Business executive and former gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels, and his wife Barbara Michels, have donated $27 million to the Medical College of Wisconsin for cancer research.
The Medical College’s cancer research center will be renamed the Michels Center for Cancer Discovery in their honor.
The gift, announced June 22, will help expand cancer detection, prevention, and the recruitment of top scientists to study cancer and find new treatments, according to the college. Donors include the Michels Family Foundation.
Here’s what to know.
What inspired the Michels family to make the $27 million gift?
The gift is personal to Tim and Barbara Michels, whose daughter Sophie was diagnosed as a child with a rare brain cancer called choroid plexus carcinoma.
In the nearly 15 years since, she has undergone surgeries, rounds of chemotherapy, and cancer recurrences. She is now healthy, Tim Michels said, but her journey with her diagnosis continues.
Early on, the couple had difficulty finding information on their daughter’s cancer and were met with few treatment options, they said.
“The intent of the gift is to have world-class cancer research right here at (the Medical College),” Tim Michels said. “Our daughter has had cancer care in Boston and New York and Los Angeles. I’ve seen the quality of care, and it’s outstanding. There’s no reason we can’t do that right here in Milwaukee.”
What is the Michels family’s history of giving to cancer research?
Tim and Barbara Michels pledged in 2022 to give $15 million to the Medical College for cancer research. The latest gift is an extension of that commitment.
They plan to give the full $27 million over the next seven years, on top of whatever amount they already gave as part of the original 2022 pledge, Tim Michels said.
The family also previously gave $3 million to fund an endowed professorship in pediatric neurological surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine, in New York.
What will the Michels gift allow the Medical College to do?
The gift will help the Medical College train new scientists and bring in top talent to study cancer and develop new therapies, said Gustavo Leone, director of its cancer center.
The money also will be used to expand access to early cancer detection and prevention.
Cancer is a major research focus for the Medical College, which opened a new research facility a year ago at its main campus in Wauwatosa now home to more than 300 scientists and staff. It will be named the Michels Center for Cancer Discovery.
“Our hope is the work that is done here will complement research happening for all cancers globally but that there will be a unique focus on rare cancers, which is under-served in oncology,” Tim Michels said.
Who is Tim Michels?
Tim Michels is a co-owner of Michels Corp., a family-owned construction business. The company is based in the Dodge County town of Brownsville, and operates a large office in Milwaukee’s Harbor District.
Michels Corp. is a utilities and infrastructure contractor, installing and maintaining sewers, pipelines and other equipment, as well as building roads and bridges. It also does foundation work as well as dock wall construction and other maritime contracting services.
Michels was the Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2022, when he lost to Gov. Tony Evers.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about a $27 million gift to Medical College of Wisconsin
Reporting by Tom Daykin and Sarah Volpenhein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Tom Daykin and Sarah Volpenhein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
