Health Care of the Future Starts Now
Defining the Future of Health, From the Heart of Texas
This bold endeavor stands among the most transformative priorities in UT’s history. For the first time, Austin, the largest U.S. city without an academic medical center, will be home to a hub for world-class care, discovery and education. For too long, Central Texans have had to travel to other cities for the most serious or complex care. That ends here.
At the heart of this transformation is a greenfield opportunity that puts health at the center of the University’s mission. By uniting UT’s top-ranked strengths in engineering, pharmacy, nursing, social work, business and the sciences with Dell Medical School, a comprehensive health enterprise is taking shape unlike any other. Co-located alongside an Austin expansion of MD Anderson Cancer Center, UT Medicine will define the future of health across Central Texas and beyond.
The patient-focused future we envision will increase hope and healing through a digitally enabled health system. It will be designed from the ground up to integrate advanced computing, data and automation. From artificial intelligence and robotics to immersive learning environments, UT Medicine will be a living laboratory for discovery and innovation.
This is Texas doing what only Texas can do: imagining boldly, building decisively and delivering results. Philanthropic leaders across Texas and beyond are already helping shape this future.
Meet some of the visionaries whose investments in people, facilities and ideas are sparking change and creating a legacy of impact that will echo for generations.
Connie and Thomas Duckworth
Fueling Excellence in Academic Medicine
Exceptional care starts with exceptional people, and at UT Medicine, faculty are at the heart of it all. Our physician-scientists do more than deliver care: They pioneer discoveries, train the next generation and help define the future of health.
That’s why recruiting top-tier talent is critical. Connie and Tom Duckworth came to appreciate this deeply through decades of service on the boards of major academic medical centers. Their $3 million gift establishes an endowed chair at UT Medicine to help bring the nation’s most accomplished faculty leaders in care, research and education to Austin.
A UT Austin Plan II Honors graduate, Connie is a trailblazer in business and philanthropy, chairing the University’s International Board of Advisors after a distinguished career at Goldman Sachs. With this gift to Connie’s alma mater, the Duckworths are helping ensure tomorrow’s breakthroughs begin with today’s talent.
“The opportunity to help shape a new kind of academic medical center, one that reimagines care, discovery and education from the ground up, is incredibly rare. Great faculty make that vision real.”
Igor Tulchinsky
Powering Digital Breakthroughs for Human Impact
Igor Tulchinsky, founder and CEO of WorldQuant, understands the transformative power of data. With his $2 million gift to UT Medicine, he’s helping drive a new era in digitally driven health care.
Igor’s support is fueling a state-of-the-art data infrastructure that will drive innovations in personalized medicine, AI-powered diagnostics, and predictive tools like digital twins, which are virtual models that help anticipate individual health needs. This intelligent, connected system means earlier diagnoses, smarter treatments and better outcomes for patients across Central Texas and beyond.
A UT Austin alumnus and a global leader in quantitative science, Igor sees the opportunity to redefine what’s possible when advanced computation meets compassionate care. His far-sighted investment ensures that UT Medicine can harness the power of technology to deliver truly human-centered health, for today and for the future.
with medical practice.”
Ellyn and Stephen Yacktman
Inspiring Leadership in Lifesaving Fields
Ellyn and Stephen Yacktman know firsthand how important the right leader can be. Their son’s internship with Erin Gottlieb, M.D., an associate professor in Dell Medical School’s Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, offered a powerful glimpse into the life-changing work being done at UT Medicine.
Inspired by that experience, the Yacktmans committed $1 million to support faculty and staff recruitment in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, an anchor discipline for UT Medicine. Their gift will help bring world-class surgical talent to Central Texas, advancing care, research and training in one of medicine’s most critical fields.
This investment in talent is also an investment in lives: the patients who will receive innovative care and the students who will carry that knowledge forward for decades to come.
$100 Million Gift Accelerates Vision for UT Medicine
In a landmark moment for health care innovation in Central Texas, Tench and Simone Coxe of Austin have committed $100 million to support the development of UT Medicine, The University of Texas at Austin’s academic medical enterprise anchored by Dell Medical School, which will serve as a catalyst for the future of health.
“This extraordinary act of generosity will help bring our boldest aspirations to life,” says Claudia Lucchinetti, M.D., UT’s senior vice president for medical affairs, and dean of Dell Medical School. “UT Medicine will unite care, discovery and education in ways that redefine what’s possible, for Texas and beyond.”
The Coxes know firsthand how important it is to have world-class care close to home. Twenty years ago, a loved one survived lymphoma after being treated locally at Stanford when they lived in Palo Alto, California. More recently, an Austin friend needed to go to Houston for treatment because the necessary level of care wasn’t available locally. “Going to Houston had to be stressful, time-consuming and expensive,” Tench Coxe recalls.
The Coxes recognized Austin’s critical need for world-class health care, and meeting Dr. Lucchinetti sealed their commitment to UT Medicine.
“Having spent my investing career backing great leaders, meeting Claudia made it clear: Supporting the vision for UT Medicine is exactly the opportunity Austin needed,” Tench Coxe says.
Austin remains the largest U.S. city without an academic medical center, despite its reputation as an epicenter for innovation powered by one of the world’s top public research universities. UT Medicine’s hospital of the future, co-located alongside an Austin expansion of UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, will deliver advanced care for complex and serious conditions, building on the remarkable progress of Dell Medical School. In just 10 years, Dell Med has pioneered new models of education, trained hundreds of physicians and recruited world-class faculty.
The largest gift to UT in the past year, the Coxes’ philanthropic investment will accelerate the creation of a patient-focused, digitally and technology enabled academic health system in Austin designed from the ground up to integrate advanced computing, data, robotics and automation.
“UT Medicine is where many strengths of our university, including natural sciences, engineering, pharmacy, nursing, social work, business and others, will converge,” says UT President Jim Davis. “This transformational gift will allow us to make the most of those opportunities, resulting in better care for patients in Central Texas and around the world.”
Lucchinetti emphasizes the remarkable nature of the gift from a couple who are relatively new to Austin and not alumni of The University of Texas.
“That they chose to invest at this level speaks volumes about the urgency and importance of our work,” she says. “We are confident this gift will inspire others to join us in shaping the future of health.”