School of Medicine
Established June 2001
The James Graham Brown Foundation "Our Highest Potential" Chair in Cancer Research was created through a donation from the James Graham Brown Foundation. The state's Research Challenge Trust Fund matched the gift. The chair was created, in part, to identify more effective cancer treatments for minority populations, which suffer from disproportionately high rates of many kinds of cancers.
The James Graham Brown Foundation was incorporated in 1954 from the assets of Brown, an area entrepreneur who made most of his wealth in the timber industry. The foundation supports projects in the fields of civic affairs, economic development, education and health in Kentucky.
In 2002 the foundation pledged the largest single gift in the university's history -- $15 million to support cancer research and patient care. The foundation pledged an additional $15 million in 2004 to the cancer center's Finding Answers to Cancer campaign.