University of Iowa Foundation

You Have the Power to Change Medicine and Change Lives
A message from IOWA FIRST Campaign Co-Chairs Mary Joy and Jerre Stead (1965 B.B.A.)

When asked to chair this historic campaign for University of Iowa Health Care, we recognized the invitation as the chance of a lifetime. For us, leading Iowa First is a great honor, a personal calling, and an unparalleled opportunity.

Iowa First offers us the chance—a chance available to all who choose to partner with UI Health Care in this ambitious campaign—to make a difference here in Iowa, and to see the impact of our philanthropy ripple across the country and throughout the world.

As native Iowans with strong ties to The University of Iowa, we also view this campaign a way to continue to repay the enormous debt of gratitude we owe our home state and its flagship university.

Here in Iowa, we gained the knowledge and skills to make a successful living and the values on which to build rewarding lives. Our experience has taught us that the success of The University of Iowa is directly related to the well-being of the state of Iowa as a whole. What better way to ensure success than to embark on a campaign that targets human health and promises to boost Iowa’s economic health as well?

We are proud parents and grandparents, and in traveling abroad to visit family, friends, and business associates, we have witnessed great need in other countries—and in many corners of our own country as well.

The time is now to extend Iowa’s bounty and ensure that UI Health Care becomes an even brighter beacon of hope for patients throughout this nation and the world. The citizens of Iowa deserve no less than world-class medicine. And when we attain our campaign goals, the citizens of the global community will turn to Iowa First for world-class care.

Please join us. Together, we can change medicine and change lives.