Mrs. Nelson was a Kansas City businesswoman and philanthropist. Her interest in biomedical research stemmed from her son’s battle with terminal cancer.

     Joan Conaway, Ph.D., has been named the first Helen Nelson Distinguished Chair. The Chair carries an annual grant, currently $125,000 each year, to support research in the laboratory of the scientist at the Stowers Institute who is the named beneficiary. Dr. Conaway will hold the Chair for the duration of her appointment at the Stowers Institute.

     Dr. Conaway is an internationally acknowledged leader in research on the molecular mechanisms that regulate gene expression. She joined the Institute as an Investigator in 2001. Previously, she was an Associate Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She also served as interim head of the Program in Molecular and Cell Biology at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation in Oklahoma City. Dr. Conaway and her husband and collaborator Ronald Conaway became Kansas City’s first elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in April 2002.

     Dr. Conaway received an AB in chemistry from Bryn Mawr College. She earned a Ph.D. in cell biology from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1987 and completed post-graduate training at the DNAX Research Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology in Palo Alto, California.

     “We are delighted that Dr. Conaway will be the holder of the Helen Nelson Distinguished Chair,” said Robb Krumlauf, Ph.D., Scientific Director of the Institute. “It signifies richly deserved recognition of Dr. Conaway’s outstanding accomplishments in biomedical research, and the proceeds of Mrs. Nelson’s endowment will accelerate her innovative studies of gene transcription..”

     “We are grateful to Mrs. Nelson and the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation for their generous support of the Stowers Institute,” said William B. Neaves, President and CEO of the Stowers Institute. “This is the Institute’s first Distinguished Chair, and we hope there will be many more in the future.”

About the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation
     The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation has been connecting donors to the needs in the community they care about for more than 25 years. The Community Foundation, including its five affiliates within the Greater Kansas City region, is recognized as a national leader in making sure every philanthropic investment returns the greatest emotional, civic and financial benefit possible. In 2004, the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and its donors granted more than $93 million to improve the quality of life in our community. The Foundation received more than $131 million in new contributions from donors, bringing the Foundation’s asset total to approximately $952 million. For more information visit www.gkccf.org.

About the Stowers Institute
     Housed in a 600,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility on a 10-acre campus in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research conducts basic research on fundamental processes of cellular life. Through its commitment to collaborative research and the use of cutting-edge technology, the Institute seeks more effective means of preventing and curing disease. The Institute was founded by Jim and Virginia Stowers, two cancer survivors who have endowed it with approximately $2 billion in support of basic research of the highest quality.