The University of Tennessee Health Science Center will hold its second UTHSC Giving Day on April 26. This 24-hour campaign encourages students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends to support the university with financial contributions of any size.
The goal of UTHSC Giving Day 2022 is 750 gifts. Donations can be made to support a specific college — Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy — or an initiative or program at UTHSC. Additionally, some donations may be matched, doubling their impact. To participate in UTHSC Giving Day 2022 or get more information, go to givingday.uthsc.edu.
Financial gifts to UTHSC, Tennessee’s only public academic health science center, support the education and training of future health care professionals for Tennessee, as well as the delivery of outstanding clinical care at major hospitals across the state and cutting-edge research to develop the cures of tomorrow.
Some great reasons to support UTHSC include:
- UTHSC has trained approximately 52,000 health care professionals since its founding in 1911.
- UTHSC is the largest educator of health care professionals in Tennessee.
- UTHSC has more than 900 clinical and educational sites in more than 125 locations across Tennessee.
- UTHSC has the largest residency/fellowship program in Tennessee.
- UTHSC generated a record $126 million in grant awards in 2021 for research and scientific discovery.
UTHSC Giving Day is an opportunity to honor these successes and help the university grow and thrive in the future.
The inaugural UTHSC Giving Day on April 27, 2021 generated approximately $680,000 in donations, challenges, and matching grants for the university. More than 700 donors made gifts that day.
Barbara DuBray-Benstein, PhD, of Collierville, a professor emeritus in the College of Health Professions, is ready to do her part to promote UTHSC Giving Day 2022. A 1978 graduate of the Cyotechnology program at UTHSC, she spent all day on Giving Day last year emailing former students to remind them of the campaign and that donations in any amount are appreciated. Dr. Benstein, who retired in June 2019 after 41 years at UTHSC, also sent personal thank you notes to those who gave.
“Since it had been fairly recent since I retired, I just went to the classes that I knew that would know me and I reached out to as many as I could find on that day,” she said. “I don’t know if I had accurate emails, but a lot of them did respond, and I was very, very pleased at the response.” She plans to do the same thing this year.
Ryan Mire, MD, FACP, a 1998 graduate of the UTHSC College of Medicine and member of the College of Medicine Alumni Council Executive Committee, will also be contacting former classmates, colleagues, and friends to encourage giving.
“I’ve always been a key advocate of giving back,” said Dr. Mire, an internal medicine physician in Nashville. “UTHSC has given me a lot, and I find it important to give back to the institution, but in particular, to help the next generation of physicians.”
That’s a message he plans to share often on Giving Day 2022.
“I’ll be working during the day,” he said. “My phone calling time is very limited. But I’ll be sending out emails and pushing out correspondence and texting to my network of friends and classmates, just to remind them of the importance of giving to UTHSC and also reminding them of how much UTHSC has given to them.”
Vice Chancellor for Development and Alumni Affairs Love Collins III said, “UTHSC is deeply grateful for the tremendous response from our community in 2021. We look forward to increased support this year to achieve the missions of UTHSC.”
The Office of Development and Alumni Affairs, which leads UTHSC Giving Day, is part of the University of Tennessee Foundation. The UT Foundation is the preferred channel for all private contributions benefiting faculty and students in the University of Tennessee System. Learn more at utfi.org.