IMLAY FOUNDATION SUPPORTS PEDIATRIC RESEARCH

The Imlay Foundation has made a $5 million grant — the largest in its 25-year history — to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Georgia Tech to help fund the development of pediatric therapies.

“The whole board of the Imlay Foundation was most enthusiastic about this,” said Mary Ellen Imlay, chair and president of the foundation. She is also the widow of the late John P. Imlay Jr., IM 1959, an Atlanta technology entrepreneur and philanthropist. “It honors John’s love of Georgia Tech and my love of Children’s, and puts them together in an innovative way.”

The grant will help advance the research capabilities of Children’s Healthcare, one of the largest pediatric hospitals in the country. The partnership is called the Pediatric Technology Center, which will be housed at Georgia Tech.

The center is bringing together clinicians from Children’s, scientists from Emory University, and engineers from Georgia Tech to solve problems in pediatrics and develop technological solutions geared toward improving the health of children.

Mary Ellen Imlay is a longtime board member of Children’s. She explained that the gift was one important way to honor her husband, by creating an endowment that will support the Imlay Innovation Fund in perpetuity.

“Nowhere else in the country is there the opportunity to do what we are doing,” said Donna Hyland, president and CEO of Children’s.

From left to right: Patrick Frias, chief operating officer, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta; Mary Ellen Imlay; and M.G. Finn, James A. Carlos Family Chair in Pediatric Technology and chair of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.