• The Global Health program has accelerated critical research, development and testing of new products aimed at combating diseases that kill and disable millions in the developing world. For example, last year our grantees advanced the development of a vaccine for malaria and a microbicide that will help women protect themselves from HIV.
• The Education program is working to dramatically improve high school and college graduation rates for all students, especially those who have historically been underserved. We now are partnering with more than 30 districts across the country to create small, rigorous high schools where all students can achieve and be prepared for college, work and citizenship.
• The Library program is more than halfway toward achieving our goal of expanding access to information and technology so that if you can reach a public library in the U.S. you can reach the Internet. At the end of 2001, our dedicated team of library trainers had installed 30,000 computers, from the Yukon Territory to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific.
• The Pacific Northwest Giving program has given us the opportunity to be good neighbors by supporting some of the excellent work going on right here in our backyard. In 2001, we helped launch the Sound Families Initiative, an innovative partnership that has funded more than 200 new transitional housing units throughout Pierce, King and Snohomish counties.

  Patty Stonesifer
  President & Co-Chair