HCP Happenings

The 411 on 180 W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 - 2 0 1 4

Faculty Mtgs

Feb 24

11:30-1PM

224E

March 24

11:30-1PM

224E

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In the Trenches

Sachin Jain

February 13

11:30AM—1PM

Room 224-E

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HCP Brown Bag

Peter Slavin

Health Care Re-

form and Aca-

demic Medicine

March 3rd, 8AM

Room 224-E

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HCP Holiday Party Thank you to everyone who joined us for the HCP Holiday Party hosted on Friday, December 6th at the Downtown Harvard Club! Luckily the wintry mix held off until the end of the night, thus granting us stunning views of Boston. Everyone had a wonderful time socializing and cele-brating another successful year at HCP. The Thai food station was a big hit, offering some culinary variety, as did the Mediterranean Tapas. As in years past, the Harry Fix Quartet provided a wonderful musical backdrop for the night, and the HCP Ice Sculpture was a grand focal piece - and a home for the delicious raw bar!

Larry Zaborski, kept the crowd en-tertained as the emcee for the annu-al raffle event. The prizes this year included two tickets to the Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker, an iPod Shuffle, a bottle of bubbly Veuve Clicquot, and the coveted “Bonus Day Off ” for HCP Staff.

We would like to thank the HCP Holi-day Party Committee members for all of their hard work in making this party so successful: Cynthia Hobbs, Elizabeth Haak, Silva Antreassian, Katie Dean and Mary Hurley. Please go ahead and mark your calendars for the 2014 Holiday Par-ty on December 5th!

P A G E 2

HCP Yankee Swap Coffee Talk!

The HCP Yankee Swap was once again the most

attended Coffee Talk of the year. It was hosted by

Larry Zaborski who not only provided the depart-

ment with delicious and festive snacks for the

swap but also emceed and spearheaded the

event.

For a new twist on an old event, the Yankee Swap’s

theme this year was “Eat Drink and Be Merry.” Par-

ticipants were able to interpret as they saw fit which

resulted in lots of wine, cocktail accessories and two

of the most sought after gifts - a homemade Dutch

Apple Pie and some Home Brewed Beer with authen-

tic labels including “Six Schmucks’ Belgium Ale.”

This year’s winner for most “untraditional gift” was

a decorative plastic spider with light up legs that

could be hung from a ceiling or door. Silva was the

lucky one to select the spider, but she immediately

- and humorously! - swapped the plastic bug for a

more popular gift (homebrewed beer), only to lose

the beer shortly after in another swap!

Sharon-Lise was the lucky recipient #1 in the draw.

Those who attended the event can attest to her ex-

citement and competitive spirit. There were over

thirty people who participated this year. It was a

wonderful and well attended event and this contin-

ues to be a great Health Care Policy tradition. Thank

you again to Larry for organizing and to the depart-

ment for your participation.

Keeping the Yankee Swap interesting, there always

seems to be on contributor who doesn’t quite un-

derstand the theme or who just choses to venture

“outside the box.” These gifts typically result in big

laughs from the crowd and are often re-gifted in

the true spirit of “the swap.” This year was no ex-

ception!

Frank Levy and his wife, Kathy, traveled to

Durham, NC over the break to visit their

daughter and son-in-law, and their adorable

grandson, Ben Blocher. Ben is 5 months old

with quite the head of hair!

HCP Family Happenings — Winter Breaks

Liz Haak and her husband, Andy, spent a

winter weekend in Nantucket to attend the

annual Holiday Stroll. Here they are look-

ing festive in front of a winter Main Street.

This winter, Nancy Keating and her family

traveled to Argentina. Nancy and her two

children, Anna and Thomas, are posing in

front of Iguazu Falls.

Silva Antreassian and family spent

time in Las Vegas this break — check

out three generations of Antreassian

women winning big!

Eric Hill traveled to Vietnam this winter and

spent time cruising Halong Bay with friends.

HCP Family Happenings — Winter Breaks

Raseeka Premchander visited India for the

month of December and sampled some lo-

cal treats, including Kulfi, (pictured right),

which is a traditional frozen dessert similar

to ice cream, but served in a matka, or

earthen pot.

Richard Frank and his family vacationed in

Southern California this break, where they

visited Joshua Tree National Park (pictured

left).

Mary, John and Baby Jack Hurley escaped the

cold and snow in West Palm Beach, FL, where

Jack unwillingly took his first dip in the warm

Southern Atlantic Ocean.

P A G E 5

HCP Longevity Celebration 2013

This year, HCP celebrated the mile-

stone work anniversaries of seven

long-time HCP employees on De-

cember 12th. Edward Chiu and

Michael Piantigini were celebrated

for their 10 years of service, Mat-

thew Cioffi, Ruth Lewis and David

Perkins for 15 years, and Christina

Fu and Rita Volya for 20 years of

service to HMS.

To mark the celebration, a supervisor

or colleague of each honoree briefly

spoke about the employee’s dedica-

tion to the school and department

and recounted stories of his/her time

here at HCP. For those who don’t

work closely with the milestone recip-

ients, it was a great opportunity to

learn more about the greater HCP

team! After the remarks were over,

everyone enjoyed a delicious (and gi-

gantic) cake.

On behalf of the department,

we wish to thank all honorees

for their great work over the

years.

WELCOME to HCP—Oliver Ho Oliver Ho is a research assistant working with Anupam Bapu Jena, M.D., Ph.D. Oli-

ver strives to apply quantitative analytic methods to find solutions to complex social

challenges. He recently completed a Global Health Corps fellowship working in

Rwanda for Gardens for Health International (GHI), an organization focused on find-

ing long-term solutions to childhood malnutrition. Oliver developed GHI’s monitor-

ing and evaluation (M&E) strategy and managed the implementation process, which

included revising performance indicators, hiring dedicated M&E staff, and building a

cloud database and reporting tool. Prior to working in Rwanda, Oliver worked for

nearly four years at the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE). He provided analytic and

data collection and verification support to the implementation of Mayor Bloomberg’s Children First re-

forms. His primary focus was on projects aimed at improving systems for measuring teacher effectiveness

and providing meaningful evaluation.

Oliver graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a Bachelor’s in Public Policy. As part of

his studies, he completed a senior honors thesis examining the impact of the test-based student promotion

policy on student achievement in New York City. Oliver was born in Hong Kong, but grew up in New

York City. He played baseball, soccer, basketball as a child and rugby at Stanford.

In the past, we used to have suite parties two or three times a year, just like the

Kessler Halloween party. We would like to continue with that tradition. Exam-

ples of suite parties we have had in the past include: Mexican fiestas, Mediterra-

nean food festivals, etc., and the department always covers the cost. In cases

where some suites are smaller than others, they can combine.

Silva has put a sign-up sheet in the 2nd floor kitchen listing each suite. Please

talk to your neighbors and sign up to do a Friday afternoon party.

A message from Silva….Sign up for Suite Parties!