Comments from Others

From Dartmouth:

“This is a proud and defining moment in Dartmouth’s history. Jim is a brilliant educator, physician and anthropologist who will serve as a true inspiration for our community. Dartmouth is fortunate indeed to have attracted an innovator of his caliber with both the enthusiasm and the global perspective it will take to lead the College into a new era of distinction and achievement.”
—James Wright, 16th president, Dartmouth College

“Jim Yong Kim embodies the ideals of learning, innovation, and service that lie at the heart of Dartmouth’s mission. As a passionate educator and physician, he has had a profound impact on students, faculty, colleagues and fellow health professionals. And as a leader in the field of global health, Jim has helped to transform efforts to bring health care to the world’s poor. Jim follows in the long tradition of Dartmouth presidents who have made a significant mark both in higher education and on the world stage, and we are confident he is the ideal person to lead the College in today’s rapidly changing environment.”
—Charles E. (“Ed”) Haldeman Jr. ’70, Chair, Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College; Ex-Officio, Presidential Search Committee; Chairman of Putnam Investment Management, LLC, Boston, Mass.

“Throughout his life, Jim has been devoted to teaching and inspiring young people both inside and outside the classroom,” said Al Mulley ’70, Chair of the Presidential Search Committee and a Dartmouth Trustee. “Like former Dartmouth President John Sloan Dickey, Jim believes that education is not just about gaining knowledge, but also forming leaders who will rise to meet the great challenges of our time. And like Dickey – who told students that ‘the world's troubles are your troubles’ – Jim aims to redouble Dartmouth’s efforts to provide leadership on the global stage.”
—Albert (“Al”) G. Mulley Jr. ’70, Chair, Presidential Search Committee; Trustee, Dartmouth College; Chief of the General Medicine Division of the Medical Practices Evaluation Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Professor of Health Policy at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.

“Dr. Kim has already demonstrated a profound respect for the College’s traditions—and a keen sense of what it must do to retain its preeminence in higher education. He’ll enable Dartmouth to be Dartmouth—to live up to its best self.”
—Peter M. Robinson ’79, Trustee, Dartmouth College; Member, Presidential Search Committee; Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the public policy research center at Stanford University, and a former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan

“Jim Yong Kim is a remarkable blend of the practical and the moral and philosophical. The 17th president of Dartmouth is uniquely suited to these challenges. He will enable and ensure our aspirations for excellence in the tradition of mind, body and spirit so revered by all alumni.”
—Martha Johnson Beattie ’76, Member, Presidential Search Committee; Chair, Alumni Liaison Committee, Dartmouth College Alumni Council; Past President, Alumni Council. Boston, Mass.

“Dr. Kim’s passion for teaching and mentoring, and his appreciation of Dartmouth, make him a perfect fit for our campus. He is both inspirational and pragmatic. He will ensure that the next generation of Dartmouth students reach their fullest potential. William Jewett Tucker, the ninth President of Dartmouth, once said, ‘You will not make a very strong impression on the world without the use of an equal amount of conscience and heart.’ Dr. Kim has the conscience and the heart to lead Dartmouth to become an even greater institution.”
—Molly Bode ’09, Member, Presidential Search Committee, President of the Student Assembly

“Jim Kim is exactly right for Dartmouth. Faculty can expect visionary leadership and a push for excellence in every facet of what we do. Students will see what leadership looks like up close and personal, and be inspired to lives that make a difference. Alumni will be both assured of a continuing steady hand, and proud of where Dartmouth is going. Jim is that rare leader that brings authenticity, ambition, and action to the job of President. Fasten your seat belts.”
—Sydney Finkelstein, Member, Presidential Search Committee; Steven Roth Professor of Strategy and Leadership, Tuck School of Business

“The members of the search committee were impressed with Jim Yong Kim’s warmth, intelligence, and moral vision. His own work spans a variety of academic disciplines, and he operates on the global stage as comfortably as he does on the campus. He has demonstrated a commitment to teaching, to students and faculty, and to creating the leaders of tomorrow.”
—Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, Member, Presidential Search Committee; Kathe Tappe Vernon Professor in Biography; Chair, Department of English.

“Jim Yong Kim is the perfect embodiment of the teacher-scholar and an outstanding choice for Dartmouth. He combines a background in the liberal arts with the applied research perspective – the desire to teach students to be leaders in tackling global challenges – that is right at home in Dartmouth’s professional schools.”
—Joseph J. Helble, Member, Presidential Search Committee; Dean, Thayer School of Engineering; Professor of Engineering

“We were impressed by Jim Kim’s scholarly achievements in developing and evaluating innovative approaches for treating HIV/AIDS and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis patients in very poor countries. We were even more impressed by Dr. Kim’s extraordinary leadership skills in implementing these changes.”
—Jonathan Skinner, Member, Presidential Search Committee; John Sloan Dickey Third Century Professor in Economics; Professor of Community and Family Medicine, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, Dartmouth Medical School

“Kim is an inspired choice, a living example of how you can take advantage of higher education to do good. If you read his resume, you'd think this was a lifetime of work. He's not yet 50.”
—John H. Mathias Jr., Member of the Class of 1969 and president of the Association of Alumni of Dartmouth College (Bloomberg news, 3/2/09)

“One of the attributes of Dartmouth that alumni treasure is that Dartmouth puts its best professors in the classrooms with undergraduates. Kim would build upon that tradition enthusiastically.”
—T.J. Rodgers, Dartmouth Trustee and member of the Class of 1970 (Bloomberg news, 3/2/09)

From Others:

“I am convinced that based on your extensive experience and profound expertise, you will provide outstanding leadership in guiding Dartmouth College to make great advances in various fields.”
—Han Seung-soo, Prime Minister, Republic of Korea (view PDF of full letter)

“I had the great good fortune to meet Jim in 1983, when I went to interview at Harvard Medical School. We have been friends ever since. In 1987, while pursuing our training in medicine and anthropology, we founded, along with many friends, Partners In Health. Jim's vision—you'll hear this word a lot about Jim, for he is a visionary—has guided what might too often have been praiseworthy but small interventions to improve the health of people living in poverty. Jim's role has often been to transform these small projects, in service to patients and communities, into world-changing interventions through his engagement with policymakers and by working to help craft policy himself. As Jim's closest friend and colleague for 25 years, I can only say that I think Dartmouth is lucky to have him and that I hope all of us who've benefited from Jim's leadership will continue to do so, no matter where we are in the world.”
—Paul Farmer, Co-Founder, Partners In Health; Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard University; attending physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital

“Jim has always been one of those rare people who can see through the thickest fog and tackle some of the world's most difficult problems. When the history of our age is written, people will remember, I believe, Jim's role in moving forward a humane and smart policy of integrating AIDS prevention and care in the poor world. I know he will inspire Dartmouth students as an engaged president who continues to address the problems of a world riven by inequality but full of hope. It's hard to imagine a better leader for Dartmouth than Jim Kim.”
—Ophelia M. Dahl, Co-Founder, President and Executive Director, Partners In Health

“Dr. Jim Yong Kim has an enviably broad set of qualifications to lead an institution of Dartmouth’s caliber. His powerful personal story inspires; his past achievements illuminate the power of innovative thinking to find solutions to the most intractable problems; and his strong moral leadership matches the highest aims of university life. He will bring to his presidency a passion for excellence and a deep conviction about the importance of education.”
—Ruth J. Simmons, President, Brown University

“Jim Kim is a person of uncommon talent and accomplishment—a dynamic leader in global health, a skilled university administrator, a person who combines vision and eloquence with an ability to get things done. Whichever of his many hats Jim is wearing at a given moment, what’s always clear is his devotion to improving the lives of others, as an educator, a researcher, and an institutional leader.”
—Drew G. Faust, President, Harvard University

“Dartmouth College has made an inspired choice in selecting Dr. Jim Yong Kim as its 17th President. I have had the privilege of working with Dr. Kim on several projects at Harvard and am among the many who have been dazzled by his intellect, energy, and magnetic leadership. His sense of vision within a university, his dedication to changing the world, and his capacity for forging strong partnerships among students, faculty and others – all these and other qualities seem to be exactly what the Dartmouth community has been seeking in its next president. While we will sorely miss him at Harvard, I warmly congratulate the Dartmouth community and its trustees for their decision.”
—David Gergen, Professor of Public Service at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government; Director of its Center for Public Leadership

“Dr. Jim Kim is an exceptional leader with the strategic perspective, high energy, and capacity for consensus building necessary to advance a world-class institution like Dartmouth. Dr. Kim will bring a deep appreciation of what is unique about Dartmouth, an ability to work with distinguished faculty and alumni, and his own distinctive focus on the problems of advancing health care for the poor and addressing the many challenges of the developing world. I have worked closely with Dr. Kim for a number of years, and look forward to continuing and deepening our collaboration as he takes on this new role.”
—Michael E. Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School

“Jim Kim is a passionate visionary who is driven by his belief in the power of social justice. In his selection, Dartmouth speaks boldly of its commitment to nurturing our finest young people to become leaders who are centered in the skills and values required to do great good. As a parent of a Dartmouth '10, I am thrilled that the College has found a wonderful leader who will inspire my daughter and her amazing friends and classmates as he has inspired me.”
—Gary L. Gottlieb, President of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School; slated to become President and CEO of Partners HealthCare System in January, 2010

“Jim is an inspirational teacher, a dedicated researcher and a respected leader who has been indefatigable in his efforts to improve human health. He will be deeply missed by his colleagues and friends at Harvard Medical School, but we are very proud that Jim has been chosen for this important position in American education.”
—Jeffrey S. Flier, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

“Jim Kim is among the most remarkable physicians, teachers, and human beings whom I know. At Harvard he has enlisted people throughout the university to begin what he calls global health delivery, a revolutionary approach that focuses on developing measures to treat a range of diseases that afflict poor people in the developing world, an approach that many believe will bring profound benefit to ill people throughout the industrialized world as well. He is a creative anthropologist, a superb teacher and physician, and a generous colleague. His departure will be a profound loss to Harvard.”
—Howard Hiatt, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and former Dean, Harvard School of Public Health

“He has the ability to cross the social sciences and the humanities with medicine, emphasize all the global connections, and make health central to the undergraduate experience.”
—Dr. Arthur Kleinman, a Harvard medical anthropologist who taught Kim as a doctoral student (The Boston Globe, 3/3/09)

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Press Release, Biography,
Dartmouth at a Glance

President Elect
Dartmouth College
209 Parkhurst
Hanover, NH 03755
603 646-0574
president-elect@dartmouth.edu