Vanderbilt Medical Giving

Scholarship and research support are high-priority focus areas of fundraising at Vanderbilt.

The Scholarship Initiative for Vanderbilt University School of Medicine is aimed at growing scholarship endowment to reduce graduating debt and empower students with more freedom of choice for their practice areas. Our students’ stories are the best illustration of how truly critical this support can be. Charitable contributions are critical to our efforts to lessen the burden of student debt.

Research at Vanderbilt directly impacts patient care here and around the world. Charitable support of early-stage scientific research can lead to significant discovery and additional funding from federal agencies. Gifts to fund research are critical to bringing new discoveries to patients who need them the most.

Irène Mathieu, Canby Robinson Society Scholar

Irène’s passion for global health stems from her experiences in the Dominican Republic and Peru. Her Emphasis Project at Vanderbilt focused on the Spanish-speaking community in Nashville, reinforcing her interests in understanding diverse populations and their health care needs—whether across the world or across town.

A named chair in Ophthalmology

Joe and Barbara Ellis recently funded a named chair in the Department of Ophthalmology, aimed toward research to gain a greater understanding of blinding eye disease—with a focus on glaucoma. Their decision was, in part, to express their gratitude to Joe’s physicians here at Vanderbilt.

Expanding the capacity for care

Vanderbilt recently celebrated the opening of the much-needed expansion of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. The 33 new patient beds on five new floors, additional space to the Doctors’ Office Tower and the Rascal Flatts Surgery Center aren’t just a larger facility. They are an expansion of the impact we make in the local community and the global health care community and our promise to do all we can to ensure the highest quality of health care. $13 million of the funds for that expansion was funded by charitable gifts.

CRS Ideal Physician Award

With nominations generated from the fourth-year class, this prestigious award, which carries a cash prize from the Canby Robinson Society, is presented to a member of the graduating M.D. class who possesses the intangible qualities of common sense, knowledge, thoughtfulness, personal warmth, gentleness and confidence that combine to make the “ideal physician”—the person fellow classmates would most like to have as their personal physician.

• 2012 – Rachel Kathryn Price Apple, M.D.
• 2011 – Meredith Grey Albin Eicken, M.D.
• 2010 – Jared O’Leary, M.D.
• 2009 – Bryan Harris, M.D.