3rd Annual White Coat Gala Breaks Records,
From the May 2012 issue of Our Moment, the UConn Foundation's e-newsletter
Nearly 1,100 attendees celebrated the UConn Health Center's 40 years of education at the 3rd annual White Coat Gala on Saturday, April 21, 2012. The event is the third consecutive year of growing attendance and support for this touchstone event of the state's only public academic medical center.
Honored this year with the Neag Medal from service to the UConn Health Center were:
- Peter J. Deckers, M.D., Professor of Surgery and Dean Emeritus, UConn School of Medicine
- Barbara E. Kream, Ph.D., Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean of the UConn Graduate School
- John W. Rowe, M.D., Professor, Health and Policy Management, Columbia University; retired Chairman and CEO of Aetna; former Chair of the UConn Board of Trustees
The event grossed more than $1 million for the first time, which supports the UConn Health Center's missions of education, research and clinical care. The 2012 gala was themed, "Celebrating 40 Years of Education," in honor of the inaugural class of 1972 from the School of Medicine and School of Dental Medicine; many members of the inaugural classes were in attendance.
Among the speakers were Governor Dannel P. Malloy, UConn President Susan Herbst and Frank M. Torti, MD, MPH, executive vice president for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine.
"Private support is absolutely critical to sustaining the groundbreaking clinical research, education and patient care that takes place at the Health Center every single day," said President Susan Herbst. "We are not just educating the next generation of scientists, scholars and leaders, we are changing lives through research, health care and community service. And thanks to Bioscience Connecticut, soon we will lend our expertise and resources to innovations that will no doubt change the way medicine is practiced around the world."
The 2012 White Coat Gala was sponsored by Richard and Jane Lublin, title sponsors; executive sponsors John and Valerie Rowe; lead corporate sponsor, Aetna; as well as more than two-dozen local and national friends of the Health Center.
To support the UConn Health Center, please contact Dina Plapler, vice president for development, at 860-679-8077 or dplapler@foundation.uconn.edu.
Photos: Eric Wallis Photography
