Gifts The Division of Cardiology, the Division of Cardiac Surgery and UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center will share the philanthropy of The Balz Trust. The $175,000 bequest honors the late Karl and Ruth Balz, who had a particular interest in furthering research efforts in cancer and heart disease. The John W. Carson Foundation has renewed its commitment to the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA with a $300,000 gift to the Innovation Fellows Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) training program — one of the most- prestigious training programs in the division. The funding will support one John W. Carson Foundation COPD Research Fellow per year for three years and is a key resource to the fellow’s research into discovering new ways to prevent and overcome emphysema and related diseases. Casa Colina Centers for Rehabilitation has expanded its partnership with UCLA’s Department of Neurosurgery. Casa Colina has made a commitment of $210,000 per year for two years, which will support the research of two Casa Colina-Neil Martin Fellows. This gift will help accelerate the investigations of exceptional junior neurosurgery faculty members in the areas of stroke, neurobionics and brain injury, and will create an opportunity for joint research between UCLA and Casa Colina. The fellowships are named for Dr. Neil Martin, professor and W. Eugene Stern Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery. Over the past three years, the fellowship has had a significant impact on UCLA’s efforts to enhance and streamline surgical care and the recovery of its patients. The Robert R. McCormick Foundation awarded a $1-million grant to support the UCLA Welcome Back Veterans Family Resilience Center under the direction of Drs. Patricia Lester and Shirley Glynn in the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. The UCLA Welcome Back Veterans Family Resilience Center, a joint initiative of the McCormick Foundation and Major League Baseball, has at its core two interdependent components — research and services/education. Programs help enhance the psychological health and resilience of military and veteran families as they cope with the impact of wartime military service and with combat- related physical and psychological health injuries. Ann and Jerry Moss have made a contribution to support the UCLA Voice Center for Medicine and the Arts in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery. Their gift will bolster the research and clinical-care efforts of department chair Dr. Gerald Berke (RES ’80, ’84), Victor Goodhill, MD, Chair in Head and Neck Surgery, and his colleagues. Michael and Becky Neidorf with their daughter Isabel (center). Photo: Courtesy of the Neidorf family. Becky and Michael Neidorf have made a very special commitment of $500,000 to honor their daughter by establishing the Isabel Neidorf Fund for Oligo Tumor Cures in the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery. Isabel, now 16, was diagnosed with an inoperable, slow-growing oligodendroglioma brain tumor when she was just 4 years old. Since then, the Neidorf family has built a relationship with their neurosurgeon, Dr. Linda Liau (RES ’97, FEL ’98, PhD ’99), director of the UCLA Brain Tumor Program. After many years of partnership with Dr. Liau, both in their daughter’s care and in advancing brain-tumor research, the Neidorfs have partnered with their friends and family to make this generous gift. The William R. Payden Fund for Glaucoma Research was established in honor of long-standing UCLA Stein Eye Institute benefactor, the late William R. Payden, after a gift of $575,000 from the William R. Payden Restricted Philanthropic Fund was made to UCLA through the California Community Foundation. This exceptional gift will have a great impact on the research of Joseph Caprioli, MD, chief of the Glaucoma Division of the Stein Eye Institute. In addition, the UCLA Division of Digestive Diseases received a William Payden estate gift of $150,000 to advance the division’s priorities under the leadership of co-chiefs Eric Esrailian, MD, MPH, and Gary Gitnick, MD, FACG. This contribution will enhance the division’s critical research efforts, as well as its clinical and training initiatives. The UCLA Longevity Center and the Department of Neurology’s Stroke Program received a $1.37-million bequest from Robert “Bob” M. Shirilla. The late Mr. Shirilla graduated magna cum laude in 1971 with a degree in economics from UCLA and earned his MBA with high honors from Harvard Business School. He was a strong supporter of the UCLA Longevity Center and served as an Advisory Board member. This generous gift will support cutting-edge research in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. Longtime UCLA donor Allan E. Smidt has given $100,000 to support the research of Dr. Kevin Miller (RES ’91), chief of the Comprehensive Ophthalmology Division at UCLA’s Stein Eye Institute. This contribution will help further advancements in cataract research. and wellness services for America’s veterans and military families through UCLA Operation Mend and affiliated programs. This support was made possible by a $500,000 gift from the Margie and Robert E. Petersen Foundation, which The Thalians matched. The organization announced its generous contribution at The Thalians 56th Gala honoring Smokey Robinson at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip on April 26, 2014. The Thalians have been funding research, education and treatment, as well as raising awareness of mental illness, for more than 60 years. Harry Winston, Inc., has become the first corporate sponsor of innovative pediatric fellowships within Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA. The company’s $1-million pledge to the UCLA Children’s Discovery and Innovation Institute will establish the Harry Winston Fellowship Fund to support the work of young pediatric physician-scientists who are conducting research to prevent, treat and cure disease and illness in children. The UCLA Children’s Discovery and Innovation Institute, founded to save lives and advance children’s healthcare around the globe, pioneers advances in pediatric medicine in four core areas of research: brain, behavior and development; nutrition, metabolism and growth; cancer and regeneration; and infection, inflammation and immunity. (From left) Event chair Kira Lorsch, UCLA Operation Mend patient Joey Paulk, singer Smokey Robinson, UCLA Operation Mend patient Octavio Sanchez and Thalians founder Ruta Lee. Photo: William Kidston and Mark Valinsky The Thalians, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the treatment of mental health, pledged $1 million over five years to the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA to support mental-health U MAGAZINE 51