Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation

A part of the Louisiana State University System, the Pennington Biomedical Research Center is a world leader in obesity research and disease prevention because our generous Founder, C.B. “Doc” Pennington, displayed tremendous wisdom about the future of health research. In doing so, he provided the laboratories and facilities, but challenged others to fill these buildings with top-notch researchers and world-renowned science. The Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation was created in the late 1980’s to help fulfill this challenge. A small but dedicated group of community leaders joined together to find the necessary funding to recruit and hire the first Executive Director for the Center, Dr. George Bray. These same leaders helped to launch a major campaign to raise unrestricted funds, essential for commencing operations of the Center. Among those early leaders that we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude are John Barton, Sr., Leonard Nachman, Chuck McCoy, Bob Greer, Bill Wright, Terrell Brown, and Kevin Reilly, Sr. Over the years, the Foundation has played a valuable role in supporting the Center. We maintain the Center’s endowments, which includes 3 professorships and 10 chairs. We also seek to create additional avenues of funding that will allow the Center to grow and that helps to meet the funding gaps, thus providing a margin of excellence. And an investment in the Pennington Biomedical Research Center brings strong results. For every dollar of private support received, the Center is able to create $3 to 4 additional dollars in Federal support.