‘A Profound Investment’

Tom Golisano commits $50 million to Penn State Health Children’s Hospital.

A transformative $50 million gift was given to Penn State Health in October from philanthropist, entrepreneur, and civic leader Tom Golisano. The landmark gift will connect the newly named Golisano Children’s Hospital at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center with nine other leading institutions across the country as part of the Golisano Children’s Alliance, a collaborative network designed to share resources and expand access to essential pediatric care. 

Golisano, founder of Paychex Inc., the nation’s largest human-resource company for small to medium-sized businesses, orchestrated the formation of the alliance, which will comprise six newly funded and four existing Golisano Children’s Hospitals, with more to come. “I plan to continue making similar transformative gifts that will strengthen this new alliance,” Golisano said when he announced the alliance’s formation.

“This historic gift represents a profound investment in children’s health and the future of Penn State’s integrated academic health system,” said President Neeli Bendapudi. “We are incredibly grateful for Mr. Golisano’s support, which builds upon our founding vision and propels us forward in our commitment to improving health outcomes for the people of our commonwealth and beyond through education, research, and compassionate care.”

Golisano’s financial support represents the largest single philanthropic gift to Penn State Health since the M.S. Hershey Foundation gave $50 million to the university in 1963, which led to the founding of Penn State College of Medicine and the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. The new gift from Golisano will significantly enhance pediatric care, research, and community outreach across central Pennsylvania, and it is expected to inspire further commitments during the university’s new fundraising campaign. 

A Perennial Gift

Charles H. “Skip” Smith ’48 Eng forever altered the landscape of University Park when he catalyzed the creation of the Arboretum at Penn State with a landmark $10 million gift in 2007. Now, a $25 million estate gift, announced after his death in December 2024, will help to power the Arboretum’s future growth, and elevates his total legacy of giving to the Arboretum to approximately $43 million. 

In Short

PREPARING PA
Penn State was selected by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to lead its climate network. Named Prepare PA, the program aims to equip Pennsylvanians with the knowledge, tools, and resources they need to adapt, respond, and thrive in the face of a changing climate and environmental uncertainty.

NIH GRANT
The National Institutes of Health awarded the Penn State College of Medicine a $3.3 million grant for two years to establish a national hub for guiding collaboration, data harmonization, and community engagement across multiple awards funded by NIH institutes and centers.

ENGEL APPOINTMENT
Renata Engel accepted a three-year appointment in October as vice president for Commonwealth Campuses and executive chancellor. Engel ’82 Eng held the role in an interim capacity beginning last May. Previously, she served as vice provost for Online Education from 2018 to 2025. 

Record-Breaking Research

Federal, private, and institutional investments account for a record $1.44 billion in research expenditures in FY 2024-25.

Penn State’s research enterprise reached a new milestone in fiscal year 2024-25 with $1.44 billion in total research expenditures, the largest in the university’s history. The amount—which is an 8% increase, or $110 million, over the previous year—reflects the combined external and internal investments in critical research areas, such as artificial intelligence, national defense, energy resilience, agriculture, and public health.

The record investment has enabled Penn State to develop artificial intelligence to improve health care outcomes, support farmers with safer and more affordable pest management tools, produce leading-edge communications equipment for the U.S. military, and train the next generation of scientists to study the role of microbiomes in human health and agriculture, among many other advancements.

“This year’s growth is not just about numbers, it’s about the strategic and careful way that Penn State invests its research dollars,” said President Neeli Bendapudi. “In addition to supporting the direct costs of conducting research, we also are modernizing our research facilities so our faculty and student researchers can work at the cutting edge, and investing in our support operations so that our researchers’ discoveries are efficiently translated into applications that benefit society.” 

WPSU Gets New Home

In October, the Board of Trustees unanimously approved a deal to transfer the operating assets of WPSU public radio and television stations to WHYY, a public media organization based in Greater Philadelphia that serves the tri-state region. The vote came a month after the board had voted down the original offer to sell WPSU to WHYY, which called for the university to annually step down its operating support for WPSU over five years, giving WHYY the time to bring WPSU back into the black without the benefit of Penn State and federal support.

That initial decision meant that WPSU would have ceased operations by this summer. At the time, trustees said the university could not take on such a financial commitment given other pressures facing higher education. WHYY will now seek to identify third-party sources to meet the financial obligation. The trustees’ latest action preserved the university’s goal to focus on its core educational mission, while supporting free access to public media for WPSU’s 1.5 million audience members in central Pennsylvania.