Joan Bergstrom (J '62) has endowed a new professorship at Tufts' nutrition school focusing on issues of global nutrition and children.
The professorship, called the Bergstrom Foundation Professorship in Global Nutrition, came as part of Tufts' ongoing capital campaign, Beyond Boundaries.
"I am deeply grateful to Joan and Gary Bergstrom for this wonderful gift, as it will give us the resources to bring an exceptional new faculty member to Tufts," Eileen Kennedy, the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, said in an e-mail.
The Bergstrom Foundation, a "small family foundation," provided the gift, according to Bergstrom, a former Tufts trustee and current professor at Wheelock College. "I'm particularly interested in the well-being of children and youth and families," she told the Daily.
Cindy Briggs Tobin, the Friedman School's director of development and alumni relations, did not disclose the amount of the gift but said the position was a junior professorship. Junior professors are on the tenure track but have not yet attained the distinction.
"The concept is that this person will be working on issues of hunger, malnutrition and famine around the world, particularly how it affects children," she said.
The nutrition school is hoping that the professorship will round out its Food Policy and Applied Nutrition program. Most of the faculty in the program are economists, and Kennedy hopes to fill the spot with a professor who has a background in nutrition research.
Having already determined the desired background of the professor who will fill the position, it will be some time before the professorship becomes a reality. The trustees must vote on the professorship once the full gift is on hand. According to Briggs Tobin, that vote "won't occur until at least until 2010."
Bergstrom, who was once head of the Board of Overseers for the Friedman School, said her time on the board influenced her decision to endow the professorship.
"I think the Friedman School is very involved in applied work, and I happen to think that they're really interested in state-of-the-art research," she said. "I think that by watching them over the years, [I've seen] they're a very talented group."
Briggs Tobin also believes the professorship is fitting, considering Tufts' focus on global citizenship. She added that it reflects several of Bergstrom's values. "She has made a career of helping children in various capacities," Briggs Tobin said. "She's an educator, entrepreneur and has done so many things and felt this chair would be a wonderful way for a faculty member to be able to get out into the community."
This is not the first Tufts professorship that the Bergstroms have endowed. In 1997, along with their son, they created the Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development. Richard Lerner currently holds the position.
The new professorship is just one of the ways the Friedman School plans to expand in the near future. The Friedman School also hopes to raise funds for more endowed professorships and student financial aid through Beyond Boundaries.
According to Kennedy, the campaign is critically important. "Achieving these goals will create an even stronger Friedman School that can fulfill its mission of improving the nutritional well-being of people worldwide," she said.
