Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences received $500K donation from former faculty member
The Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences and OHSU Foundation are pleased to announce a remarkable gift of $500,000 to the Institute. Professor Emeritus W. Kent Anger, Ph.D., and his wife, Billie F. Anger, have generously donated the gift of unrestricted funds to the Institute. This extraordinary act of philanthropy is in addition to the Angers’ continued annual support of Institute research via the annual W. Kent and Billie F. Anger Impact Awards for Research.
Professor Anger has a long and distinguished history with the Institute. W. Kent Anger joined the Institute as associate director for research in 1989, after a 20-year career at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). At the Institute he performed groundbreaking applied research on improving the health and safety of workers across numerous occupations, and launched the Institute’s Oregon Healthy Workforce Center, a NIOSH-funded Total Worker Health® Center of Excellence, which Professor Anger calls his legacy to the Institute.
According to Professor Anger, the decision to donate grew out of his own career. “Billie and I both believe in giving back to our profession,” Anger said. “And we believe this gift can improve safety, health, and well-being for the Oregon workforce.”
As Institute Director Steven A. Shea, Ph.D. noted, this really generous donation is especially valuable because “flexible funding like this allows the Institute to respond to time–sensitive opportunities and to tap into important new ideas that may require some seed-funding to initiate. The flexible funds could also be used as a financial bridge if federal grant funding is temporarily lost for ongoing multi-year projects, and there are numerous other activities that we would like to initiate or re-start, including a summer intern research program.” Director Shea said that when he announced this donation at a recent faculty meeting, “the whole faculty expressed enormous gratitude towards Kent and Billie.”
Professor Anger said he hopes the gift speaks to prospective donors. "If your work life has been rewarding to you," he said, "then I think it's a useful thing to give back to that."
The institute plans to direct funds toward emerging research opportunities and sustain the real-world impact of occupational health research that has defined Professor Anger's own career.
Director Shea and the entire faculty and staff of the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences extend our deepest appreciation to Professor Anger and his wife Billie for this generous and important gift. If you’re interested in helping the Institute’s mission of improving the safety, health, and well-being of workers by contributing to the Institute, please visit the OHSU Foundations to learn more.
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