2024 SMPH Faculty Investiture Celebration honors faculty and donors

On Wednesday, June 26, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Fluno Center, School of Medicine and Public Health faculty honorees, donors, and leaders gathered for the third annual SMPH Faculty Investiture Celebration. The event celebrated and honored incredible faculty and recognized the outstanding individuals who make their pioneering work possible through generous faculty support gifts.

This is the third time a school-wide, centralized investiture ceremony has been held, with one of the goals being to provide a consistent experience for all generous donors who establish endowed faculty positions and the faculty who are benefitting from their generosity.

The faculty investiture ceremony is a gathering that signifies that a faculty member now holds an endowed professorship, chairship, or fellowship, which are supported through philanthropy. An endowed faculty position is the highest honor the school can bestow on its faculty members. It represents an investment in talent and the future, pushing forward the school’s mission of advancing health and health equity through remarkable service to patients and communities, outstanding education, and innovative research.

Endowed positions enable the school to recognize and advance faculty members’ passionate pursuit to understand, treat, and eventually cure devastating diseases. Furthermore, it allows the school to invest in the next generation of healthcare leaders. The ceremony honored the accomplishments of inspiring and innovative endowed faculty and recognized its philanthropic partners who lead the charge to usher in a new era of medicine.

At the event, a chair, director, or representative talked about each faculty member’s accomplishments and said a few words about the donor behind the endowed position. Nancy Raymond, MD, associate dean for faculty affairs and development, presented each faculty member with a medallion, which represents all they and the donors have accomplished, and will accomplish into the future. Each recipient also received a plaque that can hold the medallion and be displayed on a wall.

“The endowed positions we honor this evening provide precious flexible funding that allows each recipient to take risks and pursue new areas of interest, supporting the time and resources required for new ‘outside the box’ pilot projects,” Raymond said during her opening remarks at the event. “This is what helps these leaders, and our entire institution, create avenues for progress in advancing the health and well-being of all. And this critical support would not be possible without the generosity of our donors. It takes a special kind of altruism and commitment to create an endowed faculty position. The beauty of these endowments is that they are gifts that go on giving, in perpetuity.”

The event is part of Wisconsin Medicine, the philanthropic partnership between UW Health and UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Together, we are championing patient care, research, and education.

See more photos from the investiture

Faculty honorees