The Purpose Finder

When Jim Ansara walked across the stage to accept an Honorary Degree at the 2025 BAC Commencement, he felt seen and validated. Jim, who founded Shawmut Design and Construction, doesn't have a formal architecture background. Yet, over his career, he has overseen the construction of thousands of buildings.

After Jim sold Shawmut in 2006, he could have just retired on a beach and stopped working entirely. Instead, he took on one of the toughest challenges of his life: founding Build Health International (BHI).

"This honor means a lot to me. As a non-architect immersed in architecture, this award helps legitimize what BHI does. Although we have many talented licensed architects who work with us, I've always felt a little bit on the outside," Jim says.

The not-for-profit is on a mission “to improve access to and build capacity for dignified, affordable, and high-quality healthcare infrastructure in resource-constrained settings around the world.” Some of this work has been done with the help of BAC alums who have partnered with the organization.

Leading Shawmut Design and Construction

Kevin Sullivan, who Jim hired in 1993, is Executive Vice President at Shawmut and a member of the BAC Board of Trustees. "Humble is a good word to describe Jim. He also has a great sense of urgency," Kevin says. He's seen Jim get attached to a goal and then hurl himself towards it at 100 mph until he passes a finish line time and time again.

Jim dropped out of Brown University and Amherst College but found his purpose elsewhere. Hitting the books didn't ignite his passion–but he realized carpentry did. As a kid, he loved working with his hands, restoring wood floors and boats with his brother. He taught himself everything he knew and, within a year, had started to bring in jobs. During that time, he also met the love of his life, Karen, who he has been married to for 42 years.

"I talked my way into my first job as a foreman for a ragtag company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I had no idea what I was doing and faked my way through it," Jim admits.

"I was incredibly excited. I read, talked to people, and tried to absorb everything I could. That's how I've always learned–just by immersing myself–whether it's hospital design, becoming a plumber and an electrician, or starting a woodworking company."

He bounced from contractor to contractor after that–even getting fired for what he describes as "humiliating mistakes." Jim put his head down and focused on becoming "proficient and professional," ultimately founding Shawmut in 1982 with just a few employees.

Jim’s leadership planted the seeds for what Shawmut is today–a billion-dollar business with over 1,000 employees. Kevin says, "Jim always had the mindset that if we take care of our employees, they will take care of the clients, which gives us the ability to deliver strong client service. He looked at client service as how we differentiate ourselves at Shawmut from our competitors." Jim's final act of care was selling his company back to its employees.

Designs that heal, hospitals that self-sustain

"I was bouncing around for a couple of years looking for purpose. I was trying to figure out what to do and how to impact the world," Jim says of his first years as a retiree.

As a child, his mother was a social justice activist who stood up for the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. From the start of their marriage, he and Karen had always dreamed of having the opportunity to give back in a way that made the world a more just and equitable place–but now Jim struggled to find the right cause in his retirement.

He found it on a trip to Haiti with Dr. Paul Farmer (1959-2022), the legendary founder of the global health organization Partners In Health. "I had traveled a lot by that point, often in lower resource settings, but I was stunned by Haiti's inequity and endemic poverty. I wanted to do something to engage somehow," Jim says.

In 2009, a doctor from Partners in Health, Dr. David Walton, called Jim to ask for help constructing a new hospital for the organization in Haiti. Together with an architect, they developed a plan for a 100-bed hospital. They were poised to break ground when the 2010 earthquake devastated Haiti. At that moment, Paul Farmer and President Bill Clinton tasked them with designing a teaching hospital for the country instead.

Jim says, "I quickly realized how much work we had to do. David and I would talk in Haiti about all the mistakes and all the problems and what we would do differently. I felt like I learned so much from that experience that I couldn't stop." The hospital opened in April 2013, just before BHI was formally founded.

With BHI projects, there is a constant push and pull between designs that promote healing and keep costs down so that in-country partners can maintain the facilities and operate in a self-sustaining manner.

"Architects are taught that good design should trump everything. I think it's more nuanced than that," Jim says, pointing to the 10 ongoing projects BHI has in Sierra Leone.

"Part of our job at BHI is to help partners see what is possible, but we also have to be very aware of the burden we're going to put on the hospital or the organization funding it to operate once it's built."

Through BHI, Jim has seen how "Those in construction and architecture industries are on the frontlines of creating a more just world and creating equity for the people who are most vulnerable and underserved."

He offers this advice to the BAC Class of 2025: "I would urge young graduates never to abandon those urges to make the world a better place."