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April 7, 2004

Dear Members of the Tufts Community,

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Eileen Kennedy, D.Sc. as the new Dean of the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts. Dr. Kennedy is a nutrition policy expert and former high-ranking federal official. She has championed nutrition research and its policy applications throughout her career, from seven years as nutrition's leading voice at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to her well-known studies of maternal and child health and nutrition in Africa, Asia, North and Central America. Professor Kennedy's career is a terrific match for the Friedman School, and her work illustrates the founding principle of the school - to embrace nutrition from the science to the policy. Kennedy is also returning home to the Tufts community, as she served as a visiting professor on our faculty from 1982 to 1993.

Professor Kennedy has long been involved in the academic arena of nutrition, teaching and conducting research at Tufts, Columbia University, Cornell University and Johns Hopkins University. She has been a policy leader in many circles, working with the United Nations, the National Academy of Sciences, the White House National Science and Technology Council, the White House Biotechnology Subcommittee, the Surgeon General's Task Force on Health Disparities and many other major organizations that influence decision makers. As an elected member of the United Nations advisory group on nutrition, Kennedy spent several days last month at the UN working side by side with colleagues from the Friedman School on international nutrition issues.

Kennedy has made many significant contributions to nutrition research and policy. While serving as Deputy Under Secretary and then Acting Under Secretary at the USDA, she earned a worldwide reputation for her expertise through the creation of the "Healthy Eating Index," a validated measure for researchers monitoring nutrition. While at USDA, Kennedy led agencies that provided policy advice, analysis and research on agriculture, biotechnology, nutrition, environment, food safety, economics and agricultural extension with a combined budget of $2.2 billion. She was the co-chair of the high-profile National Nutrition Summit in 1999-2000.

Professor Kennedy was recently president of the Global Nutrition Institute, an organization that links science-based nutrition research to action through public and private partnerships. She also served as global executive director of International Life Sciences Institute, a nutrition research organization. Kennedy holds an undergraduate degree from Hunter College, two masters degrees from Pennsylvania State University and Harvard University and a Doctor of Science in Nutrition from Harvard's School of Public Health. Hunter College recently elected her to its Hall of Fame, and Pennsylvania State University inducted her into its Alumni Fellows Hall of Fame.

Kennedy succeeds Irwin H. Rosenberg, MD who has served as dean of the Friedman School since 1995. We are deeply grateful to Dr. Rosenberg for his inspired leadership of the school and his continued guidance of the school's faculty, students and staff. Rosenberg, recently named University Professor, will continue his research and teaching agenda as well as involvement in international and national policy-making. During Rosenberg's leadership, Friedman faculty have made groundbreaking research discoveries, served on policy-making panels throughout the world, and used their academic pursuits to address global problems and enhance people's lives, from helping to prevent famine and disease to creating the first food guide pyramid for people 70 years and older.

Under Dr. Rosenberg's stewardship, the Friedman School received a naming gift, the largest gift in its history, and completed a move for most of the school's faculty, staff and students to the state of the art Jaharis Family Center for Biomedical and Nutrition Research on Tufts' Health Sciences campus in Boston. Rosenberg led a major review and overhaul of the curriculum, which expanded from two academic programs to eight, and added two new degrees -the joint Masters of Science and Public Health with the School of Medicine and the world's only Master of Arts in Humanitarian Assistance which the Friedman School awards with the Fletcher School. The expansion of the academic program is reflected in the size of the student body, which nearly doubled.

I would like to extend special thanks to Robert Russell, MD, chair of the search committee, and all the members of the committee for their tireless dedication to this search. They have done extraordinary work over the course of this year-long search, and I am very appreciative of their efforts.

I know you will join President Bacow, the Trustees and me in welcoming Dr. Kennedy to Tufts. She will assume her new post on July 1st. Her current email address is Kennedy759@aol.com if you wish to send her a note before she arrives on campus. Once she arrives there will be opportunities to welcome her personally.

Best regards,

Jamshed Bharucha
Provost and Senior Vice President