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Nonprofit Profile: Kerstin Lynam, CEO of Veterans Medical Research Foundation

ORGANIZATION

Description: Veterans Medical Research Foundation, a private, not-for-profit research foundation that provides administrative and fundraising support for veterans’ medical research. It is the only research entity in the region dedicated to veterans, and is the second largest of all medical research foundations associated with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Mission of organization: The Veterans Medical Research Foundation’s mission is to enhance the health of veterans of all generations through research and education, and to honor veterans’ service with science. We do that by supporting the groundbreaking research being conducted by the leading physicians and scientists at the VA San Diego Healthcare System, or VASDHS, who also hold faculty positions at UC San Diego.

Telephone: 858-552-8585, ext. 7606.

Web site: vmrf.org.

Founded: 1989.

Milestone: Being designated by the National Institutes of Health as a qualified recipient to administer federal grants in support of veterans’ health. This enabled Veterans Medical Research Foundation researchers to compete for NIH funding and opened a major source of additional revenue for the work being conducted here. After reaching this milestone, our budget multiplied tenfold in just a few years.

Annual revenue: $27 million.

Administrative expense as percent of revenue: 10 percent.

Corporate support as percent of revenue: Less than 1 percent. That is amazing in a region with such deep military roots and so many companies that benefit from military spending, but it is something we’re working to rectify.

Corporate supporters: See the previous answer — we need them! Or, more precisely, our veterans need and deserve them.

Board chair: Roger G. Spragg, M.D., president, VMRF; volunteer staff, VASDHS; professor emeritus, Department of Medicine, UCSD.

Board members: FACHE Director, VASDHS Stan Johnson; Professor Emeritus Robert Engler, M.D.; Professor of Medicine and Dean of Translational Medicine, UCSD School of Medicine Gary Firestein, M.D.; Training Director, Psychosocial Rehabilitation Fellowship Program, VASDHS, Associate Professor In-Residence, Department of Psychiatry, UCSD School of Medicine Eric Granholm, Ph.D.; Secretary/Treasurer and Legal Counsel, VMRF (nonvoting) Phillip L. Jelsma Esq.; U.S. Marine Corps retired Col. Ken Jordan; Todd E. Leigh; Urban Miyares; Vice President, VMRF, Associate Chief of Staff Education, VASDHS Elaine Muchmore, M.D.; Executive Director, Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason Gerhard Schulteis, Ph.D.; Acting Associate Chief of Staff, Research and Development, VASDHS Jack Nagan; Assistant Vice Chancellor Resource Strategy and Planning, UCSD School of Medicine, (nonvoting) Shawn Sheffield; Vice President, University Advancement, Boise State University Executive Dean, College of Business and Economics Howard L. Smith, Ph.D.; Acting Chief of Staff, VASDHS Robert Smith, M.D.; UCSD Professor of Neurosciences Mark Tuszynski, M.D., Ph.D.; and La Jolla Marine Inc. President John Whalen.

Employees: I’m extremely proud of our 250 outstanding, value-driven individuals in research, research support, compliance and administrative functions.

Volunteers: Our volunteers are the exceptional board and committee members who support our work, but we could use more help from business and community members who are interested in veterans’ health issues.

Events: We held our first-ever “Garden Gala” last year and are planning a repeat of that event this fall. We’re also in the planning stages for a series of events that will bring interested members of the community face-to-face with the people who are conducting the amazing research in areas as diverse as heart disease, diabetes and post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Wish list: We need more funding and space to hire and support more researchers in order to address the needs of a growing and changing veteran population. As a result of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, we have more veterans who are younger and have health concerns that are specific to their active combat. We need to address these concerns while also tackling the health issues of an aging veteran population.

OFFICE ISSUES

Recent challenges: There are more veterans, less federal funding, more competition for that funding. It is frustrating to see so many promising studies — research that could really make a difference to veterans and the population as a whole — either run out of funding or never get the initial funding to get off the ground.

Measures of success: We measure success on several different levels. How much we are able to contribute to the unrestricted funding of our outstanding researchers. The level of support we are able to provide to young researchers, who have the hardest time securing funding for promising research. The extent to which the research we support makes a direct difference to veterans’ health. The extent to which these discoveries benefit all patients.

Smartest move: Our smartest recent move was deciding to enter the public arena in order to tell people what we’re doing — we’ve been a well-kept secret. In general, I think the smartest move we make over and over again is waiting to hire the right person for the job, which is where our staff dedication really shows.

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