Transformative $100 million gift from the O’Donnell Foundation to support and name School of Public Health at UT Southwestern: Newsroom




DALLAS – Mar. 02, 2022 – UT Southwestern Clinical Middle is pleased to announce a $100 million reward from the O’Donnell Basis to endow and assist its new School of Public Health and fitness. This expense is the biggest reward to a College of Community Well being at a public university in the U.S. and matches the 3rd premier gift supporting any Faculty of Public Wellness.

Peter O’Donnell Jr.

The O’Donnell Foundation, founded by visionary philanthropist Peter O’Donnell Jr., who died final calendar year, and his late wife, Edith, made this reward for its unprecedented prospective to speed up the momentum of the not long ago set up College. In recognition of this reward, UT Southwestern has named the new university the Peter O’Donnell Jr. University of General public Wellness. It is the first new university proven at UT Southwestern in more than 50 years. It joins UT Southwestern’s Professional medical Faculty, Faculty of Wellbeing Professions, and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

“Peter and Edith O’Donnell understood the critical position of educational medicine in addressing the health troubles going through modern society,” reported Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D., President of UT Southwestern. “No 1 has been additional generous in their assist of UT Southwestern than the O’Donnells and their Basis, funding several of the Healthcare Center’s most ground breaking and impactful initiatives over additional than 4 a long time.” In overall, they have provided in excess of $400 million to guidance UT Southwestern. The greater part of the money of this newest present will generate an endowment to supply stable support for the new school’s analysis and academic systems. The equilibrium of the gift cash will be utilized to guidance recruitment of new college and the school’s programmatic initiatives.     

“Peter and Edith O’Donnell cared deeply about UT Southwestern and producing a variance in the bigger Dallas community,” mentioned William T. Solomon, President and CEO of the O’Donnell Foundation. “These two passions are inextricably linked in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Overall health. We are happy to share a present that honors the O’Donnells’ immeasurable legacy and makes a lasting effect on UT Southwestern and the communities of North Texas.” 

The new college was released to equally advance public wellness broadly as a result of research and meet up with the require for an expanded pro community wellbeing workforce. It will leverage the investigation strengths and experience of UT Southwestern’s a few existing schools as nicely as previous investments by UT Southwestern in general public overall health analysis and interventions. The latter is exemplified by the lengthy-standing Dallas Heart Study (now the Dallas Hearts and Minds Analyze) discovering variants in cardiovascular sickness possibility among the various populations, investigation to improve most cancers screening in our substantial well being units – particularly amid the underserved – and modern experiments on the differential impact of COVID-19 throughout communities. The new faculty will also benefit from alignment with the Clinical Center’s individual rising college overall health method and an considerable network of collaborative partnerships with other wellbeing systems, which includes Parkland Overall health, Children’s Health, Texas Overall health Means, and the Dallas Veterans Affairs Healthcare Centre, as well as other institutions.

Given that development of the new school was authorized by the UT Procedure Board of Regents in 2021, the condition of Texas in the 87th common session of the Texas Point out Legislature fully commited $10 million in startup cash. Programs for the new school have superior below the direction of Interim Dean Celette Sugg Skinner, Ph.D., and an government steering committee. A national look for for the school’s inaugural permanent Dean is planned for this year. The school will enroll its very first students for the Learn of Community Health degree in the fall of 2023, adopted by start of its doctoral degree packages the adhering to year.

The original faculty of the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of General public Health will comprise members of the Division of Population and Details Sciences of the Medical School, as perfectly as quite a few other departments across all UT Southwestern educational facilities. The faculty will be significantly expanded by recruitment of foremost senior and early career general public wellbeing scholars from across the country and over and above, supported by money from the O’Donnell Foundation, as effectively as institutional methods and further philanthropic presents.

Cross-chopping packages of the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Faculty of Public Wellbeing will be anchored on existing strengths at UT Southwestern. These contain knowledge science, epidemiology, implementation science, and well being procedure/inhabitants wellbeing study. These packages will tackle some of society’s most hard problems that influence communities in North Texas and throughout the world. Parts of concentrations in these systems will incorporate a concentration on the load of long-term disorders (these types of as diabetic issues, Alzheimer’s, weight problems, and coronary heart disorder), condition avoidance, socioeconomic determinants of well being and disparities in well being outcomes and wellness fairness, worldwide well being and emerging bacterial infections, and environmental change influence on health and fitness. The Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of General public Well being will progress the well-remaining of communities by translating scientific discoveries into community overall health solutions and assuring the capability to respond to upcoming community well being emergencies.

“The science of general public wellness seeks to boost the high quality of lifestyle for complete communities. That intention resonates with the core mission of UT Southwestern – promoting overall health and a balanced modern society that permits persons to obtain their comprehensive potential,” explained Dr. Podolsky. “A far better comprehension of the barriers to well being offers guarantee for equitable and obtainable treatment for all in North Texas, just one of the most populous and numerous areas of the region.”

Dr. Podolsky retains the Philip O’Bryan Montgomery, Jr., M.D. Distinguished Presidential Chair in Academic Administration, and the Doris and Bryan Wildenthal Distinguished Chair in Health care Science.

Dr. Skinner holds the Parkland Community Medicine Professorship.

About UT Southwestern Health care Middle

UT Southwestern, 1 of the nation’s leading tutorial medical facilities, integrates revolutionary biomedical analysis with outstanding medical care and training. The institution’s college has been given six Nobel Prizes and includes 25 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 associates of the National Academy of Medicine, and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The total-time college of more than 2,800 is liable for groundbreaking medical innovations and is committed to translating science-driven analysis rapidly to new medical treatment plans. UT Southwestern doctors provide care in additional than 80 specialties to additional than 117,000 inpatients, extra than 360,000 emergency area clients, and oversee practically 4 million outpatient visits a calendar year.