Philanthropy is powerful. it can catapult an idea from the laboratory to the bedside, recruit and retain the best faculty to mentor the next generation of doctors, and provide an edge in the competition for the brightest minds. Most important, philanthropy can ensure healthy futures for the world’s children.
George Brumley lived and taught the responsibility to give back to the community. Sadly, the beloved former head of Emory pediatrics died in a plane crash during a family trip in 2003. But his vision and commitment to children endures today.
In the 1990s, Brumley gave a gift to create the Emory Egleston Children’s Research Center, which coordinates a seed grant program that fuels development of young researchers’ good ideas. Since then, the program has provided $1 million in support and attracted $18 million from outside funding agencies. Some of those ideas—including new approaches to treating fetal alcohol syndrome, tumors, and diabetes—are now being tested in clinical trials.
Brumley’s two surviving daughters, Nancy Brumley Robitaille and Marie Brumley Foster, are carrying on their father’s legacy through the Zeist Foundation, which created the George W. Brumley Jr. Chair in Pediatrics. The chair is held by neonatologist and neonatal infectious disease specialist Barbara Stoll, who Brumley recruited to Emory.
Like her mentor, Stoll now heads pediatrics at Emory and is reminded daily that improving the health of children while running cutting-edge research and training is not financially self-sustaining. The Emory Children’s Center treats all diseases and turns away no child, resulting in a substantial amount of uncompensated care. Like Brumley, Stoll looks to philanthropy to make up the difference.
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