Gift helps advance work on LGBTQ Health Equity at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

For Mike Dillon M.P.H. ’23, there has never been a more crucial moment to address the public health crisis facing LGBTQ communities.

LGBTQ individuals encounter significant challenges in accessing equitable and inclusive health care. Faced with discrimination, stigma, limited access to care— including gender-affirming care and reproductive care — and high rates of violence and disinformation directed at them and their health care providers, LGBTQ individuals experience alarming health disparities. This includes higher incidences of mental health conditions, substance use disorders, homelessness, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS. They are less likely to have health insurance and often delay care, and many experience a lack of cultural competence from providers. 

Galvanized by the urgent need for improved health care delivery and outcomes for LGBTQ communities, Dillon has made a gift to support efforts to advance LGBTQ health equity at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The funding will help equip emerging public health care practitioners with essential knowledge and resources.

“We need to cultivate a new generation of LGBTQ leaders,” Dillon said. “We need their expertise, innovation, and fresh perspectives to enact real change. There’s an opportunity at Harvard to make a lasting impact on our community.”

The gift aims to establish scholarships to attract talented students interested in LGBTQ health equity and create research grants that will support the work of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. In addition, the gift will support University-wide service fellowships so that emerging leaders from across Harvard’s Schools can apply to an internship or practicum in the field.

Dillon hopes to see more interdisciplinary collaboration at Harvard around these issues and for researchers to coalesce around the intersectionality of marginalized communities.

“Public health is how we change history,” he said. “You only have a strong community if you have a healthy community.”

After a successful 30-year career in various leadership roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dillon sought a new way of making a difference outside of the corporate world.

He enrolled in the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI), a one-year, University-wide educational program for experienced leaders to address some of society’s most intractable challenges through interdisciplinary learning, leadership development training and peer collaboration.

“ALI teaches you to think about your pathway to making social change and how you can make maximum impact,” said Dillon. “It gave me the freedom to think outside the box about what my legacy could be and how I could work toward change.”

After completing his fellowship, he was inspired to pursue a master’s degree in health policy at Harvard Chan School. “I kept coming back to LGBTQ health equity,” he said. “I knew it was important for me to learn the language of public health.” Dillon wanted to do more to support the burgeoning research and scholarship in this field, which led him to make a gift to Harvard.