OverviewThe Department's Endowed ChairsTo Make a Gift

 Overview

	Repairing damaged adult and pediatric hearts.
	Conducting progressive and high-profile cancer, cardiothoracic, vascular and trauma treatment research.
	Being one of the most successful and high volume solid organ transplantation centers in the nation.
	Staffing and directing the busiest Level 1 trauma facility in the state at Grady Memorial Hospital.
	Investigating the immunologic mechanisms of transplant rejection and immunologic tolerance with the goal of achieving true immune tolerance.
	Treating patients as much as possible with outpatient, minimally invasive procedures.
	Reducing the need for insulin in patients with diabetes.
	Training the surgeons of tomorrow.

Since the establishment of Emory's Department of Surgery in 1939, its ground-breaking efforts have offered countless patients hope for the future and improved the quality of their lives. Contributions from organizations and private individuals have been essential to these endeavors, assisting in building and sustaining an infrastructure that has allowed the Department to continue to develop and advance.

The Emory University School of Medicine is known as one of the nation's finest institutions for education, biomedical research and patient care. Throughout the years the Department of Surgery has strengthened this reputation by conducting cutting edge research; treating a diverse array of patients, often offering procedures that are unavailable anywhere else in Georgia; and training approximately 70 residents a year in several outstanding facilities.

As academic medical institutions struggle to remain stable and afloat in a volatile healthcare climate, gifts from organizations and private individuals are essential. One of the most important areas that donations support is the recruitment and retention of world-class surgeons and researchers through the establishment of endowed chairs, which can in turn enhance studies of pioneering treatments and promising surgical techniques. An endowed chair exists in perpetuity, guaranteed through the named endowment fund. Much of the interest income provides salary and other needed resources appropriate to a senior faculty position, with the remainder being returned to the fund's corpus to grow over time.

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 The Department's Endowed Chairs

Due to a substantial contribution by Joseph Whitehead, Jr., the son of Coca-Cola magnate Joseph Whitehead, Sr., the J.B. Whitehead Chair was established in 1939. Numerous Whitehead family funds helped fund the construction of research labs, the expansion of various divisions and the building of the Whitehead Surgical Pavilion.

A series of illustrious surgeons have occupied the Whitehead Chair. The current Whitehead Professor and Department Chair is Dr. William Wood, who is considered to be among the most influential clinicians in the management of breast cancer in North America. Dr. Wood is nationally known for his exceptional contributions to cancer therapy and for his influence on the design and meta-analysis of conceptually driven clinical trials.

The Charles Ross Hatcher, Jr., Chair, was established in 1996 by anonymous benefactors in honor of Emory cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Charles Hatcher, who performed Georgia’s first "blue baby" open heart procedure in 1962; the state's first single, double, and triple aortic valve replacements in 1963 and 1964; and the state's first successful coronary bypass surgery in 1970. The endowment's income is used by the chair holder, currently Dr. Robert Guyton, to support Emory's cardiothoracic research. Faculty researchers have devised ways of protecting the heart during open heart surgery and are refining and testing a method for prevention of calcification of bioprosthetic heart valves. Current laboratory efforts are focused on resurrection of dying heart cells at the time of heart attack and the mechanisms and treatment of surgical and non-surgical myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Support from the Carlos and Marguerite Mason Trust helped create the Mason Chair in Transplantation Biology and assisted in launching the Emory Transplant Center in 1998, after which Dr. Christian Larsen became the first Mason professor and director of the transplant center. Dr. Larsen's studies of the immunologic mechanisms of transplant rejection and immunologic tolerance have earned Emory's transplant immunology laboratory worldwide attention. As an outgrowth of the lab's participation in a series of clinical and basic research projects aimed at both reducing the requirements for immunosuppressive drugs in islet transplants and increasing the supply of donated islets, Dr. Larsen and Dr. Thomas Pearson successfully conducted Georgia's first islet transplant to treat diabetes 1 in 2003. As of February 2007, Emory transplant surgeons had performed 16 successful islet transplant procedures into nine patients.

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 To Make a Gift

Such dramatic achievements would be virtually impossible without philanthropic support. By giving, you can become an integral part of our ongoing effort to help define the future of healthcare in this country and abroad. To make a gift, please contact Eileen Murphy of the Office of Development and University Relations at 404.778.4632.

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