Lisa Wardell Announces the Adtalem Assistance Fund

Adtalem Colleagues,

It’s been nearly a month since Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast, followed by the devastating destruction of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the Caribbean.

This is the first time in our organization’s history that we’ve faced such extraordinary weather events affecting so many of our institutions and companies – as well as the colleagues and students dedicated to them.

In particular, our Ross University School of Medicine on Dominica and American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine on Sint Maarten received the worst of it. Both were hit with Category 5 hurricanes. Immediately following the storms, our teams mobilized, conducting a comprehensive evacuation of students, faculty and their families from Sint Maarten and Dominica.

Members of our community have endured an unimaginable set of circumstances and their lives have been altered significantly. Many of them experienced damage or complete destruction of their property and many others lost all their possessions.

These weather events have also created a bond within the Adtalem community that is impactful and inspiring.

In the days following Hurricane Irma, Adtalem initially created a non-profit organization, the AUC Assistance Fund, to collect financial donations from the many people and organizations who have extended offers to help. The fund was designed to support our AUC students, colleagues and faculty in this extremely difficult time. However, as extreme weather continued to batter the island of Dominica this month, it became clear that more members of our family – in addition AUC – need our help.

We’ve taken the step to expand our donation efforts and have created the Adtalem Assistance Fund, which allows those inside and outside the organization to donate to students, faculty and colleagues at RUSM, AUC, RUVSM and Chamberlain— all of which have been affected by the destructive hurricanes of this month. A general fund also allows for a donation.

This new fund is a part of an expanded mission of our Adtalem Caring Fund, which will distribute contributions to students, faculty and colleagues affected by the storms in accordance with its policies. It’s an honor for me to have founded the initial AUC resource with a personal donation of $25,000 and now to make a second contribution of $25,000 as we broaden its reach.
To donate via the website, please visit: adtalemassistancefund.com.
You can also text donations:

For RUSM, text RUSMASSIST to 41444
For AUC, text AUCAssist to 41444
For RUSVM, text RUSVMASSIST to 41444
For Chamberlain, text CUAssist to 41444
For the General Fund, text GENASSIST to 41444

These combined resources are a reflection of the values we embody and the spirit of collaboration and empowering others that is at the heart of our organization.

Those students or colleagues who would like to request support must fill out the form found on the website and submit it to askHR@adtalem.com, no later than Nov. 30, 2017.

I once again thank the many Adtalem colleagues who have volunteered their time and lent their support in recent weeks to help our community its time of need. I continue to be amazed by the resilience of those many survivors, and I am so very proud to be a part of the Adtalem family. #WeAreAdtalem

Warm Regards,
Lisa W. Wardell
President and CEO