Talk of the Town

Dr. Jim Yong Kim doesn’t start his new job until July 1, but based on what people are saying, he’s already had quite an impact.

“Dartmouth College has made an inspired choice in selecting Dr. Jim Yong Kim as its 17th president.” —DAVID GERGEN, professor of public service at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and director of its Center for Public Leadership

“He will become an icon of a new kind of university president.” —DR. ARTHUR KLeINMAN, a Harvard medical anthropologist who taught Kim as a doctoral

“He’s very smart. He’s really smart. i’m serious. i’m sure Dartmouth will never be quite the same.” —TRACY KIDDeR, author of Mountains Beyond Mountains

“Jim is someone who doesn’t just think outside the box, he thinks without a box there at all.” —NILS DAULAIRE, former president of Global Health Council in White River Junction, Vermont

“You’ll find his heart and how human he is matches his intellect.” —STeVeN KADISH, currently a co-worker of Kim’s

“Jim is going to galvanize the movement for health equity. To have a physician teacher at the head of a university will seize the imaginations of young Americans and help build this wonderful movement around global poverty issues. Part of me feels like we’re not so much losing Jim as gaining Dartmouth.” —DR. PAUL FARMeR, with whom Kim founded Partners In Health

“Jim is a person of enormous energy who can actually move the needle through his sheer ability to engage people.” —MICHAeL PORTeR, a Harvard business school professor who will be teaching Kim in a course for new chief executives

“What’s always clear is his devotion to improving the lives of others as an educator, a researcher and an institutional leader.” —DReW FAUST, president of Harvard University

“i have never been more proud to be a Dartmouth student. It feels great to be an Asian American at Dartmouth.” —ALex MACeDA ’11

“Dad, why does everything have to happen to us at the same time?” —TOM KIM, 8, remarking on his dad’s new job being announced three days after the birth of his brother