NEWS

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation announces $1 million gift to School of Public Health

CHAPEL HILL -- The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation today announced a $1 million gift to support the scientific, educational and practice-based initiatives of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, the nation’s top public school of public health and North Carolina’s only such school.

The foundation’s gift to the School of Public Health will be awarded over four years and will go directly to help build the school’s new 125,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art research center to house programs in environmental health, epidemiology and nutrition. With its laboratories and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation Auditorium as focal points, the building will be a center for unparalleled discovery and world-class teaching in public health. The school plans to break ground for its new facility, which will adjoin the school’s existing Rosenau and McGavran-Greenberg halls on south campus, this summer.

"In recent months, Americans have become more aware than ever of the essential role public health plays in our society," said Bob Greczyn, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina president and chief executive officer. "Meaningful partnerships between public and private entities are our most realistic hope for ensuring a healthy future for the people of North Carolina."

Greczyn added that the UNC School of Public Health’s commitment to protecting against threats to health, empowering people to lead healthy lives, improving the quality of health services and preparing leaders to advance health are directly complementary to the foundation’s mission.

The new research center will enhance the school’s ability to conduct innovative research and engage in world-class education in the critical areas of environmental health, epidemiology and nutrition that must be addressed. These include:

· Understanding the effect of diet and physical activity on disease prevention in minority populations, children, adolescents and the elderly.

· Preventing the spread of tuberculosis, HIV and other infectious diseases.

· Identifying harmful exposures and ensuring safe and clean water, soil and air.

· Determining the relationship between genes and the environment, and their impact on the risk of breast cancer and other diseases.

The foundation’s gift to the UNC School of Public Health will also benefit the school by:

· Providing safe and modern laboratories for students and faculty.

· Meeting the space needs of departments whose programs have changed to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

· Consolidating faculty and programs into unified space, drawing diverse people together to exchange ideas.

"This generous investment in our school strengthens a longstanding relationship between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and Carolina’s School of Public Health while launching a new partnership with the BCBSNC Foundation," said the school’s dean, Dr. Bill Roper. "The BCBSNC Foundation Auditorium will serve as a cornerstone for educating new generations of public health leaders, a physical symbol of the missions and joined commitment of these three distinct organizations in ensuring a healthy future for all North Carolinians."

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina created the foundation in 2000 with $15 million to support programs that advance the foundation’s mission of improving the health and well-being of the people of North Carolina. The foundation focuses on programs that increase access to health care services for the uninsured, provide health education, promote healthy lifestyles and support health initiatives that target children, older adults and minorities.

The foundation will support programs and services in response to grant requests, as well as supporting needs identified by the foundation. Organizations may learn more about the application process or apply for a foundation grant by visiting the company’s World Wide Web site at www.bcbsnc.com.

In its 60-plus-year history, the UNC School of Public Health has grown from a division within the School of Medicine to one of the nation’s premier schools of public health, enrolling more than 1,200 students annually and having more than 170 full-time faculty members. The school boasts seven academic departments -- biostatistics, environmental sciences and engineering, epidemiology, health behavior and health education, health policy and administration, maternal and child health, and nutrition -- as well as a program in public health leadership and many centers and institutes.

The School of Public Health offers several undergraduate degrees and numerous master’s and doctoral programs in addition to a regular complement of distance education courses accessible to the general public and members of the health care community alike. To learn more about the school or to tap into current seminars, lectures and webcasts on topics ranging from bioterrorism and community preparedness to prenatal health and health care financing, visit the school’s Web site at www.sph.unc.edu.

To date, the School of Public Health has raised approximately $35 million during the quiet phase of the university’s Carolina First Campaign, a campuswide initiative intended to position Carolina as the nation’s leading public university. The School of Public Health’s campaign goals are captured in four basic themes: protecting against threats to health, empowering people to lead healthy lives, improving the quality of health services and preparing leaders to advance health.

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Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina contacts: Michelle Vanstory at (919) 765-2825 and Mark Stinneford at (919) 765-4933

School of Public Health contact: Lisa Katz at (919) 966-7467