Woodson Impact Report 2026

CHARLES WOODSON CLINICAL RESEARCH FUND Impact Report

“The Woodson Fund is giving kids a better chance to fight against many challenging diseases and conditions.

I’m proud to see how far the Woodson Fund has come and can’t wait to see what we can continue to do together.”

—Charles Woodson

Another Incredible Year The generosity Charles Woodson demonstrated when he established the Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund has, for nearly 20 years, inspired thousands of others to give. With gratitude, I’m happy to share in the following pages our progress and achievements. Over the past year, the Woodson Fund has continued to drive amazing accomplishments and growth in pediatric research at University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

We were excited to once again award Woodson Fund grants to a group of researchers whose work shows great promise and potential in advancing our understanding of pediatric diseases. These projects are at their beginning stages, but with much-needed seed funding, these studies could follow the lead of countless other Woodson Fund projects that have delivered impactful findings and discoveries.

138 faculty members in the U-M Department of Pediatrics have served as principal investigator on one or more Woodson Fund projects, representing more than 26 subspecialties and 124 research projects.

Our vision for a state-of-the-art Charles Woodson Children’s Clinical Research Lab is also taking shape. Thanks to the generosity of Woodson Fund donors, we opened our new lab this past summer, featuring new equipment and expanded resources. We will continue to work to acquire more leading-edge technology that U-M researchers will use to push the boundaries of science to find the next big breakthrough, treatment, or cure.

The Woodson Fund research endowment has continued to grow, providing us with greater resources to support scientific needs while also further positioning U-M as a leader in pediatric research.

An endowment such as ours can also play a significant role in encouraging the most talented scientists to come to our institution to conduct research and build programs.

Since being established in 2009, the Woodson Fund has helped to elevate promising research and build a path that will lead to better answers and outcomes for all children. Our successes, our ongoing work, and our hopeful vision for the future are only possible because of donors like you. Your support is saving and changing the lives of children everywhere. Thank you for all you do.

Donna Martin, M.D., Ph.D.

Ravitz Foundation Endowed Professor of Pediatrics Chair, Department of Pediatrics Professor of Pediatrics and of Human Genetics Michigan Medicine

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Since the Beginning: The Woodson Fund By the Numbers Since 2009, thousands of donors have made a gift to the Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund. This generosity has helped the Woodson Fund become an integral part of the research funding portfolio of the U-M Department of Pediatrics and contributed greatly to the success and growth of several key building blocks of our pediatric research enterprise.

Since being established, the Woodson Fund has provided:

$2.9 million to research project seed funding

The Woodson Fund has supported pilot studies and provided seed monies to generate preliminary data enabling faculty to compete for, and receive, subsequent external and internal grants and awards.

$1.9 million to recruit and retain top researchers

This critical support has helped U-M attract the top scientists in fields of pediatric medicine, provided bridge funding for researchers in need of resources to advance their work, and aided U-M faculty members developing their careers and pursuing larger grant opportunities.

$1.5 million to Woodson Lab infrastructure

Woodson Fund support has helped establish a larger lab space, acquire new technology, and update the tools and equipment used by clinical researchers. Woodson Fund contributions will continue to ensure the Woodson Lab remains home to state-of-the-art pediatric research resources.

$8.5 million to pediatric research endowment

Philanthropic support has helped the Woodson Fund grow an $8.5 million endowed fund for pediatric research.

Financial numbers are based on reporting from the end of fiscal year 2025 (June 30, 2025).

Woodson Fund researchers have collaborated with scientists and institutions in countries all over the world, including Spain, France, Canada, Austria, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

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Seed Funding Innovative Ideas The boldest and most impactful concepts — the ones that can change medicine and save lives — need supporters who are committed to driving these concepts forward. Since the beginning, the Woodson Fund has benefited from visionary donors who have embraced the groundbreaking work of U-M scientists and provided the resources needed to advance their critical research.

Tiffany Munzer, M.D.

Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Woodson Fund Pilot Grant

“The Woodson Fund Pilot Grant was absolutely critical in the design of an artificial intelligence (AI) conversational agent with the potential to promote healthy eating among children. With the Woodson funds, we developed, created, and piloted an AI conversational agent that can teach and respond to children about healthy eating. This study found that children enjoyed interacting with the AI agent, and nearly all parents reported they would use the conversational agent at home. The funds will enable a randomized control trial to test the impact of AI on children’s healthy eating. The pilot study findings were also used to apply for an NIH R03 grant.”

Summer/Fall 2024 Award Recipients

Winter/Spring 2025 Award Recipients

Charles Woodson Collaborative Research Awards

Charles Woodson Collaborative Research Awards

• Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D.; Joyce Lee, M.D., M.P.H.; and Lauren Oshman, M.D., M.P.H. Susan B. Meister CHEAR Center, Pediatric Endocrinology, Family Medicine

• Suzanne Dawid, M.D., Ph.D., and Paul Jensen, Ph.D. Pediatric Infectious Disease, Biomedical Engineering

• Jason Weinberg, M.D., and Michael Bachman, M.D., Ph.D. Pediatric Infectious Disease, Microbiology and Immunology

• Jennifer Meddings, M.D., Anisha Coughlin, M.D., and Julian Wan, M.D. Pediatric Primary Care, Pediatric Critical Care, Urology

Charles Woodson Children’s Health Pilot Research Awards

• Jordan Shavit, M.D., Ph.D., and David Ginsburg, M.D. Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Internal Medicine

• Tiffany Munzer, M.D. Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics • Jennifer Yi-Chun Lai Yee, M.D. Pediatric Nephrology

• Jessica Turnier, M.D., and Yu Zuo, M.D. Pediatric Rheumatology, Internal Medicine Charles Woodson Children’s Health Pilot Research Award • Mary McGrath, M.D. Pediatric Hematology/Oncology

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Recruiting and Retaining the Leaders and Best

More than 125 trainees — undergraduates, master’s degree candidates, doctoral candidates, postdoctoral candidates, medical students, interns, residents, fellows, house officers, and more — have benefited from working with Woodson Fund researchers

The Woodson Fund continues to inspire incredible achievement and growth.

Resources from the Woodson Fund have helped U-M to attract highly sought after leaders in pediatric specialties while also providing bridge funding and needed support for current faculty members to advance their careers and promising scientific efforts.

Louis Dang, M.D.

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and of Neurology Woodson Fund Start-up Research Package

“The Woodson Fund enabled me to hire a postdoctoral fellow who discovered that in STRADA deficiency (a disease characterized by severe epilepsy and cognitive/motor impairment and brain malformation), the formation and migration of inhibitory interneurons is significantly changed. These findings provide critical knowledge for therapeutic targeting in this disease as well as others. The Woodson Fund has also facilitated collaborative and exploratory work with other scientists, which has resulted in the recent submission of three NIH grants.”

Suzanne Dawid, M.D., Ph.D.

Woodson Fund researchers have created more than 200 published works on their research and presented more than 245 abstracts at local, national, and international scientific meetings.

Andrew B. Briskin Research Professor of Pediatrics, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and of Microbiology and Immunology Woodson Fund Bridge Funding Package

“My lab focuses on understanding how bacterial pathogens survive on human surfaces, which allows them to cause disease in the infected individual and transmit to other humans. These studies can lead to advancements in treatment and prevention. The Woodson Fund has been instrumental in allowing the lab to continue the work, as the bridge funding picked up when NIH funding lapsed. My lab also focuses on understanding how certain Streptococci can cause severe and sometimes devastating disease in children. The Woodson Fund award has helped initiate the project and will enable my lab to compete for NIH funding in the near future. I am incredibly thankful for the Woodson award, not only to sustain my lab but also provide a home for training the next generation of scientists.”

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The Place Where Groundbreaking Research Begins In July 2025, the Charles Woodson Children’s Clinical Research Lab moved to its new home in University Hospital.

Significant support for the new lab and the acquisition of new equipment came from donations made during the paddle raise portion of Event on Main, the annual summer fundraiser benefiting the Woodson Fund.

The new Woodson Lab is triple the size of the previous lab and features a wide range of equipment, including a table-top refrigerated centrifuge, microfuges, waterbath, an incubator, vortexers, and more.

This new lab infrastructure provides children’s health investigators with core facilities for the preparation and short-term storage of biological specimens. This helps our physicians and scientists to streamline their clinical research process and quickly store critical specimens that need to be frozen in a matter of minutes.

The Woodson Fund is committed to maintaining and growing leading-edge research facilities that better serve the clinical research community and help transform discovery into life-changing treatments.

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Building a World-Class Research Infrastructure The Charles Woodson Research Endowment is a critical piece of infrastructure that positions U-M as a leader in pediatric research and provides ongoing support for transformative studies into childhood illnesses and conditions.

The endowment ensures that U-M will have steady funding to support groundbreaking research in perpetuity. As the fund grows, it will be able to support more pediatric scientists, a higher number of projects, newer technologies, and other needs — all at much greater rates.

The endowment can transform U-M into one of the top pediatric research institutions in the world, a go-to place for critical information and answers that can save and change lives.

Your generosity is sharing a brighter future with kids like Jeremiah

Diagnosed with heart defects while in the womb, Jeremiah had his first heart surgery just days after he was born. He spent the next four weeks as a patient at Mott and was in and out of the hospital leading up to his second successful surgery at 5 months old. Jeremiah is doing great now as he attends daycare and visits his heart doctors only once a year. Your support of the Woodson Fund helps advance critical research, diagnosis, and treatment approaches that transform congenital heart care and many other areas of pediatric medicine — giving Jeremiah and other children the best possible chance to heal, grow, and thrive.

Taking Giant Leaps Forward This past year, Woodson Fund scientists have received more than

$8.2 million

in research funding from outside funding organizations.

In total, recipients of Woodson Fund awards have gone on to secure more than

$59 million

in funding from outside organizations since the Woodson Fund was established.

Every $1 in Woodson Fund pediatric research grants has returned

more than $22 in outside funding.

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THANK YOU! Because of you, the Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital continues to drive the groundbreaking research that will change lives. Your generosity is helping to drive improved treatments, better answers, and more hopeful outcomes that children and families are counting on.

To support the Woodson Fund, contact: Scotty Passink 734-320-2655 spassink@umich.edu or Jennifer Polan 734-763-6092 hurandjl@umich.edu michiganmedicine.org/giving

©2026 Regents of the University of Michigan Jordan B. Acker, Michael J. Behm, Mark J. Bernstein, Paul W. Brown, Sarah Hubbard, Denise Ilitch, Carl J. Meyers, Katherine E. White, Domenico Grasso (ex officio)