>>New USF-TGH initiative combines research with state-of-the-art treatment for newborns

Pam and Les Muma give gift worth $14 million
to USF-TGH partnership

 

Tampa, FL (December 6, 2006) – Pam and Les Muma have given one of the largest gifts in Florida to support research and care for newborns. The gift supports a partnership between Tampa General Hospital and the University of South Florida to build research and medical teams, laboratories at USF and expand the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at TGH.

 

The Muma's gift of $6 million to USF Health is eligible for a state match of $5 million. In addition, USF will invest an internal match of $3 million as well as salaries and physician support to advance research in neonatal intensive care. As a result, the total impact of the gift to benefit the USF Health -TGH partnership will exceed $14 million.

 

Because of this gift, USF Health and TGH can launch a major initiative to apply research to transform newborn intensive care, said Steven Klasko, MD, MBA, Vice President for USF Health and Dean of the USF College of Medicine.

           

"This is the type of leadership gift that not only allows USF and TGH to perform research that will transform neonatal care, but also fundamentally changes the community such that patients from around the country will look to Tampa as the place to care for the sickest moms and babies."

 

As part of the initiative, TGH will expand and redesign its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and rename it the Jennifer Leigh Muma Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, in memory of Pam and Les's daughter who died in a neonatal nursery.

 

In addition, state-of-the-art core research laboratories at USF Health will be named for Lisa Muma Weitz, their daughter who lives in Charleston, South Carolina.

 

"We're doing this for two reasons," Pam said. "First, we want to help any family who experiences a situation similar to ours with a newborn in critical need for special care.  And second, we believe research can help create and identify the best treatments for those smallest, sickest children."

 

At USF, the gift will create the Pamela and Leslie Muma Endowed Chair in Neonatal Research, and also allow USF to construct laboratories for that research team, led by the endowed chairholder.

 

"Parents of newborns should know they have no greater friends than Pam and Les Muma," said Ron Hytoff, TGH president. "With their gift, we'll develop the next generation of care for the very sickest newborns and give their parents new hope."

Les Muma was Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fiserv, Inc., in Brookville, Wisconsin, a Fortune 500 company providing technology products and services to over 17,000 financial institution clients worldwide.

 

Upon retirement in 2005, Les and Pam returned to Florida, where they were raised and went to college. Both were educated at Winter Haven High School and USF, and Les received an honorary doctorate from the USF College of Business.

 

Pam Muma was active in the Milwaukee community, including serving as Chairman of the Board of Children's Hospital of Wisconsin Foundation, the Cancer Center of the Medical College of Wisconsin, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, United Way, Milwaukee Art Museum, Task Force on Family Violence, and others.  She has brought the same commitment to the Tampa Bay Community, serving on the TGH Foundation Board, the Moffitt Cancer Center Foundation Board of Directors, as a founding member of the USF Women in Leadership in Philanthropy, and Junior Achievement of West Central Florida. Les serves on the USF Foundation Board and was appointed last year as Executive-in-Residence in the USF College of Business and has been an active supporter of USF Athletics.

 

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USF Health is a partnership of the University of South Florida's colleges of medicine, nursing, and public health; the schools of basic biomedical sciences and physical therapy & rehabilitation sciences; and the USF Physicians Group. It is a partnership dedicated to the promise of creating a new model of health and health care. One of the nation's top 63 public research universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, USF received more than $310 million in research contracts and grants last year. It is ranked by the National Science Foundation as one of the nation's fastest growing universities for federal research and development expenditures.