Ralph and Beth Johnston Muller endow CHIBE directorship with $3 million gift
Around 20 years ago at Penn, Ralph Muller (then CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System) met Dr. Kevin Volpp, whom he described as “a man with an extraordinary set of talents.”
“He was engaging and curious. He had a high emotional intelligence and really knew how to work with people,” Muller said of his first impression of Dr. Volpp.
CHIBE, which Dr. Volpp leads, was just in its infancy at the time, and Muller said he appreciated Dr. Volpp’s ability to bring people together from different disciplines to work on the common goal of improving patient health.
“Kevin has made such a great contribution not just to Penn but also nationally in terms of how to improve health care,” Muller said.
The two bonded over shared goals and became tennis partners (“He’s very good; as you may imagine, he’s competitive”), and Muller served as a key mentor to Dr. Volpp.
A $3 million vision
Now, that decades-long partnership has come full circle. Ralph and Beth Johnston Muller (former Executive Director of the Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania) have endowed the directorship of CHIBE with a $3 million gift, naming Dr. Volpp as the inaugural Ralph and Beth Johnston Muller CHIBE Director.
“I am excited to honor Kevin, as both a scholar and a Penn Medicine executive,” Johnston Muller said. “He has provided visionary leadership, creating a Center that is focused on solving hard problems in the most elegant manner. In this role, Kevin nurtures one of Penn’s most valuable assets, providing mentorship to young people bent to a life of innovation and discovery. I hope this gift highlights the accomplishments of Kevin and CHIBE and encourages others to find ways to support Penn Medicine in a meaningful way.”
For Dr. Volpp, the gift is personally meaningful, and he is enormously grateful for the flexibility it offers the Center.
“Unrestricted funds are so important to the functioning of a Center – often good ideas arise and in applying for funding through conventional sources it can take 1 or 2 years or more for the funds to come through,” Dr. Volpp said. “The pace of innovation has greatly accelerated, and this provides us with flexible funding to explore promising ideas without time delays and to be more bold in going after promising opportunities.”
Dr. Volpp said that both Muller and Johnston Muller were inspirational leaders at Penn Medicine for many years, and it means a lot to him that they have chosen to support CHIBE and that they believe in the work the Center is doing.
“They were both strong leaders, and I aspire to have a similar impact to what they achieved in their careers. I am also enormously grateful to them for their mentoring and this support,” Dr. Volpp said.
A stronger future
“Leadership takes effort and nurturing of others,” Dr. Volpp said. “It is amazing that Ralph personally mentored 23 individuals who became health system CEOs. I remember early in my career that Ralph would always make time to meet whenever I had something important to discuss. Being accessible and investing in the next generation of leaders is so important, both in terms of moving initiatives forward today and laying the foundation for a stronger future.”
