$1.25 million given to KU Med Center to create fellowships

A $1.25 million gift to Kansas University Medical Center will create the Mabel A. Woodyard Fellowships in Neurodegenerative Disorders.

The fellowships were established with funds from the estate of Mabel Woodyard through the Douglas County Community Foundation.

Woodyard was the executive secretary and personal assistant to Nina Pulliam, the wife of newspaper publisher Eugene Pulliam. She died in 2008 from progressive supranuclear palsy, a neurodegenerative disorder that results in movement deficits similar to Parkinson’s disease, according to a KU statement.

Her association with KU came through her brother, George Woodyard, who was a KU professor of Spanish from 1966 to 2005 and held various administrative positions at the university. Two doctoral students at KUMC are the first to receive the fellowships supporting their research.