Deckers Fund Honors His Legacy
From the March-April 2008 issue of UCHC e-link and the April-May 2008 issue of e-Momentum.
In June, when Peter J. Deckers, M.D. steps down from his positions as executive vice president for health affairs at the UConn Health Center and dean of the School of Medicine, he will leave behind a legacy of significant success.
During more than 20 years in Farmington, all in top leadership positions, Deckers has enabled the Health Center to become a leader in innovative and responsive undergraduate and graduate medical education; introduced and expanded regional clinical services, including an increasingly excellent reputation for cancer, cardiology and musculoskeletal care and research; and cemented the institution’s dedication to its core missions of biomedical education, basic science research, health care delivery and public service.
In response to many requests to create a fund in his honor, Deckers and his wife, Barbara, have requested that donors contribute to the academic enhancement fund that the couple established in 2000.
The Peter J. and Barbara A. Deckers Student Academic Enhancement Endowment Fund is the ideal way to support Deckers’s legacy by contributing to the future of medicine: specifically, the students at the UConn Health Center who will be the next generation of physicians, teachers and biomedical scientists.
Dr. Deckers is deeply committed to making medical school affordable and accessible to students who have the aptitude and desire, but not the full financial means, to thrive in medical school. After more than 40 years of experience teaching and working with students, Deckers sees a sharp contrast between his own education and what most students experience today, even at affordable institutions like UConn.
“When I went to medical school, I could earn through summer employment what my tuition and fees would be for the next two semesters,” Deckers says. “Today, no student can manage financially to get through medical school like that, especially if they're doing it on their own.”
The Deckers Fund also supports the individual research and intellectual curiosity of students by encouraging and funding research projects during any of the four years of medical school.
“Becoming involved in research turns students on to the potential and promise of academic medicine, and combines top-flight clinical care with a continuous interest in discovery,” says Deckers. “It allows them to basically do what I've done throughout my career—integrate education, research and clinical care into one professional path. The higher the level of intellectual curiosity you can create in a medical system, the better the care will be.”
Since being established, the Deckers Fund has also provided countless benefits to medical students, from advanced technology in the classroom to the opportunity for students to showcase their research on a national level.
From his vantage point on the leading edge of science and medicine, Deckers has witnessed a sea change both in the practical world and the theoretical possibilities of medicine. Prevention, electronic education and learning, and technology loom large in his view of the future. The Deckers Fund is the ideal, flexible means to support the Health Center and honor this tremendous leader.
To contribute or for more information, please contact the Office of Development and Alumni Relations at 860.679.1122.
