May 7, 2012

SAIS gift, one of school’s largest ever, will support Foreign Policy Institute

SAIS has received one of the largest gifts in the school’s history: a residential property valued at $5.9 million from an anonymous donor. This property will be sold by the Johns Hopkins University Real Estate Office to create a permanent base of support for the Foreign Policy Institute. The FPI is the research arm of the school and seeks to develop knowledge and promote public awareness of issues in foreign affairs through practically oriented research and discussion.

In making the announcement last week to the SAIS community, Dean Jessica Einhorn said that the gift will establish the Betty Lou Hummel Endowed Fund.

Betty Lou Firstenberger Hummel (1925–2011) was a member of SAIS’s first graduating class, in 1946, and was the widow of U.S. Ambassador Arthur W. Hummel Jr. She served alongside her husband during his multiple ambassadorial appointments, to Burma, Ethiopia, Pakistan and China, among other posts, and was active in international issues throughout her lifetime.

“The Betty Lou Hummel Endowed Fund will help underwrite operating costs, and support creative programming and innovative research and discussion, at FPI, enhancing the institute’s role as an incubator of new thinking and approaches to foreign policy challenges,” Einhorn said. “With Professor Carla Freeman, FPI’s executive director, I am particularly pleased that the new endowment also will support opportunities by FPI to engage students and faculty more actively in its work.”