Dianne and Tad Taube Donate $14.5 Million to Launch Youth Addiction and Children’s Concussion Initiatives
Two donations totaling $14.5 million were gifted to the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital by Tad and Dianne Taube of Taube Philanthropies. The funds from the donations will be used to help address youth addictions and concussions in children and promote further research in both areas. Both are among the most important issues affecting the health and wellness of children and adolescents today. The generous gifts given by Taube Philanthropies have the potential to allow researchers at Stanford to expand awareness and develop life-saving and life-enhancing solutions for children and young adults around the world.
The Tad and Dianne Taube Youth Addiction Initiative
A donation of $9.5 million will be used to launch the Tad and Dianne Taube Youth Addiction Initiative. This program is unique because it will be focused on addressing both the treatment and prevention of addiction during youth and adolescence. The program will entail intensive research into the causes behind youth addiction.
Photo Credit: Toni Bird/Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health
The Tad and Dianne Taube Youth Addiction Initiative will be focused on helping Stanford researchers do more for the causes of prevention and intervention than has been done in the past. The program will be led by the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. It will be the first initiative of its kind in the country that addresses early exposure to the precursors to addiction. Additionally, it will focus on developing clinical care programs and therapies that are tailored for addressing youth addiction. The School of Medicine and Packard Children’s Hospital have identified mental health issues affecting people between the ages of 12 and 25 a public health priority.
The $9.5 million gift given by the Taubes will make it possible to establish an endowed directorship for the purpose of organizing, launching and leading the initiative. It will be used to create a postdoctoral fellowship to train early career researchers and clinicians with specialties in youth addiction and treatment. The gift will also be used for endowed faculty scholar awards for three faculty members who will be able to focus on the areas of clinical care, research and community engagement.
The Taube Stanford Concussion Collaborative
A donation of $5 million will be used to create the Taube Stanford Concussion Collaborative. This program will tap into the medical expertise that has been gained through decades of research and innovation at Stanford and Packard Children’s. In addition, a Stanford-founded medical nonprofit called TeachAids will be brought in as part of the collaboration. The program will be designed to reach 500 million children around the world through an online education portal.
The Taube Stanford Concussion Collaborative will focus heavily on promoting ways to prevent concussions in children. In addition, the program will use smart mouth guards that are capable of measuring impact to provide key data to researchers. The number of sports-related and recreation-related concussions experienced in children in the United States annually is now up to 3.8 million. The severity of concussions is often overlooked or brushed off by coaches, parents and children. This has led to prolonged recovery times and increased risks for dangerous follow-up concussions or other life-threatening conditions. The Taube Stanford Concussion Collaborative will enable researchers and professors in the fields of neurosurgery and bio-engineering to expand the concussion care knowledge base and further the cause of protecting children from the long-term and cumulative effects of concussions.
A Glance at the Philanthropic Work of Tad Taube
Tad Taube is a graduate of Stanford University. He is best known as the chairman of Taube Philanthropies and board president emeritus of San Francisco’s Koret Foundation. In addition, he is the chairman and founder of Woodmont Companies. He also serves as a member of the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution. He has previously acted as the founder and chairman of the advisory board of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and chair of the Stanford Athletic Board. Mr. Taube’s previous philanthropic relationship with Stanford includes his family’s principal gift to Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Stadium and support for Stanford’s new football stadium.
A Glance at the Philanthropic Work of Dianne Taube
Dianne Taube serves as Vice Chairman of Taube Philanthropies. She is highly regarded as a civic and cultural leader in the Bay Area due to her long-standing status as a trustee of the San Francisco Opera Association and many philanthropic contributions to regional organizations. Among her accomplishments are her leadership role in the establishment of the Dianne B. Wilsey Opera Center and Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theatre, her 20-year service as a board member for the San Francisco Zoological Society, and her role as a past director for the Opera Guild and status as chairwoman of the 2000 Opera Ball. In addition, her efforts through Taube Philanthropies have helped to establish the Koret-Taube Broadcast Media Suite and allow for the simulcasting of San Francisco Opera productions to the public. Mrs. Taube has served on the board of the Warriors Community Foundation since 2013. Her many philanthropic efforts also extend to serving on the Advisory Committee of the Lucille Packard Mental Health Task Force, and acting as a founding committee member and active fundraiser for the Stanford Women’s Cancer Center’s Under One Umbrella Event. Her role as a community advisor to the Children’s Health Council helps to support children and teens with ADHD, learning differences, anxiety, depression and autism spectrum disorders. Mrs. Taube heads up special building projects for Panos Investments in Burlingame. Dianne and Tad enjoy spending time with family, friends and their six children.
