Campus Currents

Take Two: Creating Leaders Gift from producer Marcy Carsey '66 will create more than a school.

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Snavely Associates

Marcy Peterson Carsey '66, who co-founded the independent production company behind the "The Cosby Show," "3rd Rock from the Sun," and many other successful sitcoms, has made a $20 million gift to UNH—the second largest in the university's history. The gift will support the creation of the Carsey School for Public Policy, where an interdisciplinary approach will help cultivate a new generation of leaders with a commitment to service.

Sociologists and environmental scientists, health care experts and economists, demographers and foresters—they'll all find a home in the new graduate school. The goal, says Carsey, is to develop public policy practitioners "who can translate rigorous research into effective policies and practices, helping to solve some of the complex issues facing our world."

The school will educate and invigorate future leaders, says Carsey, whose $7.5 million gift in 2002 established UNH's Carsey Institute, which conducts research on vulnerable children, youth, and families. Investing in initiatives like these reflects the spirit of a public university, notes Carsey, whose latest gift to UNH follows the largest fundraising year in the university's history.