Alia Tutor Endowed Chair established at Keck School of Medicine of USC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, April 21, 2014
Contact: Leslie Ridgeway at (323) 442-2823 or lridgewa@usc.edu
LOS ANGELES – A new endowed chair in reproductive medicine supporting a groundbreaking fertility researcher and professor has been established at Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC).
Alia Tutor, wife of USC trustee Ronald Tutor, both longtime supporters of the university, provided a gift to establish the Alia Tutor Chair in Reproductive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. The new chair will be housed in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Keck Medicine of USC.
The inaugural holder of the endowed chair is Richard Paulson, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology, chief of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility, and director of USC Fertility. Paulson is an internationally recognized expert in fertility in women over age 40 whose research has been published in prestigious journals including the Journal of the American Medical Association and Lancet.
“Richard Paulson’s groundbreaking research and treatment have given hope to many couples who feared they would never be able to have children,” said Keck School of Medicine of USC Dean Carmen A. Puliafito, M.D., M.B.A. “This generous gift is a testament to his innovation and leadership and will assist Dr. Paulson in his important work.”
Paulson has served as director of the USC Fertility Program since 1986. He published several landmark studies addressing the effect of age upon female fertility, including the first observation that egg donation could be used to extend the reproductive lifespan in women over 40.
“Endowed chairs in the field of Reproductive Medicine are quite rare,” said Paulson. “In spite of the many advances in this field, 15 percent of American couples continue to struggle with fertility issues. There is still a lot of work to be done, and this endowed chair will help support new research initiatives. The chair is a wonderful gift from the Tutor family to the Trojan family.”
A former advisor to the United Nation’s Office for Partnerships, Alia Tutor’s concern for others stretches from USC around the globe. She currently dedicates her time and leadership on the board of directors of Indego Africa, an organization that provides female artisans in war-torn Rwanda with education, leadership skills and other training to become successful businesswomen.
A graduate of Columbia Law School, Alia Tutor promoted and developed novel collaborations and alliances between the U.N. and corporations, foundations and civil society organizations while working in the U.N. Office for Partnerships. Her efforts helped the U.N. reach its ambitious Millennium Development Goals, which include improving global maternal health, reducing child mortality, and promoting universal primary education.
Alia Tutor also has held several executive positions in the private sector, including vice president of business development for both Nourish Capital and Yorkshire Global Restaurants.
Ronald Tutor is chairman and chief executive officer of Tutor Perini Corporation, president of Tutor-Saliba Corporation, and a co-owner of Miramax Films. An alumnus and longtime USC benefactor, Tutor is a member of the Executive Committee of the university’s Board of Trustees. The Tutor name graces two USC University Park campus buildings: the Ronald Tutor Campus Center and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Tutor Hall.
Paulson’s research has resulted in publication of the first series of successful pregnancies in women over age 50 in the journal Lancet, of obstetric outcomes in women in their 50s in the Journal of the American Medical Association and of the effects of parenting stress in mothers in their 50s in the journal Fertility & Sterility (2007). Most recently, Paulson’s division found that women with low vitamin D levels have decreased pregnancy rates, and is studying how reproductive steroids such as estrogen and progesterone are absorbed by the body and best administered in a clinical setting.
In 1997, Paulson made headlines worldwide when he facilitated a successful pregnancy and healthy birth in the oldest woman on record at the time, age 63, through in vitro fertilization and frozen embryo transfer. (The patient had not disclosed her actual age, as she would not have qualified for treatment at USC due to its age limit of 55 years.)
Paulson completed his bachelor’s degree in physics, magna cum laude, from the University of California, Los Angeles, College of Letters and Science, and his doctor of medicine degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine.
He received specialty training in obstetrics and gynecology at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and subspecialty training in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the USC School of Medicine, where he joined the full-time faculty in 1986. He is board certified in reproductive endocrinology.
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ABOUT KECK MEDICINE OF USC
Keck Medicine of USC is the University of Southern California’s medical enterprise, one of only two university-owned academic medical centers in the Los Angeles area. Encompassing academic, research and clinical entities, it consists of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, the region’s first medical school; the renowned USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of the first comprehensive cancer centers established in the United States; the USC Care Medical Group, the medical faculty practice; the Keck Medical Center of USC, which includes two acute care hospitals: 401-licensed bed Keck Hospital of USC and 60-licensed bed USC Norris Cancer Hospital; and USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, a 158-licensed bed community hospital. It also includes outpatient facilities in Beverly Hills, downtown Los Angeles, La Cañada Flintridge, Pasadena, and the USC University Park Campus. USC faculty physicians and Keck School of Medicine departments also have practices throughout Los Angeles, and Orange counties. The Keck Medicine of USC world-class medical facilities are staffed by nearly 600 physicians who are faculty at the renowned Keck School of Medicine of USC and part of USC Care Medical Group. They are not only clinicians, but cutting-edge researchers, leading professors and active contributors to national and international professional medical societies and associations. For more information, go to www.keckmedicine.org/beyond
