Boston’s InterContinental Hotel shimmered with optimism on December 3, 2025, as friends, donors, staff, and McLean leadership came together to celebrate the culmination of the Hospital’s The Way Forward Campaign. After more than six years of vision, effort, and generosity, the campaign met and surpassed its ambitious goal, raising an extraordinary $276 million against a $225 million target.
The Way Forward Campaign is the largest philanthropic effort achieved by a freestanding psychiatric hospital and is more than two and a half times the scale of McLean’s prior campaign.
The evening was about gratitude and accomplishment, as well as renewal and promise. From its launch in 2019, The Way Forward Campaign has been deeply personal to the McLean community. It represented commitment to both innovation and compassion—the defining strengths of an institution at the forefront of mental health care.
At its epicenter was an unprecedented capital effort—$125 million to construct a new child and adolescent campus on McLean’s grounds in Belmont, funded entirely by philanthropy.
The new modern campus will co-locate McLean’s two schools and offer clinical and research space—creating a hub where clinicians, researchers, and educators can collaborate seamlessly.
The new, built-to-suit environments will foster healing and learning, ensuring that young people and their families receive support in spaces that reflect the excellence for which McLean is known. Construction began in November, bringing the dream conceived years earlier to reality for the next generation.
Board Chair Carol Vallone presents Dr. Rauch with the 2025 McLean Award
Recognizing the People Behind the Campaign
At the center of the celebration stood McLean’s Emeritus President and Psychiatrist in Chief Scott L. Rauch, MD—the true architect of the campaign who recently concluded his tenure at the hospital’s helm.
For nearly two decades, Rauch’s leadership has been synonymous with progress: thoughtful, steady, and always focused on ensuring that patients and families were put first.
In honor of his dedication to McLean’s mission, Board Chair Carol Vallone presented him with the prestigious McLean Award, enumerating many of his accomplishments and noting that under his guidance, McLean has evolved in the most meaningful ways, while remaining steadfastly true to its mission and values.
She added, “As I reflect on this moment, Scott, the institutional milestones you have achieved are unparalleled … Success can truly be measured one life at a time—that is an enduring mark that you leave on McLean.”
Rauch accepted the award with his trademark humility, acknowledging the many mentors, colleagues, and loved ones who supported him on his journey. He joins an impressive roster of McLean Award recipients—individuals who understood how to turn challenge into something greater.
The evening served as a fond farewell to a leader whose vision helped galvanize a movement, and as a passing of the torch to his successor, incoming President and Chief Operating Officer Susan M. Szulewski, MD, MBA. With genuine warmth, she acknowledged Rauch’s enduring influence, while expressing determination to guide McLean into its next era of discovery, compassion, and care.
Campaign co-chairs Kris Trustey and Sean McGraw were celebrated for their leadership and deep generosity. Their strategic insight, especially their celebrated “both/and” philosophy that encouraged donors to support both their personal areas of interest and the hospital’s capital effort, proved vital to the campaign’s momentum.
Skip Snyder, who chaired the campaign’s planning committee, was also recognized for having guided the initiative through both challenge and triumph. Honorary campaign chairs Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo were recognized in absentia for their generosity and vision, emblematic of the spirit that fueled McLean’s success.
Each was presented with framed artist renderings of the new child and adolescent building as a tangible reminder of their efforts’ enduring impact.
United by Shared Experiences
There were moments of shared meaning throughout the evening. Guests were treated to two patient videos; both moving and personal reminders of why this effort matters so deeply.
The evening culminated with a stirring performance by local artist Kendall Ramseur, who composed an original cello piece specifically for McLean titled “Where Light Rises.”
Ramseur said his inspiration came from the knowledge that healing is rarely sudden. “It often begins quietly—almost imperceptibly—and then slowly gathers strength … [and] every step forward deserves to be honored. [This piece recognizes] the place in each of us where light rises.”
The evening struck a tone of pride and collective purpose. This was more than a campaign celebration. It was a transformational moment for McLean and for mental health care broadly.
The campaign was ending, but its spirit of innovation, inclusion, and hope will continue. With new leadership, evolving programs, and a future built—literally and figuratively—on foundations of compassion and excellence, McLean stands poised to define the next chapter in mental health’s most important story.
