LOS ANGELES, November 17, 2008 — A $2.5 million gift from Arthur M. Coppola will establish an endowed chair in City of Hope’s Department of Supportive Care Medicine. Jay R. Thomas, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the department, has been named the first holder of the Arthur M. Coppola Family Chair in Supportive Care Medicine.
City of Hope’s Department of Supportive Care is at the forefront of a national movement toward treating and supporting all aspects of a patient’s cancer experience, from physical and mental health to emotional and spiritual issues. It encompasses a wide variety of professionals including pain physicians, clinical social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists and spiritual care providers. The Coppola gift will advance important areas of supportive care research, including quality-of-life studies.
“The Coppola family’s generous gift recognizes that supportive care is an integral part of the modern way we treat patients,” said Michael A. Friedman, M.D., president and chief executive officer, City of Hope. “We are grateful to the Coppola family for their support of City of Hope, our patients and our mission.”
A prominent member of City of Hope’s Los Angeles Real Estate and Construction Industry group , Coppola received the 2007 Spirit of Life® Award, City of Hope’s most prestigious philanthropic honor, sharing the award with former Macerich Company chair and City of Hope supporter Mace Siegel.
Coppola serves as the chairman and chief executive officer of the Macerich Company, a premier real estate investment trust specializing in the acquisition, redevelopment and development of shopping centers nationwide. Under his guidance, the company has grown from a privately held real estate enterprise into a dominant national mall company that owns 72 properties encompassing approximately 77 million square feet of leasable area.
Coppola is a longstanding member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and serves as a member of the executive committee of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT). Coppola was the chair of NAREIT in 2007. A native of Des Moines, Iowa, he holds a law degree from Drake University and is a certified public accountant.
“We are very pleased to establish this endowed chair and to help advance research and care in supportive medicine,” Coppola said. “As someone who has been personally touched by cancer, I know how important supportive care is to patients and their loved ones. Our family believes patients will benefit tremendously from City of Hope’s integrated, team approach to patient care.”
Thomas is a highly regarded leader in palliative care medicine, an internist and biochemist. Much of his research centers on controlling pain and reducing complications of cancer treatment that may interfere with patients’ quality of life. As a pain specialist and one of the leaders of the Sheri & Les Biller Patient and Family Resource Center, he is instrumental to City of Hope’s commitment to total patient care.
Thomas has written extensively in both peer-reviewed journals and textbooks and served as a reviewer for journals including Cancer, The Journal of Palliative Medicine and Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs.