Diversity, equity, and inclusion is a core pillar of the curriculum, culture, and research at the Yale School of Public Health. Thanks to a donation from Dr. Pilar Vargas and former YSPH dean Sten Vermund, an endowed fund has been created that will exclusively support DEI initiatives at the school. 

The fund is named after Dr. Vargas’s parents, Dr. Pedro Vargas, an ophthalmologist, and Mrs. Pilar Bodas de Vargas. Pedro grew up in rural Puerto Rico and provided clinical care to the Arecibo community for more than thirty-five years after completing his medical degree in Europe. He is one of eleven members of the Vargas family to practice medicine. 

The mission of the new fund is to ensure that students, faculty, and staff at Yale School of Public Health “are free to explore the breadth of their intellectual curiosity, the depth of their humanity, and the potential of their scholarship, research, work and practice.”

Read more about the fund and the School of Public Health’s DEI initiatives here.