University of Chicago trustee Mary Tolan, MBA ’92 (XP-61), and her husband, Edward Grzelakowski, have committed $12 million to advance the work of Chicago Booth’s Healthcare Initiative.
The Healthcare Initiative, newly named “The Tolan Center for Healthcare” in recognition of the gift, examines the healthcare sector’s challenges from both medical and business perspectives. It was founded in 2020, and has since become a beacon of collaborative effort between diverse disciplines, faculty members, students, alumni, policy makers, industry leaders and more.
The initiative is led by faculty codirectors Dan Adelman, Charles I. Clough Jr. Professor of Operations Management, and Matthew Notowidigdo, David McDaniel Keller Professor of Economics and Business and Public Policy Fellow. They described the gift as “tremendous,” explaining that it “will accelerate our efforts to help MBA and PhD students develop the tools and rigorous thinking necessary to transform the healthcare system worldwide to better serve humanity.”
“There is no better place to do this,” they added, “than at Chicago Booth and the University of Chicago, where the quality of our students and faculty is unparalleled.”
Mary Tolan, longtime supporter of Chicago Booth and the University of Chicago, is a former mentee and friend of the Honorable George P. Shultz, former dean of Booth (1962-69) and President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State (1982-89). She is also the founder and managing partner of healthcare private equity firm Chicago Pacific Founders. She has previously bestowed gifts upon Robert J. Zimmer Odyssey Scholarship and the George Shultz Innovation Fund at the university’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
“Our family is excited to be supporting the significant impact and innovation we see at the Center for Healthcare,” she said. “Looking toward the future, we see an opportunity for Chicago Booth’s impact in healthcare to become a national beacon for advancement in care innovation and quality.”
The achievements of Chicago Booth’s Healthcare Initiative are many; highlights include:
- Demonstrating the utility of The Chicago Approach™ within the healthcare system, supporting healthcare organizations to solve complex challenges via the application of business operations optimization.
- Facilitating faculty and PhD student research, tackling the fundamental business problems that underlie the toughest challenges of the healthcare industry.
- Supporting the introduction of a healthcare concentration at Booth, as well as other curriculum innovations.
- Supporting the launch of Booth’s joint MD/MBA program and a new joint MBA program offering an MS in biomedical science.
Tolan’s impressive investment will further advance the innovation and research of the initiative. It will, according to Madhav Rajan, dean and George Pratt Shultz Professor of Accounting, “facilitate opportunities for students and alumni to transform the healthcare system…and apply the school’s practice of rigorous inquiry to improve the healthcare industry.”
“Mary’s generosity will affect many more than those at the University of Chicago,” Paul Alivisatos, University of Chicago President, added. “By giving our faculty and students the tools to move research and healthcare forward, her commitment will help them address important challenges and broaden access to leading care.”
Take a look at The Tolan Center for Healthcare’s site for more detail on their work and achievements.
