Baptist Health Foundation gift largest in foundation history
William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP, president of the Health Science Center, personally thanked Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio trustees Dec. 3 for their unprecedented grant of $1,050,000 toward South Texas’ first Institute for Alzheimer and Neurodegenerative Disease. The grant is the largest in the foundation’s history.
“As the academic health center for San Antonio and South Texas, we are called upon to serve our community,” Dr. Henrich said during the foundation’s awards ceremony and reception at First Baptist Church. “We are grateful for this landmark grant from the Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio, which supports our vision of providing an institute that focuses on new discoveries, treatments and auxiliary services to help those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.”
The institute is a response to the needs of the estimated 340,000 patients in Texas. It is designed to be a comprehensive care center featuring:
• expert diagnostics
• physician specialists in Alzheimer’s, related dementias, Parkinson’s and other diseases
• support programs for caregivers, and
• access to clinical trials of new therapies
Cody Knowlton, president and CEO of the Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio, said the trustees were inspired by the vision of Dr. Henrich and the School of Medicine to stand up the Institute for Alzheimer and Neurodegenerative Disease, and “decided to make a strategic investment to establish this much-needed resource for San Antonio and South Texas.”
Given his keen interest and passion for Alzheimer’s research and treatment, foundation trustee Jimmie Thurmond Jr. gave $50,000 to add to the million-dollar grant.
The institute will include experts currently on the Health Science Center faculty and will fuel the recruitment of others, including an internationally respected institute director.
During 2015, the Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio donated $237,700 for student scholarships in the Health Science Center’s School of Nursing, School of Medicine, School of Dentistry and School of Health Professions, and for the UT Austin/UT Health Science Center collaborative clinical pharmacy program.
The Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the Health Science Center is using a three-year, $121,000 renewal grant from the foundation to enhance education through community service learning projects.
With the new grant to the Institute for Alzheimer and Neurodegenerative Disease, the Baptist Health Foundation has now awarded $3.2 million for Health Science Center scholarships and programs.