$10 million gift advances university cancer center and honors dialysis pioneer Dr. John D. Bower
The University of Mississippi Medical Center has received a 10 million donation from the Bower Foundation to support construction of a new home for the UMMC Cancer Center and Research Institute. The Bower Foundation is based in Ridgeland, Mississippi, and focuses its grantmaking on systemic improvements in the state’s health and education infrastructure.
The 10 million dollar gift is the largest in the foundation’s history and is part of a broader capital campaign to build a five‑story cancer facility on the UMMC campus in Jackson. UMMC officials report that about 70 percent of the 125 million dollars needed for the project has been raised, including a previously announced 25 million dollar pledge from Sandy and John Black in early 2025.
The new building is planned to consolidate advanced cancer treatment, clinical trials, and research activities while providing greater convenience and comfort for patients whose care is now delivered in multiple locations.
The foundation’s president and CEO, Anne Travis, has stated that Mississippi continues to have some of the highest cancer burdens in the United States and that improving outcomes requires more than excellent clinical care. She has emphasized the need for strong systems, improved access to care, and a long‑term commitment to solutions that integrate population health and cancer services.
According to Travis, the foundation sees UMMC’s Cancer Center and Research Institute as uniquely positioned to drive impact statewide, and the investment reflects a belief that strengthening cancer care infrastructure must go hand in hand with efforts to advance population health for Mississippians over generations.
The roots of this philanthropy trace back to the work of Dr. John D. Bower, a nephrologist who helped build modern dialysis care in Mississippi and whose efforts ultimately underpinned the resources of the Bower Foundation. Dr. Bower joined the University of Mississippi Medical Center in the 1960s, when access to dialysis in the state was extremely limited and many patients with kidney failure did not have treatment options.
In 1966, he led the creation of Mississippi’s first dialysis unit at UMMC, using early federal support to establish a program that provided ongoing care for patients with end‑stage renal disease. He became a prominent advocate for dialysis coverage, contributing to national efforts that led to Medicare benefits for patients with end‑stage renal disease in the 1970s, making dialysis financially accessible to large numbers of Americans.
As dialysis coverage expanded, Dr. Bower focused on geographic access, particularly in Mississippi and surrounding areas. He founded Kidney Care, Inc. in 1973 with the goal of developing a network of outpatient dialysis facilities so that patients would not have to travel long distances for treatment.
Over the following decades, the organization established multiple dialysis centers and, at one time, provided care for a substantial share of Mississippi patients receiving dialysis. When Kidney Care was later sold to a national dialysis company, Dr. Bower directed the proceeds to a charitable entity that became the Bower Foundation, with a mission to improve health at the systems level in Mississippi.
At UMMC, Dr. Bower is associated with several major initiatives. The John D. Bower School of Population Health, one of a small number of dedicated population health schools in the United States, was created with significant support from the Bower Foundation. The foundation has also provided funding for the Bower Center for Culinary Medicine, which connects nutrition education and clinical practice in a state where diet‑related illness is prevalent.
Over more than two decades, the foundation’s total giving to UMMC has exceeded 20 million dollars, including support for the School of Nursing and endowed positions that advance nephrology and population health. Within the medical center community, Dr. Bower has been recognized as a dialysis pioneer and a strong advocate for patients; he received UMMC’s first Vanguard Award for his work with kidney patients and was later inducted into the University of Mississippi Medical Alumni Chapter Hall of Fame.
The new $ 10 million commitment to the cancer center continues that legacy by linking Dr. Bower’s original focus on access, infrastructure, and population health to the fight against cancer. The planned facility is expected to strengthen UMMC’s ability to deliver coordinated cancer care, conduct research on cancer disparities and outcomes, and expand clinical trials for patients from across Mississippi.
By channeling proceeds from Dr. Bower’s earlier work in dialysis into large‑scale investments in cancer, nursing, culinary medicine, and population health, the Bower Foundation has extended the impact of one physician’s career far beyond a single specialty.