The Director’s Innovation Fund was initiated in 2019 by Scott Fisher, an Illinois alumnus. He wanted to honor his late wife Bonita J. Fisher, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis—a neurological disease that affects millions of people, but has no known cures.

Denise Poulos Elser has always believed in using multidisciplinary collaborations to solve important problems. In 2017, she attended an event hosted by Steven Thayer, a Leadership Council member at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, where she first learned about the IGB and was intrigued by the social and ethical implications of advances in genomic sciences. During her subsequent visit in 2019, she was impressed by the different IGB themes and was inspired to help the research endeavors by making a generous contribution to the Director’s Innovation Fund.

From the beginning, Kim and Robert Benziger shared a desire to spread positivity and to give back to the community so that others would have the same opportunities. In line with their philanthropy, the Benzigers have given a generous contribution to the Director’s Innovation Fund, which provides seed funds for budding IGB research themes.

Neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis affect millions of people worldwide and yet, there exist no known cures. Multiple sclerosis, a disease that causes deterioration of the nerves due to miscommunication between the brain and body, was of particular interest to Illinois alumnus Scott Fisher. As an alumnus, Fisher had a desire to give back to the university but to also honor his late wife Bonita J. Fisher, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.