NRI
Florida Dr. Couple donate $18.5-million to University
An $18.5-million donation and a state match,
totaling $34.5-million, will allow USF to build the
Patel Center
CHARITY - Philanthropic physicians make US, India
proud
PRAKAASH.M. SWAMI
NEW YORK.
The University of South Florida, has received donation
worth $34.5 million, the biggest in its 49 years,
from an Indian-American doctor couple. It is a one
of its kind in the history of the university, and
would help the name of the university to figure in
the list of research universities in the world. Dr
Kiran Patel and his wife, Dr Pallavi Patel have given
the gift to construct the Kiran C Patel Center for
Global Solutions on USF's Tampa campus
NRI, Dr.Patel who is 57 years old is a member of the
board of trustee the University of South Florida.
He will, together with his wife Dr, Pallavi Patel,
donate $18.5-million. The donation from Patels will
make the university entitled to get state matching
funds of $16-million according to the university officials.
So together the donation would be worth $34.5-million.
The idea behind building this center is to allow foreign
researchers to meet and study topics on issues like
international trade. The Patel center will be the
first of its kind in the state. The researchers would
get an opportunity to discuss different global concerns
such as health, economic development, safety, environmental
sustainability and culture.
The Patel Center on Fowler Avenue across the street
from the Museum of Science & Industry hopes to
include four pavilions for resident research scholars,
a conference hall to accommodate 500 to 600 people,
classrooms, research offices, and also a center for
the visiting dignitaries. It will have an executive
director, visiting fellows and graduate students.
The university is rejoicing at the gift from Patel
who was born in Africa and educated in India. He has
earned a name for himself and made millions as a health
care executive in Florida. According to the President
of USF Judy Genshaft, this donation would help the
university to reach among the nations top 50 research
universities. The huge donation will help to make
the university distinct from the others across the
globe. This is a very rare chance and the university
should take up this challenge to make the best of
it.
With the funding from the Patel family and fellow
donors Ted Couch and Citigroup, the Charter School
and Pediatric Clinic was opened in October 2003, on
the campus of the University of South Florida. The
school is specifically designed to meet the needs
of susceptible children, having problems at home and/or
developmental problems that make it difficult for
them to succeed in public classrooms. This school
offers additional support and assistance to these
children, enhancing their chance of success and ultimately
allowing them to make progress into the standard school
system.
USF became the first public university in the country
to establish a charter school. The school has integrated
different teaching methods, an all-inclusive interdisciplinary
syllabus, and continuous assessment of the student
development with full involvement of parents to support
at-risk students. It takes advantage of the knowledge
of teaching staff and doctoral students of USF on
psychology, social work, speech and language therapy,
math, sciences and education. They work in collaboration
with other agencies including social services, mental
health, childcare providers and health services.
The Dr. Pallavi Patel Pediatric Clinic is also located
within this 14,000 square foot facility. Presently
the school has housed its 155 students at the Museum
of Science & Industry across the street. The Principal
Geri Kelly is exited about the donation. He feels
that a bigger and better space will enable children
to spread out. He is confident that they will then
be able to do “great things”
Patel has also contributed $3 million to the Pepin
Heart Hospital’s research institute, which will
be named after him. The Kiran C. Patel Research Institute
will be affiliated to USF.
Dr Kiran Patel and his wife, Dr Pallavi Patel did
their advanced specializations in New York at Columbia
University: he in cardiology, and she in pediatrics
after arriving in US on Thanksgiving Day in 1976.
They then moved to Tampa Bay in 80s and set up their
practice.
Kiran’s private cardiology practice in Tampa
Bay not only earned him great respect as a physician
but also led him towards his unique dream of the future
of medical care – managed healthcare. He started
a physician’s practice ownership and Management
Company that helped to expand practices in 14 places
serving some 8000 patients in different aspects such
as including family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics
and cardiology. This led to their involvement with
Wellcare HMO, Inc., and Kiran became chairman of the
board. WellCare grew to become the second largest
HMO in Florida under is guidance serving more than
200,000 members. In 1999, Dr. Kiran C. Patel acquired
the New York HMO, which was in trouble, and brought
the two companies together under the name WellCare
Management Group. It served more than 400,000 members,
employed some 1200 people and had a turn over of over
$1 billion.
Kiran Patel was inducted to the University Of South
Florida Board Of Trustees by Florida’s Governor
in 2003. In the following year, he received the Cultural
Contributor of the Year Award from the Greater Tampa
Chamber of Commerce.
Currently, Dr. Pallavi is focused on her growing family
medicine practice. She supervises 10 clinics of Bay
Area Primary Care along with her two daughters and
son-in-law. Dr. Pallavi also serves as President of
a non-profit organization called the Patel Foundation
for Global Understanding, where her husband is the
Chairman. The Foundation is involves in a wide range
of activities from health to education, arts and culture
In 2003, the Patels sold their share in the management
care business so as to devote more attention to their
philanthropic ventures. In the course of the year,
Dr. Kiran Patel became the President of American Association
of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI). This enabled
to take up many humanitarian projects in India with
the aim of improving access to medical facilities,
construction of hospitals, etc. Earlier, during the
Gujarat earthquake, Dr. Patel had helped in uniting
the efforts of the Tampa Bay community and AAPI that
resulted in rehabilitation of villager’s homes
and construction of an orphanage, a school and four
hospitals. This year, when the fourth hospital was
being inaugurated, a tsunami devastated the Eastern
shores of South India. The couple have matched the
contributions of the Tampa Bay community have now
placed in action secondary relief plans to build schools
The couple together sponsors a U.S. Scholarship fund
for underprivileged youth attending college. They
are also involved in the funding of IMAGINE –
a project teaching philanthropic entrepreneurship
to young leaders, USF CHART-India Program that aims
at HIV/AIDS prevention, awareness, research and treatment
in both rural and urban India.
“My father is my inspiration for the philanthropy,”
Patel says. “He always would like to do the best
he could in his own power financially as well as with
his time.” This son and his family have definitely
followed the path of philanthropy that his father
showed by example.
In 2003, the Patels formed the nonprofit Foundation
for Global Understanding, which is run out of a suite
in an office park in Tampa. “Many people have
a desire to do things, but sometimes they don't have
the means to do it. For me, I always had the desire,
and I was doing whatever I could. My dad had started
a foundation, and I had piggybacked with that. Now,
means-wise, I'm in a better position. So my thought
is to structure something that when we are both gone
will be in existence and doing whatever we want it
to do. We are blessed because we have three kids.
Two of them are physicians, and a son who graduated
from Babson College in Massachusetts, so they're not
going to need my money. My kids always say that they
don't need my money, have been acting independently
and staying on their own two feet, he says
“There is a saying that if you can preserve your
wealth for three generations, you must have done something
good. You know, we believe in karma, but most of the
time what happens is once you achieve material wealth,
you divert from spirituality, ethics and morality,
and that's the downfall of people. The first generation
must be somebody who works very, very hard to get
somewhere. That may be passed on to the next generation
because of the circumstances they grew up in. But
by the third generation, when they are loaded with
a lot of money and material resources, they forget
how hard it is, how difficult it is. If the work ethic
remains the same, if you put in enough energy, you're
bound to be successful. Not every time, but at least
it will not be a pathetic failure where you end up
in real bad situations: drugs, alcohol and women.
So my emphasis was always to try to ensure (the children)
were well-grounded in these ethical and moral aspects.”
He adds: “I think religion in everybody's life
is important. There are very few people who are atheists.
But going to church and being spiritual are two different
things. I don't believe that merely because you kneel
down and pray or bow down that you are a spiritual
man. I think how you act is more important in your
day-to-day life. What are your actions? Do they speak
of spirituality? That's more important than the symbolic
visit on a weekly basis or reading the Bhagawad Gita,
Koran or the Bible. Our general focus should be on
health, education and the culture aspect. And empowering
people must be top priority. If you can get them a
good education and good mind, I think you're getting
them there.”
