Collaboration could make city a health-care hub

December 30, 2012

As an economist and newcomer to the state, Brown University President Christina H. Paxson has a dose of advice that might surprise Rhode Islanders frustrated by the ailing economy: “Give yourselves a break.”A lack of leadership and vision is not entirely to blame for the state’s economic malaise, says Paxson. But, she says, two factors must be scrutinized to help tiny Rhode Island become more competitive: improving the tax structure and the education and skill level of workers.
Brown has no control over the former. But as an Ivy League school with the state’s only medical school and a $2.5-billion endowment, the university has a major role to play in attracting, nurturing and keeping top talent in Rhode Island, Paxson says.