Health, Wealth, and Sustainability:
Wicked Problems Series
The Wicked Problems Series will immerse Tuck students and Dartmouth undergraduates in complex social problems
and prepare them to be wise, decisive leaders.
About the Series
The Wicked Problems Series will immerse Tuck students and Dartmouth undergraduates in complex social problems and prepare them to be wise, decisive leaders. Each of three events during the academic year will feature an expert on a “wicked problem” in conversation with a Tuck faculty member. The session will:
- Offer a big-picture description of the challenge, including why future leaders ought to care about it.
- Explore the factors that have precluded solutions.
- Discuss what a constructive path forward might look like.
The Wicked Problems events will be substantive and succinct—like a briefing for a CEO, an elected official, or a military leader. The events will follow a uniform structure, including the formatting of slides, to bring a coherence to the series, much like the way TED has standardized its presentations. Participating students will gain a high-level understanding of the issue being dissected. Those who attend the complete series will become more adroit at analyzing complex policy challenges—seeing connections across issues; recognizing how the public and private sectors can work together; appreciating the relevant politics; and so on.
The Wicked Problems Series is brought to you in partnership with the Tuck Centers and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences.
Upcoming Events
Please note: All events are in-person and will not be recorded.
Drowning in Tech, Starving for Care: What U.S. and African Healthcare Must Learn from Each Other
John Sargent D’93, Harvard MD, Founding Partner and Co-CEO of BroadReach Healthcare
October 28, 2026, 5:30-6:30 p.m., McLaughlin Atrium
Global healthcare is trapped in two failing extremes.
The U.S. market is paralyzed by technological bloat—an overabundance of capital and point solutions that add administrative noise without actually improving unit economics or clinical outcomes. Conversely, Africa is defined by extreme scarcity, where structural barriers and broken funding models suffocate the AI solutions desperately needed to save lives. This is not a problem with a simple technological fix; it is a structural market failure.
Event Structure
The moderated discussion will be organized along the following lines:
WHY IS THIS A WICKED PROBLEM?
Why does this problem persist, and more specifically, why has the private sector not dealt with it. Why does this wicked problem deserve attention? What are the potential costs of not dealing with it?
WHAT ARE THE SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND/OR TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO ACTION?
If we know this is a problem, why haven’t we done something about it? What stands in the way of meaningful action?
WHAT “EASY” SOLUTIONS ARE BEING PEDDLED THAT PRECLUDE MORE SUBSTANTIVE ACTION?
H.L. Mencken noted, “For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” In that spirit, it is often essential to debunk “miracle diet” solutions to open the door to more substantive action. What snake oil is being peddled that diverts public attention away from real progress?
WHAT WOULD WISE, DECISIVE LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE ON THIS ISSUE?
Our expert guests will not pitch a single policy fix. Almost by definition, a wicked problem does not have a silver bullet solution. Rather, the speakers will present a menu of policy options—with all their attendant costs and tradeoffs—that would move us in the right direction. The discussion will be sensitive to political realities and will favor those policies that are most achievable.
WHAT CAN EVERY ATTENDEE DO ABOUT THIS WICKED PROBLEM NOW?
One goal of this series is to give our students a sense of agency. During the darkest hours of World War II, Winston Churchill’s speeches to his country had a consistent three-part pattern: 1) The situation is dire (e.g. the bombing of London will continue); 2) Yet there is reason to be hopeful (e.g. the Americans will soon enter the war); and 3) Every person listening can make some immediate impact (e.g. plant a “victory garden” or volunteer for air warden duty).
Too often our discourse around serious social challenges is paralyzingly pessimistic. Research shows that when people lose hope, they are less likely to act. (The doom and gloom reporting around climate change is particularly counterproductive in this regard.) The Wicked Problems Series will leave participants with the belief that they possess some control in dealing with these wicked problems—as voters, citizens, and future business and political leaders.
Faculty Director: Charlie Wheelan
Charlie Wheelan, winner of the 2020 Dartmouth Dean of the Faculty Teaching Award, has recently come to teach at Tuck from “up campus” at Dartmouth. He was selected by the classes of 2011 and 2020 to be their Class Day speaker and has been recognized in the Aegis as one of Dartmouth’s ten best professors by six other graduating classes.
Wheelan holds a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Chicago and a Master’s degree from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. He has worked in the realm of public policy for his entire career (and successfully lobbied a young Barack Obama in the Illinois State Senate). He has taught courses that deal with health care, education, tax policy, immigration, energy and the environment, housing, transportation, and other topics likely to be taken up in the Wicked Problems Series. As a former correspondent for the Economist, Wheelan has experience in communicating complex ideas clearly and succinctly. He also has three decades of political experience: as a speechwriter, a Congressional candidate, and the founder of Unite America, a nonprofit organization promoting nonpartisan election reforms.
Past Events
Business x Political Dysfunction
Kent Thiry, Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DaVita Inc.
April 21, 2026
Kent Thiry, an accomplished entrepreneur, philanthropist, former Fortune 500 CEO, and civic leader, joins Tuck as part of the Tuck Wicked Problems Program Series for a conversation on how leaders can harness business acumen to strengthen democratic institutions and engage meaningfully with complex civic challenges.
Cosponsors: Tuck Center for Business, Government & Society; Tuck Center for Digital Strategies; Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy
The High Cost of Low Skills: The Role of Parenting in Building a Strong and Prosperous Nation
Dr. Ariel Kalil, Daniel Levin Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy
April 8, 2026
Dr. Ariel Kalil, Daniel Levin Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, joins the Tuck Centers for BGS, Health Care, and the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth for this winter’s Wicked Problems Series program: “The High Cost of Low Skills: The Role of Parenting in Building a Strong and Prosperous Nation.” Dr. Kalil will examine the social and economic implications of parenting, focusing on its intergenerational effects on human capital and opportunities. This community briefing and Q&A will explore why traditional education-focused reforms often fall short, how common misconceptions hinder progress, and what we know and still don’t know about effective ways to support parents and strengthen early skill formation, underscoring the collective stake of taking families and parenting seriously in policy and research.
Cosponsors: Tuck Center for Business, Government & Society; Tuck Center for Digital Strategies; Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy
The Future of Work and the AI Revolution
Warren Valdmanis is Managing Partner at Future of Work Partners
October 27, 2025
Artificial intelligence’s impact on work is a multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary challenge that is reshaping the global economy. It’s top-of-mind for MBAs, not only as future leaders, but also as professionals whose industries are being transformed. It’s equally critical for those engaged in the policy arena, where decisions and frameworks for ensuring AI is used responsibly, promoting innovation while mitigating potential harms, will shape the workforce of tomorrow.
Cosponsors: Tuck Center for Business, Government & Society; Tuck Center for Digital Strategies; Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy
Air Quality Threats
Dr. Joseph G. Allen, DSc, MPH, CIH. Associate Professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Director of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings Program
April 28, 2025
The air we breathe, outdoors and indoors, is compromised, and like it or not, humans have become an indoor species. This also means that the people who design, build, and maintain our buildings can have a major impact on our health. Why is air quality—not just outdoor air quality—something business leaders and policymakers care about, and what do cross-sector pathways to progress look like?
Cosponsors: Tuck Center for Business, Government & Society; Tuck Center for Health Care; Rockefeller Center; Tuck Undergraduate Programs
Gun Violence
David Hemenway Ph.D., Professor of Health Policy, Harvard Injury Control Center
January 21, 2025
Guns kill or injure thousands of Americans each year. What would a public health approach to harm reduction, including suicide, look like? Join Center for Business, Government & Society Faculty Director, Charlie Wheelan, and David Hemenway Ph.D., Professor of Health Policy at Harvard, for a briefing on perennial nature of the gun violence problem, and what pathways forward through health policy look like.
Cosponsors: Tuck Center for Business, Government & Society; Rockefeller Center; Tuck Undergraduate Programs
Live Free and Die: Lagging U.S. Life Expectancy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, Professor of Demography at University of Oxford
October 22, 2024
American population health is on shaky ground. Decades of steady improvements in life expectancy have given way to stalls and even reversals since 2010. The U.S. is increasingly falling behind the life expectancy of other high-income countries. Besides headline grabbing increases in drug overdoses and other “deaths of despair,” more fundamental changes in deaths due to cardiovascular disease are playing a big role. Combined with the large mortality shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, guaranteed forward progress in life expectancy feels less certain. Why is the U.S. so unhealthy, despite being one of the richest countries in the world?
Cosponsors: Tuck Center for Business, Government & Society; Tuck Center for Health Care; Rockefeller Center; Tuck Undergraduate Programs
Unsustainable Federal Debt
Maya MacGuineas, President, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
September 30, 2024
Federal debt is rising at an unsustainable rate and is predicted to reach 180% of GDP by 2050. Join Professor Charlie Wheelan and Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, for a discussion on the perennial nature of the federal debt problem, explore what pathways to progress look like, and what we can do to create change.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a non-profit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. that addresses federal budget and fiscal issues.
Cosponsors: Tuck Center for Business, Government & Society; Rockefeller Center; Tuck Undergraduate Programs