Stephanie Bray to oversee $30 million Cancer Center capital initiative

February 2, 2006

Editor's Note: Click the link to view or download high-resolution photograph of Stephanie Bray

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Stephanie R. M. Bray, a fundraising professional with more than 15 years of experience with local, regional and national nonprofit organizations, has been named development officer for UC Davis Cancer Center.

Bray will oversee the Cancer Center’s $35 million capital initiative. The initiative seeks to raise $20 million toward expanded clinical facilities and $15 million for endowed chairs.

The clinical expansion will nearly double the Cancer Center’s size to 109,000 square feet. Now operating at capacity, the Cancer Center cares for 9,000 adult and pediatric patients each year, with outpatient visits increasing 6 percent annually. The expansion will also make room for the pediatric cancer program, now housed in other buildings on the medical center campus, and add both outdoor and indoor play areas for children undergoing cancer treatment.

Endowed chairs, one of the highest honors in academia, allow universities to retain or recruit the best minds in each generation. UC Davis now has more than 75 endowed chairs, typically named after the individual, family, foundation or company that funds the endowment. Current UC Davis endowed professorships include the Rumsey Endowed Chair in Pediatric Endocrinology, the Robert E. and Eva Mae Stowell Chair in Pathology and the Lawrence J. Ellison Chair in Musculoskeletal Molecular Biology.

UC Davis Cancer Center hopes to establish the university’s first endowed chairs in cancer research, with chairs in basic science, clinical research, prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, pediatric cancer, cancer genetics and cancer immunology.

Bray joins UC Davis from The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, part of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where she served as director of major gifts. She has also worked for the American Cancer Society; UNCF/The College Fund; and Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, where she served as director of the group’s 50th Anniversary Capital Campaign to raise $35 million.

In addition, Bray is the immediate past president of Women in Development of Mercer County, N.J., and past president of the Trenton, N.J., Trinity Cathedral School board of trustees.

She may be reached at (916) 734-9675 or stephanie.bray@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu.