Updates from the President

Last Thursday marked a very special milestone for Arizona State University. In the company of hundreds of ASU students, faculty, staff and esteemed supporters, we launched Campaign ASU 2020, a strategic effort to raise at least $1.5 billion in order to expand our institutional capacity and speed in fulfillment of our charter and goals.

As I shared with those present, ASU is considerably younger than its land-grant peers, but it has accomplished dramatic and admirable success in a very compressed time frame. Those accomplishments are largely due to the vision, conviction and generosity of the donors who demonstrate their support of ASU at all levels. We are grateful for their belief in the life-changing power of education and their willingness to help realize the dreams of our students, our community and our state.

Now, as we look to empower ASU to be of service at the pace and scale of our fast-moving and ever-growing world, I ask that you visit giveto.asu.edu to learn more about the collective endeavor that is the first fundraising campaign during my tenure at ASU. I also invite you to watch the brief video below for a look at the powerful, personal impact of philanthropy at ASU. Together, our potential is limitless.

On the theme of the vital role that education plays in creating lifetime opportunity, the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce Valley Voices Series invited me to join Maricopa County Community College District Chancellor, Dr. Maria Harper-Marinick to discuss the intersection between higher education and the economy.

This is a topic of incredible importance to me, in part because I am both fascinated and frustrated by individuals who do not believe that the two are connected. Despite sharing solid data demonstrating that college attainment is the most significant indicator of social mobility, there are still many people who contend that insufficient college completion rates will not have an impact on our state's economic health and prosperity.

During our chat, Dr. Harper-Marinick and I stressed the rapidly changing needs of our society and its workforce, and the need to expand access to a redesigned education system that sets higher and measurable outcomes for its learners. ASU has experienced success by embracing innovation and technology that provides insightful analytics. It's time for Arizona to choose the kind of economic future it wants and take the next steps necessary to make it a reality.

Health care is a topic on the minds of many, especially in terms of accessibility and affordability. Last fall, we joined our partners at Mayo Clinic to announce the Mayo ASU Alliance for Health Care, a new phase of our partnership dedicated to transforming patient care, medical education and research through solution- oriented collaboration. One part of these comprehensive efforts is the facilitation of discourse that brings industry leaders together in search of actionable answers.

Earlier this month, the alliance held its first such gathering, when ASU's School for the Science of Health Care Delivery and the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery hosted a special summit dedicated to patient access and alternate payment models.

Twenty-five of our nation's top health care industry leaders participated in this exercise in Phoenix, and examined data drawn from various sources to better understand and address the challenges facing patients in terms of health care treatment and cost coverage. Outcomes from the summit will be used to help inform health care policy makers and to help advance the next phase of value-based medical care and reimbursement.

Additional details about the summit can be found below.

January was filled with excitement - start to finish - but a special highlight was receiving the "Tree of Life" Award from the Jewish National Fund on January 19.

This honor is a humanitarian award that acknowledges exemplary community involvement and dedication to strengthening U.S.-Israel relations. I was deeply humbled to be chosen to receive this award though, like everything we do at ASU, the progress we demonstrate is the result of our collective effort. That includes our incredible students who participate in our study abroad programs and represent ASU honorably around the world; our ASU faculty and staff who imagine and implement unbelievable collaborative education and discovery programs in Israel and around the world; and our enthusiastic international partners, like Ben Gurion University of the Negev, who share our access and use-inspired research mission.

I am very proud to be part of a university that represents the diversity of the society in which it exists and that has adopted the advancement of meaningful global engagement as one of its primary design aspirations. These relationships, whether they are across campus or across the world, enrich the learners and solutions we work to create and we have every intention of continuing this global mindset going forward.