UW regent pledges $4 million
Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) - by Clay Holtzman Staff Writer
University of Washington Regent Stanley Barer and his wife, Alta, have pledged $4 million to the UW's School of Law to establish an institute to improve human services around the world.
The Barer Institute for Law and Global Human Services aims to use binding legal agreements, such as compacts, treaties and foreign aid agreements, to coordinate efforts to address social problems.
Lives saved will be the institute's measure of success, said Stanley Barer, an owner of Seattle's Saltchuk Resources Inc., a marine transportation company. The institute will focus primarily on poor areas that lack education, health services and economic opportunities, he said.
"I think it is now in our best interests to think about safety nets globally," said Barer, who is also the chair of the UW's Board of Regents.
The pledge, which the Barers will pay to the law school over five years, is meant to jump-start the institute rather than endow it for life. The institute has not targeted a launch date.
An executive director will lead the institute in conjunction with a board featuring members from across the UW campus and broader community. The funding could support a broad range of work, including research, travel, studies and much more.
Legal instruments such as binding agreements and laws are an effective tool for coordinating efforts to improve human services, said Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the UW. In 2003, the World Health Organization established the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, an agreement with more than 100 countries aimed at reducing tobacco use.
"I think it is a fascinating and under-used strategy," Murray said.
Barer, a UW alumnus and 1963 law school graduate, is also the law school's fundraising campaign chair. Earlier in his career he served as chief of staff for the late Sen. Warren Magnuson (D-Wash.).
Alta Barer has served on the boards of several organizations, including the Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Hope Heart Institute.
The law school has now has raised more than $70 million during the UW's capital campaign that concludes June 30.
The institute adds to the law school's other global efforts, such as its Center for Law in Science and Global Health. Such resources will support a number of new, globally minded law school faculty members, said interim Dean Gregory Hicks.
A lack of basic human services, many of which are widely available to the wealthy, is preventing the poor from improving their lives, Stanley Barer said. Ensuring those services is a smart foreign policy strategy that will save lives and earn a great deal of good will.
"People who are poverty stricken, who don't have health care and are without education or economic opportunity do not have a chance," Barer said.
choltzman@bizjournals.com | 206.876.5439
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