DAVID M. HIRSCH, the managing partner of Providence-based private investment firm Mustang Partners LLC, was recently named the new chairperson of the Warren Alpert Foundation’s board of directors. He succeeded Dr. Joseph Martin, former Harvard Medical School dean, as chairperson on Jan. 1. The foundation is the largest funder of health- and medical-related research in Rhode Island. Hirsch has previously served as chairperson for the Rhode Island Foundation and The Miriam Hospital Foundation, among other board roles.
You first joined the board in 2015. What initiatives have you helped create for the foundation? The foundation was fully funded in 2015 when the work to create a structure for a substantial organization began. Along with a subgroup of directors, we began a complete review of existing bylaws and committees, as well as adding some that were needed. A seasoned investment committee was established to select a professional outside adviser and then deploy the funds in an organized and thoughtful way.
What are your goals for the foundation as the board’s chairperson? Recently the board, during a Zoom “retreat” session, agreed upon several areas of focus for the intermediate future: generally supporting existing programs of proven excellence, public health, education and health care for underrepresented minorities, and medical education support for nonmedical school institutions. Given that consensus, our goals are to make grants within those foci that are relevant to our mission: the prevention, treatment, or cure of human conditions and diseases, the effective delivery of health care services, the promotion of creative education of people for ultimate benefit of society, and to create meaningful employment opportunities in the health care arena. Working toward fully investing in those focus areas over the next several years will be our prime objective, while having the flexibility to respond to compelling opportunities that may arise.
The pandemic has been a major burden on local health care. In what ways has the foundation been responding to the crisis? One of the advantages of a private foundation is that we can react quickly and meaningfully in times of crisis. Our distributions have been focused on immediate relief to those most affected by the pandemic: timely grants to regional food banks, Meals on Wheels, homeless shelters, nursing homes, mobile medical service providers and community health care clinics.
Do you foresee the pandemic having a long-lasting impact on local health care? It certainly has to. The lessons learned require the need to build lasting and resilient institutions for the entire community. The impact and dire effect on our society of the pandemics early in the 19th century were virtually forgotten; we cannot let that happen again. We have learned the hard way that when one of us is sick, we are all sick; and no matter how disconnected we think we are from each other, Mother Nature has her own plan.
