Key takeways
- The new center will support medical research and training focused on chronic lung disease, which affects 35 million people in the U.S.
- The commitment is also intended to endow one administrative chair and two academic chairs, along with two funds, providing resources for current and future lung specialists at UCLA.
- Philanthropists Joyce Brandman and her late husband, Saul, have been longtime supporters of health-related initiatives at UCLA and beyond.
UCLA Health has received a $20 million commitment from the Saul and Joyce Brandman Foundation to establish a new lung health center that will explore the mechanisms of lung disease and develop prevention strategies, diagnostic tests and treatments.
The UCLA Saul and Joyce Brandman Foundation Center for Lung Health, named in recognition of the longtime supporters of UCLA and UCLA Health, will also provide training and mentorship to physicians and scientists, cultivating generations of leaders in medicine who are dedicated to fighting lung disease.
“This gift is both transformational and timely, given the effects of the California wildfires on air quality and lung health. This gift will benefit not only our patients but future generations of lung specialists and ultimately people everywhere who suffer from chronic lung disease,” said Dr. Steven Dubinett, dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
“We are thankful for the support of the Saul and Joyce Brandman Foundation and its president, Joyce Brandman. This new center is the culmination of the foundation’s staunch support of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine, Clinical Immunology and Allergy.”
The gift will enable the university to establish the Saul and Joyce Brandman Foundation Center for Lung Health endowment, benefiting the division. The funds will support research, training, professional development, materials, equipment, symposia, therapy development and other activities of the new Brandman Foundation Center under the direction of the center’s director, who will be named at a future date.
“I am grateful to Joyce and the Brandman Foundation for their continued support of research that will reshape lung health,” said Dr. John Belperio, newly named chief of the division.
The gift is also intended to support the establishment of three Saul and Joyce Brandman endowed chairs: an administrative chair reserved for the Center for Lung Health director and two term-appointment chairs, one in lung health acceleration and another in lung health innovation, to support outstanding faculty members in the division with expertise in lung health.
Additionally, the gift will provide resources to establish two funds: a Center for Lung Health director’s fund to support the launch of the center and its ongoing strategic research initiatives under the director, and a Center for Lung Health pulmonary hypertension fund, benefiting the work of the holder of the Saul Brandman Chair in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, currently Dr. Richard Channick.
“This is an especially meaningful gift for our foundation and for the more than 35 million people in the United States who live with chronic lung disease,” said Joyce Brandman. “Lung health is crucial to quality of life, and it is our hope that the knowledge and treatments enabled by this philanthropy will help improve their lives and the lives of future generations.”
Joyce Brandman leads the Saul and Joyce Brandman Foundation, carrying on the mission of tzedakah, or charitable giving, that she and her late husband, Saul, forged together. Health care, education and Israel have been among the causes closest to their hearts.
In 2015, Joyce was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has served on the boards of American Friends of the Hebrew University, Beit T’Shuvah, Brandman University, Eisenhower Health, Los Angeles Jewish Health, the McCallum Theatre, the UC Riverside Foundation and the Brandman Centers for Senior Care.