Announcing the 2023 retirement of Gold President & CEO Dr. Richard I. Levin

Dear Gold community,

We are more than grateful for Rich’s leadership, which has skillfully guided the Gold Foundation through an ever-emerging landscape of growing threats to humanism in healthcare. His wise counsel, visionary ideas, and warm collaborations have yielded a transformation of the Gold Foundation, creating a legacy of a nimble, inclusive platform and team well prepared for even greater growth in the future.

During his tenure, Rich has steered the Gold Foundation to a wide expansion into nursing, community health, and corporate healthcare, arenas that, along with the foundation’s traditional realm of medical education, help us together answer the critical threats facing humanism in healthcare.

His collaborative leadership has forged new and greater partnerships, launched prestigious awards, and helped solidify a stronger financial and visionary trajectory for the future of the nonprofit organization.

Major milestones during his tenure include:

• Engagement of the nursing profession, including seeding a ceremony to emphasize the importance of humanism into hundreds of nursing schools and adding nursing students to the Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest
  
• Founding of the Gold Foundation, Canada, the Canadian affiliate of the U.S.-based Arnold P. Gold Foundation, and creation of the AFMC-Gold Humanism in Healthcare Award and Lecture
• Activation and growth of the Gold Humanism Honor Society, which now numbers nearly 45,000 members and 181 chapters throughout the world that create innovative projects and events to address local needs.
• Increased emphasis on the need for greater inclusion in humanism, including making explicit the Gold Foundation’s commitment to anti-racism and equitable care.
• Creation of Thank a Resident Dayto draw attention to the contributions of resident physicians and fellows, which featured a record 500 sites participating in 2022
• Launch of the Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare, a joint program with the Vilcek Foundation, which has been awarded to, among others, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy
• Establishment of the Gold Corporate Council, with six global healthcare leaders who partner with the Gold Foundation to support humanism in the corporate sector
• Reorganization and growth of the Gold Partners Council, a group of medical schools, hospitals, and health systems devoted to humanism in healthcare