Title:The community we are Called to Be

On June 30, 2026, Georgetown concluded Called to Be: The Campaign for Georgetown, with gratitude for the many alumni, parents, and friends who helped the university exceed its $3 billion goal. More than 160,000 members of the Georgetown community gave to this historic effort, raising over $447 million for Georgetown University Medical Center and forever elevating our ability to answer our calling.

Across the last decade, we have seen the immense impact when our community steps up to support the Georgetown students, scholars, and practitioners working toward greater hope and health for all. Some gifts advanced enduring priorities. Others addressed emerging needs. All played a vital role in Georgetown’s contributions to teaching, care, science, and medicine for the greater good.

Reducing financial strain for medical students, STEM undergraduates

School of Dentistry alumnus Richard Calabrese (D’77) and his wife, Angela, made a transformational bequest to establish two endowed scholarship funds designed to help aspiring scientists and physicians. One fund will support undergraduates in the Regents STEM Scholars Program, which seeks to address the shortage of underserved and first-generation college students in STEM fields. A second fund will help students with demonstrated financial need attending Georgetown’s School of Medicine.

Scholarships are vital to ensuring that passion—not debt—shapes medical students’ future career paths. Recalling how meaningful financial assistance was during his education, Richard said he and Angela hope “that we can ease the burden for young people going into a noble profession.”

Increasing cancer prevention close to home

Since opening in April 2023, Georgetown’s Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Prevention has touched thousands of lives through education, legal services, patient navigation, and opportunities to participate in clinical trials. The Center was made possible by a commitment from the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation, a longtime supporter of Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Located in an area of Southeast DC with high cancer and mortality rates, the Ralph Lauren Center offers resources for breast, lung, colorectal, and prostate cancers, facilitating screening and follow-up care at MedStar Health facilities and other nearby providers.

It also helps patients address health-harming financial and social challenges. Distinguished University Professor Lucile Adams-Campbell, the center’s founding director, said her team works to meet people where they are. “The Ralph Lauren Center has enabled us to be more inclusive, which is central to our mission,” she says. “There are now people from all over Washington, DC, including more people of color, coming to Georgetown for care.”

Expanding opportunities at renamed nursing school

In a major milestone for nursing education at Georgetown, the university renamed its nursing school the Georgetown University Berkley School of Nursing in Fall 2025, thanks to a transformative $25 million gift commitment from the Berkley Family Foundation. The gift supports initiatives to bolster student success and well-being; endowed faculty positions; technology upgrades; and an Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program, whose first cohort began in August 2025. Through the Berkley Endowed Scholarship Fund, Georgetown is increasing access to the ABSN program—a vital pathway to addressing nursing vacancies.

The Berkley family has longstanding ties to Georgetown and a history of generous philanthropy. Their latest gift “honors the importance of our work in the formation of students, and shaping leaders, in a values-based environment like Georgetown,” says Roberta Waite, dean of the Berkley School of Nursing.

Accelerating seizure research, treatments

Seeking to support the department that had a significant influence on his life and career as a pharmacologist, Jerome Fleisch (G’67) and his wife, Marlene Cohen (also a pharmacologist), established the Jerome H. Fleisch and Marlene L. Cohen Endowed Professorship of Pharmacology. The position’s inaugural holder is Patrick Forcelli (G’11), chair of Georgetown’s Ph.D. in Pharmacology & Physiology program. Forcelli’s research seeks to improve the treatment of seizures and epilepsy, and to explore how complex behavior is controlled by brain circuitry.

“This professorship has significantly accelerated my laboratory’s work on new treatments for epilepsy,” says Forcelli. “Knowing that Georgetown Pharmacology profoundly shaped Dr. Fleisch’s career makes this especially meaningful.”

Transforming orthopaedic care, education, and research

Three orthopaedic surgery faculty members at Georgetown University School of Medicine and MedStar Health were named D’Aniello Family Endowed Chairs, thanks to a trans- formational gift from grateful patient Daniel D’Aniello. Previously, Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello established the D’Aniello Family Endowed Chair and Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, held by A. Jay Khanna (C’91, M’95), who had performed life-changing spinal surgery on Daniel.

The D’Aniellos’ generosity will enhance education, clinical care, and research for years to come. “Along with its potential to impact and improve the care of patients at the national and global levels, research is one of the new ‘currencies’ of getting from medical school to residency and residency to fellowship,” Khanna noted. “It’s a process that feeds itself and scales the impact our faculty, residents, and students can have on our field.”

Fueling faculty, student research in human science

In 2019, Blythe Shepard, now an associate professor, became the first holder of the Dekkers Endowed Chair in Human Science, established with a gift from Marijn Dekkers and Andra Dekkers (Parents’19, ’21, ’21). The chair has enabled Georgetown’s School of Health to expand research opportu- nities for faculty and their students.

Shepard’s five-year term was a period of significant growth for her lab, which focuses on cellular signaling as a means to regulate kidney and liver physiology. “The Dekkers Endowed Chair made it possible for me to make great strides in my research endeavors while mentoring the future generation of scholars and scientists,” she says.

In 2024, Georgetown awarded the Dekkers Endowed Chair to Associate Professor Jan LaRocque, whose lab focuses on genome integrity. LaRocque has mentored dozens of under- graduate students and serves as co-advisor for Georgetown’s Undergraduate Research Conference, where students from health- and science-related majors can share their research, thanks to generous support from the Wietlisbach family.