Staff Corner
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Scott Ward Senior Development Officer |
HOME TOWN • Born in Glasgow, Kentucky; currently reside in Stewartstown, Pennsylvania
COLLEGE • University of Kentucky
GRADUATE DEGREES • BA in Political Science; Master’s in Philosophy of Education; completing Ph.D. in Studies in Higher Education
PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT • Executive Director; University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Foundation; Acting Director of Medical Center Development, University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center; Political Director, Republican Party of Kentucky
COMMITTEES • Association of American Medical Colleges – Group on Institutional Advancement (AAMC-GIA); Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE)
GOALS AS SENIOR DEVELOPMENT OFFICER • To proactively engage faculty, staff, alumni and friends in expanding philanthropic support for the School of Medicine, and to establish endowed chairs and professorships in every clinical and basic science department in the medical school.
VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES • Facilities Expansion Committee, St. John Lutheran Church, York, PA; Republican Club of York, York, PA
FAMILY • Wife - LoisJoy, Daughter - Hannah (2)
HOBBIES • Politics, spending time with family, college basketball and football
LAST BOOK READ • Creating The Cold War University by Rebecca S. Lowen, a fascinating book about how Stanford University successfully positioned itself to receive patronage and research support from government and industry.
Neuroprotection research in the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Department of Anesthesiology received a major boost recently when Sigma Tau Pharmaceuticals, Inc., made a $200,000 gift to the school. The gift will fund the Sigma Tau Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Fund in Neuroprotection Research.
“The fund will support a wide spectrum of both pre-clinical and clinical research directed at better understanding mechanisms of neural cell death and at developing neuroprotective interventions for acute brain injury caused by stroke, cardiac arrest, and trauma,” said Gary Fiskum, PhD, professor and director of research, Department of Anesthesiology.
The company chose the Department of Anesthesiology as the recipient of this gift because “our research division serves as an organizing center for the Brain Injury and Neuroprotection Research Focus Group of the Program in Neuroscience. Sigma Tau is a major manufacturer of drugs and nutritional supplements that stimulate energy metabolism, including brain energy metabolism,” said Dr. Fiskum, who is also convenor of the Brain Injury and Neuroprotection Research Group. “Sigma Tau is supportive of research on diseases and disorders where alterations in energy metabolism are known to play an important role in outcome.” In his role as the department’s research director and center’s convenor, Dr. Fiskum will assist M. Jane Matjasko, MD, professor and chair, Department of Anesthesiology, in using the fund in a way that will maximize research productivity in the area of neuroprotection.
We would like to thank Sigma Tau’s medical director, Antonino Amato, MD, for the instrumental role he played in making this gift possible. The School of Medicine is proud of the amount of private support to advance research provided by corporations such as Sigma Tau.
For more information about establishing similar corporate partnerships, please contact Scott Ward, Senior Development Officer, at 410-706-8503 or via e-mail at sward@som.umaryland.edu.
Foster Family
Endows Memorial Fund
While receiving medical training at the University of Maryland School of Medicine often creates a lasting loyalty to the school, the impact of working at the School of Medicine is often as deep as being a student here. That was true for Andrew H. Foster, MD, who did important work in cardiac surgery at Maryland for seven years.
A graduate of the University of Michigan School of Medicine, Dr. Foster did his cardiac residency at Michigan and the NIH. He completed a fellowship at the Medical College of Virginia before coming to Maryland. A cardiac surgeon in the Department of Surgery from 1991 to 1998, Dr. Foster was known for his investigative spirit. He applied new ideas and scientific techniques that advanced the field of cardiac surgery; his interest in innovation spanned research, clinical and academic activities.
Dr. Foster left Maryland to take a position as chief of cardiac surgery at George Washington University, but had been there only a short time when he was diagnosed with lymphoma and rapidly succumbed to complications in April 1999. To honor a vigorous and promising career abrubtly ended, Dr. Foster’s family established the Andrew H. Foster, MD, Research and Clinical Investigation Memorial Fund to continue his work. The family has given $50,000 to launch the fund.
Dr. Foster’s wife, Margaret, said, “This memorial fund is an opportunity to continue Andrew’s work, as research was always incredibly important to him. He also loved being on the faculty at Maryland. There were good people at the University of Maryland School of Medicine with whom he thrived; we are very grateful to those he worked with. The idea of the fund is as much from his colleagues as from his family. He left Maryland only because of an opportunity to move up professionally and do new work.”
“At the wake and burial, Andrew’s colleagues wanted to contribute to a memorial in his name, but nothing was in place at the time,” said Dr. Foster’s father, Professor Alan H. Foster of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, who is financing the fund with his wife, Cynthia. “The doctors themselves established and structured the fund.”
Dean Wilson said, “The fund in Dr. Foster’s name will provide an opportunity for his lively investigative spirit to continue to touch lives. It will provide financial support for medical students, residents and junior attending physicians engaged in pioneering research or the application of new techniques to clinical care in cardiac or cardio-thoracic surgery.”
Colleagues and friends of Dr. Andrew Foster are invited to support the fund. For details, contact the Development Office at 410-706-8503.