Giving in the Name of Family

Moved by her grandson’s struggle with Burkitt’s lymphoma, Margaret Hirst Davis created a research fund at the School of Medicine. To honor her late husband, a physician who trained at the school, she has established a scholarship for medical students.

Both gifts are endowments, which means her family name always will be linked with Emory’s work in health care.

The Byron Davis Research Fund supports two Emory faculty members in the Department of Hematology and Oncology: Assistant Professor Leon Bernal-Mizrachi and Associate Professor Christopher Flowers. They have dual appointments in the Winship Cancer Institute, and Flowers directs the institute’s lymphoma program.

Their research is creating technologies that match each patient’s unique cancer growth signals with specific therapies that can block these signals.

The endowed scholarship memorializes Davis’s husband, Byron Scott Davis 49M 50MR. “My husband loved rural medicine,” says Davis. “He helped bring care to people who otherwise would have had to travel very far at their own expense. It was his life’s work.”

This endowment gives students, particularly those interested in pursuing a career in rural health care, a chance to attend the School of Medicine.

One of those students is Jacob Parnell 16M. “When I interviewed at Emory School of Medicine, I fell in love with Emory. I knew I wanted to call Emory home, but was hesitant because of the financial burden,” says Parnell. “The Byron Davis scholarship allowed me to join this wonderful Emory family, and I am so thankful.”

Davis also made a gift to name a research room in the new Health Sciences Research Building, a collaboration between the Woodruff Health Sciences Center and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.