A Tucson couple donated $2 million to the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson’s Sarver Heart Center to help achieve the goal of raising $75 million to build a cardiovascular research institute.
Ginny L. Clements, a philanthropist and businesswoman, and her husband Tom Rogers, a manufacturing executive, each donated $1 million for the research institute, according to a UA news release. The college needs to raise $50 million over the next five years to guarantee a $25 million challenge gift from another donor.
“My dad, uncle and aunt all died of heart disease, so it was a no-brainer when I was asked to make a donation to the Sarver Heart Center to create a new cardiovascular research institute,” Clements said in the news release. “I am extremely blessed that I am able to be a part of their journey, as I truly believe that extensive research is the only answer to cure many diseases.”
From left: Dr. Michael Abecassis, dean of the UA College of Medicine – Tucson, with Tom Rogers, Ginny L. Clements and Hesham Sadek.
Rogers agreed, saying, “We feel the research at this institute will have the capability of saving thousands of lives not only in Arizona but throughout the world and further advance the standing of the University of Arizona as a leader in medical research.”
This isn’t the first financial support Clements has given to UA. In 2020, she donated $8.5 million for the establishment of the Ginny L. Clements Breast Cancer Research Institute to strengthen UA Cancer Center’s breast cancer patient care and research programs. She had created the Ginny L. Clements Breast Cancer Research Fund at the Cancer Center before that.
The cardiovascular research institute, in partnership with Banner University Medical Center Tucson, will “provide researchers with a powerful new platform to explore ways to maintain heart health and to prevent, diagnose and treat cardiovascular disease,” the release says.
The funds will be invested in recruiting academic talent in specific areas of heart regeneration, heart failure and transplantation, and the prevention and management of atherosclerosis with a focus on vascular biology, as well as to build an interdisciplinary research program, develop infrastructure and acquire equipment, UA says.
“There are currently no comprehensive institutionally designated cardiovascular research institutes in the Southwest,” said Dr. Michael M.I. Abecassis, the Humberto and Czarina Lopez Endowed Dean of the College of Medicine – Tucson.
The release reported U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s numbers for 2022, which showed more than 700,000 people in the United States, or one in five people, died of heart disease.
