In the increasingly complex world of global public health, the health care leaders of tomorrow are taking innovative approaches to wellness – identifying and addressing not just the physical determinants of one’s health, but the critical social determinants that can often pre-determine an entire population’s wellness or disease.

To further the advancement of this revolutionary work and empower a new generation of leaders in the healthcare industry, the Tramuto Foundation has partnered with the Jefferson College of Population Health (JCPH) to create the first-ever endowed scholarship for promising students in need.
JCPH, led by Dean David B. Nash, is the first college of its kind in the nation. The College is dedicated to identifying the impact of critical social determinants on health outcomes, with an eye toward recommending innovative solutions to today’s complex public health issues in the US and across the globe.

Graduates are equipped with the expertise and global vision necessary to shape future health systems and policies addressing the promotion and protection of human health, social justice, human rights, the dignity of individuals, and the integrity of communities.

The Tramuto Endowed Scholarship will help ensure that highly qualified students who may face challenging life or socioeconomic circumstances have the ability to pursue their passion for population health and take with them the skills and knowledge they acquire to help improve the lives of their communities. The College will match the scholarship funds to double the impact for its student body.

As part of their education experience, JCPH students complete a capstone project where they demonstrate their ability to make an impact in the real world. Students also have an opportunity to participate in community-based research at one of JCPH’s two Centers for Population Health Research (one in rural Pennsylvania and one in Philadelphia). These learning laboratories provide our students with a deep, rich understanding of the complexities and challenges inherent in improving population health.

“We’re proud to partner with JCPH to support the next generation of global healthcare leaders,” Donato said. “When I imagine the future of healthcare, I see a world where we take a holistic approach to wellness, ensuring people are healthy in mind, body, and spirit, where we break down traditional barriers to ensure that every human being has access to care. Through this scholarship, we can help ensure that those who share that passion and that vision are able to deliver on their promise.”

As a young boy who had lost most of his hearing and, gradually, his ability to speak clearly, Donato Tramuto sought refuge in the books written by and about his hero, the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Donato found inspiration and encouragement from his speeches and memorized passages that would later become the cornerstone of his own speeches as a company executive and philanthropist.

In 2017, Donato was honored by a Boston-based social service agency founded 50 years ago by his friend and Tramuto Foundation board member, Phil Johnston. Phil, who had been working on Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign when the Senator was assassinated in 1968, created a juvenile justice agency committed to Kennedy’s legacy of unwavering responsibility to the poor and disadvantaged. Today, the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps (RFK Children’s Action Corps) is one of largest private child welfare and juvenile justice organizations in New England, guided by a core belief that all children have the right to grow up in a safe and nurturing environment.

Donato was honored to receive the RFK Children’s Action Corps’ distinguished Embracing the Legacy award in recognition of his longstanding commitment to social equality and philanthropy. Not one to simply receive an award and walk out the door, Donato wanted to see for himself what the RFK Children’s Action Corps was about. Soon after receiving the honor, Donato visited the agency’s Lancaster Residential Treatment Campus where he personally met several students living and attending class there. The goal of the residential programs in Lancaster is to help children and adolescents address the challenges they face as a result of living in unstable, dangerous or abusive environments while helping them return home to their families and communities when appropriate. The campus provides multiple levels of residential treatment, emergency assessment, respite care, and special education services.

Donato was impressed with everyone he met at Lancaster – the teaching staff, the administration, the clinical staff and especially, the kids. Following that visit, he decided that these dedicated professionals, who deal with the emotional and psychological scars of kids who have endured more tragedy and tough times than most of us could imagine, would benefit from ongoing trauma-informed care training.

The Tramuto Foundation board members agreed that the RFK Children’s Action Corps would be a worthy recipient of a four-year grant, which will allow the agency to integrate the most relevant trauma-informed care principles into all programs offered on the campus.

In addition, over the coming year, the RFK Children’s Action Corps’ Leadership Institute members will collectively read Donato’s book, “Life’s Bulldozer Moments: How Adversity Leads to Success in Life and Business,” and incorporate examples from the book in their daily interactions with students.

RFK Children’s Action Corps CEO Ed Kelley explained that examples of how Donato dealt with his significant ‘bulldozer moments’ will serve as a roadmap for how their students can successfully overcome adversities in their own lives.

“There is no doubt that Donato and the Tramuto Foundation are committed partners in our ongoing work to support disadvantaged children. The Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps could not be more grateful to be associated with this caring and accomplished man and the dedicated men and women who serve on the Foundation’s board,” Kelley said.

At its core, the Tramuto Foundation is about collaboration. We believe in the power of bringing together people of diverse backgrounds, ideas, and experiences to find solutions to the big challenges we face in our global society.

It’s in that spirit that Donato Tramuto created a scholarship fund for international students completing their Masters in Public Health at the Boston University School of Public Health. The scholarships help students complete their studies and prepare them for a successful career in global public health.

The first recipient of the scholarship, Colombia-native Maria Bustos Márquez, graduated in May 2018 with concentrations in healthcare management and pharmaceuticals. Upon graduation, Maria has returned to Colombia, where she volunteers in her spare time to develop projects around awareness of chronic pain as a pressing public health issue in a war-torn country that has left many residents at high-risk of developing this disabling condition.

For Maria, collaboration is more than an idea – it’s central to her work. A former medical doctor who sought a way to make a larger impact on her country, Maria now brings together healthcare executives, managers, patients, and pharmaceutical executives to find ways to improve the health and well-being of people in Colombia. She acknowledges the skepticism and mistrust that can exist at first among those involved but believes that the only way to bring about real change and improve the health of the people she serves is through partnership.

“I’m a fierce believer in collaboration,” Maria says. “It’s the thing I really appreciate about Donato Tramuto and what he believes in. We need to be able to overcome our own preconceptions, be willing to sit at the table and connect with each other.”

Maria received her award from the Tramuto Foundation at the end of her first year at BUSPH. While the funding allowed her to help finance her education, for Maria, the real value was the recognition of her hard work and dedication.

“For me, the award was motivation,” she says. “I took a risk going to Boston to do this program, to go and fight for my dream. It’s nice to realize that when you’re doing the work you love and are passionate about, good things come along. It’s an incredible feeling.”

Donato is proud to continue his support for international students studying at BUSPH. There, students from 49 countries around the world receive a world-class education that prepares them for a career in public health. They graduate with the tools they need to transform communities here in the United States and across the globe.

“The Tramuto Foundation provides support for students to join us who otherwise would never have had the opportunity to receive public health training. This is a gift that keeps on giving: Not only do these students go on to have a career that helps others, creating a better world, they also enrich the lives of all our other students, bringing a diversity of perspectives to our community that elevates us all,” says BUSPH Dean Sandro Galea.

At the TramutoPorter Foundation, we believe the world is made better not just by people doing great things, but by people and organizations taking small actions that have the capacity to drive great change.

It’s in that spirit that Tramuto Foundation partnered with Good Shepherd Food Bank of Maine to help support the construction of a cold storage facility that will allow hungry Mainers to access fresh, nutritious, produce and foods — including Maine-grown products.

Despite the economic recovery, 16.4 percent of households in Maine today are food-insecure. That’s higher than the national average of 12.3 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Good Shepherd Food Bank partners with more than 400 local organizations, including food pantries, meal sites, schools, and senior centers to distribute food to the state’s most vulnerable residents. In total last year, the Food Bank distributed more than 28 million pounds of food to its partner agencies.

This organization has an ambitious goal to ensure that all food-insecure Mainers will have access to the nutritious food they need to thrive, when and where they need it by 2025. The single greatest obstacle to meeting that goal is the limited cold storage capacity and location of its existing Auburn-based distribution center. While hunger exists in every corner of the state, northern and Downeast Maine residents struggle with particularly high rates of food insecurity. The Food Bank is currently renovating its facility in Hampden to complement its existing infrastructure in Auburn. Once complete, the Hampden facility will feature three state-of-the-art temperature and humidity controlled zones which will allow for short- and long-term cold storage of produce and dairy, and a freezer for storing lightly processed produce, fish, meat and other perishable products.

GSFB president, Kristen Miale recently expressed her appreciation.

“We are pleased to have Tramuto Foundation as a partner in this transformational approach to addressing hunger in Maine,” she said. “Our new cold storage facility in Hampden will give us the capacity we need to source, store, and distribute nourishing, fresh food–-including local farm purchases—efficiently and equitably across the entire state. Increasing access to nutritious food will have a dramatic impact on the health of our neighbors. An investment in our work is an investment in Maine’s future. We are grateful for the Tramuto Foundation’s confidence and support.”

For Donato, the ability of Maine’s largest hunger-relief organization to provide nutritious, locally grown produce to vulnerable residents is closely aligned with the mission of the Tramuto Foundation. Donato believes in working together with partners to improve the health and well-being of people here at home and across the world.

Every day 10,000 people in the US reach Medicare age.

While the dream may be to retire, spend more time with family or travel the world, the reality is that for many seniors, aging brings with it new challenges they must confront on physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual fronts.

That’s why the Tramuto Foundation is proud to partner with Saint Joseph’s College of Maine to create transformational change for the College and the community it serves by helping to develop and launch the Institute for Integrative Aging and Associated Programming.

The Institute will be a center for research, education and community-centered care for older adults. Its mission will recognize the multi-dimensional aspects of aging, consider the societal factors that impact aging, and empower people to choose an integrated approach to their longevity. 

“The focus of our partnership is to make a positive, widespread, and documented impact on human lives by making people’s senior years more socially connected, intellectually stimulating, emotionally fulfilling, and spiritually transcendent,” according to Joanne Bean, Vice President and Chief Advancement Officer at the college. “Integrative aging is a term coined by Saint Joseph’s College President Jim Dlugos, which seeks to advance the concepts of integrative medicine and healthcare to develop an understanding of an approach to aging. Central to our strategy is the creation of meaningful, concrete partnerships with foundations, corporations, and organizations, which share a common vision with Saint Joseph’s College and are equally committed to our core values of faith, excellence, integrity, community, respect, compassion, and justice. To find these traits in contemporary entities can be a challenge, but the leadership of Saint Joseph’s College believes that as we approach the field of aging, no better example of mission alignment and shared values can be realized than through a strong and committed partnership with The Tramuto Foundation, Tivity Health, and Health e-Villages.”

Donato’s commitment to this project aligns with his professional dedication and personal passion for helping seniors live vibrant and healthy lives. He is particularly concerned with the growing problem of social isolation, a threat to seniors and to the general population on par with the damages associated with smoking 15 cigarettes per day. In his capacity as CEO of Tivity Health, and as the founder of two non-profits, Health eVillages, and the Tramuto Foundation, Donato has become a leading national voice on this subject matter, urging top healthcare leaders, advocates and activists to collaborate on strategies to reduce this deadly cultural condition.

“There are public and private capabilities and programs, such as the Institute for Integrative Aging at Saint Joseph’s College, that can potentially reverse this crisis,” Donato said. “By working together and sharing the best ideas and experiences, we can ensure that older adults have the opportunity to age with dignity, vitality, and purpose, regardless of where they live.”