Alumna's $2M gift commitment to create professorship in School of Education


LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas alumna has made a $2 million gift commitment to establish the first counseling psychology professorship at KU. This will be the second-largest gift in the history of the School of Education.

Counseling psychology graduate students have the opportunity to practice administering tests.Rick Ginsberg, dean of the School of Education, said the donor, who wished to remain anonymous, received a great education at KU and wanted to give back to support opportunities for future generations. He said the counseling psychology department has a long and successful history of training professors, researchers and mental health professionals.

Ginsberg expressed his gratitude for the gift and added that the donor also felt that her KU professors and mentors contributed to her life in profound ways. “She wanted to continue this important KU legacy of excellent teaching and mentorship for future professionals,” he said.

Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little expressed appreciation for the gift. “The University of Kansas is home to an outstanding School of Education, and this gift will help us further enhance its quality in meeting needed mental health services across the state and nation,” she said. “It is gratifying that the donor’s experience at KU was so rewarding that she would so generously give back to our students and university.”

Established in 1955, KU’s doctoral program in counseling psychology trains generalists who are able to engage in a variety of activities ranging from clinical treatment to academic research. Reflecting a “scientist-practitioner” model, the curriculum prepares clinicians who apply the best and most current theory and research to their practice, and academicians who are grounded in the realities of practice.

The gift commitment counts toward Far Above: The Campaign for Kansas, the university’s $1.2 billion comprehensive fundraising campaign. Far Above seeks support to educate future leaders, advance medicine, accelerate discovery and drive economic growth to seize the opportunities of the future.

The campaign is managed by KU Endowment, the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment was the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.