Over Janet Porter’s 40-year career, she has strived to follow one motto: Live with gratitude. Gratitude for her alma mater is what will fuel Janet’s new tenure as a charter member of Ohio State’s board of trustees through 2020.
A Buckeye through and through, Janet earned her bachelor’s in 1975 and her master’s in health administration in 1977.
“Every professor knows that you learn more from your classmates than you do from your teachers,” Janet says. “I had incredibly committed, smart classmates who made me feel from the very beginning that I belonged — which wasn’t easy in those days because there weren’t very many women.”
Janet went on to earn her PhD and MBA and hold leadership positions at top-ranked health care institutions. She has served as chief operating officer of Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and has held faculty appointments at Harvard University, University of North Carolina, University of Minnesota and Ohio State.
A few years ago, Janet received the Ralph Davenport Mershon Award from The Ohio State University Alumni Association, and this year she was honored with the University of Minnesota School of Public Health’s highest honor, the Gaylord Anderson Award, for her outstanding contributions to public health.
As her career has taken her to new institutions in cities across the country, Janet has preserved her friendships with faculty and classmates from her early days at Ohio State.
When you are involved with young people in any way, you are creating the future. It’s given me a tremendous sense of satisfaction — knowing that I’m investing in young people so that we can have good health care systems for when I get old and grey. —Janet Porter, MHA '77
“They have served as lifelong professional colleagues and personal friends,” Janet says. “I’m very close with my class and I think students who don’t take the opportunity to develop enduring relationships with their classmates and their faculty are really missing a tremendous opportunity.”
As an alumna of the College of Public Health’s Master of Health Administration (MHA) program, Janet hopes to use her three-year appointment to advance the university’s health system.
“I am excited to be appointed to the Wexner Medical Center board because creating the ideal patient experience was what sparked my interest in health care administration as a career,” Janet says.
Janet worked with other MHA alumni on campaigns to create the Stephen F. Loebs Professorship and William O. Cleverley Scholarship.
“Hundreds of MHA alumni and friends contributed to these campaigns because they are grateful for the education they received at Ohio State,” Janet notes. “Giving back has made me prouder to be a Buckeye because I get to see the amazing things that the Ohio State programs and students do. When you are involved with young people in any way, you are creating the future. It’s given me a tremendous sense of satisfaction — knowing that I’m investing in young people so that we can have good health care systems for when I get old and grey.”
