Secunda Family Foundation
The Secunda Family Foundation has generously supported our efforts for seven years. Mr. Thomas Secunda and his wife have signed the “Giving Pledge”, which promises to contribute more than half of their wealth to philanthropy either during their lifetime or in their wills. Mr. Secunda stresses “the importance of giving back to the country, communities, and causes that have been vital to shaping our lives and success.” He believes that philanthropy is about gifts whether big or small to causes that truly make a difference. The Secunda Foundation improves community life in many ways, among others by supporting the development and improvement of public lands and national parks, enhancing the reach and depth of museums and cultural institutions, and combatting antisemitism. His philanthropic decisions are a family affair and Mr. Secunda often involves his wife and two daughters in discussions about what groups or causes to support.
The Derfner Foundation
The Derfner Foundation, established in 1992 by Jay Lieberman and the Derfner family, has been a crucially important source of funding for our work for over a decade. We came to Mr. Lieberman’s attention because of his wife, Penny, who had a deep interest in our work on behalf of women’s health. The Derfner Foundation is a deeply personal organization; since the death of his partner, Mr. Liberman is now the sole trustee. When forming their foundation, the two men used a single, simple principle: they wanted to use their funds “wherever they would do the most good.” The generosity of the Derfner Foundation is exemplary; in 2022 it made 101 unrestricted grants, including major funding ($2,500,000) to the Hospital for Special Surgery, The Hebrew Home for the Aged, and the Mirman School. Mr. Derfner has been an indispensable advisor and supporter of our work, and his annual generous gift, which continues to help us underwrite the laboratories of young investigators at Johns Hopkins, is now in its eleventh year.
John & Patricia Klingenstein Foundation
Ms. Klingenstein’s family, long interested in neuroscience, is focused in particular on childhood mental health. Ms. Klingenstein’s interest in children was formed significantly by the work of her father, Doctor Harry E. Davis, who was Chief of Pediatrics at Mercy Hospital in Portland, Maine for many years. She was profoundly focused on maintaining the hospital’s mission that he exemplified: intensely personal patient care. Her philanthropy reflected her myriad of interests in the arts: she made gifts to several art museums, including the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Museum. Her involvement in opera was reflected in her board membership in the Metropolitan Opera and her support of the fledgling Teatro Nuova, founded by Will Crutchfield. Modest and soft spoken, this extraordinary woman led a family of which four generations have been devoted to public service and focused philanthropy. We are privileged to have honored Pat Klingenstein and are grateful for her years of support.
International Society for
Gender Medicine
The International Society for Gender Medicine (IGM) was founded by Dr. Marek Glezerman and Dr. Legato in 2006 to create an international umbrella for professional and national societies involved in creating scientific and clinical knowledge in gender-specific medicine. Our own Foundation has made two major grants this year to establish the IGM website and to create support for the administrative tasks of the group, which now boasts a membership of ten countries around the world. It has an official journal, The Journal of Sex and Gender Research. Doctor Glezerman and Dr. Legato remain honorary board members and advisors to the organization.
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Michael w. Derchin
Charitable Foundation
Michael W. Derchin Charitable Foundation has supported young investigators with generous annual funding since the beginning of our work; he is a constant source of advice and encouragement. His career in the airline industry is full of remarkable milestones: he is the founder and president of the Derchin Airline Research corporation and has had years of achievement, serving as the head of research and analysis in companies that included NatWest, American, Mohawk, and Pan American World Airways. He has dual expertise, however, and is the founder and president of a hedge fund, Derchin Management Inc. Institutional Investor Magazine and other polls have named him the number one airline analyst on Wall Street and his latest achievement reflects this in his weekly publication, “Heard in the Hangar”. Through his interest in our work, he expanded his interest in fixed-wing aviation and turned his attention to space travel. He now regularly includes observations on the expanding commercial space industry with unique and on-target observations on the latest developments in that sector.
Fondazione Internazionale Menarini
Founded in the spring of 1976 by the Menarini family, this group has been an invaluable source of intellectual and financial support to our organization. The Fondazione is dedicated to promoting research and knowledge not only in the scientific fields of biology, pharmacology and medicine, but also to the humanities. One of the main instruments it uses to achieve its goals is the organization of international congresses with a specific focus on medicine. For the past four years, Doctor Legato has been a consultant to the Fondazione with the specific mission of organizing seminars that address the most important topics in medicine. Through this partnership, we have been able to mount a series of groundbreaking conferences with the Fondazione under the leadership of its Director of Scientific Affairs and Operations, Giuseppe Caracciolo, MD, PhD. The latest of these is a pair of seminars on the expanding frontier of space medicine. The proceedings of first, Building a Space-Faring Civilization, held in Florence, Italy in September 13-13 of 2023, will appear in 2025. A second seminar planned for the Fall of 2025 will unite world class physicians and specialists in space medicine in discussions that will explore issues common to both humans on earth and those who are space voyagers. The resulting discussions should provide new insights into the pathophysiology among others of aging, bone loss, ocular disorders, vestibular diseases, heart disease, immune disorders, and malignancies.
New Crossways Foundation
Eugenie and Robert Birch have been major and consistent supporters of our work from its inception to the present. A remarkable duo, each brings extraordinary and unique accomplishments to our group of friends and advisors. Ms. Birch, the Lawrence C. Nussdorf Chair of Urban Research and Education at the University of Pennsylvania, focuses on global urbanization and has received several awards for her leadership in the field of urban planning. Mr. Birch’s expertise was in the financial sector, where his career on Wall Street culminated in his work as a managing director at Oppenheimer where he led the firm’s investment round table. His acerbic wit was memorialized by his friends in a booklet. “The Sayings of Chairman Birch included such aphorisms as “Patience can be rewarded as long as you’re not sitting on stone eggs.” and “Buy straw hats in winter.” Much of his philanthropy was anonymous, ranging from gifts to his churches in New York and Boonton, and for schools and institutions in New York City. He was a deeply religious man and served for decades as a church elder.
The Baum Family Charitable Trust
Our oldest friends, Sharon and Steven Baum, have supported every aspect of our work from its inception. Both graduates of the Harvard Business School, each has helped us with crucially important financial advice and have had important intellectual input into many of our projects, most recently our entry into the science of spacecraft. Their generous financial support has underwritten some of our most important projects and has helped an entire generation of talented young investigators to achieve tenure in their universities. Their sons, Sam and Ben, have continued their parents’ interest in our work and we count this family among our most consistent and generous supporters.
