Duke’s Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health Receives $5 Million

12/8/2006 - DURHAM, N.C. – Duke University’s Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health has received a $5 million gift from the Hubert Family Trust of Atlanta, Duke President Richard H. Brodhead announced.

The gift is the second from the Hubert Family Trust to the center, which partners with clinical and research groups in developing countries to improve health by teaching students and health care professionals and by supporting collaborative research intended to reduce the burden of disease.

“The Hubert family’s partnerships in global health -- with Duke and many other academic and charitable organizations -- have been characterized by a wonderful spirit of collaboration and service; knowledge of the complex issues involved; respect for other cultures; and a genuine desire to raise awareness, understanding and interest in global health among future leaders,” Brodhead said. “We are very grateful for the family’s vision and generosity to Duke.”

The Hubert-Yeargan Center, led by G. Ralph Corey, M.D., the Gary M. Hock Distinguished University Professor of Global Health, was established in 2004 with a $2 million gift from the Hubert Family Trust and a $4 million gift from the Yeargan Charitable Foundation Trust of Garner, N.C. The center grew out of several international projects begun by Duke Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases in 1986 to study HIV/ AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases and to provide international health education and service opportunities for the division’s residents and fellows.

“I believe one of Duke’s most fundamental and noble missions is taking the medical and scientific knowledge our faculty and students develop and using it to improve the lives and well-being of patients around the world,” said Victor J. Dzau, M.D., chancellor for health affairs at Duke and CEO of the Duke University Health System. “The Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health is an important part of that mission and we are profoundly grateful to the Hubert Family Trust for the confidence they have expressed in the work being done there to educate caregivers and to treat and heal vulnerable and underserved populations.”

Richard N. Hubert, trustee, said the Hubert Family Trust’s gifts to Duke have been encouraged by Duke’s commitment to global health and by the launch this past summer of the Duke Global Health Institute, which promotes interdisciplinary education, research and delivery of care to address health gaps between the poor and the affluent.

“We found what we had started at Duke with Dr. Corey to be a worthy program, and with the interest of President Brodhead and Chancellor Dzau, we saw a real opportunity for Duke to become a principal player in global health,” said Hubert, who is a 1957 Duke graduate.

The center runs programs in Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Thailand and a number of other developing countries.

Other global health programs endowed by the Hubert Family Trust include the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and agricultural partnerships with charitable and faith-based organizations in North Korea and Haiti.

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