Pamela Reis and her family have been longtime supporters of Cornell University. From the Reis Tennis Center to the Cornell Adult University — even restoring the local power plant. Now, Reis is adding to this philanthropic roster through funding the very first scholarship for Cornell Public Health’s M.P.H. students. She wants to give where it’s needed most — to students who may struggle with tuition bills and are going into fields that don’t always guarantee high pay. “The people who go into public health usually are from very middle-class families,” Reis says. “Their goal is to work in the community. These are people in the trenches.”

Indeed, M.P.H. alumni have gone on to work for organizations like the Black Farmer Fund, a nonprofit that gives financial and technical assistance to Black farmers in the northeast; the CDC’s Injury Center working on policy issues; or the United Nations advocating for nutrition for school-aged children. “I really appreciate that this program is so interdisciplinary,” Reis says of Cornell Public Health. “It’s an excellent example of why public health programs should exist at research universities — it ensures that the work doesn’t become siloed.” 

Reis first learned about Cornell Public Health when she and her late husband, Curtis Reis, were introduced to Dr. Alexander Travis, director of Cornell Public Health and founding chair of the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health, who shared about the work one of his graduate students was doing in Zambia to help local communities raise egg-laying poultry. The Reises were so inspired by this work, they made a point of visiting the student when they were in Africa to view her progress. The visit inspired them to make their first gift to the college — this one to support Travis’s work at the Baker Institute.  Subsequently, it has been their relationship with Travis that has inspired this further giving. “If I hadn’t known Alex, I wouldn’t have known about the M.P.H. program,” Reis says.

Reis, who owns standard poodles, was no stranger to the veterinary college at large, however. “My dogs have always been treated by Cornell vets,” she says. And she certainly was closely familiar with the university. Named a Foremost Benefactor along with her late husband and in-laws, L. Sanford ’29, Jo Mills Reis ’29, Dick ’57 and Dale Reis Johnson ’58, Pamela Reis carries the family’s long-standing legacy of supporting Big Red (“There’s no way of being in the Reis family and not being involved in Cornell,” she says.)  Curtis Reis ’56, was a trustee emeritus, three-term member of the Cornell University Council, and a longtime member of the Arts & Sciences Advisory council. He co-founded the Cornell Adult University and received the Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award.

Pamela Reis holds the same philosophy on giving to Cornell as her father-in-law did. “He would say, ‘As a donor, you need to trust the institution to which you’re giving’,” she says. “If there was an issue, he trusted Cornell would be working on it. And I thought that was really informative.”

With Reis’ new M.P.H. scholarship, she’s ensuring that work will continue to be carried out.

Written by Lauren Cahoon Roberts