Role Reversal

Two decades after receiving a Robert W. Woodruff Fellowship to the Rollins School of Public Health, Lisa Carlson 93MPH changed from funding recipient to fund-raiser.

Carlson and her small team of volunteers canvassed their fellow alumni to support scholarships and other needs through the “Seating Our Future” drive. They raised $33,500 by selling 134 commemorative plaques for auditorium seats in the Claudia Nance Rollins Building.

“By spreading the word about seats in an auditorium that wasn’t even there when I was a student, I’ve met so many alumni who came after me whose experiences were different because of Rollins’s growth,” she says.

Carlson automatically took the fund-raising challenge from one of her role models in public health, Virginia “Ginny” Bales Harris 71C 77MPH. Carlson and the rest of Harris’s alumni team set about raising money as they would tackle a public health issue, relying on skills they had learned at Rollins.

“Personally, it was very satisfying to know we made a difference for future generations,” Carlson says. “Working with the alumni team was really fun.”