Contact: Jennifer Healy
800.779.5893
jhealy@coh.org

LOS ANGELES, April 14, 2008 – City of Hope has received a $1 million gift from the private foundation of Norman and Melinda Payson to support the institution’s Graduate School of Biological Sciences. Half of the gift will establish the Dr. Norman and Melinda Payson Graduate Studies Center, which will serve as a resource for future scientists in training within City of Hope’s graduate school. The remaining $500,000 will endow a graduate student fellowship at the school that will support the student stipends.

 

“The Graduate School of Biological Sciences provides an outstanding atmosphere for learning and discovery, and its faculty members are widely recognized as leaders in their fields,” said Norman Payson, M.D. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to support such a visionary academic facility and help enrich the experience of tomorrow’s brightest researchers.”

 

The Dr. Norman and Melinda Payson Graduate Studies Center will be a unique space where students will learn advanced research concepts, best practices and newly refined techniques within a formal teaching environment. The space will consist of two classrooms, a study hall, student lounge and other facilities, and will be housed in the Cabilly-Riggs Academic Center, future home to City of Hope’s Graduate School of Biological Sciences. The first floor of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Cancer Immunotherapeutics and Tumor Immunology, slated for completion in late 2009, will house the academic center and all operations and facilities of the graduate school.

 

The Dr. Norman and Melinda Payson Graduate Student Fellowship will be awarded annually to students who show the highest level of promise as scientific researchers.

 

Norman Payson was chairman and chief executive officer of Oxford Health Plans Inc., a leading provider of health benefit plans.  From 1998 when he joined Oxford as CEO until his retirement in 2002, Payson led the company through a financial revitalization and transformation into one of the most successful health plans in the nation.  Prior to joining Oxford, Payson was co-founder and CEO of Healthsource Inc., from its inception in 1985 until its sale to CIGNA Corporation in 1997.  During his tenure, Healthsource became one of the nation’s largest health plan companies, operating in 15 states with more than 3 million members.  Payson was the CEO of a 120-member physician group, with more than 100,000 health plan members, before helping to establishing Healthsource.

 

Payson is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received his M.D. at Dartmouth Medical School. He practiced medicine as a board certified family physician until 1982 and previously served in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps on a Native American reservation in Arizona.  He is also a member of City of Hope’s national board of directors. 

 

“City of Hope’s Graduate School of Biological Sciences is a vital component of our institution and offers a unique and challenging research and learning environment for graduate education,” said John Rossi, Ph.D., dean, Graduate School of Biological Sciences, City of Hope. “In our new facility on campus, and with support from people like the Paysons, we can build our program and continue to attract talented aspiring scientists from throughout the world.”

 

About City of Hope
City of Hope is a leading research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases.  Designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center, the highest honor bestowed by the National Cancer Institute, and a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, City of Hope’s research and treatment protocols advance care throughout the nation. City of Hope is located in Duarte, Calif., just northeast of Los Angeles, and is ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” in cancer and urology by U.S.News & World Report. Founded in 1913, City of Hope is a pioneer in the fields of bone marrow transplantation and genetics. For more information, visit www.cityofhope.org.

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