UAMS dean, professor wife pledge gift of $1M

A University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences dean and his wife, an associate professor, have pledged a planned estate gift of $1 million to the university.

The pledge comes from Jim Raczynski, dean of the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, and his wife, Martha Phillips, an associate professor of epidemiology. With the money, UAMS will establish the Raczynski Phillips Bruce Chair in Social Determinants of Health.

The funds will help the College of Public Health continue to focus on its work in the area of the social determinants of health, which UAMS said are factors in people’s lives that affect individuals’ health. They include place of residence, education, employment, income, sex, race, and poverty, and access to health care.

The gift is in honor of the college’s inaugural dean, Dr. Thomas A. Bruce, and his late wife, Dolores, UAMS said.

“We chose to make this gift in honor of Dr. Bruce, whose vision has helped guide our work in education, research and service to public health statewide, and Dolores, who stood by his side and supported these changes,” Raczynski said in a news release issued by UAMS.

Bruce was the the College of Health’s inaugural dean from 2001-2002. He served as dean of the College of Medicine from 1974-1985. Before he joined UAMS, he worked at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Michigan, where he helped start initiatives in rural development, health and international leadership.

The College of Public Health — which started classes in January 2002 — has worked with several institutions over the years. They include Hendrix College in Conway, Philander Smith College in Little Rock, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and its W.H. Bowen School of Law, Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, the Mexican Consulate in Little Rock and the Arkansas Department of Health.

“Thanks to the leadership of Dean Raczynski and Dr. Phillips over the last 13 years, the College of Public Health has become an integral part of the role UAMS plays as a statewide leader in health care, particularly as it relates to approaches to public health issues,” said the UAMS chancellor, Dr. Dan Rahn, in the news release.

“We appreciate their generous contribution to the university and hope it inspires others to consider doing the same,” Rahn said. “Gifts such as these allow us to carry on and expand the work we are doing.”