Stories of Giving

More than 2,500 people took part in the 25th annual UMass Cancer Walk presented by Harr Toyota at Polar Park on Sunday, Sept. 24. Participants raised nearly $750,000 to support adult and pediatric cancer research and clinical trials at UMass Chan Medical School.

“Enjoy your time with him,” said the genetic counselor. Linda and Tommy Pham’s son, Raiden, had just been diagnosed with UBA5 disorder, an ultra-rare, life-threatening disease with no available treatments, and these words signified a devastating take on his prognosis. 

On Nov. 1, scholarship donors and scholarship recipients came together at UMass Chan Medical School’s Albert Sherman Center to celebrate student achievement, gratitude and the spirit of giving back. The evening marked the in-person return of this cherished annual event. 

On Oct. 18, Chancellor Michael F. Collins hosted a dinner to celebrate those champions of science who generously supported UMass Chan Medical School’s pandemic response through gifts to the COVID-19/Pandemic Research Fund and/or the Vaccine Corps—collectively donating nearly $3.44 million.

In keeping with UMass Chan Medical School tradition, outstanding faculty were honored at the Convocation and Investiture ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 14, part of the annual week of festivities marking the start of a new academic year. The generosity of donors who stepped up to establish new endowed chairs—invaluable mechanisms for honoring and supporting accomplished faculty—featured in the celebration. 

An internationally renowned expert in the treatment of male infertility, Peter Schlegel, MD'83, has left an indelible mark on the field of urology. Together with his family, Dr. Schlegel recently established an endowed scholarship fund at UMass Chan Medical School, giving back to the institution he recognizes as central to his successful career. 

Before he passed away in June 2022 after a two-year battle with cancer, John F. Sullivan, MD’06 R’12, expressed his wish that a neuropsychiatry lecture fund be established in his memory, making an enduring mark on the field to which he dedicated his career. 

As a pioneering surgeon, tireless patient advocate and deeply dedicated teacher and mentor, Mary Maloney, MD, founding chair of the dermatology department at UMass Chan Medical School, has inspired a generation of dermatologists and made a profound impact on the field. 

Bringing together some of the greatest minds in biomedical research under one roof, the new education and research building at UMass Chan Medical School will be an incubator of scientific collaboration.

Gary Vanderweil is mostly retired from his career at Vanderweil Engineers, but he still commutes regularly into the company’s Boston office from Cohasett, where he and his wife Anne live. As he spoke to us via Zoom about his and Anne’s enthusiastic support of UMass Chan Medical School, the evolving skyline of the Seaport District sparkled behind his desk; a fitting backdrop for an engineer who designs buildings around the world. Two of Anne and Gary’s children followed in Gary’s footsteps, joining Vanderweil, but son Stefan Vanderweil, MD’12 R’16, chose a different path that took flight at UMass Chan.