The M. Joycelyn Elders, M.D., Endowed Professorship in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention is among 13 UAMS programs to receive a Chancellor’s Circle Award for 2016. The $25,000 award was announced by Chancellor Dan Rahn, M.D., at a ceremony Feb. 5. Dr. Elders, a member of the UAMS Foundation Fund Board, and Jim Raczynski, Ph.D., Dean of the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health (COPH), accepted the award.
The Endowed Professorship was created in 2015 in honor of Dr. Elders, who is a former US surgeon general and the third African American to graduate from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). She served as the director of the Arkansas Department of Health and is currently a Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management in the UAMS COPH and a Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics in the UAMS College of Medicine.
As he made the presentation, Chancellor Rahn called the endowed professorship “a really important initiative” and said the grant will help the professorship reach the endowed chair level.
“ was established to foster and enhance the teaching, research, and community outreach that embodies the lifetime work of Dr. Joycelyn Elders in Arkansas, across the nation and throughout the world,” Chancellor Rahn said.
The 13 Chancellor Circle grants, ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 for a grand total of $305,000, were the most ever awarded by the Chancellor’s Circle for a single year.
Members of the Chancellor’s Circle provide about $350,000 annually in discretionary funds, which provide support to programs in UAMS’ key mission areas of health care education, medical research and patient care. Since its creation in 1984, the Chancellor’s Circle has raised more than $7.8 million.
“We use these funds in a very specific, dedicated way to advance our work,” said Rahn. “And we use them for programs in which a certain amount of money can make a difference.”