In 2024, we saluted Roderick Wong, MD, for founding the RTW Foundation to improve the health of underserved populations and advance health equity in New York City through community initiatives and scientific research.
In early 2020, Roderick Wong, MD, was preparing his newly formed nonprofit, RTW Foundation, for its first grant cycle when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
The foundation—the philanthropic arm of RTW Investments, Rod’s life science investment and innovation firm—was founded in 2018 with the idea of funding research and the development of medicines for neglected rare diseases the firm encountered in its investment work around the globe.
But as COVID-19 ravaged communities across New York City, the team quickly agreed to divert their first grant cycle to address the pandemic at home.
“It turned out to be one of the most impactful things to live through,” said Rod, who chairs the foundation. He noted that his wife and RTW Foundation Board Member, Marti Speranza Wong, first suggested the idea of a COVID response.
“We had the feeling that we did something meaningful in the city that we live in.”
That pivot became an important marker for RTW Foundation. Sparked in part by the success of the first round of grants, the foundation developed two distinct focus areas: Community Engagement and Ultrarare Disease Research.
Under the community engagement arm, the foundation awards up to $50,000 grants to partners advancing health equity in New York City, specifically those addressing gaps in care for communities of color, low-income families, recent immigrants, and other underserved populations.
The project’s results speak for themselves. In two rounds of COVID response and recovery grants, RTW Foundation grantees provided mental health support for more than 900 frontline health care workers, supported distribution of at least 11,500 COVID vaccines, provided more than 70 families in temporary housing with remote learning support, and helped more than 30 businesses in Chinatown stay afloat.
The foundation’s focus on health equity, access, and quality has continued in its community grants post-COVID-19. In 2023, grantee projects included a RaisingHealth Community Health Clinic Pop-up Program serving low-income immigrant families in Sunset Park; a street-based medicine team by Harlem United providing low-threshold medical services for people with opioid dependency; and the Razom Ukrainian Response Initiative, which hosts monthly health events for Ukrainian refugees in New York. Since 2020, RTW Foundation estimates its health equity initiatives have reached more than 94,000 New Yorkers.
A critical tenet of this success is RTW’s focus on going beyond financial support to collaborate with grant partners.
A prime example is the newly launched STEM mentoring program for middle and high schoolers, BioQuest, which RTW Foundation co-created with Areté Education, BioBus, Hunts Point Alliance for Children, and Weill Cornell Medicine. Alongside mentors from RTW Investments, RTW Foundation, and Yarrow Biotechnologies, BioQuest provides opportunities for students to explore careers in science, biotechnology, and medicine.
RTW Foundation also regularly cohosts Days of Action with its grantee partners and RTW volunteers. This year, a Community Health Fair in Sunset Park provided health screenings, fresh produce, and other health resources to more than 120 people.
“We’re not just writing checks and then attending a celebration,” Rod said. “We’ve chosen to work with local partners who are embedded in the community and are really interested in, and benefit from, having additional partners.”
On the research side, this hands-on role takes the form of the foundation’s advisory program for burgeoning ultrarare disease foundations, often started by parents of children living with the conditions. In addition to funding drug-discovery projects, RTW leverages its research and operational expertise to guide these research foundations in any way they need.
“We would encounter academics who were working on programs that had a great chance of being a real therapy for someone but didn’t make sense from a for-profit perspective,” Rod said. “We thought, if we have the ability to do something about that, we should.”
This knack for maximizing impact is critical in Rod’s day job, too. Since founding RTW Investments in 2009, he has built the firm into a global leader in biotech and medtech investing. Rod leads the firm and manages its investments focused on innovative drug development.
Prior to forming RTW, Rod was managing director and sole portfolio manager for the Davidson Kempner Healthcare Funds and held various health care investment and research roles at Sigma Capital Partners and Cowen & Company.
Rod’s career path took shape as a blend of his love for economics—which he studied at Duke University—and science and medicine. Raised by two professors in Kansas, perhaps it is no surprise Rod pursued these passions by pulling double duty in higher education. After undergrad, he simultaneously earned an MD from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
For his steadfast commitment to improving the health of underserved populations and advancing health equity in New York City through founding the RTW Foundation, United Hospital Fund is proud to present Roderick Wong, MD, with the Distinguished Community Service Award.
