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McNair Gift Adds Star Recruits to BCM Teamfran • chise play • er slang by Lori Williams  In professional sports, the best of the best is the franchise player. These are the big name players, the ones whose names and numbers are plastered on the backs of thousands of kids playing ball on playgrounds around the country. These are the players every team wishes it had. Baylor College of Medicine is poised to recruit more than 20 franchise players for the BCM research team, thanks to the owners of the NFL's Houston Texans, Bob and Janice McNair. This fall, the McNairs presented the College with a $100 million gift to fund the McNair Scholars program at Baylor College of Medicine. The intent is to give the College the resources to recruit the top scientists and physician scientists in various fields of research. "This stupendous gift will allow us to be very competitive in bringing top notch scientists to Baylor," said Jay H. Stein, M.D., Executive Vice President and Executive Dean of BCM. "These recruits will be the best in their fields." The McNairs want to have an impact on medical science, and they feel the best way to ensure this is to support "intellectual capital." 
At BCM, Bob and Janice McNair's name will be associated with top scientists and the new health care campus. "Ideas are the most important thing we work with in this world," said Bob McNair. "With intellectual capital, there is a greater opportunity to affect change than with anything else." The McNair Scholars program will add two faculty members each year, beginning in 2008. The program will fund 20 scholars over the next 10 years, at which time the endowment will fund McNair Scholars in perpetuity. The first two will be in the areas of breast cancer and juvenile diabetes, and the third scholar will be recruited in the area of pancreatic cancer. Breast cancer, juvenile diabetes and pancreatic cancer affect millions of families, including the McNairs. Janice McNair is a 15-year breast cancer survivor. "These are areas that are of great interest to the scientific community and of special interest to us," McNair said. BCM President and CEO Peter G. Traber, M.D., can look around the College and see some significant star power. It's because of these internationally renowned scientists that Baylor is now in the Top 10 of U.S. medical schools. "The McNair gift will allow us to greatly increase our ability to recruit more of the most promising researchers," he said. "It is this type of commitment to science that will help us extend our excellence for decades to come." The objective of the program is to identify the top researchers in the world and then convince them to sign on with Baylor. The first step in the process is to determine who are these potential McNair Scholars. 
HATS OFF: Applause erupts for Bob and Janice McNair during the press conference announcing their $100 million gift to BCM to recruit research stars to the College. Two of the McNair's biggest fans are Best Minds Best Medicine Campaign Chair Corby Robertson, Jr., (far left) and BCM President and CEO Peter G. Traber, M.D. "I would say these are people who have already established themselves as stars in their fields and who are probably being solicited by a number of institutions from around the country who would love to have them," said McNair. Stein describes them as researchers who are on the "ascending arc." "These are very proven, senior people who have lots of potential," he said. "They are headed to the top. We're looking for the 38-year-old phenom." C. Kent Osborne, M.D., Director of the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center, has in mind the type of person he is looking for in the McNair Scholar in breast cancer research. "A McNair Scholar should be a top scientist, basic or translational, who is nearing the top of his or her career; in our case, focusing on breast cancer. We want someone who complements our research program but who will also bring another dimension. That person will be involved in research that is slightly different than that of our current faculty. And this individual will make our breast research program stronger by bringing new ideas or technologies." Lawrence Chan, M.D., Chief of the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at BCM's Department of Medicine, describes it this way: "We are looking for a researcher who is already established in the field, but who also can move the field forward," he said. "This person will continue to be innovative and make new discoveries that will ultimately help us to cure juvenile diabetes." 
BCM President Peter Traber, M.D., presented Bob and Janice McNair with a framed street sign when he announced the new hospital and clinic address will be One McNair Boulevard. And how do you attract these stars to join the Baylor team? "The package we will offer these recruits is not just based on financial incentives," said Stein. "Each McNair Scholar will get significant research space in the new research building—and plenty of support from the College. "What may be the most effective incentive is for these potential faculty members to see the level of importance the Board of Trustees and the College has placed on science. What they have said is ‘Baylor College of Medicine is a place of science.' It is such a statement of who we are." The process to select those first McNair Scholars is already in play with two search committees. Osborne and Bert O'Malley, M.D., Chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, are leading the breast cancer research panel. Chan and Susan Hamilton, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, are heading up the search for a juvenile diabetes scholar. The committees will develop a list of two or three candidates to be presented to Traber, Stein and a representative of the McNair Foundation. Stein said he hopes the first McNair Scholar is on faculty by next summer. As medical schools and research institutions struggle with a reduction in federal funding and an increase in competition to bring in these star players, the McNairs have given the college an edge. "We'll have 20 franchise players over the next 10 years," said Stein. Team BCM just got the boost it needed to climb to the top of the rankings. In football, that leads you to the Super Bowl. In research science, there is no end to where it leads. New Campus Named for McNairsThe 35-acre site of the Baylor Clinic and Hospital has been named the McNair Campus in honor of the College's generous supporters Bob and Janice McNair.  The McNairs gave $100 million to Baylor College of Medicine last year to enable the College to recruit top researchers and physician scientists from around the world. Financing the McNair Scholars program through the gift, which is equal to the largest single gift in BCM history, follows years of support from the couple. The McNairs have supported research, education and patient care initiatives, both through financial resources and their commitment of time. At BCM, the McNairs have backed neuroscience research, the M.D./Ph.D. McNair Scholars program and projects benefiting the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center. "Bob and Janice have been solid supporters of Baylor's vision for the future, which includes a focus on all of our missions—education, research, patient care and community service," said Peter G. Traber, M.D., BCM President and CEO. "It is fitting that the new campus will carry their name." The McNair Campus, located on Old Spanish Trail next to the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, will include the adult hospital and outpatient clinic, as well as research facilities and faculty offices. The Medical Office Building will open late this year, followed by the clinic and hospital in early 2011. Not only will the campus be named for the McNairs, but the street address for the Baylor Clinic and Hospital will be One McNair Boulevard. Bob McNair has been a member of the BCM Board of Trustees since 1994. |
Best Minds Best MedicineBCM Campaign Seeks to Raise $1 Billion Attracting Stars: McNairs Give $100 Million To Recruit Top Scientists Lester and Sue Smith Gift Tackles Breast Cancer in the Clinic and Lab Two Alumni Share Commitment to Scholarship Support FeaturesTaking Personalized Medicine to New Heights Creating Culture While Building Walls Changing Complexion of Medicine SpotlightClick for your Doctor: New eVisits Trade Exam Room for Inbox Kjersti Aagaard: 2007 Winner of NIH New Innovator Award Getting World-Class Breast Cancer Care...With or Without Insurance James Lupski's Tenacity Founds New Field of Genomic Medicine BriefsBCM Named National Diabetes Research Center The Trash is no Place for Expired Medication Removing Brain Tumors Through the Nose SPORE Spawns New Lymphoma Efforts The Coffee-Cholesterol Connection
BCM Campaign puts Personalized Medicine on the Fast-Track Watch Us GrowIn appreciation of Bob and Janice McNair's transformational gift of $100 million, Baylor College of Medicine has named the area for its new patient care initiatives the McNair Campus. On May 23, 2007, College and community representatives celebrated a groundbreaking on the campus. Since then, the McNair Campus has seen some exciting changes. Site Preparation Site preparation included the relocation of live oak trees. The process to move the 50-year-old trees involved special hydration 60 days prior, inserting pipes under the massive root balls to lift the trees, and skidding them to their new location using large equipment. The College invested approximately $200,000 in the tree relocation effort. Medical Office Building The first building constructed on the campus is the six-story Medical Office Building. A milestone was reached on January 11, when BCM leaders gathered for a tree-topping ceremony that marked the completion of the framing. The ceremony, in which a potted tree is hoisted to the top level of the building, is a European tradition thought to bring good luck to the construction workers and the occupants of the building. 
In attendance for the Medical Office Building tree topping ceremony were (left to right) Dan Jones, M.D., Chair of Ophthalmology; Peter Traber, M.D., BCM President and CEO; Jay Stein, M.D., Executive Vice President and Executive Dean; Robert McCleskey, Vice President of Strategic Capital Projects; and Donna Sollenberger, CEO of Baylor Clinic and Hospital and Executive Vice President.
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Volume 4, Issue 1, Summer 2008 |
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