Endowed Chair for Research in Young Women's Breast Cancer

May 2015 - In March, the CU Cancer Center celebrated the establishment of the Robert F. and Patricia Young Connor Endowed Chair in Young Women’s Breast Cancer Research in the Division of Oncology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, made possible with generous commitments totaling $1.5 million from Patricia Anne Connor and the John J. Connor & Irene A. Connor Family Foundation.

Associate Professor Virginia Borges, MD, has been appointed the first Robert F. and Patricia Young Connor Chair. With the Connor Family’s support, the CU Cancer Center is able to provide valuable resources to one of the world’s foremost experts in young women’s breast cancer and to improve outcomes for patients and families.

The Connors have longstanding connections with the University ofColorado. Patricia earned a physician’s assistant certificate here in 1982, and served as an assistant professor from 1987 to 1992. The family’s philanthropic connection with CU began with a $20 gift made to the Child Health Associate Program in 1983. By establishing this chair in their parents’ names, the Connors are leaving a powerful and enduring legacy in their honor, and one that will have an impact for years and decades to come.