Check out more about Phil here: www.uifoundation.org/facultystaff

In my role as executive director of University of Iowa Children’s Hospital, I often get the chance to engage with potential donors who are interested in giving to the new UI Children’s Hospital Building Fund. I tell them that kids across Iowa already have access to first-rate pediatric care, but they don’t yet have a facility that is commensurate with the dedication and compassion shown by our faculty, nurses, and staff.

The excellence of our people is evident every day and often is validated by external sources such as U.S. News & World Report, which once again recognized UI Children’s Hospital in its 2015-16 Best children’s hospitals listings. 

Philanthropy has played an essential role in achieving and sustaining this high level of performance. Private funding also has helped us to recruit and retain excellent faculty and staff, support training programs for the next generation of pediatric health-care professionals, and advance groundbreaking research aimed at solving the mysteries of childhood diseases. These are powerful reminders of the role that philanthropy plays in advancing our mission.

That’s why we are so excited for the opening of the new UI Children’s Hospital in December 2016. With a design based on input from our faculty and staff — as well as from the families and children they serve — the facility will become a landmark for world-class children’s health care, affecting every family in Iowa and the surrounding region.

This is not by accident. The same team that already is deeply committed to ensuring excellent outcomes and providing phenomenal service every day has channeled its dedication toward ensuring that the new facility takes family-centered care to unprecedented levels. Every aspect of the new UI Children’s Hospital has been carefully chosen to promote care and healing. State-of-the-art technology has been effectively integrated into the healing environment, with the imagery and calming colors of the Iowa landscape — farmlands, woodlands, rivers, and prairies — thoughtfully incorporated on every floor.

I am inspired by the story of what we are creating, how we are creating it, and why we are creating it — and I see how it resonates with every donor. I feel fortunate to be supporting the new UI Children’s Hospital project as a leader and a donor because I know firsthand that giving, at whatever level is possible, helps transform care for kids in Iowa.

I’m so pleased to also share the news that donors who are UI faculty and staff now have a unique opportunity to be recognized on an employee donor wall in the new UI Children’s Hospital, which will be a treasured resource for the entire university. To be listed on the faculty/staff donor wall, UI employees must donate $1,000 or more to the UI Children’s Hospital Building Fund — which can be payable throughout a five-year period and may be given via payroll deduction. Groups of employees can even pool their gifts together and be recognized as a team on the donor wall, if their collective giving amounts to $1,000 or more. It’s a great way to participate in We Are Phil, the UI’s annual faculty/staff giving campaign, which takes place next week.

This is our Children’s Hospital, and it takes the collective commitment and support of the university to improve the health and well-being of children. By “being Phil,” we can make this goal even more attainable.

Thank you for your support of UI Children’s Hospital — past, present, and in our exciting future.

Scott Turner

(1997 M.A.)

Executive Director

UI Children’s Hospital