�ճ���� is now the home of Healthy Monday, a signature public health campaign that aims to reduce the risk of chronic disease by harnessing the power of Monday as a “fresh start” by offering resources for individuals and organizations to adopt healthier habits each week.

The move is part of a wider reorganization announced by the Lerner Center and The Monday Campaigns.

The Lerner Center, which was established at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in 2011 with a gift from alumnus Sidney “Sid” Lerner ’53 and his wife, Helaine, now houses Healthy Monday digital materials and programming on a newly designed . It will also initiate a broad campaign through social media, newsletters and other platforms, and implement signature programs that leverage Syracuse University’s expertise in health promotion. Students will continue to be involved in developing and implementing programming aimed at improving population health.

The restructuring follows  to the Lerner Center and Syracuse University’s Forever Orange Campaign by Helaine Lerner in 2023 and ensures the future of The Monday Campaigns’ beloved global health campaigns. While the Lerner Center will now own Healthy Monday, the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future at the Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore will launch a new . In addition, New York University Langone Health will launch .

This marks a new phase of growth for The Monday Campaigns and its programs, founded in 2003 by Lerner, an advertising and marketing innovator who died in 2021 at the age of 90. A legend in the advertising business, he helped create the “Please Don’t Squeeze the Charmin” campaign featuring Mr. Whipple for his client, Procter & Gamble. He applied his gift for developing a simple and compelling message to improving public health after a conversation he had with physicians about the need to cut back on dietary saturated fats. His Meatless Monday campaign became a global health phenomenon, reportedly convincing two-thirds of Americans to reduce meat consumption. In 2006, it morphed into the Healthy Monday movement in partnership with universities, workplaces, schools and communities.

“Sid’s original vision was to create initiatives that anyone could pick up and shape for their own institutions and lives, or as Sid said, ‘take my campaign please,’” said Dana Smith, campaign director for The Monday Campaigns. “Twenty-two years later, institutional partners and advocates worldwide have embraced Monday as—also in Sid’s words—‘the day all health breaks loose.’ We’re excited for the next chapter of this movement, anchored to trusted and leading academic partners.”

Through Healthy Monday, individuals and organizations use turnkey program guides or design their own programs to commit to better health every Monday. Research shows that healthy thinking and behavior are synchronized with the week, with Monday being the day people are most open to positive changes.

“Healthy Monday is a dynamic, adaptable campaign that helps people start their week off right,” said Casey Collins, digital specialist for the Lerner Center. “As everyone from students to health professionals look for ways to achieve better health and well-being for themselves and the population as a whole, Healthy Monday has tremendous potential. We’re excited to move this important public health initiative forward.”

Guided by the principles of scientific rigor, equity, justice, community engagement, and multidisciplinary and multi-institution collaboration, the Lerner Center’s mission is to improve population and community health through research, education, outreach and health promotion programming focused on the social, spatial and structural determinants of physical, mental, and behavioral health and health disparities.

Over the past several years, the Lerner Center has launched numerous health promotion programs and community partnerships, including the Monday Mile walking routes developed in partnership with the City of Syracuse, Onondaga County, local hospitals and the Madison County Rural Health Council. In 2019, the Center launched —a six-week workshop series for undergraduate students that offers evidence-based tools to help students manage their stress and thrive while in college.

In 2013, magazine honored Syracuse University alumnus and trustee Marshall M. Gelfand ’50 with its Business Managers Elite Award and an article titled “Veteran Business Manager Balances Work and Philanthropy.” Gelfand, who died April 1 at the age of 93, was indeed renowned for his dedication to his work, his boundless energy, his charitable causes, his generous philanthropic leadership and his devotion to his beloved Syracuse University and fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu.

Gelfand became a Life Trustee in 1993, first appointed to the Board of Trustees in 1983, and provided service to the Board’s Student Affairs Committee (now known as the Enrollment and Student Experience Committee), the $300-million Commitment to Learning Campaign Executive Committee and the National Committee for the Schine Student Center Campaign. Gelfand was also instrumental in launching the Syracuse University satellite campus in Los Angeles in 2009, where he served as advisor.

“Marshall served the interests of Syracuse University students as he engaged in and supported the University’s initiatives, even as he advanced in his professional life,” says Board Chair Kathy Walters ’73. “Through his advocacy and his philanthropy, he touched countless lives from coast to coast.”

In an written in 2010, the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs (OVMF) said Gelfand’s story is a Syracuse University story, “one that speaks to our past, our present and our future.” He balanced his academic career (Martin J. Whitman School of Management and law school at New York University) with his military service in the 1940s and 1950s.

With a degree in accounting from the Whitman School and a law degree from New York University, Gelfand opened his own accounting firm. It was a serendipitous phone call from an attorney whom he’d met at a party that would shape the trajectory of his career. He was introduced to the touring group of Peter, Paul and Mary, and became their accountant, eventually adding big names like Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Carly Simon and Debra Winger to his portfolio of clients. In 1967, Gelfand and partners officially founded Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman, LLP, which would become one of the top business management firms in the entertainment industry with offices worldwide representing clients in the fields of music, motion pictures, television, literature and medicine.

Gelfand was an engaged and generous alumnus throughout his lifetime. He was a board member of the Syracuse University Alumni Association, the Southern California Alumni Club and chair of the Southern California Regional Campaign. He established the Marshall M. Gelfand Endowed Scholarship and the Marshall M. Gelfand Special Education Endowed Scholarship. He generously supported other initiatives in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and Syracuse University Athletics.

“Marshall was a dedicated advocate and loyal champion of Syracuse University—from his work on the Board of Trustees, to his generous support of initiatives that provided opportunities for students and truly enhanced the student experience,” says Chancellor Kent Syverud. “The University’s reach and impact are greater today because of Marshall’s service and generosity.”

In 1996, Gelfand received the George Arents Pioneer Medal, the University’s highest alumni honor, and, in 2007 at the Half-Century Dinner celebrating his 50th class reunion, he received the Melvin A. Eggers Senior Alumni Award. He was also a recipient of the Orange Circle Award in 2010.

He provided leadership and service to the Board of the Eta chapter of Sigma Alpha Mu Foundation and was the driving force behind numerous scholarships funded by his beloved fraternity. His lifetime of leadership of the Sigma Alpha Mu Eta chapter is memorialized by the dedication of the fraternity house in his name on the Syracuse campus. He was a centennial founder of the Assuring Century2 Campaign, benefitting the Sigma Alpha Mu Foundation.

Gelfand was active in civic and cultural organizations in Southern California, having served as president of the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center, president of the Palm Springs Friends of the Philharmonic, president of Temple Isaiah, chair of the museum endowment fund for the Palm Springs Art Museum, treasurer of the Palm Springs International Film Festival, member of the national board of the Alzheimer’s Association and the Coachella Valley Alzheimer’s Association.

Gelfand created the in memory of his late wife, the largest family fund in the history of the Alzheimer’s Association, raising over $9 million in support of Alzheimer’s research and care. In 2014, he received the Sargent and Eunice Shriver Profiles in Dignity award for his work.

Gelfand was a first generation American. His parents were Russian immigrants who settled in Claremont, New Hampshire, in the early 1900s, and opened a tailoring business there. Gelfand, who was born in 1927, attended Stevens High School in Claremont, played basketball and was editor of the yearbook and graduation speaker.

He is survived by his children, Todd Evan Gelfand (Doreen), Elizabeth Gelfand Stearns (Richard) and Dean Loring Gelfand (Marcie), along with eight grandchildren: Brian Gelfand (Monica), Ilana McBride (Marcus), Gregory Stearns (Gabriella), Jacqueline Stearns (Spencer), Ben Gelfand (Samy), Sophie Gelfand, Ella Stearns (who is currently pursuing a degree in the Maxwell School) and Andrew Gelfand, and four great-grandchildren: Ayla, Addy and Riley Gelfand and Lively McBride.