Tulane's public health school secures major gift to expand

NEW ORLEANS — A longtime donor who has given more than $160 million to Tulane University is the new namesake of the university's expanding 112-year-old school of public health, Tulane officials announced Wednesday.

The amount of Celia Scott Weatherhead's latest gift wasn't revealed, but school officials indicated it will help transform the institution into one the best in the world. Weatherhead is a 1965 graduate of Tulane's Newcomb College.

The university said the gifts she and her late husband Albert have made in support over several decades constitute the largest amount in the school's history.

The school also said a new gift from Weatherhead will help expand the school's downtown New Orleans campus and increase research funding, with the goal of establishing it as the premier school of its kind in the United States and one of the top in the world.

The Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine was established in 1912. Its research, undergraduate and graduate fields include biostatistics, maternal and child health, epidemiology, nutrition, health policy, clinical research, environmental health sciences and violence prevention,

''Her gift is a true game changer,'' said Thomas LaVeist, dean of what is now Tulane's Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. ''It will further propel research into the most devastating diseases and the most concerning and complex issues of our times. It will provide generations of students with the skills and knowledge they need to help heal our world."

Weatherhead is a past member of the main governing body of Tulane and currently serves on the Public Health Dean's Advisory Council, the school's top advisory board.