Baltimore Philanthropist Toby Mower Donates $2 Million to Establish an Addiction Prevention and Treatment Curriculum and Endow Two Presidential Chairs
Baltimore Philanthropist Toby Mower Donates $2 Million to Establish an Addiction Prevention and Treatment Curriculum and Endow Two Presidential Chairs
May 15, 2012
Medical Research, Press Releases
BALTIMORE, May 15, 2012 – Baltimore philanthropist Toby Mower has donated $2 million to American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Americans for Ben-Gurion University) to fund and develop the Toby Mower Curriculum for the Prevention and Treatment of Addiction, including endowing two presidential development chairs at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).
The Toby Mower Presidential Development Chairs in Addiction Prevention and Treatment, BGU researchers Miriyam Farkash and Dr. Orli Grinstein-Cohen, were inaugurated at BGU’s 42nd Board of Governors Meeting at a special ceremony on Monday in Beer-Sheva, Israel. Earlier in the day, Mower, a longtime substance abuse treatment advocate, gave a lecture on battling addiction to faculty and students in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University’s Leon and Mathilde Recanati School for Community Health Professions.
Toby Mower is a retired registered nurse with a master’s degree in clinical psychology. She and her husband Dr. Morton Mower, a world renowned cardiologist and co-inventor of the automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator, live in Baltimore, Maryland and Beaver Creek, Colorado. They are the founders of the country’s first Jewish recovery home: Jewish Recovery Houses (JRH) located in Baltimore. JRH assists Jewish men and women in the early stages of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.
At the dedication ceremony, Toby Mower explained how she presented the idea for the curriculum to BGU President Prof. Rivka Carmi, who is also a physician. “Rivka, how would you like to be another first? You were the first female dean of an Israeli medical school. You were the first female president of an Israeli university. How would you like to be the first Israeli university to treat addiction? And she took to it like a duck to water.”
Mower continued, “Addiction is a disease and it kills like cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Or it cannot kill like cancer, heart disease or diabetes, with the right treatment.”
The Mowers have funded several important programs at BGU, including numerous scholarships in the areas of high-tech and nursing, as well as the Dr. Morton and Toby Mower Chair in Shock-Wave Studies. Both are members of BGU’s international Board of Governors and the prestigious Ben-Gurion Society. Toby Mower received an honorary doctoral degree from BGU in 2010 in recognition of both her philanthropic leadership and her remarkable vision for the future of higher education in Israel.
“Toby and Mort have contributed generously to several very important programs at BGU, and have worked tirelessly on behalf of Jewish addicts who suffer from the pain and stigma of substance abuse,” said Americans for Ben-Gurion University Executive Vice President Doron Krakow. “Toby’s latest contribution will create the first program of its kind in Israel, lighting the way for the country’s critical need to contend with the problem of addiction in Israeli society.”
The first Presidential Development Chair incumbent, Miriyam Farkash, is a senior lecturer in the Recanati School for Community Health Professions and coordinator of the Community Health Nursing Academic Program, where she teaches theoretical and clinical instruction at both undergraduate and graduate levels. She is also responsible for health promotion education at the school.
Presidential Development Chair Dr. Orli Grinstein-Cohen is an expert in orthopedic and emergency nursing. She is a lecturer in the Department of Nursing and a registered nurse in the Soroka University Medical Center’s Orthopedic Department. She received an M.Sc. at BGU’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Management and a Ph.D. in the Department of Epidemiology, and completed her R.N. degree at BGU. Most of her studies related to triage were carried out at John Hopkins University in Baltimore. She completed her postdoctoral studies at the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute, Smokler Center for Health Policy Research in Jerusalem.
ABOUT AMERICANS FOR BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY
By supporting a world-class academic institution that not only nurtures the Negev, but also shares its expertise locally and globally, Americans for Ben-Gurion University engages a community of Americans who are committed to improving the world. David Ben-Gurion envisioned that Israel’s future would be forged in the Negev. The cutting-edge research carried out at Ben-Gurion University drives that vision by sustaining a desert Silicon Valley, with the “Stanford of the Negev” at its center. The Americans for Ben-Gurion University movement supports a 21st century unifying vision for Israel by rallying around BGU’s remarkable work and role as an apolitical beacon of light in the Negev desert.
About Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev embraces the endless potential we have as individuals and as a commonality to adapt and to thrive in changing environments. Inspired by our location in the desert, we aim to discover, to create, and to develop solutions to dynamic challenges, to pose questions that have yet to be asked, and to push beyond the boundaries of the commonly accepted and possible.
We are proud to be a central force for inclusion, diversity and innovation in Israel, and we strive to extend the Negev’s potential and our entrepreneurial spirit throughout the world. For example, the multi-disciplinary School for Sustainability and Climate Change at BGU leverages over 50 years of expertise on living and thriving in the desert into scalable solutions for people everywhere.
BGU at a glance:
20,000 students | 800 senior faculty | 3 campuses | 6 faculties: humanities & social sciences, health sciences, engineering sciences, natural sciences, business & management, and desert research.
For all press inquiries, please contact:
James Fattal, J Cubed Communications
516.289.1496
Stories Like This
