Decisionmaking, Measured

Julio Frenk, as Mexico’s minister of health, administers oral polio vaccine to a baby in a rural community during National Health Week in 2005. address: “Individuals use knowledge decline in the Harvard endowment to structure their everyday experience (see pages 42-43), such a move is un- and generate health-promoting behav- certain. In the near term, Frenk says, iors. People wash their hands because the school is going ahead with some of knowledge about microbial trans- long-postponed renovations and try- mission of disease. People change the ing to consolidate (its o∞ces and labs most intimate parts of their sexual be- currently span 27 separate buildings). havior because of knowledge about But he is hopeful that the school will the way AIDS and other STDs are make the move eventually, while keep- transmitted. People quit smoking be- ing a foothold in Longwood for prox- cause of the knowledge that smoking imity to Harvard Medical School. actually kills you.” Compared to other Harvard facul- ties, HSPH has been somewhat insu- Frenk’s father and grandfather—a lated from the financial crisis: a decline Jew who fled Nazi Germany—were in the endowment distribution pinches both physicians. In fact, Frenk repre- less, because HSPH gets the lowest sents the fourth generation of physi- COURTESY OF JULIO FRENK percentage of its operating budget cians in his family. He saw patients briefly was in an HSPH building. Now he is him- from that source—13 percent in fiscal 2008 after completing medical school at the self the father of four, and the author of (see “Harder Times,” January-February, National Autonomous University of Mex- two children’s books explaining the func- page 47). And, Frenk notes, the school is ico, but quickly realized that he was more tions of the human body. His wife, econo- in a good position when it comes to fed- interested in considering society as a pa- mist Felicia Marie Knaul, Ph.D. ’95, has eral funding (its principal source of rev- tient. He arrives at Harvard with experi- held senior government posts in Mexico enue), with no large grants coming to an ence not only in Mexico, but at WHO, and Colombia; most recently, she worked end soon. where he was executive director of evi- for the Mexican Health Foundation. He vows that the school will not pull dence and information for policy. He is back on financial aid for its thoroughly also a member of the Institute of Medi- Frenk voices excitement at taking international student body (one-third of cine and has served as a senior fellow in the helm of HSPH at a time when public the students are foreign citizens, repre- global health at the Bill & Melinda Gates health is coming into its own, with disci- senting 50 countries in all). He aims to Foundation. Besides his medical degree, plines from economics to security studies create more financial support for junior he holds three degrees from the Univer- recognizing its importance. “We know faculty, including funds to incubate re- sity of Michigan: master’s degrees in pub- today that investing in health is the best search ideas that don’t fall within the lic health and in sociology, and a Ph.D. in way to create prosperity and security for guidelines for federal grants. And, Frenk medical-care organization and sociology. everyone,” he said in a December panel says resolutely, “We have no plans of lay- An opera fan, Frenk is the third of seven discussion at the Harvard Kennedy ing o≠ personnel. We are not contemplat- children whose careers divided roughly School. He adds: “Living in a world where ing any drastic measures.” evenly between music (their mother is a children die unnecessarily, or women die Another endeavor that is proceeding: concert pianist) and science and medicine while giving birth—this is what sows the hiring a new director for HIGH. Given the (their father’s domain). The Mexico City seeds of resentment.” obvious relevance of this interfaculty ini- native was almost born in Boston: his fa- Health’s relevance across disciplines tiative to HSPH concerns, and the fact ther had a fellowship at Children’s Hospi- makes HSPH a perfect candidate, he says, that the new leader will have a faculty ap- tal, but his mother returned to Mexico for for a move to Allston, where it would be pointment through HSPH, the search had the delivery, and then rejoined her hus- closer to the schools of business and gov- been suspended; in January, it was well band. Frenk and his twin sister spent most ernment, and possibly a relocated school under way—a good thing, Frenk says, of their first year in Boston—and coinci- of education. But with Allston HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL dentally, the lab where their father worked plans under review given the steep The new Decision Science Lab, which Decisionmaking, opened in January, allows researchers to measure physiological markers of emotion— Measured blood pressure, heart rate, facial muscle acti- vation—to study subjects’ mental states at the moment of making a decision. The lab belongs to the Kennedy School, but is open to all Harvard faculty members and their students. Read more online at www.harvardmag.com/breaking-news/where-decisionmaking-is-measured. 50 March - April 2009 Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard.

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