Baptist Health Foundation gives $172,500 for scholarships at UT Health Science Center
Miriam Davis was only 15 when her mother died, but the memories of her mom’s dedicated service as a nurse at San Antonio’s downtown Baptist Hospital remain with her to this day.
"The people she helped, the friends she made, really impacted me," said Davis, who is on the nursing career path herself as a graduate student in the School of Nursing at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio.
Davis is one of the students in health care professional education programs at the Health Science Center who received a nursing scholarship in 2007. This coming academic year, 46 students will receive $172,500 in scholarships made available by the Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio.
President Cigarroa honored the 2007 scholarship students, the Baptist Health Foundation and the Scholarship Committee at a campus luncheon this spring.
"My goal is that no bright, ambitious student who wants to become a health care provider should ever have his or her dreams put on hold for lack of finances," Dr. Cigarroa said. "It is wonderful that the Baptist Health Foundation is giving back to the community by helping to educate the students who will become the future of health for South Texas and our nation."
The foundation substantially increased its scholarships for Health Science Center students this year. In 2007, the foundation gave 29 scholarships totaling $85,000.
"Dr. Cigarroa, it is our privilege to be your partner in helping the students," W. Frank Elston, president and CEO of the Baptist Health Foundation, said. "The foundation was impressed with the students selected to receive our scholarships in 2007 and we are pleased to offer more scholarships this year."
Addressing the shortage of registered nurses in South Texas and the increasing lack of professional faculty to train them, the foundation’s 2008 grant includes $50,000 in scholarships for students pursuing the Master of Science in Nursing degree and $35,000 for those pursuing a Ph.D. in nursing.
The foundation also gave scholarships for students training to be physicians, dentists, clinical pharmacists, physician assistants, physical therapists, occupational therapists, dental hygienists, respiratory therapists and clinical laboratory scientists.
Family establishes scholarship to honor father’s legacy
In 1946, Alexander David (A.D.) Major, M.D., established the Major Clinic Hospital in the north central Texas community of Nocona in a building with 15 patient rooms. His father built it for him and his two brothers, also physicians, so they could begin their practice.
A 1939 graduate of Baylor Medical School and a veteran of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit during World War II, Dr. Major was a brilliant, determined and resourceful man. He displayed great ingenuity as he expanded the clinic with the goal of reaching out to his community to help those in need of vital health care and health care education. It was the beginning of a dream that would live for generations to come.
Dr. Major married Mabel Kathryn Chandler in 1941 and they had seven children and, later, 18 grandchildren. He passed away in 1985. To honor Dr. Major’s legacy of generosity and dedication to education and health care, his extensive family established the Dr. and Mrs. A.D. Major Presidential Endowed Scholarship at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio.
In 2007, his daughter, Kay Telle, a registered nurse, spearheaded the campaign to create an endowed scholarship in her father’s honor. The family pooled resources in the amount of $37,665.50 to establish the endowed scholarship. This year, that fund has grown to more than $50,000, elevating it to the rank of a Presidential Endowed Scholarship.
"My father valued education and loved the practice of medicine, so this is a very fitting tribute to his memory," Telle said.
President Cigarroa thanked Telle, Mrs. Major and all of the late Dr. Major’s family:
"You can take pride in knowing firsthand the great value of the services these young physicians will bring, after they graduate and begin their practice of medicine, to their communities, just as Dr. Major did in his community for so many years. Yours is a gift that will honor the legacy of Dr. Major and transform the future of health care."
HSC Champions
We are grateful to all of our donors for their continued support and generosity. The following list recognizes just a few of the gifts that enable the university to provide the best in health care careers education, biomedical research, patient care and community service to San Antonio and the South Texas/Border Region. Thank you for helping us make lives better!
- A $100,000 grant from the Canseco Foundation has funded The Canseco Foundation President’s Endowed Scholarship in Oral Health to provide scholarships to deserving students from Laredo who are pursuing careers in oral health care through the Dental School and School of Allied Health Sciences.
- A five-year, $750,000 Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund will fund the Health Science Center’s first large-scale study of fatty liver disease in individuals with type 2 diabetes. Kenneth Cusi, M.D., associate professor of medicine and staff physician at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, Audie Murphy Division, is the study’s lead investigator.
- A gift of $100,000 from the Bosque Foundation, as well as an additional$50,000 donation from the William and Elizabeth Moncrief Foundation, will fund the Dr. Mario E. Ramirez Distinguished Professorship in Family and Community Medicine. The professorship honors the legacy of Dr. Ramirez, who, as a family physician in Starr County for 43 years, has committed his life to caring for the citizens of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Dr. Ramirez retired from the Health Science Center in 2007 as vice president for South Texas programs.
- A gift of $223,500 from the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation is supporting the research of Eugenio Cersosimo, M.D., associate professor, and Christopher Jenkinson, Ph.D., associate professor, under the direction of Ralph A. DeFronzo, M.D., professor/chief, Division of Diabetes. They are studying the etiology of insulin resistance and its link to cardiovascular disease with particular focus on the Mexican-American population, in an effort to find novel therapies for treatment.
- Members of the Health Science Center’s President’s Council have givenmore than $500,000 to programs in all five schools to support research, education, scholarships and clinical care initiatives, including $250,000 to the Janey Briscoe Center for Excellence in Cardiovascular Research. Headed by Steven R. Bailey, M.D., the center’s purpose is to develop new methods to treat America’s leading killers – heart disease and stroke. Dr. Bailey is professor of medicine and radiology and the Janey Briscoe Distinguished University Chair in Cardiovascular Research.
- A $250,000 donation from Shirley Markey will support the Michael Markey Memorial Endowment for Medical Ethics. The endowment supports the mission and programs of the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics, which embraces a clinically focused curriculum and encourages community service learning in clinics around San Antonio, South Texas and in missions abroad, where medical students experience medicine as it is practiced in resource-poor environments.
- Recent grants totaling $60,000 from the George W. Brackenridge Foundation will fund scholarships for outstanding nursing students and will support the Facilitated Admissions for South Texas Scholars (FASTS) program for students at St. Mary’s University to attend the Summer Premedical Academy at the Health Science Center’s School of Medicine.
- The Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation has awarded $282,377 to Ande Bao, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Departments of Radiology and Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, for his breast cancer research. Dr. Bao is studying a new approach to treating cancer with short-range radionuclides that could prevent the reoccurrence of breast cancer following initial treatment while reducing damage to normal breast tissue.
- Susan G. Komen for the Cure also awarded the 2007 Komen Professor of Survivorship award in the amount of $25,000 to Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H. Dr. Ramirez is a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics, founding director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research, the Dielmann Chair in Health Disparities and Community Outreach and the Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Endowed Chair.
- Grants totaling more than $600,000 from Methodist Healthcare Ministriesare supporting programs in the Dental School’s Department of Prosthodontics, the Laredo Campus Extension, the Long School of Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology, the UT Medicine Family Residency Program in McAllen, and the School of Nursing, as well as outreach programs through the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics that improve access to health care for uninsured patients in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
- The Pearle Vision Foundation has awarded $50,795 to Carlos Rosende, M.D., associate professor and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, for his research of diabetes-related ocular diseases. The grant will fund the purchase of a STRATUS OCT™, which is a diagnostic imaging device that provides direct cross-sectional images of the retina for clinical evaluation in the detection of retinal diseases.
- A $50,000 gift from Dr. and Mrs. Joe H. Ward Jr. will support the President’s Excellence Fund for vital research, education and clinical care programs at the Health Science Center.
- A $50,400 grant from the Morrison Trust will support the research of Pothana Saikumar, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Pathology. Dr. Saikumar is studying the resistance patterns of cancer cells, particularly colon cancer, to conventional therapies with the goal of developing new and more effective treatments for drug-resistant tumors.
- A gift of $100,000 from the Judith and Jean Pape Adams Charitable Foundation is advancing the study of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research. John Hart, Ph.D., the Ewing Halsell President’s Council Distinguished Chair in the Department of Biochemistry, is principal investigator of the study "The Nascent Conformation of Copper-Zinc Superoxide Dismutase in Familial ALS." His research is aimed at understanding the molecular basis for the disease - information that is critical/prerequisite for the development of effective therapeutic interventions.
- New gifts totaling $128,000 from Dr. and Mrs. J. Bradley Aust will raise the J.B. Aust M.D., Ph.D., Distinguished Professorship in Surgery to the level of endowed chair.
Life-changing Legacy
A $25 million transformational gift establishes the Joe R. and Teresa L. Long Scholarship, Research and Teaching Fund that will impact:
STUDENTS
- $12.5 million for scholarships for future health care professionals and scientists
RESEARCH
- $6.25 million to support medical research that alleviates suffering and focuses on diseases impacting Texas and the nation
FACULTY
- $6.25 million to enrich student education by recruiting and retaining gifted faculty
Employees honored at Presidential Awards
Faculty and staff members who exemplify exceptional leadership in their fields were recognized at the 2008 Presidential Awards. This year’s highest honor, the Presidential Distinguished Scholar Award, was presented to Ralph A. DeFronzo, M.D., professor in the Department of Medicine and chief of the Division of Diabetes. The other award winners are:
Presidential Junior Research Scholar Award
• Robert Brenner, Ph.D.
Clinical Excellence Award
• Alison J. Beck, Ph.D., O.T.R.
• Wayne H. Schwesinger, M.D.
• Ian M. Thompson Jr., M.D.
Employee Excellence in Service Award
• Linda Clark
• Kris Doyle
• Judith Livingston, M.Ed.
• Sherece McGoon
• Rene Torres
Teaching Excellence Award
• Sandra G. Adams, M.D.
• Magda A. de la Torre, R.D.H., M.P.H.
• Glen A. Medellin, M.D.
• Susan L. Naylor, Ph.D.
• Jean A. Petershack, M.D.
• Omid B. Rahimi, Ph.D.
Presidential Volunteer Service Award
• Michelle Batilla
• Carolyn Fralix Gold, M.S.N., R.N.
• Kim Head
Second building dedicated at Harlingen RAHC
The Health Science Center recently dedicated its second building at the Regional Academic Health Center in Harlingen. The new Academic and Clinical Research Building is a state-of-the art, $25.5 million clinical research facility where diabetes and children’s health research are the initial areas of focus. The 80,000-square-foot building also includes 3,400 square feet of space leased to the South Texas Veterans Health Care System for the Harlingen Veterans Health Center.
HSC receives more than $33 million for children’s study
The Health Science Center has been selected as one of 22 new centers nationwide for the National Children’s Study, the largest analysis of child and human health ever conducted in the United States. The Health Science Center was awarded more than $33 million in federal funding to assess the effects of environmental and genetic factors on child and human health nationwide. The university is the only center in Texas participating in the study.
Daniel E. Hale, M.D., professor of pediatrics, is the principal investigator and Donald J. Dudley, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology, is the co-principal investigator for the Bexar, Hidalgo and Travis county sites.
M.D./Ph.D. program grows, thrives
From small beginnings in 2004, the M.D./Ph.D. program has expanded to accommodate 11 students. The applicant pool has increased from 12 initially to 70 this year. Martin Adamo, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and director of the program, reports that five more students will enter the program this summer.
Janell Carter, the program’s first student, is completing the graduate school portion of the dual-degree program.
Tissue bank earns accreditation
The Allograft Resources Tissue Bank, a component of The Transplant Center at the Health Science Center, was awarded accreditation by the prestigious American Association of Tissue Banks. In 2007, the tissue bank served more than 200 families.
New building dedicated at Laredo campus
The Academic Building at the Laredo Campus Extension was recently dedicated with a ceremony featuring a keynote address from State Senator Judith Zaffirini, Ph.D. She is pictured below with President Cigarroa. The 20,600-square-foot building offers classrooms, labs, faculty offices, a library and space for the Texas Cancer Registry South Texas/Laredo Partnership.