Tramuto Foundation Pledges $100,000 to Create New Scholarship Fund for Top International Students.
A new scholarship fund has been established to provide support for outstanding international students close to completing the Master of Public Health degree at Boston University School of Public Health.
The Tramuto Foundation, a Maine-based charitable organization founded by healthcare entrepreneur and philanthropist Donato Tramuto, has pledged $100,000 to endow the fund over the next five years. It is designed to provide aid for top international students who excel in the MPH program.
“International students are incredibly important to our program,” said BUSPH Dean Robert Meenan. “They bring personal insight into the public health issues of developing countries that is unique and quite meaningful for our students from the United States. Then when they finish they take their new MPH skills back to countries where they can have tremendous impact.”
Tramuto is an active member of the BUSPH Dean’s Advisory Board, whose members serve as ambassadors for the School and work with the Dean to identify and involve individuals, foundations and corporations to invest in health solutions.
Board members also help the Dean evaluate strategic planning, provide advice on financial matters, assist in raising philanthropic support for School priorities, and identify organizations and individuals who can provide additional education and resources in the field of public health.
“We are extremely grateful to the Tramuto Foundation for this generous grant,” Meenan added. “It will provide scholarship support for international students who have done very well in their MPH studies and are in the final semester of their studies. This support will play a critical role in helping international students complete their degrees. It will provide significant leverage for selected students who have done well and are on track to make a difference in their home countries. That is very much in keeping with what the Tramuto Foundation is all about.”
Since 1976, BUSPH has played an increasingly prominent role in the field of academic public health, earning a national and international reputation for its education programs, research capabilities and service activities. Today the school’s faculty, students and alumni work in communities, agencies, clinics and labs to find real-world solutions to public health problems.
Tramuto has followed a similar path in the private sector as CEO and Chairman of Physicians Interactive, and helped the company grow from a small Web-based healthcare marketing company to its current position as as the leading provider of online and mobile clinical resources and solutions for healthcare professionals.
“There is a strong synergy between Boston University’s highly-regarded School of Public Health and what I do on a professional and personal level,” Tramuto said. “Bringing the best medical minds together with the most up-to-date medical information and technology is changing the way high quality healthcare is delivered around the globe.“
In 2011, Tramuto and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights co-founded and launched Health eVillages, which provides clinicians with mobile healthcare technology that enables them to deliver safe and efficient medical care in the most challenging clinical environments around the globe.
Tramuto established the foundation in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy, which affected him on a deeply personal level. Tramuto was scheduled to join two friends and their 3-year-old son on a flight to California the morning of September 11, but an emergency dental appointment forced him to change his plans and fly to Los Angeles the night of September 10. His friends and their child boarded the ill-fated Flight 175, which crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
Touched by the loss, Tramuto launched the Foundation to provide opportunities and assistance to young individuals with special challenges. It was a way to honor his friends and to help others achieve their goals and dreams, he said.
“I began this Foundation 12 years ago after the death of my friends because I knew then that I when I leave this world I want my legacy to be about helping others, about collaborating with people and organizations whose mission is to improve the lives of others. That is the essence of this Foundation,” Tramuto said.