of their dorms and apartments, readying themselves for their next adventure. Though Commencement celebrates the end of a degree program for many, the word also signifies a beginning—a start to careers, advanced schooling, internships, and much more. Only an excellent education can prepare our future leaders for these important next steps, and that’s what students get at GW. To me, Commencement also highlights the vast possibilities for students and faculty to lead and innovate. Inside these pages, you’ll meet Maz Obuz, BA ’16, (pg. 10) who turned a class assignment into a nonprofit organization committed to addressing the global sanitation crisis thanks to grant funding earned in GW’s New Venture Competition. Joining Maz at this globally minded nonprofit is Kelsey Hatchitt, BA ’16, who interned with the organization this year thanks to GW’s internship fund, KACIF, which helps pay expenses for students who work in unpaid or underpaid internships. Both Maz and Kelsey were among the talented and forward-thinking graduates who flipped their tassels on the National Mall this spring. Your generosity also creates opportunities for our incredible faculty, who inspire, challenge, and advocate for our students every day. In this issue, you will meet the researcher leading our efforts to better understand autism (pg. 6) and learn how a Duke Energy grant (pg. 8) enables faculty members to work with students to discover new, efficient ways to use solar power. Thank you for making history with us. Best wishes for a wonderful summer, and I look forward to commencing yet another year with you, our loyal supporters and friends, in the fall. GW
PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY: Steven Knapp VICE PRESIDENT FOR DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNI RELATIONS AND SECRETARY OF THE UNIVERSITY: Aristide J. Collins Jr. INTERIM SENIOR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS: Matthew Lindsay, MBA ’07 PHOTOGRAPHERS: William Atkins Jessica Burt Abby Greenawalt Dave Scavone Logan Werlinger Julie Woodford DESIGN: Michelle Wandres Impact is published by the Division of Development and Alumni Relations, The George Washington University, 2033 K Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20052. Please send change-of-address notices to us online at alumni.gwu.edu/update, via email to alumrecs@gwu.edu, or by post to Alumni Records, 2033 K Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20052. Opinions expressed in these pages are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the university. The George Washington University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution.
Warmest personal regards, Aristide J. Collins Jr.
Cover image: Glen Cooper
Do you have questions, comments, or suggestions? Contact us at gwimpact@gwu.edu.
Impact | SPRING 2016
SPRING 2016
CONTENTS FEATURES
10 COVER STORY:
COMING CLEAN
16 LIVES LINKED TOGETHER DEPARTMENTS
2 NEWS 4 CAMPAIGN PILLARS Support Students: A Way of Making Sense Enhance Academics: Genetics are Never Fate
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Break New Ground: Here Comes the Sun
22 RAISE HIGH FIVE 24 EVENTS ROUNDUP
NEWS
$5.5M GRANT TO HELP PROMOTE EQUITY IN HEALTH CARE WORKFORCE
GW Gymnastics took the top spot in this year’s Buff & Blue Fund Challenge thanks to the support of team alumni.
The GW Health Workforce Institute received a $5.5 million grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies earlier this year to embark on a five-year project to promote equity in the health care and health policy arenas. Under the grant, 75 multidisciplinary global leaders will be selected for a one-year program on advancing health workforce equity. The funding also will target D.C.-area students interested in health care, health equity, and careers in the health sciences for mentorship and educational development.
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Discover the full impact of this grant by visiting go.gwu.edu/gwhwigrant.
GW PROFESSOR NAMED DIRECTOR OF INSTITUTE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM GW professor Samuel Goldman was named the inaugural director of the Ambassador John Professor L. Loeb Jr. Institute Samuel for Religious Goldman Freedom in April. Established at GW through a $2.5 million gift from the John L. Loeb Jr. Foundation and the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom this spring, the Loeb Institute will foster dialogue on religious understanding and the separation of church and state and serve as a center for academic Learn more collaboration in about Profesreligion, peace studies, sor Goldman and the newly estabhistory, political lished institute he science, and other will lead at go.gwu. programs. edu/goldman.
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2 Impact | SPRING 2016
GYMNASTICS TAKES GOLD IN BUFF & BLUE FUND CHALLENGE In this year’s Buff & Blue Fund Made possible thanks to the Challenge, GW coaches called on generosity of Michelle Rubin, BA athletics alumni to support their ’91, this year’s challenge raised former teams with a gift, and when more than $155,000 for GW the scores were tallied, Athletics. More than 600 Check the full the GW Gymnastics former student-athletes scorecard for team stood atop the supported their teams as this year’s challenge at go.gwu.edu/bbfc2016. podium. part of the challenge.
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CROWDSOURCING CHURCHILL Lunch with the king. Late night drinks with Stalin. A meeting with Poland’s government-in-exile. Such was the schedule of Winston Churchill from 1939-1945. Told in the A page from Churchill’s wartime engagement British Bulldog’s own italicized diary. shorthand in the pages of his wartime engagement diary, Churchill’s schedule contains hidden gems of historical significance and humor sprinkled throughout. As part of a crowdsourcing effort this spring, GW students, professors, and alumRead more about ni transcribed the pages of the diary, which was the diary and recently donated to GW for use in the forthtranscription efforts at go.gwu.edu/wcdiary. coming National Churchill Library and Center.
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æ Visit gwimpact.org for more Impact news and stories. Planet Forward engages young people and innovators in search of solutions to the biggest challenges facing our planet. The Corcoran building’s historic 14-foot doors.
PLANET FORWARD SUPPORTED BY ONGOING PARTNERSHIP Land O’Lakes made a $500,000 donation this spring to support Planet Forward, which was launched at GW in 2009 to promote innovative ideas to address food, water, energy, and environmental challenges confronting the planet. The gift, which will provide general operating support for Planet Forward and its Read more about this public events over the next three years, is the latest gift and ongoing investment in a growing partnership between the partnership by agricultural cooperative and the School of Media visiting go.gwu. edu/landolakes. and Public Affairs program.
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SPRING ENDOWED LECTURE SERIES ENRICH GW COMMUNITY Business leadership, integrity, lished to run in perpetuity—bring cutting-edge science, and historluminaries to GW’s campuses to ical perspectives are address important topics Discover the just some of the topics facing today’s world and topics covered in some of this spring’s covered by several enrich the learning expelectures, or learn how endowed lecture series to establish one of your riences of students, alumheld at GW this spring. own, by visiting go.gwu. ni, and other members of edu/springlectures. These series—estabthe GW community.
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HISTORIC CORCORAN DOORS TO BE RESTORED The historic doors that have graced the Corcoran building’s 17th Street entrance since 1897 are being restored thanks to a gift from American Express. Made of solid oak and coated in layers of decorative bronze, the 14-foot doors weigh an impressive 4,000 pounds and are a distinctive part of the Flagg building’s 19th-century Beaux-Arts design.
Panelists at this spring’s Paul O’Dwyer Lecture recall moments that tested them as leaders and the lessons they learned.
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Learn more about the restoration and the gift behind it at go.gwu.edu/corcorandoors.
MAKING HISTORY: THE CAMPAIGN FOR GW
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SUPPORT STUDENTS
CAMPAIGN PILLARS
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SELF-PORTRAIT BY NAKEYA BROWN, MFA ‘17
“
Photography
WAS A WAY OF MAKING SENSE.”
Nearly a decade after Nakeya Brown, MFA ’16, first took a photography course in high school, the use of lens and light and shutter took on a new meaning. She had studied photography as an undergrad and worked as a photo editor in New York City for several years, but when she was presented with a huge life change and encountered a moment of uncertainty, it was photography that was a way of making sense of things. Read Nakeya’s story at go.gwu.edu/Nakeya.
MAKING HISTORY: THE CAMPAIGN FOR GW
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ENHANCE ACADEMICS
CAMPAIGN PILLARS
6 Impact | SPRING 2016
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Genetics ARE NEVER FATE.” That’s a lesson we learned about autism after sitting down with Dr. Kevin Pelphrey, the autism expert and researcher who joined GW this spring as the inaugural director of GW’s Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute (AND Institute). The Carbonell Family Professor in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Dr. Pelphrey discusses genetics and neurodevelopmental disorders, the work he plans to accomplish, and the biggest misconception about autism at go.gwu.edu/Pelphrey.
WILLIAM ATKINS
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BREAK NEW GROUND
CAMPAIGN PILLARS
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H
ere
COMES THE SUN.
It’s fitting that the sun was shining brightly on the March day when engineering professor Saniya LeBlanc led graduate students to a North Carolina solar farm to conduct on-theground research. Professor LeBlanc and her students are one of three GW research teams selected for the inaugural Duke Energy Renewables Innovation Fund Awards, a multi-year research grant program for energy research—including the unprecedented growth of the solar industry. Read about their research projects at go.gwu.edu/DukeEnergy.
MAKING HISTORY: THE CAMPAIGN FOR GW
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Coming
Clean By W. Gray Turner
Socially minded
nonprofit conceived in a GW classroom
addresses the global sanitation crisis thanks to donor-supported business plan competition.
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Rooftops of Dharavi Slum, Mumbai, India
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AMIDST THE GLEAMING, MODERN SKYSCRAPERS OF MUMBAI, INDIA’S FINANCIAL CAPITAL, is an urban island of refuse and squalor. Less than one square mile in size, Dharavi, routinely referred to as one of the largest slums in the world, is home to more than a million people who live in conditions that seem incomprehensible in the year 2016. It is a city within a city, with more than 15,000 men, women, and children crowded into each acre and families of 15 or more sometimes sharing just 300 square feet of space. It is cramped, hot, and a sanitation nightmare. It is a place with just one toilet for every few hundred residents. A nearby creek, already polluted and reeking from sewage and industrial runoff, is Dharavi’s unofficial public toilet and no longer resembles the waterway that was populated by local fisherman and Mangrove trees before Mumbai’s industrial boom. Maz Obuz, BA ’16, thought he was prepared to see Dharavi firsthand. He knew the numbers, knew the reputation of the community, but what he saw when he arrived in August of 2015 was worse than he had imagined: rivers of waste water running through the streets, children openly defecating on the side of the road, pigs grazing on a field of feces. “What we experienced there was this pervasive sense of poverty,” says Maz, who traveled to Dharavi and other parts of India last year on a fact-finding mission with the nonprofit he co-founded, Asepsis. “The destitute poverty, the horrible living conditions, it was everywhere you looked.” Maz’s journey to India started with a statistic: 2.5 billion people—roughly one-third of the world’s population—lack access to adequate sanitation.
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“We zeroed in on
Maz and fellow Asepsis co-founder Evan Young, BA ’15, came across this stat the water and while researching an assignment for their Makeshift Innovation and Engineering in sanitation crisis because the Third World course in 2014. For Maz, a the statistic was just so biological anthropology major, and Evan, unfathomable, and then who studied international development, we asked, ‘Where is the that one number screamed out at them through all the rest. crisis the worst?’” “It was a social entrepreneurship class, and we were focusing on how to make an impact on a global issue for a low cost,” remembers Maz, who graduated with a degree from GW’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences this May. “We zeroed in on the water and sanitation crisis because the statistic was just so unfathomable, and then we asked, ‘Where is the crisis the worst?’” The duo found that Dharavi was one of the places where the sanitation issue was most pronounced, so they focused their research on the slum in the heart of Mumbai. They learned that Dharavi—with one toilet for every 1,440 people, 4,000 cases of waterborne diseases every day, and a population where 70 percent of its residents defecate in the open—is considered one of the largest humanitarian disasters in the sanitation field.
Above: A young man fills his water bottle from a pipe on the street in India’s Dharavi slum. Below: Pigs wallow in filth and dine on refuse in Dharavi, an Indian slum considered one of the largest humanitarian disasters in the sanitation field.
“Women and children live in fear of going to unsafe public toilets,” says Maz. “Families have no option but to bathe and clean their clothes in water that they and their neighbors have defecated in.” To combat these issues, the pair developed a business model and plan to distribute waterless squat toilets to the community and establish an economical and environmentally friendly way to dispose of the waste sanitarily. Their plan, dubbed Project Dharavi, earned them top marks on the class assignment and encouragement to pursue the venture beyond GW’s classrooms. After making it to the semifinals of the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU) Resolution Project and winning the 2014-15 GWUpstart D-Prize Competition, Project Dharavi entered the GW New Venture Competition (NVC) with a more finely tuned plan and a toilet prototype designed in collaboration with GW engineering students.
Asepsis co-founders Evan Young (L) and Maz Obuz (R) with NVC Director Lex McCusker after the 2014-15 competition.
PHOTO COURTESY OF ASEPSIS
GW’s New Venture Competition
Founded in 2008 with funding from GW parents Rick and Annette Scott, P ‘05, the GW New Venture Competition (formerly known as the GW Business Plan Competition) stimu-
lates social and commercial enterprise by challenging GW students to harness an idea, formulate a plan, and make a pitch. The winners get recognition, cash grants, and in some cases funding to turn a good idea into a viable venture, all thanks to a host of generous sponsors. “By supporting a program like the NVC, we’re giving student entrepreneurs a testing ground to not only grow their skills as entrepreneurs, but also the chance to develop ideas they can actually build and help grow the economy,” says Michael Quinn, BA ’84, who has supported the NVC and served as both a mentor and judge for the competition.
Learn more about the NVC, the student ventures, and how you can get involved as a mentor, judge, or supporter at go.gwu.edu/NVCImpact.
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“I loved the competition; it was an exhilarating experience,” says Maz, who adds that the NVC’s support network—provided by Melanie Fedri, social entrepreneurship coordinator at GW’s Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service; Lex McCusker, director of the GW New Venture Competition; and the GW alumni volunteers who served as project mentors—was an incredible asset. “Having that experience and learning the lessons we did from that competition was really helpful in preparing for when we went outside of the classroom with some real risk involved,” he says. Project Dharavi beat out nearly 100 other teams to reach the 2014-15 competition’s 10-team finals, finishing third overall and winning the competition’s Best International Venture prize. In total, the engineering and business model won $17,500 in prizes from the NVC and another $5,000 from the GWUpstart D-Prize Competition. There was no question in their minds how to use those funds: embark on fact-finding missions to areas severely affected by the sanitation crisis, including Dharavi. And there, with their feet on the ground, seeing in person the crisis they had studied and prepared to
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The Asepsis team visited Mumbai, India (above); Managua, Nicaragua (top right); and Port-au-Prince, Haiti (right) last year to see sanitation issues firsthand thanks in part to funding earned through the NVC.
“When you’re out there
experiencing this world firsthand, you discover all these tiny little things that you would never know just sitting in a classroom, but they have a major impact on your ability to succeed.” tackle head on, they learned a valuable lesson: Sometimes, you have to rethink how to impart change. After weeks touring city slums and remote villages, examining infrastructures, and being immersed in the culture of the people they wanted to help, the project team quickly realized that local groups—in Dharavi, in Nicaragua, in Haiti—had tools and connections that foreigners would never be able to utilize. “When you’re out there experiencing this world firsthand, you discover all these tiny little things that you would never know just sitting in a classroom, but they have a major impact on your ability to succeed. The hardest part,” Maz says, “was accepting that just because a design and a plan was a good idea, doesn’t mean it is the best solution.” Rather than returning to the U.S. feeling defeated, Maz and Evan did what all good companies do when confronted with a crisis of mission: pivot. “Every country we visited, we met with local groups and nonprofits that better understood the logistical issues of trying to implement our plan better than we ever could, so we had to take a step back and ask ourselves what role was needed,
Knowledge in Action Career Internship Fund (KACIF)
“Working with Asepsis aligned perfectly with my interest in sanitation, but it’s a young organization that can’t provide a salary, and I would’ve been forced to work a second job if I didn’t receive a KACIF grant,” says Kelsey Hatchitt, BA ‘16. Established to reduce the financial challenges associated with unpaid internships, KACIF encourages GW students to pursue high-quality, necessarily unpaid internships that foster their career exploration and enhance their academic studies. “The opportunity to intern with people who work directly with your niche focus—like water and sanitation with me—in a field related directly to your career aspirations, that’s not something every student can do,” Kelsey Visit go.gwu.edu/GWKACIF says. “KACIF offers more flexto learn more about the ibility in choosing an internimpact KACIF grants have ship without the worry of on GW students. Contact Joe Bondi at whether or not it’s paid and joebondi@gwu.edu helps these smaller organizato discover how you can tions grow, as well.” support this program.
what we could best do to help these communities,” says Maz. “The NVC and D-Prize gave us the funding to see what the issue was like on the ground, to essentially test everything that we had been creating up until that point, discover our weaknesses, and pivot to address the world sanitation crisis more effectively.” Back in Washington, D.C., the young startup took on a new name, Asepsis, and a more multifaceted approach to reflect the lessons learned. By incorporating fundraising initiatives and awareness campaigns into community-based implementation projects around the world, Asepsis is connecting the right people to better enact change on a local level. “Connectors—that’s how we really envision it,” says Maz. “We’re here to generate a dialogue about the issue and work with international organizations and local groups to make sure the impact we want to see on the ground is being made.” Kelsey Hatchitt, BA ’16, saw the pivot made by Asepsis firsthand as an intern with the company this past year after receiving a grant from GW’s Knowledge in Action Career Internship Fund (KACIF). “With each passing day, I think each of us, as individuals as well as members of the Asepsis team, have realized that community-focused projects are not only the most beneficial for the community, but they are also the ones that are the most likely to succeed,” Kelsey wrote in a Huffington Post blog post during a trip to Haiti with Asepsis in December. The team continues to work with the Indian government and local NGOs toward bringing 2,000 toilets to Dharavi by 2017, and is looking to build further connections between local leaders, nonprofits, and international organizations around the world. Asepsis-run awareness campaigns—like their very successful #comingclean photography and social media contest—are starting a new dialogue on the global sanitation issue through photography, journalism, and digital media, bringing this neglected problem to a larger audience.
Kelsey Hatchitt, BA ‘16, interned at Asepsis during her senior year at GW thanks to a KACIF grant.
“We’re raising awareness about this issue so the people who have the ability to make an impact— politicians, international organizations, people studying international affairs and public health who really care and have a passion for making a difference—are being enlightened about the sanitation issue,” says Kelsey, who graduated in May with a degree in international affairs from GW’s Elliott School but focused much of her academic studies on the environment and public health. Getting these difference makers involved is important to the mission of Asepsis, but in the end, Maz says that the sanitation crisis is an issue on which anyone, no matter where you are in life, can make an impact. “You can get involved with us in a lot of different ways: set up local events to raise awareness, fundraise in your community, or maybe you’re a photographer traveling to one of these affected areas and want to do a photo project,” he says. “Having people genuinely interested Visit asepsis.org and talking about this to learn more about Asepsis and issue is the most important discover how you can first step to really creating get involved in efforts a global community that to address the global sanitation crisis. can make a difference.” GW
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Lives Linke GW’s new kidney center is saving lives by raising awareness of kidney health and the need for live kidney donors. By Carey Russell
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ed Together
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In 2000
, Vivianne Pommier, BA ’75, traveled to the Caribbean to visit family and came down with what she thought was a terrible flu. Back in the United States, her doctors confirmed the flu diagnosis, but she knew something else wasn’t quite right. Days later, she was admitted to the ICU, dangerously dehydrated and with a new diagnosis: Escherichia coli, more commonly known as E. coli. The strain of bacteria had destroyed her kidneys, and within the year, Vivianne, an otherwise healthy and active business-owner and mom, was in full renal failure. She needed a kidney transplant, and soon. Enter Normand Townsend, JD ’74, Vivianne a public defender in Colorado, and Pommier, BA ’75, with her Vivianne’s boyfriend when she was a college sweetGW student. By chance, they ran into heart and first each other in Steamboat, Colorado, kidney donor Normand only days after Vivianne learned her Townsend, JD kidneys had shut down. ’74 (far right) “I tell him I’m in renal failure and I in 1974. need a kidney transplant or I’m going to die,” says Vivianne, known for being charmingly candid. Without batting an eye, she says, Norm offered to give her one of his kidneys. The next week, Norm flew to Washington, D.C., and confirmed that he was a match for Vivianne. In 2002, he donated his kidney to his college sweetheart. Kidney donations can come from living or non-living donors. Living organ donation dates back to 1954, when a kidney from one twin was successfully transplanted into his identical brother. These live donations carry a reduced risk of organ rejection, and recipients often make a faster recovery. The kidney also begins working faster and tends to last longer than one from a deceased donor. With a living donor, the transplanted kidneys can function for as many as 20 years. For Vivianne, this wasn’t the case—in 2014, a case of pneumonia triggered her body to reject her kidney nearly 13 years after her transplant. Kidneys function like the body’s filter, picking up necessary chemicals, absorbing fluids, and removing waste. When the kidneys aren’t functioning correctly, the result may be minor ailments such as high blood pressure, unusual urination, or swelling of the hands and feet. Eventually, without the kidneys to properly balance and filter the blood, the body fills with fluid and waste, leading to brain damage, organ failure, and, ultimately, death.
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Like 30% of individuals waiting for a transplant, Vivianne is considered “sensitized”: She has exceptionally high levels of antibodies that fight foreign objects like bacteria, viruses, or foreign tissue, making her harder to match with donor kidneys. Until she found a valid donor, her only option was dialysis, a process where the blood is removed, filtered by a machine outside the body, and then returned. Then Vivianne met Dr. Joseph Keith Melancon, chief of the GW Transplant Institute and professor of surgery at the George Washington University Hospital. Dr. Melancon is an expert in kidney transplantation and pioneered techniques to improve the success of transplants from a wider range of donors by altering patients’ immune systems. His methods could, for the first time, enable matches across different ethnicities, blood types, and antibodies. “Previously, if the antibodies didn’t match, doctors would declare a donor incompatible and ask for the next donor in line,” says Dr. Melancon. “For some patients, they only have one relative able to donate, so they have to join a long waiting list and stay on dialysis for years.” He explains that patients who receive a kidney donation have a life expectancy
Dr. Joseph Keith Melancon is an expert in kidney transplantation and pioneered techniques to improve the success of transplants from a wider range of donors by altering patients’ immune systems. that’s much longer than those on dialysis, so getting these individuals access to transplants literally saves their lives. Ron Paul knows this firsthand—he was diagnosed with kidney disease when he was only 27. “It came out of nowhere,” says the chairman and CEO of Eagle Bancorp and EagleBank. “I didn’t have any pre-existing conditions, no diabetes, no high blood pressure, no issues at all other than I found out I had kidney failure.” Luckily, his brother, Steven, was a match and volunteered to donate, but in 2008, Ron learned he would need another transplant. Again, he received a donation, this time from his longtime friend and CFO of his company, Kathy McCallum. Dr. Melancon says that Ron Paul’s story is a typical one. Multiple kidney transplants are common in patients, he explains, and many patients don’t know they have any kidney problems until one day they end up in the emergency room in complete renal failure. “Didn’t they know anything about their kidney function before that day? Many don’t,” he says. Wanting to change that, Ron and his wife, Joy, volunteered a different kind of
donation: $2.5 million through their family foundation to establish the GW Ron and Joy Paul Kidney Center. Through education and awareness, the Pauls hope to tip the balance of kidney supply and demand, a move that could potentially save the lives of hundreds of Washington-area residents. “Our mission is a two-pronged attack. First we need to educate—what people don’t know is killing them,” says Dr. Melancon. “The next step is improving access to live donations. Without access, people stay on dialysis and end up dying prematurely.” Vivianne Pommier remembers what it was like on dialysis, spending as much as four hours a day, four times a week in treatment. She worked tirelessly as she continued to run her thriving travel agency, even bringing her laptop along on her frequent hospital visits. But Vivianne is an exception. While dialysis is a life-saving measure, it’s a fatiguing, time-consuming “lifestyle disruption”—the optimal pathway is a transplant from a living donor before dialysis, when the recipient is in their healthiest state, explains Dr. Melancon. That’s why the GW Ron and Joy Paul Kidney Center is partnering with the GW Hospital Transplant Institute to pair its outreach efforts with the institute’s clinical expertise. Together, Dr. Melancon and Tony Englert, executive director of the GW Ron and Joy Paul Kidney Center, hope to expand the bank of live donors and find matches for the thousands of people waiting for a transplant in D.C. In 2014, there were only 116 live kidney donors in Washington, D.C., but 10 times that waiting for a kidney. In fact, the D.C. Metro Area has the highest prevalence of kidney disease in the nation, centered in Northeast and Southeast D.C., Prince George’s County, and southern Maryland. Many of the residents in these communities don’t have access to routine health care and, when faced with diabetes, high blood pressure, or kidney disease, aren’t aware of the treatment options available. “We want to make sure that if you ever get to the point that you have kidney failure and need a transplant, you know all your treatment options,” says Tony Englert. While many people are surrounded by kidney disease and may even have family members on dialysis, there’s a disconnect between what they see in others and how they view their own health or the decision to become a living donor, says Dr. Melancon. Propelled by the Pauls’ gift, Dr. Melancon and his team hope to empower individuals to get involved in their kidney health, engage with their doctors, and learn about kidney donation. MAKING HISTORY: THE CAMPAIGN FOR GW
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(Stats courtesy of GW Ron and Joy Paul Kidney Center)
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1 Joy and Ron Paul at the opening of the kidney center that bears their name in Nov. 2015. 2 Reaching out to engage and educate members of the D.C. community is an important part of the kidney center’s mission. 3 The GW Ron and Joy Paul Kidney Center and the GW Transplant Institute teamed up to provide free health screenings at a D.C. health and fitness expo in January.
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4 Dr. Melancon is chief of the GW Hospital Transplant Institute, an important partner with the new kidney center.
“We have to reach people in their own environment and on their own terms,” he what’s exciting,” says Tony Englert, the former pressays. “That’s how we can show them that they can do things to change their health, ident of the National Kidney Foundation’s D.C. divichange their life, and save lives.” sion who came out of retirement to lead the GW Ron Without this knowledge, more patients will end up on long-term dialysis and and Joy Paul Kidney Center. join the thousands of patients waiting for a kidney transplant. Since its formal launch in October 2015, the new Waiting, like Vivianne. center has received an outpouring of calls from peoIn 2014, knowing that family members are often strong candidates for organ ple waiting for kidney donations, referrals from spedonation, her son, Jordan, volunteered one of his kidneys. However, the pair was cialists in underserved communities, and interest medically incompatible. Abdullah Al Ahmari faced a similar dilemma when doctors from colleagues across the District. told him that his wife was not a good match for his kidney transplant. Carol Miller “I’m excited for the promise it has for this area, and heard the same thing when her husband tried to donate. while we are focused on D.C., this is also a laboratory That’s when Dr. Melancon began to work on the GW Hospital’s first-ever threefor what can happen across the country,” Dr. Melanway paired kidney exchange. con adds. “This shows how philanthropy can not only Dr. Melancon and his team discovered that Carol’s husband was support our mission but make things For more information the perfect match for Abdullah. Jordan ended up being compatible happen to better the lives of so many.” on how you can with Carol, and, to bring the exchange full-circle, Abdullah’s wife was The lives of people like Vivianne support the mission of the right donor for Vivianne. Pommier, who has a simple message for the GW Ron and Joy Paul Kidney Center, visit smhs. The swap saved three lives, and it exemplifies the kind of work the kidney donor she hasn’t yet met—a gwu.edu/kidneycenter that the D.C. community can expect from the GW Ron and Joy Paul message echoed by the thousands or contact Dennis Narango Kidney Center and the GW Hospital Transplant Institute. of transplant recipients each year: at 202-994-3150 or dnarango@gwu.edu. “We have the potential to make an enormous difference, that’s “Thank you for my life.” GW
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RAISE high
FIVE
“After studying abroad in Brazil for a year, it was exciting to return to GW knowing that the Elliott School has recognized the economic, political, and cultural significance of Brazil as an emerging global power through the Brazil Initiative.” — Hannah Kate Bardo, BA ’14, English teaching associate in Rio de Janeiro, The Fulbright Program
The Brazil Initiative
go.gwu.edu/esiabrazil The Brazil Initiative at GW’s Elliott School addresses an urgent need for academic and policy programs focused on the world’s fifth-largest country, sparking dialogue on this c ritical region. Launched in 2013 by an anonymous gift, the initiative creates new courses and convenes events while strengthening ties to key institutions. Additional philanthropy will further expand its programs.
Each year, members
The Serenity Shack is a substance-free space for GW students on campus.
of the GW community support the programs, funds, and initiatives that help our students reach their full potential and make the George Washington University one of the finest universities in the country. Here are five of our favorites that you might not know about yet: 22 Impact | SPRING 2016
Students for Recovery (SFR)
go.gwu.edu/sfr Students for Recovery, the first university recovery group created in Washington, D.C., supports and advocates for students recovering from mental illness, addiction, or substance abuse. Gifts to SFR provide funding for recovery-support materials and on-campus programming and facilities—including the Serenity Shack, the substance-free space for students on campus—essential to student recovery.
“College can be a terrifying place for a kid struggling with addiction and mental illness. Over the past two years SFR has been a refuge. I wouldn’t be where I am today without it.” —Ethan, GW Class of 2017
æ Interested in learning more or supporting one of these programs? Contact us at gwimpact@gwu.edu today. The GW SMHS Class of 1985 (pictured) initiated the Alumni Legacy Fund for Physician Wellness in 2015.
Internationally recognized financial literacy expert Annamaria Lusardi leads GFLEC.
Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center (GFLEC)
“As we traverse our careers, there are all kinds of changes and stressors that we go through as professionals, and we feel like there is something that can and should be done to support and promote physician wellness.” —Lawrence “Bopper” Deyton, MD ’85, Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Public Health, GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences
go.gwu.edu/gflec Financial literacy levels around the world have reached a crisis point: People are increasingly expected to take responsibility for their own financial security, yet they are unequipped to do so. GFLEC works to raise the level of financial knowledge around the world through rigorous scholarship and research, wide-reaching education, and global policy and services.
“One of the most important developments in financial education over the last several years is a greatly improved research agenda with outstanding academics now working in the field. GFLEC is a real leader in this effort in the U.S. and internationally. Without solid research on what works, we are just wandering around in the dark.” — Ted Beck, President and CEO, National Endowment for Financial Education
Alumni Legacy Fund for Physician Wellness
go.gwu.edu/alfpw The Alumni Legacy Fund for Physician Wellness was created out of an understanding that physicians are not immune to illness and loss. In response to the unique health and wellness risks physicians face in the practice of medicine, the fund aims to promote wellness and self-care within the GW medical community. Your support will help provide educational and professional development opportunities focused on physician wellness throughout the continuum of a full medical career.
3-D printers are some of the new technology being made available at GW Libraries.
Libraries Innovation & Technology Fund
go.gwu.edu/litf As the demands of students, faculty, and researchers continue to grow, so must the technological capabilities of the GW Libraries. A gift to the Libraries Innovation and Technology Fund will support the acquisition and updating of technology ranging from computer software and hardware to digital scanners and 3-D printers.
“The right technology sparks a conversation with the university community. The libraries use these tools to facilitate new collaboration and open advanced research opportunities.” —Geneva Henry, Dean of Libraries and Academic Innovation
MAKING HISTORY: THE CAMPAIGN FOR GW
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EVENTS ROUNDUP
Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute On April 13, the opening of the new Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute was commemorated with a ribboncutting ceremony on campus.
GW supporters attended the American Ballet Theatre’s D.C. premiere of Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty on Jan. 29.
Redstone Installation William H. Dietz (pictured) was formally installed as the director of GW’s Sumner M. Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness on March 1.
24 Impact | SPRING 2016
PHOTO COURTESY OF ABT
GW Donors Take a Bow
æ To view more photos, watch videos, or read more about these events and the philanthropy behind them, visit go.gwu.edu/ImpactEventsS16.
Celebrating LGBT Scholarships GW students, friends, faculty, and parents, including donor and GW parent Quin Shott (far right), gathered March 22 to celebrate student scholarships at a special reception hosted by GW’s LGBT Health Policy and Practice Graduate Program.
Power & Promise 2016 Scholarship recipient Jordan illiams, SEAS ’17, a biomedical W engineering major and jazz pianist, tickled the ivories at this year’s Power & Promise celebration.
GW Flag Day Nearly 1,500 members of the GW community came together on April 12 to thank GW donors for their support.
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GWSPH
The Milken Institute School of Public Health held the first-ever “I Heart GW Public Health” campaign this February to raise awareness about the importance of student philanthropy.
MAKING HISTORY: THE CAMPAIGN FOR GW
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The Division of Development and Alumni Relations 2033 K Street, NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20052
LIVES LINKED TOGETHER Discover how GW’s new kidney center is working to change the way D.C. residents understand kidney health and think about live kidney donations.
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