FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 2, 2009

CONTACT: Janet M. Caldwell, 615.500.0632, jcaldwell@mmc.edu

Meharry Medical College awarded historic multimillion-dollar endowment to establish national center for health policy
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to announce groundbreaking collaboration

(Nashville, Tenn.) March 2, 2009-- Meharry Medical College, the nation’s largest, private, independent, historically black, academic health center, is poised to receive the single largest endowment gift in the college’s 130-year history. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the largest philanthropy in America devoted exclusively to health and health care, has selected Meharry to receive a multimillion-dollar endowment and other funding to establish the Robert Wood Johnson Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College. The gift comes as the nation grapples with economic challenges amid new calls and rising momentum for reforming the U.S. health care system.

Meharry Medical College will be partnering with Vanderbilt University College of Arts and Science in this project.

The Center aims to: serve as a think tank for the pressing health care issues of the day; increase the diversity of health policy scholars with Ph.D.s who are formally trained in sociology and economics; and provide Meharry students and faculty with new curricula, research and academic offerings in health policy. The Center will re-shape the future of America’s health policies by creating a more inclusive pool of experts trained in health policy and allied disciplines.

Who: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt University

What: Launch of the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Center at Meharry Medical College

When: March 5, 2009, 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m., with press availability immediately following

Where: S.S. Kresge Learning Resources Center (LRC)
Second Floor of the Library
Meharry Medical College
1005 Dr. D. B. Todd, Jr. Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37208

(The LRC is located on Albion Street between 21st Avenue North and Dr. D. B. Todd, Jr. Blvd.)

Parking is available in Lot F on 21st Avenue North