UNICEF Dinner Lauds New Joint Public Health Program

BOSTON—Barrie Landry, a board member of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and donor to the new graduate-level child-protection program at the School of Public Health, was honored at the UNICEF Children’s Champion Award Dinner with the Helenka Pantaleoni Humanitarian Award Thursday night at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston.

Landry was recognized alongside UNICEF supporter and supermodel Heidi Klum. Other notable attendees included “Project Runway” co-host Tim Gunn and Boston Red Sox player David Ortiz.

Landry’s $1 million Harvard donation initiated a pilot program for the child-protection program that launched this fall through a joint initiative between UNICEF and the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at HSPH. The program is the first master's program in child protection.

It aims to prepare “a cadre of really well-trained child protection professionals,” Landry said.

The program will also educate UNICEF officials each year, said Susan Bissell, chief of child protection at UNICEF.

It is offered as a sub-concentration in HSPH, and students who complete a specified number of credits from the child protection curriculum will graduate from the HSPH master's program with a certificate in Child Protection.

Bissell said HSPH “provided a platform to bring together international academics in child protection."

President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF Caryl M. Stern noted that the child protection program could be beneficial in responding to crises such as the current Ebola crisis, which has infected and orphaned children.

As for the future of the program, “I am funding the pilot program and hopefully it will draw a lot of attention and become self-sustaining,” Landry said.

Barrie Landry was married to Kevin Landry ’66, also a major supporter of Harvard, before he died in 2013. In 2010, he was awarded the Harvard Medal, the highest honor the University gives to alumni for extraordinary service.

—Staff writer Steven H. Tenzer can be reached at stenzer@college.harvard.edu.