Andrew (left) and Jane (right) Bursky (courtesy of the Bursky School of Public Health)

WashU’s new School of Public Health received $200 million, the largest donation in the history of the University, from the Bursky Family Foundation in May. The school has been renamed the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky School of Public Health after foundation founders and alumni Andrew Bursky, outgoing chair of the WashU Board of Trustees, and his wife, Jane Bursky. 

Bursky School of Public Health Dean Sandro Galea said the donation will allow the school to bolster preexisting programs while establishing new initiatives such as the Purple Public Health Project. According to the project’s website, it aims to “develop a practical playbook to reframe the field for a politically diverse nation.” 

“[This program is] to make sure that public health serves all people, regardless of where they sit in the political spectrum,” Galea said. “That conception of public health as a field that embraces the many, embraces all, needs to be at the very heart of what we do.”

Andrew Bursky said his interest in contributing to the School of Public Health came from the erosion of trust in public health he observed following the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“People felt like they couldn’t trust what they were being told, and it wasn’t because the practitioners didn’t care — they cared deeply,” Bursky said. “[But] we’re missing the mark if we don’t have communities that have trust.” 

Bursky also said his philanthropy was inspired by the Langsdorf Fellowship he received as a WashU student, which he said enabled him to pursue an education at the University.

“What I am today in no small measure is the result of that foundation, and in my view of the world, when you’ve had good fortune and kindness, you have an obligation to find ways to give back [in] whatever capacity you can,” Bursky said.

For Galea, WashU’s location in St. Louis and Missouri is central to its mission to reach across political lines.

“Starting a great school of public health in the middle of the country, in what is a blue city and a red state, has always been a large part of the appeal,” Galea said. “[It is] an area which has historically been underrepresented in the national conversation about health.”

Chancellor Andrew D. Martin similarly hoped the school would have a positive impact on St. Louis and Missouri, in addition to a global reach.

“We want to build the finest public health school in the country,” he said. “The way in which we know that it’s the finest public health school in the country is [it’s the] public health school that’s having the greatest impact on [our] community.”

The opening of the new public health school comes at a precarious financial time for public health, after the Trump administration proposed significant cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies last year. 

Bursky said because of the “unsustainable” federal deficit, issues with federal funding were inevitable, regardless of the Trump administration’s actions. He said he has been advocating for WashU to transition to other sources of funding and urged continued financial restraint. 

“Washington University is blessed with enormous resources, financial and otherwise, but Washington University needs to be very disciplined about how those resources are spent,” Bursky said. 

Martin expressed hope that the school could significantly improve people’s lives. 

“I’d like to think five years from now, 10 years from now, 50 years from now, this school will have contributed in demonstrable ways to improving the overall health of millions and millions of people all around the planet,” he said.