year in review 2024

Our 75thYear Supporting the MCV Campus

As 2024 comes to a close, we reflect on all that inspires us to continue supporting VCU Health and VCU Health Sciences to ensure a brighter, healthier future for the community.

We are thankful for the opportunity to share inspiring stories about courageous VCU Health patients; students who give us hope for the future; faculty who are finding new cures and treatments; and donors who give generously to advance the research, education and patient care on the MCV Campus. 

Throughout the year, we have celebrated the 75th anniversary of the founding of the MCV Foundation. From a modest $3,000 in assets in the early days, to managing more than $1 billion in total assets, we work every day to support and foster VCU Health and VCU Health Sciences through philanthropy, stewardship, innovation, communications and collaboration.

On behalf of the MCV Foundation team, we wish everyone a safe and happy new year. 

We are proud of this excellent institution, and as we prepare to welcome a new year, we are grateful for the stories that give us hope for a healthier tomorrow. Whether through generous gifts to support education and faculty, or innovative research that will change how medicine is practiced, these stories inspire us every day. 

Here are a few of our many highlights. 

 

Christine Archuleta, M.D., and her mother Felice Archuleta, M.D., celebrate after Christine matched with VCU Health’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology residency program. Photo: Contributed

Promising Young Doctor Remembered for Love, Kindness and Determination

After graduating from George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Christine Archuleta, M.D., planned to return to her hometown where she had matched into VCU Health’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology residency program. Sadly, before Dr. Archuleta could follow her dreams, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and passed away. To honor their late daughter, her physician parents established the Christine Archuleta Legacy Fund at the MCV Foundation with the goal of supporting social and engagement activities for OB-GYN residents.

 

Bill Hicks with his granddaughters in Gloucester, Va. Photo: Daniel Sangjib Min, MCV Foundation

This Machine Was Made for Walking

Bill Hicks of Gloucester, Va., is always on the go. When he was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition that greatly impairs his ability to walk, his care team at the VCU Health Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders Center was determined to keep him as mobile as possible for as long as possible. Bill makes a weekly 90-mile journey to the PMDC to use an exoskeleton device, which is a motorized frame that stretches from Bill’s hips to his shins and helps him walk independently during his therapy sessions.

 

Students learn how to provide oral health care to residents at the Virginia Home as one of several service-learning sites affiliated with the VCU School of Dentistry.  Photo: Daniel Sangjib Min and Tyler Trumbo, MCV Foundation

All Smiles: A New Special-Needs Dental Clinic

Roger Wood, D.D.S., grins a lot. A retired pediatric dentist, he embraced his patients with special needs into their teens and adulthood, establishing a “practice within a practice” just for them at his dental office. He and his wife, Karen, are now working to ensure future dentists are positioned to do the same by establishing the Wood Special Care Dentistry Clinic within the VCU School of Dentistry. The clinic will provide training and exposure to patients with special needs for dental and dental hygiene students. It also will serve as a much-needed care provider for the special-needs community. Dr. Wood, now an affiliate faculty member at the School's Department of Pediatric Dentistry, will also teach in the clinic.

 

Suzanne Ameringer, Ph.D. Photo: Daniel Sangjib Min, MCV Foundation

Nursing Oncology Research Award Leads to NCI Grant

Suzanne Ameringer, Ph.D., now professor emerita at the VCU School of Nursing, and her team developed a tool that is giving adolescent and young adults the power to self-manage their cancer symptoms and promote self-advocacy. As a recipient of the Tina L. Bachas Oncology Nursing Research Award, Dr. Ameringer was able to help her team secure grant funding from the National Cancer Institute to expand the project to conduct a multi-site trial with the hope to implement the tool within health care systems and clinics around the country.

 

Kriss and Jessica make the familiar walk to Room 707 at The Doorways, where they lived while in Richmond for the majority of 2023 following Kriss’ bone marrow transplant. Photo: Daniel Sangjib Min, MCV Foundation

Room 707: Home Away from Home

For 40 years, The Doorways has been providing supportive and low-cost housing to VCU Health patients and families like Kriss and his partner Jessica. When Kriss was diagnosed with leukemia, his life became a series of appointments, tests and chemotherapy. Ultimately, Kriss needed a bone marrow transplant and his initial hospital stay on the MCV Campus stretched on. It was The Doorways that provided the Yorktown couple with a home away from home during the tumultuous months. 

 

Ken Powell helps two of his grandsons as they paint. Photo: Daniel Min, MCV Foundation

Giving Back to Virginia’s Leading Heart Center

In 2017, Ken Powell, a retired lawyer, underwent heart valve replacement surgery at VCU Health Pauley Heart Center. Before learning that his aortic valve was not closing properly, Powell had never heard of Pauley Heart Center. Today, thanks to the care he received, he serves as an advisory board member of Virginia's leading heart center and is thankful to have been blessed with more time with his family.

 

Associate professors David Turner, Ph.D., and his wife, Victoria Findlay, Ph.D., are co-leading research at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center that examines the negative effects of advanced glycation end products (A.G.E.s) on cancer risk. Photo: Daniel Sangjib Min, MCV Foundation

Boiling Down Dietary Cancer Risks

Advanced glycation end products (A.G.E.s) have been known for more than a century and nearly every food naturally contains them, but it’s hardly a household term. Research suggests that over time they may contribute to chronic diseases throughout the body. Victoria Findlay, Ph.D., co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, with her husband, David Turner, Ph.D., are working on a project funded by the National Cancer Institute that focuses on A.G.E.s and their negative impact on cancer risk.

 

Erika M. Blanton, M.D. (center), met with women who are currently surgical residents at the inaugural lectureship in her name. Photo: Janelle Fortes, VCU Department of Surgery 

Endowed Lectureship Honors Pioneering Woman Surgeon

Erika M. Blanton, M.D., made history as one of the first women in the VCU Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology residency program and earned a strong reputation as she pioneered leading-edge, woman-driven prenatal care.  To honor her achievements and commitment to women’s health, Kandace McGuire, M.D., chief of breast surgery and senior medical director for Massey, and VCU Department of Surgery Chair Vigneshwar Kasirajan, M.D., worked together to establish the Dr. Erika Blanton Lectureship Honoring Women Surgeons.

 

Susan G. Kornstein, M.D., professor of psychiatry and obstetrics/gynecology and executive director of the VCU Institute for Women’s Health. Photo: Tyler Trumbo, MCV Foundation

Demystifying Women’s Health

Susan G. Kornstein, M.D., executive director of the VCU Institute for Women’s Health and MCV Foundation trustee, has been working to improve women’s health through research, education and direct patient care for more than 30 years. This year, the VCU Institute for Women’s Health celebrated its silver anniversary, and in the last three years, the institute helped bring more than $36 million in research funding to VCU. Dr. Kornstein is also leading efforts to create an endowed professorship to support the institute, which will ultimately be named to honor her.

 

The Egyptian Building, completed in 1845, was constructed to house the Medical College of Virginia. Still in use today, it provides a rare example of the Egyptian Revival architectural style. Photo courtesy the VCU Health Sciences Library

Celebrating 75 Years of Supporting the MCV Campus

Throughout 2024, the MCV Foundation has been marking the 75th anniversary since its incorporation in May 1949. The early days were modest for the MCV Foundation. Some of its earlier financial records from 1952 indicate total assets were around $2,500, or roughly $33,000 today when adjusted for inflation. Today, the foundation manages more than $1 billion in assets across more than 2,000 funds for research, patient care and educational support. Endowed funds account for $821.9 million of those resources.