| It is difficult to express fully what an
honor and a privilege it has been to serve as president
of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the past 12-and-a-half
years. This experience has been the highlight of my professional
life, one that I will look back on with tremendous satisfaction.
I will wear with pride the badge of RWJF for the rest
of my days. In this, my last President’s Message,
I want simply to close with thanks.
Thanks to the Trustees in 1989 for having the courage
to select a relatively unknown Californian to be their
third president and to the subsequent Trustees for their
unfailing support of the Foundation's mission and of
me personally.
Thanks to spectacular staff members, who come to work
every day with energy, passion and an unquenchable will
to fulfill our mission. They know all too well one of
the lessons I have learned, that social change comes
hard, but they never seem to lose their enthusiasm.
Thanks to our grantees, who work so diligently to help
us fulfill the Foundation’s mission. Not surprisingly,
given our eclectic set of grantmaking strategies, our
grantees come in all sorts of packages. What they share
is a devotion to their work.
It is not easy for me to leave The Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation. Our work here is truly precious. The work
is a lot harder than many on the outside probably suspect,
but the cause is glorious and the rewards are great.
I depart with the mixed sense of loss of such a wonderful
job and pride that the institution is stronger now than
when I arrived in July 1990. My personal pride is tempered
by the realization that at the end of her tenure, my
successor, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, will undoubtedly make
the same statement.
Thanks to all of you for all that you have given to
the Foundation, to our mission and to me. I am excited
to see what paths Risa takes the Foundation down, and
I will be cheering all of you on loudly, from afar.
Steven A. Schroeder, M.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
December 2002
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