Our monthly Longwood Happenings newsletter is the perfect way to get important, streamlined information about the LMA sent straight to your inbox. From travel advisories to upcoming Outside// events and everything in between, our newsletter has you covered! We'll keep you up-to-date on all you need to know about the Longwood Medical and Academic area.

Click here to check out our April edition.

A Message from the President 

Dear Longwood,

The last few months have brought a tremendous amount of disruption and challenges to our district. Our Longwood institutions – world leaders in healthcare, education, innovation, and culture – are facing immensely difficult, unprecedented circumstances and decisions. As stewards of the district, I see firsthand how deeply personal these challenges are for everyone whose life and work are sustained and inspired by Longwood, a district that is vitally important to our city, Commonwealth, nation, and world. And yet, even in the midst of these trying times, there are quiet signs of hope and resilience emerging all around us.

As I’ve walked the district in recent days between meetings, the symbolism of spring in Longwood is all around us. Daffodils, a signature flower of Boston’s spring season, are perennial bulbs – meaning that once planted, they will bloom year after year. They are lauded for their resilience and ability to thrive in a range of conditions. Their emergence reminds us of resilience in the face of challenge, strength in adversity, and the promise of perseverance – even through even the darkest and coldest of times. 

Longwood Collective is doing all we can to stay apprised of challenges facing our institutions and working on all fronts to support, inform, and connect our members. We look ahead with strength and hope, inspired by the resilient past, present, and future of our institutions. We will continue to champion the needs of our district, providing resources and support in every way we can to uphold the institutions that are the medical and academic standard-bearers for the world. Together, we will rise above these trying times.

Sincerely,

David Sweeney

President and CEO 

Longwood Collective Joins Emergency Management Day on Beacon Hill 

This month, Emergency Managers from Longwood institutions and beyond gathered at the State House to meet with legislators and discuss the state of emergency management in the Commonwealth. Our own Emergency Management and Security Manager, Logan Denson, along with colleagues from Beth Israel Lahey Health and Mass General Brigham, spoke to leaders, including a sit-down with Senator William Brownsberger, about the work done in the LMA, home to so many of Boston’s life-saving care facilities.

Longwood Collective’s Emergency Preparedness and Security personnel work to improve the safety and security of the people who work, study, live, and receive care in the LMA. We facilitate collaboration between Longwood institutions on emergency preparedness plans, programs, and training to strengthen area-wide safety and security. It is through collaboration and information-sharing with our members that we are able to plan for any emergency in our district. 

Longwood Collective is deeply grateful to our community partners who support our district-wide emergency preparedness and security program.

Read more about our work in Emergency Preparedness. 

Embodying Institutional Co-location in Longwood 

Emmanuel College student Maritza Nassif '17, G '18, interned at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute while completing her studies, gaining invaluable skills in the non-profit medical sector. Following her graduation from Emmanuel, she continued to grow in her career at Dana-Farber, where she now serves as the Director of the Centers for Patients and Families & Volunteer Services.

Longwood's close concentration of leading medical centers and colleges set us apart and make inspiring stories like these possible. As a powerhouse for workforce and education, the proximity of our members is key to our district's success and facilitates incredible innovation and collaboration between world-leading institutions like Emmanuel and Dana-Farber. Keep up the great work, Maritza!

Click here to view the full write-up from Emmanuel College on Maritza's educational and professional journey.

New to the Longwood Collective Team 

This spring, following an extensive recruitment and interview process, we have welcomed two new staff members onto the Longwood Collective team, Olivia Smith and Jack Rosenberg. Olivia and Jack are taking over the critical roles of Senior Staff Assistant and Field Engineer/Planning Assistant, both key to the hands-on and strategic work of our organization in the LMA. They bring a wide variety of experience, expertise, and skillset to the Longwood Collective team. Welcome aboard, Olivia and Jack!

April 22 - Longwood Collective Celebrates Earth Day 

While Longwood Collective is committed to protecting our environment and its natural resources all year long, Earth Day is a special time to reflect on our impact. Longwood Collective works to enhance the environment in and around the LMA for the benefit of our members and the public, including making improvements to the streetscape and taking care of green spaces. This work also includes a wide range of sustainability efforts undertaken by our members to reduce consumption, cost, and impacts on the environment.

On Tuesday, the Longwood Collective team went out in the district, conducting an LMA-wide clean-up event. Using materials loaned to us from the City of Boston's "Love Your Block" neighborhood cleanup initiative, staff utilized trash bags, rakes, trash grabbers, and gloves to pick up and dispose of litter in the LMA. It was the perfect opportunity to get outside, celebrate Earth Day, and carry out our commitment to the Longwood neighborhood in a new way.

Longwood Collective staff joined together for volunteer shifts, focusing on cleaning up litter in different parts of the LMA.

Materials loaned from the City's "Love Your Block" initiative included trash bags, trash grabbers, rakes, and nature-inspired t-shirts.

Over 20 members of the Longwood Collective staff participated in the cleanup on Earth Day.

Our Transportation Management Association Program Manager, Kashia, also attended Harvard's Longwood Earth Day Festival, sharing information about sustainable transportation. We encourage everyone to take action in whatever way they can, big or small, to care for our environment - even beyond Earth Day.

Kashia shared information with Harvard workers and students about programs offered by Longwood Collective, including free bike tune ups, Emergency Ride Home, and the LMA Shuttles.

May 13th - Bike to Work Day Breakfast

May marks National Bike Month and to celebrate, we will be hosting a Longwood Medical and Academic Area Bike to Work Day!

We encourage all commuters to take advantage of the upcoming warm weather and join us in celebrating by biking to work! From 11am-1pm on Tuesday, May 13, members from the Longwood Collective team will be at Shapiro Plaza offering grab-and-go breakfast items in celebration of Bike to Work Day.

Stay tuned on social media for more details, and learn more about our programs to support bikers here.

Message From Harvard President Alan M. Garber: The Promise of American Higher Education

"For three-quarters of a century, the federal government has awarded grants and contracts to Harvard and other universities to help pay for work that, along with investments by the universities themselves, has led to groundbreaking innovations across a wide range of medical, engineering, and scientific fields. These innovations have made countless people in our country and throughout the world healthier and safer."

Read the Full Letter Here. 

LMA Shuttle Survey

We’d like to hear from commuters about how we can better meet the needs of our ridership. How’s your experience in riding the LMA Shuttles? Is shuttle information easy to access? Your feedback is crucial and helps us to provide the best service we can. Plus, if you fill out the survey, you will be entered to win a $25 REI gift card!

If you have any questions, please email transportationsurvey@longwoodcollective.org.

Take the survey here. 

MBTA Updates Near the District 

Green Line

• Shuttle buses will replace Green Line service between Government Center and Medford/Tufts from April 26-27 for maintenance work. Union Square riders can use Bus routes 109, 87, or 91 to connect to shuttles or the Orange Line at Sullivan Square.
• Service will originate and terminate at the Lake Street platform, just outside of the Boston College station, from 8:45pm on Friday, May 2, through the end of service on Sunday, May 4 for maintenance work.

Red Line

• Service between JFK/UMass and Ashmont is operating with two shuttle trains through April 30 due to critical track work. Riders will experience longer wait times for trains and should plan their travel accordingly.

Orange Line

• Shuttle buses will replace service between Forest Hills and Back Bay from May 2 at 8:30pm through May 4 for signal upgrade work. Riders can take the Commuter Rail fare-free for service to and from Forest Hills, Ruggles, Back Bay, and South Station.
• Shuttle buses will replace service between Oak Grove and North Station, beginning at 8:30pm on Friday, May 9, through Sunday, May 18 for MassDOT bridge work.

Bike Longwood Returns for Spring 

After a long winter spent in the 375 Longwood Avenue garage, we are excited to share that our regularly scheduled programming of Bike Longwood is back for the spring season! Tune ups will be taking place back at the 375 Longwood Avenue Plaza, on the corner of Longwood Avenue and Nessel Way. Bikers in the LMA community are invited to book an appointment to receive the tune up ABCs: air, brake, and chain checks!

Tune ups are available on the following days...

Sign up here. 

Shaping Boston's 2030 Climate Action Plan

Longwood Collective has been named as a Community-Based Partner in shaping Boston’s Climate Action Plan, a 2026-2030 implementation roadmap outlining high-priority actions for addressing climate change in the city.

Help drive climate action right here in Longwood by filling out the survey to show how climate change impacts you and what matters most when it comes to climate resilience, clean energy, transportation, and community well-being. Your feedback will directly inform the Climate Action Plan, which will be released in Fall 2025. Keep an eye out for more information on how to stay engaged with the Climate Action Plan.

Take the survey.

Annual Harvard Music Video Features M2 Shuttle 

Thank you to the creative students at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine for including our M2 LMA Shuttles in your annual First-Year Music Video! This video -- which is shared with prospective HMS and HSDM admitted students each spring -- creatively weaves together song and dance with key information about student life in Longwood, including the M2 Shuttle which connects Harvard students and workers from the LMA to Cambridge.

We look forward to welcoming a new class of HMS and HSDM students to our shuttles this upcoming academic year! Check out the full video below.

Watch the video. 

To Harvard, $2.2 Billion Makes a Difference

Boston Globe

The conflict between the Trump administration and Harvard University turned to real dollars as the White House froze more than $2 billion in federal funding for the institution. Its endowment does not make Harvard immune to such a rapid and unprecedented cutoff of the kind of research dollars that comprise at least one-tenth of its annual revenue.

Mass General Brigham Loses Millions in Medical Research Grants Under Trump Cuts

Boston Globe

The deepening federal budget cuts have hit Mass General Brigham, the nation’s largest hospital recipient of research grants, and other Massachusetts universities and hospitals, canceling tens of millions in funding and shutting down medical research programs in areas such as primary care, reproductive health, and pandemic preparedness. Over the past few weeks, nearly three dozen research programs led by Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital were terminated by the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies, according to researchers tracking the cuts.

Governor Healey Says Cuts to Boston Children's Funding Could be Devastating

Boston.com

Boston Children’s is the leading recipient of pediatric research funding from the National Institutes of Health, receiving more awards than any other children’s hospital. According to Healey’s administration, the hospital receives over $200 million in NIH funding annually, including $230 million last year. The proposed cuts by the Trump administration would cut that funding in half. 

LGBTQ+ Health Center, Fenway Health, Loses Five Grants in One Day

Boston Globe

Among those hardest hit by recent NIH cuts is the research arm of Fenway Health, which for five decades has pioneered infectious disease research in the gay and lesbian community. On March 21 alone, the NIH terminated five of its research grants. These included multiyear studies into prevention and treatment of HIV for adolescents and the effects of social isolation among older LGBTQ people. Including those cuts, the Fenway Institute has seen a dozen of its 27 NIH grants terminated since Trump took office — amounting to $1.8 million in lost funding. 

Harvard Medical School Researcher Receives Prestigious 2025 Gairdner Award

Cision PR Newswire

Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas, professor of cell biology, emeritus, in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School, has received a prestigious 2025 Canada Gairdner International Award, which celebrate scientists who have made seminal discoveries or contributions to biomedical research. He is being recognized for his research on Notch, a cell signaling pathway involved in many biological processes and implicated in diseases ranging from cancer to neurodegenerative disorders. The pathway is highly conserved across species, including humans.

Cascading Nasturtiums Return to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

WBUR

Each spring, orange flowers cascade down into the courtyard of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The flowers are called nasturtiums, and this April, the florals are on display for Greater Boston to take in the beauty and snap some Instagram photos. Isabella Stewart Gardner herself started the tradition in the early 1900s. The nasturtiums only bloom for about three weeks, so it’s a special time to pay the museum a visit.

Get a Glimpse of "Future Fossils" at the MassArt Museum

CBS Boston

A new exhibit at the MassArt Art Museum explores the future by examining the present. For their "Future Fossils" exhibition, the museum asked artists to imagine what people in the future will see when they eventually stumble upon fossils from today.

Beth Israel: New Robotic Tech Could Double its Yearly Liver Transplants

BBJ

A surgical team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has performed a first at the hospital — a robot-assisted, live liver transplant. Building out the ability to perform such tech-enabled surgeries could significantly increase the hospital’s yearly liver transplant numbers, according to Dr. Martin Dib, a transplant surgeon at BIDMC. Currently, the hospital performs roughly 120 liver transplants per year, but by making live liver donations more attractive to donors, the hospital has the capacity to double that number, Dib said.

The Measles Vaccine, Developed at Boston Children's Hospital, Spared Millions from Misery

Boston Globe

Dr. John Enders conducted the extraordinary research behind the measels vaccine at Boston Children’s Hospital (then known as Children’s Hospital Medical Center) in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A few years before, Enders had won the Nobel Prize for trailblazing work that allowed Jonas Salk to develop a vaccine against another childhood scourge: polio.