“The Social Impact of a University” will be presented by Jonathan F. Fanton, Ph.D., president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, at 4:30 p.m. April 5 in Brown Hall Lounge. This Danforth Lecture is sponsored by the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, the Gephardt Institute for Public Service and the Assembly Series.
Fanton became president of the MacArthur Foundation, one of the nation’s largest private philanthropic foundations, after three decades in higher education, including 17 years as president of the New School for Social Research in New York, where he led the integration and enhancement of the university’s seven divisions, a campus expansion and development campaigns.
With assets in excess of $6 billion dollars and working in 65 countries, the MacArthur Foundation is an independent grant-making institution.
Dedicated to fostering improvement in the human condition, the foundation makes grants and loans through four programs to encourage knowledge and creativity, improve public policy and provide information through support for public interest media.
Fanton serves on a number of boards, including the Chicago History Museum and Human Rights Watch, the largest U.S.-based human rights organization, where he was chair of the board for six years.
Fanton earned a doctorate in American history in 1978 from Yale University, where he taught American history and served as associate provost. Fanton became vice president for planning at the University of Chicago, where he also taught American history, until joining the New School for Social Research in 1982.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
To R.S.V.P., call Jenny Kraus-Smith at 935-7573.