You’ll read about how we are taking a stronger and more active role in community engagement through initiatives like the SMART Health and Wellness Clinic. Based at Calcutt Middle School in Central Falls, RI, I’m very proud of the fact that this is the first SMART clinic in the country to partner with a school of medicine. We are having community-centered conversations with partners and local leaders in order to learn from them how best the Medical School can help address health equity and access to health care.

We are also working on the planning of a new Integrated Life Sciences Building, which was announced this summer. While we are still in the very early stages, this facility will vastly increase capacity for life sciences research at Brown. This building will be located in Providence’s Jewelry District, ideally situated to enable close collaboration with scientists and physicians at The Warren Alpert Medical School, the School of Public Health, the School of Engineering, and our affiliated hospital partners.

The building planning dovetails with the University’s announcement of an operational plan to significantly increase research at Brown in the next five to seven years. In the Division of Biology and Medicine, we have identified the following focus areas for growth: aging and its associated diseases, such as cancer and brain disorders; infectious disease and immunology; and RNA biology. One of my top priorities this year is to support the recruitment of diverse scientists in these areas.

In addition, our celebration of 50 Years of Medicine at Brown continues with our second milestone event happening on October 22 at the University-sponsored WaterFire. Our entire community, as well as the Rhode Island community, are invited to join us in this celebration. I hope that all of our alumni, students, and friends will have an opportunity to celebrate these joyous occasions with us this year.