Together with the Aspen Institute and Hunter College, we have been able to proudly honor the profound impact that the Tisch family has made on New York City. In memory of their father, Preston Robert Tisch, a joint grant from Steve, Laurie, Lizzie and Jon Tisch to the Aspen Institute supports a series of programs called Conversations with Great Leaders. At five events annually, the Institute features innovative high-profile leaders – who have included Walter Isaacson, Wendy Kopp and Dr. Henry Louis “Skip” Gates – in conversation with a moderator about a variety of critical issues such as poverty, disease, justice, race, education, business ethics, politics, public service, and the arts. The conversations take place in the historic Roosevelt House at Hunter College, where attendees also learn about the building’s history and meet in an intimate setting. The Tisch family also supports the Aspen Institute’s annual Preston Robert Tisch Award in Civic Leadership, which is awarded to an individual who has made a significant positive impact on his or her community.
Joan H. Tisch, who is Steve, Laurie, Jon and Lizzie’s mother, is honored through a grant to Hunter College with three components: a Distinguished Fellow in Public Health, who is an annual scholar in residence who works with undergraduates, graduate students and faculty to educate and contribute to the Hunter community; the Public Health Forum, the annual symposium featuring leaders in issues like obesity, diabetes, poverty, aging and mental health; and the Community Health Prize, awarded annually to both an individual and an organization that has made an outstanding accomplishment in the field of urban public health.
Together, we are proud to honor and be inspired by such a tremendous set of leaders in honor of Preston Robert Tisch and Joan H. Tisch’s leadership, philanthropy and sensitivity to areas of need in New York.
He obviously knew where to place his gifts. He has gifts. He was bringing people together. He could have funded getting all the fields for the kids himself. He wanted the people to come together around the issue. He wanted to be an example of that.Wynton Marsalis, on Preston Robert Tisch