To show how two endowment programs stimulate research in the Neurology Department at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC).

To help our faculty and housestaff win competitive grants, the Neurology Department at DHMC has established two endowment programs designated to initiate faculty and resident research in neurology: the Diamond Endowment Program and the Reeves Fund.

The Reeves Fund was established by Dr. Peter Williamson in 2002 in honor of the retirement of Dr. Alexander Reeves, the founder and Section Chief of Neurology at DHMC. In 2015, the Department of Neurology made this fund available to support junior/early investigators or investigators without current research funding. The Diamond Endowment Program was established in 2014 when the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth received a $6.25 million gift from the estate of Susan Diamond, of Omaha, Nebraska, to support neurology research. The income from the endowment programs has been allocated to support a wide range of internal initial funding opportunities.

The Reeves Fund has supported three Pilot Projects and 20 Mini-Grants. The Diamond Endowment Program has funded one Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Grant, two Research Development Awards, and 26 Mini-Grants. The products of these grants include 13 national and international conference presentations, five publications in peer-reviewed journals, one patent application, and the awards of four competitive grants funded by the Hitchcock Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ALS Association, and the Department of Defense.

The Diamond and Reeves Endowment Programs have proved to be a successful catalyst to stimulate early research projects that allow faculty and resident investigators to derive preliminary data. This enhancement of research by members of our faculty successfully supports the academic mission of the Department of Neurology at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.