The University of Hawai’i’s John A. Burn School of Medicine (JABSOM) has received a generous $5 million pledge from the Kosasa family, the founders of ABC Stores.
The gift is the largest private philanthropic investment in JABSOM by an individual donor or family, to date. It will benefit the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health and enable the program to invest in its clinical training, research and faculty development.
“We are deeply touched by this vote of confidence. We realize it’s an investment. It’s an investment in a department that has shown results, value to our community, value to our healthcare partners in Hawai’i, value to the medical school and university. But even beyond that, how we sustain what we have for generations to come,” said Dr. Ivica Zalud, chair, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, JABSOM.
The gift will create the $4 million Kosasa Endowed Chair for Zalud, the current department chair. The remaining $1 million will be used to create two Kosasa endowed professorships in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health.
The Kosasas are well-known for their philanthropic support of a variety of non-profits across the state, and have been generous supporters of the University of Hawai’i` and JABSOM.
In 2000, the family invested in the start-up of the Institute for Biogenesis Research (IBR). IBR has now secured its second grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Center of Biomedical Research and Excellence.
“Now, 15 years later we’ve created a whole new generation of scientists who are working on issues around maternal fetal medicine and helping families have children, that might not otherwise have had the opportunity,” said Dr. Roy Magnusson, associate dean for clinical affairs, JABSOM.
“I think the students will understand that what is given to you, you should give back. And I think that’s the most important thing, is to give back. I’ve had a wonderful opportunity and education and I’d like to give that back to our medical school and to our students, said Dr. Thomas Kosasa, professor emeritus.
“That kind of gift 15 years later keeps on giving and we hope to be really good stewards of this gift and to make sure it’s put to its very best use,” Magnusson said.
The Kosasa family’s investment coupled with the recent gift from Dr. Santosh Sharma to create the Lakshmi Devi and Devraj Sharma Endowed Chair, brings to $7 million the amount of endowed faculty commitments made to the department in the past six months.
The UH Board of Regents approved the Kosasa gift at its monthly meeting on January 22, 2015.
The endowments will be held and managed by the UH Foundation.
UH News Release link: http://www.hawaii.edu/news/article.php?aId=6953
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