Evelyn F. McKnight Center for Age-Related Memory Loss
A $5,000,000 gift from the McKnight Brain Research Foundation will help scientists and physicians at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine unlock the mysteries of the aging brain and why some people lose memory as they grow older.
The foundation’s gift will create the Evelyn F. McKnight Center for Age-Related Memory Loss at the Miller School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology. The gift has been matched by a $3,500,000 grant from the Schoninger family and $1,500,000 from other donors. It has enabled the School of Medicine to recruit Clinton B. Wright, MD, MS, from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. He has been appointed to Associate Professor of Neurology and Scientific Director for the Center. He will lead a team of scientists, researchers, and clinicians in exploring not only normal memory changes that happen with age, but the cognitive defects produced by various brain-related diseases. The Schoninger gift will allow the School of Medicine to name the Alexandria Schoninger Neuropsychology Program and Bonnie Levin, PHD, Associate Professor in Neurology, will hold the Alexandria Schoninger Professorship in Neurology.
“We are delighted to continue our long association with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine as together we lead the way in medical research focused on the brain,” says J. Lee Dockery, a trustee of the McKnight Brain Research Foundation. “The trustees of the foundation are committed to fulfilling the wishes of Mrs. McKnight by promoting research into the fundamental mechanisms that underlie the neurobiology of memory, as it relates to age-related memory loss and the toll it takes on our aging population.”
By the year 2030 it is estimated that nearly 25 percent of Americans will be 65 or older, with millions suffering some form of memory loss.
Founded in 1999, the McKnight Brain Research Foundation supports research toward the understanding of memory and the specific influences of the natural aging process. Evelyn McKnight, who was a nurse, and her husband, William, were interested in the effects of aging on memory. William McKnight was chairman of the board of the 3M Corp. for 59 years before his death in 1979. Evelyn McKnight continued to support his interest in brain research and memory loss until her death in 1999. Their commitment continues through the McKnight Brain Research Foundation. In addition to the Evelyn F. McNight Center for Age-Related Memory Loss at the University of Miami, the Foundation also supports:
