Health-Data Billionaire Pledges Fortune to Charity
Judy Faulkner, the chief executive of health-records firm Epic Systems, tells Modern Healthcare magazine that she will leave much of her stake in the company to a specially created foundation. While the value of Ms. Faulkner’s share in the privately held firm is not known, Forbes estimates her net worth at $2.8 billion.
Gates Foundation Steps Up Investments as Tool to Serve Goals
The New York Times reports on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s growing use of direct equity investments in companies whose work jibes with its key goals in medicine, education, and other areas.
Aid Group Billed U.S. $1.1 Million for Parties and Retreats
International Relief and Development, which is under investigation for its use of hundreds of millions of federal dollars for projects in Iraq and Afghanistan, charged the U.S. government more than $1 million for staff parties and retreats at five-star resorts from 2007 to 2010, saying the events were for “training” and “staff morale,” writes The Washington Post.
Court Ruling Buoys Chicago Critics of George Lucas Museum
Opponents of the “Star Wars” movie mogul’s planned Museum of Narrative Art on the Chicago waterfront won a significant legal victory Thursday as a federal judge cleared their lawsuit against the project to proceed and appeared to buttress one of their key legal arguments against it, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Tex. Takes Over Management of the Alamo From Longtime Nonprofit Steward
The state’s General Land Office is taking over day-to-day operation of the San Antonio historic site, ending more than a century of stewardship by the nonprofit Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the Associated Press reports.
$10 Million Gift Boosts Humanities at Ohio Community College
The donation from the philanthropic Mandel family’s foundations will establish a center at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland devoted to the liberal arts and nurturing civic engagement, The Plain Dealer writes.
Apple Pledges $50 Million to Interest Women and Minorities in Tech Careers
The computer and device giant’s pledge is aimed at expanding the pipeline of minorities and women from higher education to the tech industry and includes more than $40 million for the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which supports historically black institutions, Fortune write.
Restructuring N.Y. Archdiocese to Train Lay Church Managers
As it undergoes a major reorganization that will consolidate or close dozens of parishes, the Archdiocese of New York is launching an online education program to train laypeople in church administration in hopes of freeing clergy to focus on pastoral work, The Wall Street Journal writes.
Advocate for Disabled People Wins $1.7 Million Templeton Prize
The John Templeton Foundation on Wednesday named Jean Vanier, the Canadian founder of a global network of supportive households for people with mental illnesses, as the 2015 winner of its annual prize honoring work that affirms life’s spiritual dimension, Reuters writes.
With Donor Lagging, Indiana Campus Drops Name From Bridge
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne has removed a putative $3 million donor’s name from a campus bridge after receiving no payments on the pledge for the past nine years, according to The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne.