Veritas, Vol. 43, No. 09, Summer 2001

              Donna Shalala takes the reins as University’s fifth president
of Health) budget is going to shoot straight up, and we need more than our fair share,” she said.
The School of Medicine later welcomed Shalala at an informal breakfast
Making her rounds, clockwise from top: President Donna Shalala greets medical students, doctors, and staff' during a welcome breakfast in her honor at the School of Medicine; visits the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, where she embarked on a research cruise aboard the F. G. Walton Smith,* and meets with student leaders at the George A. Smathers Student Wellness Center on the Coral Gables camp its.
University of Miami senior Angela Lott probably could not have guessed in a million years the chance encounter she would have one day while taking a break between classes.
Sitting at a table on the Whitten University Center patio, Lott was speaking with her mother in Atlanta via cell phone when new UM President Donna Shalala approached her.
“Is that your mother? Let me talk to her,” Shalala said, motioning for Lott’s cell phone.
“Hi, this is Donna Shalala. I’m the new president,” she told Lott’s mother. “Don’t worry, I’m going to take good care of your daughter.”
The encounter was typical of Sha-lala’s boundless energy and enthusiasm on a whirlwind first day as president that included breakfast with University vice presidents, a tour of the Coral Gables campus with student leaders, and lunch with faculty. Shalala also visited the University’s marine and medical schools.
At the School of Medicine, she toured the new Batchelor Children’s Research Institute and talked about raising money for the school’s ambitious research and clinical programs. “I obviously have a deep interest in health and medical research,” Shalala, former Health and Human Services Secretary in the Clinton Administration, said to a group of associate deans and student leaders. “I’m prepared to raise significant money for the strategies you develop. “The NIH (National Institutes
gathering in late June. The event, held at the new Schoninger Research Quadrangle on the medical campus, featured a street fair atmosphere with clowns, music, and more.
Shalala’s mission will be to take UM to “the next level—to world-class,” said UM Trustee Charles E. Cobb, Jr.,
when Shalala was introduced as president last year.
Shalala says she will spend the first months of her presidency “listening to people and getting to know the campus and community.” She arrives at a financially and academically prosperous university, but faces some significant
challenges, such as launching a new capital campaign and elevating the University of Miami into the nation’s elite group of leading research universities.
Shalala’s priorities for the University are simple: “Quality, quality, quality. Excellence, excellence, excellence,” as she was quoted in a recent Miami Herald article, in which she emphasized UM’s partnership with other local universities and colleges and stressed the importance of a diverse socio-economic campus.
“I don’t see it as competition. I see it as us all marching toward one goal: to provide a workforce which is of the first rank, to create jobs through our students and through our research, and to provide an atmosphere of highly educated people that raises aspirations for the kids of our community,” she was quoted. “All of this within a diverse setting that is unmatched any place in this country.”
Prior to her eight years as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Shalala was chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. There, she revived the Badger football program, helped raise more than $400 million for the school’s endowment, and led a $225 million public-private partnership program to renovate and add research facilities.
Batchelor Institute opens as a ray of hope for children
It’s hard to appreciate just how important the new Batchelor Children’s Research Institute is just by looking at its exterior. Indeed, from the outside, it looks like just another imposing structure adorning the University of Miami School of Medicine’s growing skyline.
But inside, physicians and scientists are working to ensure the future of children. They’re testing new treatments for HIV, searching for the cure for cystic fibrosis and cancer, and working to unravel the mystery of premature births. Their work could someday stop a slew of debilitating childhood diseases dead in their tracks.
“This institute represents the fulfillment of hope,” is how keynote speaker Deborah Norville, anchor of TV’s Inside Edition, described the new
institute at its dedication ceremony.
The eight-story facility houses the many research initiatives of the School
of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics. Physicians such as Gwendolyn Scott, director of the Pediatric Immunology and Infectious Diseases division, will
work under one roof with hundreds of other physicians and scientists devoted to the study, treatment, and cure of children’s diseases. Scott’s Pediatric AIDS Program, for example, is testing new drug combinations and other therapies that will allow children with HIV to lead healthier lives.
The Batchelor Children’s Research Institute was made possible by a leadership gift of $ 10 million from aviation pioneer and philanthropist George E. Batchelor. He increased that gift to $ 15 million with the surprise announcement at the institute’s dedication that he would donate another $5 million.
Augmenting the Batchelor Foundation’s leadership gift was a $5 million contribution from the Harcourt M. and Virginia W. Sylvester Foundation to establish the Sylvester Family Children’s Cancer and Neonatology Research Center within the institute.
Batchelor’s quest to create a facility devoted to the health and welfare of children is one rooted in personal
tragedy. In 1990, Batchelor’s son, Falcon, died of cystic fibrosis at the age of 35. Doctors told the Batchelor family that Falcon wouldn’t survive past his teens. Refusing to accept that news, Batchelor took his son to see Robert M. McKey, Jr., founder and former director of the University of Miami’s Cystic Fibrosis Center. With McKey’s care, Falcon lived 20 more years.
“One of the reasons I took on this venture is because I want to see cystic fibrosis cured, but the idea that this institute can help all children is truly exciting and gratifying for me,” says Batchelor.
Cystic fibrosis and other pulmonary diseases are high on the list of illnesses that are being investigated at the Pediatric Pulmonary Program, another of the institute’s priority programs.
Other research priorities at the institute include a neonatology program, critical care program, maternal lifestyles program, family education program, and a generics program.
Gathered at the dedication ceremony were, from left to right, R. Rodney Howell, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics, George E. Batchelor, and John Clarkson, senior vice president for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine.