The University of Texas at Austin

LBJ School, with major gift from Rapoport Foundation, founds Bernard and Audre Rapoport Professorship in Health and Social Policy

April 8, 2008

Austin, Texas - The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs is pleased to announce the donation of a major gift from the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation. The gift will total $1,000,000 over the next year and will be used to create an endowed professorship in Social and Health Policy.

"We have made a major commitment to strengthen our work on health and social policy through our Center on Health and Social Policy [CHASP] this year," said Dean of the LBJ School, James B. Steinberg. He continued, "With our most sincere thanks to the generosity of our friends Audre Rapoport and LBJ Foundation Board member Bernard Rapoport, we are establishing the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Professorship in Health and Social Policy at the School."

In appreciation of the Rapoport’s generosity, the LBJ School and the LBJ Library and Museum recently hosted a dinner in their honor. In attendance were the Honorable Ben Barnes, former Lt. Governor of Texas, the Honorable Lyndon Olson, former Ambassador to Sweden and a former Congressman from Texas, Larry Temple, President of the LBJ Foundation and LBJ School Dean Steinberg, among others.

The LBJ School has a long-standing focus on the public policy debates surrounding our social and medical well being. In addition to the endowed professorship, the LBJ School has added several new faculty members in the field including Dr. Jeanne Lambrew, who began an appointment at LBJ this year as an associate professor. Prior to her appointment at LBJ, she was the Associate Director for Health, Personnel, and Veterans, Office of Management and Budget (2000-2001) and a Senior Health Policy Analyst at the White House’s National Economic Council (1997-2000). Dr Lambrew specializes in health care and policy and conducts research on the uninsured, Medicaid, Medicare, and long-term care. Dr. Lambrew most recently taught at the School of Public Health and Health Services at the George Washington University Medical Center (2001-2007).

Mark B. McClellan recently joined the LBJ School as a visiting professor in health policy. In the Clinton administration, Dr. McClellan was Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for economic policy (1998–1999), supervising economic analysis and policy development on a range of domestic policy issues. He is the former administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (2004-2006) and the former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (2002-2004). He also served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and as Senior Director for Health Care Policy at the White House (2001–2002). Dr. McClellan was an associate professor of economics and associate professor of medicine (with tenure) at Stanford University before he began is career in public service. He earned his M.P.A. from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in 1991, his M.D. from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology in 1992, and his Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1993.

Eduardo J. Sanchez came to the LBJ School in 2006 after his tenure as the Commissioner, Texas Department of State Health Services (2004 – 2006) and as the Commissioner, Texas Department Health (2001 – 2004). Prior to that he served as the Health Authority and Chief Medical Officer for the Austin-Travis County Health and Human Services Department (1994 – 1998) and was a ran his own practice until 2001.

These talented faculty members join an already tenacious and experienced group of academics specializing in health and social policy at the LBJ School including Dr. David C. Warner, Dr. Jacqueline L. Angel, Dr. Pat Wong, Dr. Cynthia Osborne, and Dr. Jane Lincove, all of whom make up the executive committee of the Center for Health and Social Policy.

Since its inception in 1989, the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation has dedicated more than $32 million in grants to improve the social fabric of life. The Foundation seeks innovative solutions to intractable and persistent problems and strives to cultivate emerging talents and promising models. Founders Bernard and Audre Rapoport are actively involved in the Foundation's operations, which have touched many lives in the area of education, arts and culture, health and human service, and civic participation.