Gift Endows New Dental Scholarship

A $100,000 gift by University of Texas System Regent Judith L. Craven, M.D., will support scholarships for one or more male African-American students at The University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston, beginning as soon as next fall.

The one-time donation was made in Craven’s name by Compaq Computer Corp., in recognition of her service on Compaq’s board of directors, which she joined in December 1998.

“The need to provide financial equal opportunities for African-American students, especially young males, is more important today than it has ever been in our country,” Craven said. “I hope this scholarship will help to provide future dentists with the financial assistance they need in meeting their long-sought goals.”

The $100,000 gift goes to the UT-Houston Health Science Scholarship Foundation, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization that raises and distributes funds to support the studies of deserving health science center students.

Foundation managing director Carlos R. Hamilton Jr., M.D., said, “We are very fortunate that Regent Craven chose to invest Compaq’s donation in the education of a future UT-Houston dental student. Gifts like this are making health science education at UT-Houston possible for outstanding minority students who might not otherwise be able to come here without assuming a crushing burden of debt.”

African-American students were 4 percent of the total enrollment at the dental branch last year.

The Charles A. George Dental Society, the local component of the National Dental Association, will evaluate candidates for the scholarship, determine the recipients, and set the amount of the award annually.

“The goal for all of us at UT-Houston is to be the best we can be, which also means recruiting and retaining the brightest and best students – and this generous gift from Dr. Craven helps ensure a strong future in that regard,” Ronald Johnson, D.D.S., UT-Houston’s executive vice president for strategic affairs and dean of the dental branch from 1996 until this past August, said.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed Craven to a six-year term on the UT System board of regents in last March. Among other assignments, she is a member of the Health Affairs Committee, chairman of the Special Committee on Minorities and Women, and head of the Access, Opportunity, and Success Task Force. She has also served as a professor of public health administration and professor of interdisciplinary studies at UT-Houston.

Craven’s husband, Moritz Craven, D.D.S., is a 1960 graduate of UT-Houston’s Dental Branch.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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