For Immediate Release: Jan. 27, 2006
 
GALVESTON, Texas — The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston is more than halfway to its goal of raising $250 million to fund a range of education, research and patient care initiatives. UTMB launched the public portion of its fundraising campaign Friday, Jan. 27.

“We’ve raised more than $128 million,” said Fred Burns, UTMB campaign chair. “Our vision is to transform health care and this is our foundation because of the energy, vision and resources of our volunteers and benefactors.”

Called Timeless Values, Pioneering Solutions, the campaign began 2 ½ years ago to increase support for UTMB programs in education, research, patient care and community participation.
 
“I have no doubt that UTMB can create a way to deliver cost-effective, accessible, patient-centered, health care,” said UTMB President John D. Stobo, M.D. “This funding will help UTMB continue our national leadership in important areas of biomedical research and to become a national leader in teaching students the art of science and medicine.”

More than 270 volunteers serving on 12 regional teams throughout Texas are engaged in raising funds to for innovative projects and programs as UTMB’s Galveston National Laboratory, one of only two in the nation dedicated to the safe study of deadly infectious diseases; a center for neurological health and recovery; a specialty care tower on the UTMB campus, and a translational research building that will enable university scientists to rapidly turn laboratory discoveries into treatments.

Contributions to date have supported such programs as the Moody Center for Brain and Spinal Cord Research; the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center Alzheimer’s Disease Research, including new drug development; the Regional Maternal and Child Health Telehealth Program; and the John P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian Medicine, which encourages the teaching and practice of compassionate, patient-centered care. New dollars have also endowed 36 scholarships, 31 faculty chairs and professorships, and construction of a new, state-of-the-art endoscopy suite funded by The Sealy & Smith Foundation.

UTMB has long benefited from philanthropy beginning with a $50,000 bequest in 1884 from Galveston businessman John Sealy. That “charitable purpose” funded the original John Sealy Hospital, which served as the foundation of UTMB’s clinical enterprise.

In 1991 UTMB launched the Centennial which raised $276 million and brought significant changes to the campus including construction of the Lee Hage Jamail Student Center and UTMB Day Care Center. It financed the renovation of the Alumni Field House, the UTMB Emergency Room and Trauma Center, the R. Waverly Smith Pavilion and the Truman Graves Blocker Jr. Medical Research Building. The John Sealy Endowment for Biomedical Research, which is now worth more than $100 million, and the Moody Foundation Endowment supporting the Moody Medical Library were created during the campaign.          
 

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Media Hotline (409) 772-6397
Marsha Canright: marsha.canright@utmb.edu