In 2014, the Heersink School of Medicine engaged a select group of leaders from business, academia, medicine, science, and public policy to form the school’s inaugural Board of Visitors. Nearly 10 years later, members serve as advocates and advisors on Heersink School of Medicine strategy, community engagement, and other initiatives.
In addition to providing insights and expertise, Board of Visitors members have made generous philanthropic investments in the Heersink School of Medicine, totaling more than $134 million. Here we highlight just a few of their many gifts, as well as the lasting impact of their generosity.
In September 2021, a transformational $95 million gift from longtime supporter Marnix Heersink, M.D., named the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine. The gift also established two new institutes: the Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health and the Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation (learn more on page 28). In addition, having experienced the value of UAB’s medical training firsthand (all of the Heersinks’ children have pursued careers in health care, including three Heersink School of Medicine graduates, a physician/UAB School of Public Health graduate, and a UAB School of Dentistry graduate), the Heersinks made a gift to establish the Heersink Family Active Learning Center, which officially launched this fall (learn more on page 44).
Mary Heersink, who has been married to Marnix Heersink for 45 years and has been a Board of Visitors member since 2017, is an especially passionate advocate for global health, which is also a priority for the school.
“Being a member of the Board of Visitors has allowed me a front-row seat to the extraordinary energy, passion, and creativity that fuels the School of Medicine,” says Mary Heersink. “The focus on the most important emerging forces in medicine and the tangible excitement surrounding the school’s recent successes are contagious. How could one not support the groundbreaking work being done to save lives and improve society?”
For Board of Visitors Co-chairs Gail Cassell, Ph.D., and Ted Love, M.D., supporting the Heersink School of Medicine has involved expanding pathways to medical school through scholarships, among other gifts. "Serving on the BOV has provided me the opportunity me to witness the school’s incredible advancement of research without sacrificing the quality of medical education,” says Cassell. In 2020, she and her husband Ralph Cassell established the Wilkerson-Lacey Endowed Medical Scholarship, named for two important figures from their life. “Our family is pleased to honor Mrs. Lillian Wilkerson and her grandson, Dr. Ontario Lacey. We hope our gift will make it possible for other equally exceptional and deserving young students to fulfill their dreams at this exceptional institution.”
Love established the Love Family Scholarship in 2017 and has supported other programs, including a faculty exchange with the University of Cape Town and the Pittman Scholars Program, which recognizes the achievements of outstanding junior faculty. “UAB is a world-class medical institution, and those who love Alabama should do everything we can to keep UAB Medicine elite,” Love says. “As an African American and an Alabama native, I am proud to support the programs that make UAB Medicine among the best in our nation."
Supporting Heersink School of Medicine deans has been the focus of gifts from two Board of Visitors members. In 2010, James Lee III established the James C. Lee Jr. Endowed Chair for the Dean of the School of Medicine, which has been held by three Heersink School of Medicine deans, including current dean Anupam Agarwal, M.D.
Nancy Dunlap, M.D., Ph.D., completed her internship, residency, and fellowship at UAB and, among other gifts, commemorated her most influential mentors with a gift to the Pulmonary Faculty Development Endowed Fund Honoring Drs. Ben Branscomb, J. Durwood Bradley, William Bailey, and Dick Briggs Jr. “Patient care is demanding, and providing faculty with an outlet for continued learning and career development helps to increase their fulfillment and overall job satisfaction—helping retain the best and brightest at UAB,” she says.
In 2021, Daniel Chu, M.D., MSPH, FACS, an associate professor in the Department of Surgery, was named the Selwyn M. Vickers, M.D., FACS, Endowed Chair in the Department of Surgery, which honors the former Heersink School of Medicine dean. In part because the Board of Visitors was created under Vickers’ leadership, several members contributed to the endowment.
This year, Maryam (Mimi) Head and her daughters Hillery Head and Maye Head Frei, established the first professorship in the Department of Medical Education, the Head Family Endowed Professorship for Medical Education. “I think the Heersink School of Medicine truly is a shining light for Alabama,” says Mimi Head. “It is a place that brings top talent to Birmingham as well as sends its well-trained students everywhere in the country to practice. Investing in this vital institution is an easy choice for me and my family.”
UAB’s patient care and research programs have benefited greatly from Board of Visitors support. Board of Visitors member Mary Battle and her husband William (Bill) Battle III established the Battle Research Acceleration Fund in Rheumatoid Arthritis and the Kayla Smeraglia Single Cell and Cytometry Core Equipment Fund, both of which were inspired by their daughter Kayla Smeraglia’s battle with RA. “At UAB, Kayla received a novel therapy that yielded amazing results,” says Mary Battle. “She continues to do well, is married, has two children and a career. We believe that receiving treatment at UAB made all of this possible.
The couple also established the Mary and Bill Battle Endowed Professorship for Multiple Myeloma in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB after Bill Battle was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood-cell cancer. Luciano Costa, M.D., Ph.D., a professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology, holds the professorship, which is aimed at expanding expertise so patients like Bill can receive care close to home.
Thomas Blount, an original and current Board of Visitors member, established the Jim Straley Endowed Chair in AIDS Research in 2000, which has helped UAB build one of the foremost HIV/AIDS research programs in the U.S. In November 2022, Renee Heffron, Ph.D., who was recruited from the University of Washington to become the director of the UAB Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), was appointed to the chair upon the retirement of longtime CFAR Director Michael Saag, M.D.
Mike Goodrich and his wife Gillian have made numerous gifts to the Heersink School of Medicine. Among them are several gifts benefiting cancer research, including the Gay and Bew White Endowed Chair in Pediatric Oncology, held by Smita Bhatia, M.D., MPH, director of UAB’s Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship; the Goodrich Family Breast Cancer Research Acceleration Fund; and the Deep South Network for Cancer Control, which works in underserved communities in Alabama and Mississippi to eliminate health and cancer disparities through a network of community health advisors.
William Eugene (Gene) Davenport and his late wife Sandra established the Gene and Sandra Davenport Research Fund in Neurology to support research into progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), which Sandra battled for 10 years before her death. After undergoing a liver transplant at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, Gene Davenport also made a gift to support the UAB Liver Center Development Fund.
Former Board of Visitors member Martine Rothblatt, Ph.D., made numerous philanthropic gifts to the school as well as grants through her company United Therapeutics Corporation. Her personal gifts include support for pulmonary arterial hypertension research, inspired by her daughter’s battle with the disease; establishing the United Therapeutics Endowed Professorship in Pulmonary Vascular Disease, held by Suzanne Oparil, M.D.; and a gift to UAB’s Hugh Kaul Precision Medicine Institute.
A grant from United Therapeutics Corporation to UAB’s xenotransplantation program has yielded breakthrough studies, the most recent of which demonstrated, for the first time in a human, that genetically modified pig kidneys provided “life-sustaining kidney function” during the course of a planned seven-day study, while using current standard-of-care immunosuppression drugs.
The Board of Visitors welcomed three new members this fall: John Gallin, M.D., MACP, Sara J. Finley, and Gordon Lee.
New Board of Visitors member Sara J. Finley, partnered with family members to establish the Sara Crews Finley, M.D., Endowed Leadership Scholarship. The scholarship honors her mother, Sara Crews Finley, M.D., who co-founded the first medical genetics program in the Southeast with her husband, Wayne Finley, M.D., Ph.D., and served as co-director of the Laboratory of Medical Genetics at UAB for more than 30 years.
In honor of their father, Dr. Wayne Finley, Sara Finley and her brother Randall Finley, M.D., have supported the Reynolds-Finley Historical Library, a collection of over 20,000 rare books, manuscripts, journals, and pamphlets pertaining to the history of medicine, science, and health care dating from the 1300s through the mid-1900s, and the Reynolds-Finley Historical Lecture Series, which explores historical aspects of the health care sciences.
As it enters its second decade, the Board of Visitors will continue to sustain the Heersink School of Medicine’s excellence through its invaluable counsel and transformative gifts.
- By Jane Longshore