Donor supports research that improves health
For five years, Marilynn Harned has made annual gifts to advance research and improve patient care – in Richmond, Williamsburg and beyond – by directing her generosity to VCU School of Medicine funds she’s passionate about.
She initially became aware of the medical school’s missions when she and her late husband, Wentworth, traveled from Williamsburg, Virginia, to VCU Medical Center so that he could be seen by Kenneth A. Ellenbogen, M.D., director of the VCU Health Pauley Heart Center’s clinical cardiac electrophysiology and pacing program. These days, Ellenbogen – who holds the Martha M. and Harold W. Kimmerling Chair in Cardiology – also sees patients at VCU Health’s Williamsburg clinic, a convenience that patients and families like the Harneds are grateful for.
“My husband was having pretty serious heart problems,” Harned says. “He was not being well cared for in Williamsburg, so we searched for a new option and found our way to VCU. Dr Ellenbogen is the best and it was really important to me that my husband get the best care. Now, Dr. Ellenbogen visits Williamsburg once a month to see patients. That connection he has to our community is special.”
Harned and her husband became engaged with the VCU community in Williamsburg soon after they found Pauley. They joined the Discovery Society, a group established by the MCV Foundation to unite people from the greater Williamsburg area, raise the visibility of VCU Health and support important health care initiatives. It was at a Discovery Society event that Harned first heard about the Professorship in Women’s Health.
“I heard the team talk about what they were doing and I was so impressed,” Harned says. “There was a lot of discussion that day about menopause, and I thought about how helpful that awareness could be to women. I think there are women who are doing important things in the medical community. They need more support and recognition.”
The Professorship in Women’s Health will support the executive director VCU Institute for Women’s Health to ensure women’s health research and care continue ascending in importance, attention, understanding and practice for generations to come.
“Their plans for future projects appealed to me,” Harned says of the institute’s role in developing education and training programs and working with community partners to increase access to health care services. “I think there's an interest in seeing this develop. So, I will continue to support them and their new initiatives.”
Learn more about VCU Institute for Women’s Health.