N.Y. Billionaires Leon and Toby Cooperman Pledge $100 Million to Medical Center in N.J.

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

Saint Barnabas Medical Center

Leon and Toby Cooperman pledged $100 million through their Cooperman Family Foundation to back the medical center’s capital campaign. The hospital will be renamed the Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center.

Leon Cooperman is chairman and chief executive officer of Omega Advisors, a hedge fund he founded in 1991, and a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, both in New York. Forbes estimates his net worth at $2.5 billion.

Toby Cooperman is a longtime advocate for people with developmental disabilities. She retired after a long career as a special-education specialist at the Early Childhood Learning Center in Chatham, N.J. The couple gave the medical center $25 million in 2014.

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Marnix and Mary Heersink pledged $95 million to endow and support programs at what will be renamed the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine. The money will also be used to establish the Marnix E. Heersink Institute of Biomedical Innovation, which will be dedicated to creating entrepreneurial health care efforts, and the Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health, which will focus on developing and implementing educational and mentorship programs, as well as experiential opportunities for global health trainees and scholars.

Dr. Marnix Heersink is an eye surgeon who specializes in cataract and laser refractive surgery. He also co-owns Eye Center South, a Dothan, Ala., medical practice that also has offices throughout Florida and Georgia, and Health Center South, a medical complex for doctors of all specialties in Dothan. He is also a businessman with multiple holdings in real estate and manufacturing.

Mary Heersink co-founded Stop Foodborne Illness, a national food-safety organization, after her then-11-year-old son Damion nearly died from E. coli in the early 1990s. She wrote the book E. Coli 0157: The True Story of a Mother’s Battle with a Killer Microbe and became a key advocate for federal oversight and regulations. She serves on the UAB School of Medicine Board of Visitors. Four of the couple’s six children are UAB alumni.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Louis Gerstner Jr. gave $25 million to create the Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Physician Scholars Program, which will support the research of physician-scientists who are early in their careers at the cancer center.

Gerstner Jr. is a retired CEO and chairman of the technology giant IBM in Armonk, N.Y., and a senior adviser at the Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm in Washington.

Trinity University

Michael Neidorff donated $25 million to support the business school, which will be renamed the Michael F. Neidorff School of Business, and provide scholarships, endow a professorship, and support education programs and building projects.

Michael Neidorff is chairman and CEO of Centene Corporation, a managed-care company that acts as an intermediary for privately insured and government-sponsored health care programs. He graduated from the university in 1965 and has served on its Board of Trustees since 2005. He served as chairman from 2016 through 2018.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lisa Yang gave $24 million to launch the K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics, where scientists, engineers, and others will collaborate to develop solutions to alleviate the challenges posed by disability and restore the functions of people affected by spinal-cord injuries, stroke, musculoskeletal disorders, or other conditions cause by aging and illness.

Yang is a former investment banker who has devoted much of her time to advocacy for individuals with disabilities and autism-spectrum disorders. In recent years, she and her husband, Hock Tan, have given large donations to established centers for autism research at both MIT and Harvard, where Tan earned an MBA.

African Health Mission

Mark and Erica Gerson pledged $18 million to support the charity’s work collaborating with Christian missionary hospitals to provide health care throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Of the total, $11 million will be used immediately for a number of projects including providing advanced medical training and creating a maternal health network of more than 15 hospitals across Africa. The remaining $9 million will be used to match donations from other donors.

Mark Gerson co-founded the nonprofit in 2010 with Jon Fielder, a medical doctor who has worked in African missionary hospitals for more than 20 years. He is also a co-founder of the Gerson Lehrman Group, a financial-services company in New York, and Thuzio, a sports-media business.

Erica Gerson is a rabbi who previously served as director of Jewish Life at Jewish Community Project Downtown, in New York, and taught at the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning.

To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.