Brandon Desiderio
$750,000 gift from the Gyi Family endows the Felix A. Khin-Maung-Gyi Memorial Scholarship for Pharmapreneurship
R
ebecca T. Gyi-Hovis, MD, has committed a gift of $750,000 to the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (UMSOP) to establish the Felix A. Khin-Maung-Gyi Memorial Scholarship for Pharmapreneurship. The scholarship — endowed with a $500,000 donation from the Gyi family and $250,000 in matching funds from the University of Maryland Baltimore Foundation, Inc. — is named in honor of her father, Felix A. Khin-Maung-Gyi, BSP ’83, PharmD, MBA, founder of Chesapeake Research Review and a beloved UMSOP alumnus who died in 2014.
It is the largest scholarship to be endowed in UMSOP history, providing one full year of tuition for a second- or third-year student pharmacist who demonstrates superior academic achievement and a commitment to pharmapreneurship.
“Establishing this scholarship allows our family to give back to the place where it all began,” Gyi-Hovis says. “The education that my father received from the School of Pharmacy served as the starting point for all of his successes, and knowing what an important role the school played in helping to shape his career really motivated our desire to preserve his legacy here.”
Jordan Fraker, a third-year student pharmacist and president of the Entrepreneurship Innovation Network at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, is the scholarship’s inaugural recipient.
“Being selected to receive this scholarship reinforces my belief that I am on the right path and that others see value in my endeavors,” Fraker says. “I am incredibly grateful to the Gyi family for their support.”
Gyi received his Bachelor of Science in pharmacy from UMSOP in 1983. In 1993, he founded Chesapeake Research Review to
provide institutional review board services to clients engaged in biomedical and social science research. As the company’s chief executive officer for 20 years, he became a recognized leader in the field of human subjects protections.
In 2017, he was one of nine alumni honored
with UMSOP’s Founding Pharmapreneur Awards of Service and Excellence.
“The School of Pharmacy is tremendously grateful to the Gyi family,” says Natalie D. Eddington, PhD, FCP, FAAPS, dean and professor of UMSOP. “We thank them for recognizing the value of pharmapreneurship and for establishing this scholarship that will be invaluable in reinforcing the pharmapreneurial work that our school is undertaking, allowing us to support the educational efforts of a number of students over a long period of time.”
