Posts Tagged ‘Albert D + Mary Lasker Foundation (Research! America and NIH-involved)’
Read (with the goal of understanding!) Our Own Government’s Independent Agency Annual Financial Reports (at least parts with texts and colorful graphs) and “learn stuff.” Like NSF’s Brain Initiative, Its Big Ten Ideas, and Domestic|Foreign, Public|Private Revenue Sources. I just did…(Published Oct. 16, 2019)
This post is:
Read (with the goal of understanding) Our Own Government’s Independent Agency Annual Financial Reports (at least parts with texts and colorful graphs) and “learn stuff.” Like NSF’s Brain Initiative, Its Big Ten Ideas, and Domestic|Foreign, Public|Private Revenue Sources. I just did…(Published Oct. 16, 2019) (short-link ends “-bie”, published at 8,700 words with extra section on the NAS and some intro).
The National Science Foundation (“NSF,” 1950ff, under President Truman) history ties in closely to Vannevar Bush. So does the history of Abt Associates (1965ff) as it intersects with Raytheon. In many ways the history of the NSF illuminates the history of the United States in the 20th Century. You can’t understand much of where we are now, and why, without some acquaintance with it.

BRAINInitiative.NIH.Gov (Google the term; many web domains will come up describing it, and President Obama’s 2013 launch of parts of it!).
The NSF website has a nice version, but this enthusiastic short summary is from Research! America, a nonprofit I also researched because of its involvement with (and dependency on) the buildup of the HHS and NIH especially as promoted Mary Lasker, and because of other certain Brain Institutes (as I recall) funded by, well, rich people….
- Research! America (searchable on this blog; see tag I added to this one) waxing eloquent about the National Science Foundation and in the process giving us a nice, short summary. (Basic URL visible in top of images) in 4 images viewed Oct. 2019
- (One reason for this image gallery: note the classifications, esp. the one on bottom right: Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences)
Any history of the NSF will mention how it arose after World War II and in the early years, USA was caught off guard by Russia in the “Space Race.” “What’s it to me?” (Keep reading…)
I have a short post on Abt Associates who, possibly because of its data-crunching ability, like many companies formerly involved in U.S. government military contract, found purposes in both consumer electronics AND continued dealings with the might of the U.S. government built up for and during wartime as turned to “health, education, and welfare” purposes (1953-1980) thereafter, at least that “health” part called “Health and Human Services” — the largest grant-making department. Other groups (like MDRC or the Urban Institute) would run the social science R&D on poor people and certain types of consulting agencies would then analyze and write up the projects — like Mathematica Policy Research, MEF Associates, and Abt Associates.
Some companies, also specializing heavily in federal contracts and consulting, seem to have managed to both get grants to run the projects AND be on the evaluation teams (I’m thinking of ICF International which got so wealthy doing this it continued acquiring other companies and now is a multinational for-profit (i.e., global) corporation. Its advice was sought during the 2000 Greenbook Initiative on Overlap of Child Maltreatment and Domestic Violence, with participation from (then-called) Family Violence Prevention Fund, which has also since gotten fairly fat on contracts and grants — and become a real estate investor in the San Francisco Presidio, too. (Searchable on this blot).
My recent, short, Abt Associates post:
Cont’d from my Aug. 5 post…An Alternate Viewpt. on the Anti-Smoking Campaign and its Syndicated Backers …1998 Tobacco Litigation MSA followed by the 2007 (Opinion) USDOJ RICO [started 8/7, published 8/19/17 + updated since]
Title, presently: Cont’d from my Aug. 5 post…An Alternate Viewpt. on the Anti-Smoking Campaign and its Syndicated Backers …1998 Tobacco Litigation MSA followed by the 2007 (Opinion) USDOJ RICO [started 8/7/2017] with case-sensitive short-link ending “-7pV”
At first the material was so vast, consequential, and filled with so many branches of related information, I simply called this one “Continued from the last post.” “Last” meaning “most recent,” of course.
Last post, title abbreviated: An Alternate Viewpoint on the Anti-Smoking / Smoking Causes Cancer! Campaign and its Syndicated Backers ….** and 1998 MSA Tobacco litigation. (shortlink ends “-7na”)
- **(mid-section of that long title….) incl. the Whiteheads, the Laskers, the NIH and the U.S. Congress (from SmokersHistory.com and Other Sources. See also Tobacco Lawsuits and 1998 MSA Settlement Funds ~~} American Legacy Foundation, now the so-called Truth Initiative®)

Mary Lasker with Albert D. Lasker. His third wife (her second husband; first had owned an art gallery, marriage didn’t last long). There appears to be something of an age difference… They married 1940; he retired (selling? Lord & Thomas) in 1942, which sale funded their foundation ($45M). L&T became Foote, Cone & Belding. By 1952 he was dead from cancer, which diagnosis (this article says) Mary kept from him…. (image of the Laskers from CBCRadio.com article, below).
After a week researching, compiling and writing the previous post, I gained a better understanding at least of the role of Mary Lasker (1900-1994), again, who, being Wife #3, outlived her wealthy husband Albert D. Lasker (1880-1952), owner of the dominating-the-field Lord & Thomas advertising agency in the early 1900s,** by some 42 years and who, with her powerful connections and relatives, made her will and influence known to a series of Presidents, Congresses, and NIH directors, as well as with some of them and/or other associates (people of influence in her social circle as a wealthy heiress of Mr. Lasker) running or re-directing a series of influential organizations central to public policy today, including at least a few associations mentioned as “Intervenors” in the USDOJ lawsuit against “big tobacco,” as shown here: [I re-post the same image and additional from the USDOJ Civil Actions lawsuit (Amended Opinion 2007) listing the intervenor associations images much further below, with quote from its Introduction. This gives an idea of the vast size of the proceedings. (My 12/16/2016 page has link to the entire opinion, and more)]

This image comes up again, further down in today’s (8/15/2017) post…USA Plaintiff, Tobacco-Free Kids, American~ Cancer,Heart,Lung, NonSmokersRights+NAATPN, *INTERVENORS* v. PhillipMorrisUSA et al CivilActn 99-2496(GK) [RICO] (Opin2007) (¼ images; cover page

Click to enlarge. Notice reference to “#BtheChange” and earlier comments from my Dec. 15, 2016 page, looking up the Intervenors.
Notice “BHthechange” =/= “BtheChange. The BH stands for “Behavioral Health.”
“BtheChange.org.UK” focuses on behavioral modification, peer mentoring for offenders. The phrase seems over-used, but here’s the log. This seems unrelated, I’m just referencing it because of the similar sound-bite:

(Logo from SaferStronger.com apparently uploaded July 2017? it seems to be an EU charity, (guess the UK hasn’t finished its BREXIT yet, the location seems to be in the UK). Also found at BtheChange.org.uk.
POST OVERVIEW: — I NOW HAVE A SEQUEL TO THIS POST READY TO GO; SOME OF ITS MATERIAL OCCURS NEXT, BUT MAY BE RE-ARRANGED. THIS RECURRING SITUATION COMES UP FREQUENTLY BECAUSE I AM INVESTIGATING (WRITING ALMOST AS QUICKLY AS I DISCOVER THE MATERIAL) NETWORKED ORGANIZATIONS AND THEIR WEBSITE CLAIMS AND CONSIDERING WHERE THESE FIT INTO, FOR EXAMPLE, THE HISTORY OF THE RAPID PROLIFERATION OF NIH INSTITUTES AND CENTERS, AND FUNDING FOR THE SAME.
So, after several days’ work on this one, I’m going to publish it at 11,100 words, but expect to move some sections around, including to or from the next post in the sequence. Currently the content here may be more or less directly tied into post title. Taken as a whole, however, I am continuing to bring the topics into a “systems view.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Who? (Besides Harvard, MIT and Other Boston-area Institutes) is Funding and Promoting/Soliciting for Personal Genomics (volunteer your personal, identifiable, genetic code for the PGP, a global database to be shared internationally) — GET Research (fine-tuning and equipping the Nature vs. Nurture debate) as Essential for Global Public Health? (publ. 7/31/17)
Who? (besides Harvard, MIT and other Boston-based Institutes) is Funding and Promoting/Soliciting for Personal Genomics (volunteer your personal, identifiable, genetic code for a global database to be shared internationally) — GET Research (fine-tuning and equipping the Nature vs. Nurture debate) as Essential for Global Public Health Issue? (title’s short-link ends “-7m3”; published 7/31/2017)
[ “MIT” added to the title at some point, but not the internal record of the title. With MIT’s involvement with both the Broad Institute (named on its corporate papers in MA) and the Whitehead Institute (which calls itself independent, but uses “MIT” in its website URL(!)), it’s “not just Harvard.”
Well, just the other day I learned more about one of the terms in the post title in the typical way — while updating one post, referring to one website in passing, I took a second, closer look at other parts of the website (“conferences” link), which revealed both the GET conferences and the name of a nonprofit sponsoring them. That’s how “GET” and “PersonalGenomes.org” came up to my attention.
So, in this post expect to hear about:
~|~ PgEd.org ~|~ PersonalGenomes.org/Open Humans Foundation ~|~ the GET conferences ~|~ “volunteer your personal genetics” solicitation as a recurring theme ~|~ (leaving aside the Broad Institute for a while) more on the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (“Whitehead Institute”) ~|~ and Treatment Advocacy Center (“TAC”) associated with the Stanley Medical Research Institute (“SMRI”) ~|~ Which of the above have (as it applies) boards of director personnel, funders and/or it seems, well-coordinated purposes in common.
~|~ And several images + a table tax returns, because of their support of the Human (and “Personal”) Genome Project, the Coriell Institute for Medical Research (formed 1953, it says, in Camden, NJ). They provide the Biobank, cell lines (and more), funded by, currently it says, seven NIH awards.
I talk about and show some of their financials, and how at least one them went to special efforts NOT to show them, at least on the main website while promoting its cause, scientists, research, and outreach (and soliciting more support, preferably $10K at a time or more). I took a short enough (hopefully) look at the source of Whitehead wealth in the sale of the clinical diagnosis instrument company (“Technicon”) to Revlon in 1980, and what happened to Revlon not long after — because it’s interesting, and relevant.
When and Where? Of these, PersonalGenomes.org/Open Humans Foundation and The Whitehead Institute (“WI.MIT.edu) are in the Boston area (although one of their legal domiciles isn’t in MA but NC) and PgEd.org web page gives contact address at Harvard Medical School Dept. of Genetics (PgEd.org doesn’t appear to be a separate entity), SMRI is in Bethesda MD, TAC which SMRI supports, is in Arlington, Virginia, and the Coriell Institute in NJ (website + tax returns don’t match).
The oldest entity in the list (until I added Coriell to it!) seems to be the Whitehead Institute, (<= EIN#061043412, that’s a link to an older Form 990, which I’ll show below, at Nine Cambridge Center, Cambridge MA)(website says 455 Main now) started in, says its Form 990, 1982. SMRI (per tax return) started in only 2001, and, which is interesting, the TAC, three years earlier, 1998. Coriell started in the 1950s..
In this post, you will also hear about two more entities who have worked side-by-side for decades to shape government-sponsored research in particularly cancer (smoking cessation), heart disease, biomedical research into genetics, and to push for more and more NIH funding:
~|~ Research! America (est. 1989), and ~|~ the Albert & Mary Lasker Foundation (it seems 1974)
Briefly, how they came up.
When the Whitehead Institute’s famous founder is looked at, and through basic Google search on my part (I didn’t know who he was…), this also brings up his participation/founding of Research! America (inc. 1989, a VA-based entity with a D.C. legal domicile — and apparently some legislators (or at least “Hon.’s”) on its board over time)*, with its push for doubling NIH funding for biomedical research in five years, and in general PR for BioMedical Research (incl. on stem cells) as a public and global health benefit.
I put that discussion (several annotated images from its timeline) towards the bottom of the post, but it will pull together, I believe other parts of the narrative in a timeline. The website gives a timeline of events, and shows how many other foundations (incl. Bill & Melinda Gates, Robert Wood Johnson, and others, and not a few Congressmen, were involved, and spinoff organizations (at least two 501©4s) in pulling this off. Where I found this information was on a multi-page, all-text, highly linked (although some have expired) and detailed tracking of networked families, companies and foundations, especially related to the anti-smoking campaign (American Cancer Society), America Heart Association, and pushing money towards biomedical research. I spent hours (in fact, a full work day just reading, not writing) looking at this after the first exposure nearly a week ago, when I looked at certain parts of it.
It challenges the paradigm — the public promoted website purposes– but in the process uses some volatile and at times offensive language (bilge, shucksters, Nazi fascism of the health system, pseudoscience and more), BUT it also resonates and as an interpretation makes sense with information outside the website, and my strong gut instinct that some things are drastically wrong with the overall picture. It definitely got me looking further, and more understanding on previously covered topics, as well as on new ones. I have a title (short version, long version) and a start on that write-up (post in draft status Now Published), at:
First, shorter title:
About the Anti-Smoking Campaign and its Backers from “SmokersHistory.com” (started 7/31, published 8/5/2017, case-sensitive short-link ends “-7na”
Why I’m including it better reflected in the longer title, still a WIP (Work In Progress):
Much as I enjoy looking at the detailed and colorful photos of cells, or hearing about the discoveries in scientific fields, including genetics…and in part because of the prominence of the Whitehead Institute (and with it, Edwin C. Whitehead, his surviving son John, and other siblings till on the institute’s board of directors (Susan, Peter), I still feel responsible to bring up alternate views of both the above organizations, and their founders’ (and friends’) overall purposes, and how they achieved them.
* (by recall from review of the Research! America returns)
- the Hon. Paul G. Rogers (d. 2008)
- the Hon. John Edwards Porter
- the Hon. Louis H. Sullivan
- not to mention also former US Surgeon-General, C. Everett Koop.
About Whitehead Institute (pausing to note its website is at MIT):
Whitehead Institute is based at MIT,** but as a separate nonprofit; famous originally for its major contribution to the Human Genome Project.
**Notice MIT’s “About” page (READ!!) mentions the Human Genome project and CRISPR, also its summary of current initiatives and projects, and estimate of $1.9 trillion annual revenue generated by its alumni (over 130,000 — MIT started in 1861 –). That was a 2014 estimate. )
Current research and education areas include digital learning; nanotechnology; sustainable energy, the environment, climate adaptation, and global water and food security; Big Data, cybersecurity, robotics, and artificial intelligence; human health, including cancer, HIV, autism, Alzheimer’s, and dyslexia; biological engineering and CRISPR technology; poverty alleviation; advanced manufacturing; and innovation and entrepreneurship.)
So Whitehead Institute’s location within MIT as a free-standing 501©3 school is a very big deal!)
Another on-line source referencing Mr. Whitehead’s work mentioned the Albert & Mary Lasker Foundation (est, 1974?) as involved in some of the same politics and public health promotions (although around a different cause), so within the past few days, I was also looking at its website, board of directors, and you betcha, tax returns.
BLOGGING CONTEXT/TIMELINE ON THESE TOPICS:
Over time and two related (but not consecutive) FamilyCourtMatters.org posts I have shown several of these institutes’ (entities’) tax returns in table format, so people might see: Total Assets, State, and (if they clicked through) on page 1 of any individual return, (for Form 990 filers, and only FY2008ff for them — Form 990PFs for private foundations don’t show this, or Form 990EZs…) a year of incorporation and related website if identified on the Form990’s header info.), and quickly (from page 1 summary) whether its main revenues were contributions, program services revenues, or something else (such as investment-related income, whether from dividends or sale of assets at a profit). In general this locates any organization in time, space, characteristics and size, activities as told the IRS (not the public) including whether it bothered to follow IRS form instructions. It also reveals if looked at further, or earlier returns are checked out, subcontractors, if there are grantees, related organizations, and where they are holding their assets.
The two related posts (I’ll link to these again further below, in the same format):
These are my most closely related recent posts: #1 posted 7/23 and updated 7/24-76:
With similar, multi-component title reflecting how many components (institutes, websites, elements) there are to these situations, although two university names continue to come into play: Harvard, and UCBerkeley, #2, posted 6/18/2017:
…..And of course, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Whitehead Institute
Just one of its tax returns gives several points of reference you won’t find on “Wikipedia,” or most likely analyzed on its own website. Patience, please! with a bit of tax return show-and-tell. These “factoids” shown from Forms 990 provide a series of good mental “memory tags” helpful in putting time, size and place on any organization points of comparison (like an “LCD,” lowest common denominator) relative to other institutes/nonprofits and its position relative to public funds.
- Without objective, basic “quantifiable” points of comparison outside the self-descriptions on the websites, or personal knowledge (eyewitness) experiential information of the programming or professors, directors (etc.) of ALL members of the entities working the field, how can they be understood, outside of hearsay and PR? They are not “the whole story,” but they give all other stories a basic structure. “Read my lips! Read the 990s!
- WITH such points of comparison, there is at least a basis for conversation or discussions with people who may not share common experiences, or outside one’s professional niche/s or “expertise.” It’s a descriptive, vital language (including vocabulary) for transmission of meaning across time and distance. It helps with categorization and understanding of reality — including the reality of public economic support of private infrastructure. This language is apparently NOT meant for common understanding across the US population. Instead, we are often given promotions and propaganda to justify public policy and the costs. (This point added post-publication during a review).
- What’s in common with other for-profit industries working with the organizations towards a global or public health goal? For assembling any concept of who’s been doing what, and to a degree, how (financially) and under what cause (which any public (vs. private foundation) 501©3 must state as its program purpose, that is, reason for existing in the first place), getting to the tax returns before the website rhetoric cannot hurt.
- One thing I also tend to notice on any “for the public good” organization website is how forthcoming is it about its own financials (especially the 990s) as opposed to advertising “G&S” (Goods & Services) and soliciting donations or participants, i.e., selling.
The Whitehead Institute hasn’t posted an annual report since FY2014 (I write in nearly August 2017) and not one Form 990 is shown. Getting even to the Annual Reports is a reach, and there are no posted audited financial statements anywhere on the site, that I can see. Look at the top and bottom of the home page; between this like a newspaper layout of awards or recognitions for its famous people involved or their accomplishments. I have no problem with that — BUT not when financials are omitted, or even a reference to the EIN#. Many organizations will post this — why doesn’t this one?
To show this, I’ve annotated the next two images from the top and the bottom of the main page, one from the donor form, and a single image from their magazine which “special” donors (who give from $2.5 – $10K) get.
The website has beautiful, colorful and intriguing images from their research, and plenty of their people also. My annotations on the image obscure much of that. If you want to see the vivid pictures without all my notations, go to the main website which is easy to remember: WI.MIT.edu!
To ensure I wasn’t making a false claim either here, or on the annotations about the “MIA” financials, I went also again to the “Support” Page (another place sometimes an EIN# may be mentioned). Of course I have their EIN# already, but the point here is, does the W.I. think it’s worth a token gesture or not? That answer is: “Not!” Even a link labeled something like “Financials 2014” under that Support menu looks like a single page (fine print) from the Annual Report, with two piecharts and a list of personnel. That is not the only place some of the labeling and statements are vague and misleading.
A good question might be: If this is how the institute handles communications and solicitations — i.e., misleading statements and labels, missing information which the public deserves to know — how reliable is their scientific statements and information? (I have the same issue with more than one organization in the “~|~” -marked list, above). Of course, I have no scientific expertise to judge, or reason to suspect that the science behind this institute is less then stellar. BUT, my other comments stand. Its failure to divulge financials I believe is odd and inappropriate. Having looked at the tax returns already, I suspect that one motive might be not wishing the public who might donate more to comprehend just how much public financing is already involved. Its failure to provide CURRENT annual reports as well (at least) is also disrespectful, and the organizational history narratives, spread over many pages, are designed not to go very far in depth, and are notably absent backup links.
I noticed this tone and quality on the website from the start; it bothered me knowing what level of diligence and detail must occur for the level of science (and technology) taking place both here, and at the prestigious MIT. I think it is disrespectful overall, and smacks of arrogance and condescension — while I am, as who wouldn’t be, still interested in the discoveries and descriptions of those discoveries in the field.
This is NOT a valid format OR substance for presentation of significant financial information. Nor is any offer made how to contact the organization and get these. Apparently, we’re not supposed to think about these things, but what a privilege it is to be involved, and support it out of pocket. The impact of this will be seen when (a) you look at the Whitehead Institute’s tax return (one provided below), and (b) when you read about Research! America’s push for doubling that NIH funding within five years (said to have been achieved by 2003). It’s entirely fair, when being solicited in conditions like this, and honest, for any U.S. citizen to say, “I already gave at the office!” because we did!