Supporting Innovation.

WHEN IT COMES TO SUPPORTING institutions and organizations, Ruth Moorman and Sheldon Simon have a strategy. “The first thing that we look for is the cause,” says Simon. “The second thing that we look at is the individual. And the third is the institution itself.”

In December 2015, the couple made a gift to SPH’s Innovation Incubator, which supports and encourages creative and cross-school projects to improve the health of populations. It also provides grants for researchers early in their careers to launch pilots and proof of concept efforts and to seed first stages in program development.

First, the cause: “We’ve always supported hospitals and medical research,” says Moorman.

“Public health exists at the center of a triangle between the healthcare system, public policy, and citizenship,” says Simon, a partner and equity analyst at Adage Capital Management, L.P. and co-chairman and founder of the Men’s Collaborative to Cure Women’s Cancers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

“That’s what makes public health interesting,” Moorman says. “It’s that work at the intersection.”

Second, the people: the couple agrees that meeting Dean Sandro Galea was what initially drew them in. “It’s important to invest in people, and Sandro’s a good investment,” Moorman says.

“We liked his enthusiasm and his energy,” says Simon, who has also joined the Dean’s Advisory Board, a group of prominent alumni and friends of SPH that works with Dean Galea and other School leaders on strategy and resource development. “Through Sandro we re-learn the importance of public health,” he says.

Moorman notes that supporting young researchers is especially rewarding. “It’s fun to see where your investment goes, and it’s fun when it’s in the beginning projects, when they’re being creative,” she says. “It’s more exciting than something that’s already established. This is investing in creativity.”

Finally, the institution: Moorman and Simon have quite the BU family. Moorman is incoming vice chair of the Boston University Board of Overseers and an alumna of the College of Arts & Sciences and School of Education (she earned a doctorate from the latter), while their younger daughter graduated from BU Academy in 2015. Moorman and Simon also each have sisters who are BU alumnae.

“BU has become an important institution to us,” says Simon. With the cross-sector nature of public health, he says, SPH is in an exceptional position to bridge the schools of BU.

Says Moorman, “It all intersects in public health.”

They’re also excited to support SPH due to its trajectory. “They’ve done a tremendous job in 40 years,” says Moorman. “They’ve made an imprint on this city, nationally, and globally.”

Their donation “is a vote of confidence and support,” she explains, and says she hopes they have set an example for others: “I think that’s part of the job of our leadership roles at BU.”