Recognized for Volunteer Advocacy for Medical and Health Research
WASHINGTON—March 22, 2006 —Gordon Gund has received Research!America's 2006 Award for Exceptional Contributions as a Volunteer Advocate for Medical and Health Research.
The award recognizes Gund's substantial role as a volunteer leader in advancing research to deliver treatments, preventions and cures for retinal degenerative diseases. He was diagnosed as a young adult with retinitis pigmentosa, which has left him blind since 1970. He has gone on to become a highly successful investor, owner of four professional sports teams and prominent philanthropist.
Gund was honored March 21, 2006, at the 10th Annual Research!America Advocacy Awards gala at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC. Judy Woodruff, broadcast journalist and Research!America board member, served as master of ceremonies.
"Gordon Gund has been an unwavering supporter of medical research for more than 30 years, approaching research as an investment in a healthier future for us all and encouraging others to do likewise," said Mary Woolley, president of Research!America. "He is a true champion for research, and Research!America is pleased to honor him as a volunteer advocate."
Gund is co-founder and chairman of The Foundation Fighting Blindness and CEO of Gund Investment Corporation. His work through the Foundation, which he helped establish in 1971, has enabled the funding of thousands of studies to accelerate prevention, treatments and cures for conditions that cause blindness. The Foundation has been named one of Worth magazine's "100 Best Charities."
Other 2006 Research!America Advocacy Award winners are former First Lady Nancy Reagan; Sam Donaldson of ABC News; U.S. Reps. Michael Castle (DE) and Diana DeGette (CO); Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research and Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor of Nursing and Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing; and the Center for the Advancement of Health.
The Foundation Fighting Blindness is the largest non-governmental source of funding for retinal degenerative disease research in the world. Diseases such as macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, and Usher syndrome, affect more than nine million Americans. The Foundation Fighting Blindness is ranked as a "Top-Rated" charity by the American Institute of Philanthropy.
Research!America is the nation's largest not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance working to make medical and health research-including research to prevent disease, disability and injury and to promote health-a much higher national priority. The 2006 Advocacy Awards represent Research!America's 10th year of recognizing the accomplishments of leading advocates for medical and health research.
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