PIH co-founders address newly matriculated Class of 2013

Jared Bookman / The Dartmouth Staff Partners in Health began as a small organization with board meetings held over pizza and Chinese food, but was able to grow to provide medical care to low-income communities across the world because of the friendship of the organization's founders, PIH president and executive director Ophelia Dahl said before a packed Spaulding Auditorium Wednesday night. College President Jim Yong Kim and Harvard University professor Paul Farmer fellow PIH co-founders joined Dahl to deliver the traditional "first lecture" to the incoming Class of 2013, billed as a discussion of the students' summer reading assignment, Tracy Kidder's 2004 best-seller "Mountains Beyond Mountains." Dahl, at the end of the event, hinted that efforts are underway to explore a partnership between PIH and Dartmouth. The discussion among the three panelists which touched on a wide range of topics, including leadership and social justice was marked by friendly banter and playful jibing.