To view this page ensure that Adobe Flash Player version 11.1.0 or greater is installed.
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