In his first address since assuming the deanship on Jan. 1, Julio Frenk described what he called his ambition for HSPH—to become the first school of public health of the 21st century and to invest in the highest quality students and faculty who will shape the coming decades.

Frenk spoke to more than 300 HSPH members in the Kresge cafeteria on Thursday, Jan. 8.

Immediate past dean Barry Bloom introduced Frenk as a “hero in a very short pantheon of my personal heroes.” In a lighthearted exchange, Bloom transferred the “symbols of power” to Frenk: a “greatly besmirched tie” handed down from previous deans; a copy of a book called The Golden Cane signed by every dean since 1922; and a gavel.

“So, with that, I can only wish you as much joy and happiness as I’ve had and as rewarding a career,” said Bloom, who is a Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and the Joan L. and Julius H. Jacobson professor of public health. A tuberculosis expert, Bloom will maintain a laboratory at HSPH.

Frenk, the T & G Angelopoulos professor of public health and international development, said his ambition is for HSPH “to be the first school of public health of the 21st century. First in the two meanings of the word—first in time and first in quality.” What does that mean? he asked.

“It means a global outlook,” Frenk said, adding, “Global is not the opposite of domestic.” He explained that a global outlook includes “understanding the way in which both this country receives the influence of the rest of the world, positive and negative, and also the way in which events happen in this country” because they have repercussions around the globe.

Investing in future generations was another key theme of Frenk’s talk. HSPH needs to give priority to getting more financial assistance to keep recruiting the best students, he said, “and that will be a challenge in this economic environment, but it’s something that I pledge to make my top priority. And also, to provide the opportunities for the junior faculty who will shape the 21st century” to have rewarding careers at the School.

Frenk’s ambition for the School involves the integration of scientific disciplines and of levels of analysis. “I think very few other schools of public health have the strength of being able literally to go all the way from the gene to the globe, and that is, I think, what public health will be in the 21st century—integration among disciplines, integration among levels of analysis, integration between excellence and relevance, not portraying these as opposite objectives but as objectives that can and should be brought together—excellence in the relentless pursuit of the highest quality research and teaching, while at the same time addressing the most pressing problems of today and of the future.”

Frenk expressed his hope to convene retreats during which these goals may be intensively explored. He noted that a potential presence of HSPH on the Harvard campus in Allston will continue to be addressed. He expressed his excitement at the prospect of intellectually engaging with the HSPH faculty, and he acknowledged his role as a steward of the School’s financial and management activities. He shared that he will chair a planned international commission examining leadership development in public health and said that he “will need the participation and creativity of this whole community to think in those terms.”

He concluded that as dean, he sees his main job as helping “this community of highly creative persons to achieve their dreams. The School of Public Health is truly a place where people working together can formulate dreams and turn them into realities, and … through this process, we can fulfill goals that are still undreamed of.”