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DISCOVERY
FOUNDED AS A MEDICAL COLLEGE IN 1834 TO COMBAT
CHOLERA AND YELLOW FEVER, THE NAME OF THE GAME
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HAS ALWAYS BEEN DISCOVERY AT TULANE. AND DURING
THE GREATEST MEDICAL CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME,
COVID-19, TULANE WAS ONCE AGAIN IN THE VANGUARD,
LEADING A NATIONAL RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP TO
SPEED UP COVID-19 VACCINES AND DRUG DISCOVERIES.
AT TULANE, WE STAND FOR DISCOVERY ACROSS ALL
FIELDS, BECAUSE THE SOLUTIONS TO THE WORLD’S
MOST COMPLEX PROBLEMS TRANSCEND THE
CONFINES OF DISCIPLINES. THE ENGINE OF DISCOVERY
IS INNOVATION, AND TO BE TRULY INNOVATIVE WE
MUST EXAMINE PROBLEMS FROM EVERY ANGLE, DRAW
UPON INSIGHT AND WISDOM FROM EVERY FIELD.
OUR DISCOVERIES ARE FUELED BY OUR TALENTED
RESEARCHERS’ PASSION FOR LEARNING AND MAKING THE
WORLD A BETTER PLACE. AND THEY ARE EQUALLY FUELED
BY THE GENEROSITY OF OUR COMMITTED DONORS, WHOSE
SUPPORT HELPS TO UNLOCK THE SOLUTIONS OF TOMORROW
EVERY DAY AT TULANE.
Estate of Ellen L. Conlon
Ellen Conlon graduated from Newcomb College with a BA in economics in 1969. During her time as an undergraduate student at Tulane, she was a member of Alpha Delta Pi, and participated in the Newcomb Senate and the University Center Board.
She returned to her hometown of Pensacola, Florida and earned a second BA in accounting from the University of West Florida in 1976. From there, she embarked upon a long career as an auditor for the State of Florida. She later moved to Tallahassee, Florida, where she made her home for the remainder of her life. After a 35-year career in auditing and management review positions with several state agencies, she retired in 2011.
Before her death in 2018, Ellen was an avid traveler and a committed patron of the arts who enjoyed visiting art galleries and attending symphonies and theater performances.
It was Ellen’s hope to leave a legacy to her alma mater. Her living trust established the Ellen Conlon Endowed Fund, which supports expenses associated with art exhibitions at the Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane.
Albert Lepage Foundation
Albert Lepage is a 1971 MBA graduate of the A. B.
Freeman School of Business. A dedicated Tulane alumnus, Albert serves as a current member of the Business School Council. He is a past member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors. In 2006, Albert received the Freeman School’s Outstanding Alumnus Award, and in 2011 he was named Tulane’s Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year.
Albert is the retired co-chairman of Lepage Bakeries, a company started in 1903 by Albert’s grandfather, F.R. Lepage. Albert’s father, Regis Lepage, joined the bakery in 1933, and guided the company through the Great Depression and World War II. Continuing his family’s tradition, Albert became president of Lepage Bakeries in 1978 and chairman in 1983. In 2012, Lepage Bakeries merged with Flowers Foods.
Now a resident of Miami Beach, Florida, Albert pursues philanthropic endeavors through centers of excellence established by the Albert Lepage Foundation. Albert has devoted a significant portion of his charitable efforts to Tulane. He established the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the A. B. Freeman School of Business, as well as the Albert Lepage Professorship in Business.
The Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation leads the Freeman School’s offerings in entrepreneurship, coursework, academic research and student programming. The center also has a significant focus on community outreach, developing new programs to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem and address unmet business needs in New Orleans and the Gulf South.
Priddy Family Foundation
Robert L. Priddy graduated with a BA in economics and history from Tulane University in 1969. He spent more than three decades in the aviation industry, starting three airlines from scratch, all of which were successful operations and ultimately sold to larger airlines. He then spent several years in personal venture-capital investing before cofounding ComVest Investment Partners, a private equity fund managing over $3 billion in assets in both equity and debt funds. Since retiring, he manages his personal investments as chairman of RMC Capital, LLC.
Robert is a proud recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor presented by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations. He serves on the Board of the Cowen Institute and The National World War II Museum, and is the Honorary Commander of the 732nd Operations Support Squadron at Creech Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada.
A native New Orleanian and a graduate of St. Mary’s Dominican College, Carol “Kikie” A. Priddy is elated to be living in her hometown once again, and is eagerly awaiting the chance to watch Mardi Gras parades from the Priddys’ home on St. Charles Avenue. Kikie’s grandmother, Bianca Socila, was a Tulane graduate, and Kikie and Robert's grandson, Austin Acks, was recently accepted into Tulane School of Medicine. In May 2021, Robert and Kikie will celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary.
To give back to New Orleans, a city that has meant so much to them, Kikie and Robert formed the Priddy Family Foundation in 2016. In addition to generous support for Tulane, the Priddy Family Foundation supports a multitude of charitable causes, including the New Orleans Opera, the National World War II Museum and the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health (Cleveland Clinic). The Priddy Family Foundation is a true family affair, with all three generations of the family actively involved.
The Priddy Family Foundation has been generous to Tulane, contributing support to endow and establish the Priddy Family Spark Research Endowed Fund, which will provide competitive awards to faculty for early-stage research support that advances the research priorities of the Tulane Brain Institute. They have also established the Priddy Family Brain Health Fund, which will support various treatment therapies, particularly music therapy to primarily veteran patients, at the Tulane University Center for Brain Health. The Priddy Family Foundation also supported the Cowen Institute's Trellis Program, whose mission is to provide New Orleanians with an affordable, supportive and individualized pathway to a college degree.
F. Chapman Taylor and Grace Boey Taylor
F. Chapman Taylor holds a BS in physics and theology from Tulane University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the
University of Pennsylvania. Chapman is an emerging markets focused portfolio manager at the Capital Group of Companies, where he has worked for 26 years. From 1988 until 1994, Chapman was a management consultant with Strategic Planning Associates, The MAC Group and SRI International. Early in his career, Chapman was a Peace Corps volunteer in Samoa, and was a physics teacher at Langley High School in Northern Virginia.
An active civic leader, Chapman serves as a member of the boards of directors of Karya Salemba Empat, Indonesia’s largest and most diverse college scholarship fund; For Love of Children, which provides out of school educational programming for D.C. youth; MicroDreams, which focuses on microfinance in the South Pacific; and OneSky, which provides care for at-risk children in China, Vietnam and Mongolia. He is a volunteer with L’Arche of Greater Washington, D.C., and is a founding funder of the Roll Away the Stone Program at Howard University School of Social Work. He also serves on the Advisory Council of the National Peace Corps Association.
Chapman is married to Grace Boey Taylor, who was born in Malaysia. They have three children: Crawford, who works in Jakarta, Indonesia; Jade, who works in New York; and Jarman, who is completing his senior year at Davidson College. Grace and Chapman split their time between Singapore and Washington, D.C.
Inspired by Tulane’s engagement in the New Orleans community, the Taylors began giving to Chapman’s alma mater post-Katrina. Grace and Chapman established a fund honoring Chapman’s former physics professor, Dr. Karlem “Ducky” Reiss, which supports curriculum development and undergraduate summer research grants through the Newcomb-Tulane College Honors Program.
Robert E. Raborn, MD and Lenore Benson Raborn met at Tulane University, where Lenore was a graduate student in the School of Social Work, having completed undergraduate studies at Florida State College for Women, and Bob was a student in the School of Medicine, having completed undergraduate studies in Agriculture at the University of Florida. While their meeting happened by chance, they already had a connection: unknown to them, Lenore and Bob’s mothers had been roommates at Florida State College for Women, but had since lost touch.
Members of the Greatest Generation, the pair were committed to public service. During World War II, Lenore worked as an airplane spotter at the Boca Raton Army Air Field and Bob served in the United States Army. Bob later served President Eisenhower as the medical director of the United States Treasury Department during the Korean War.
While Bob was given different assignments in the United States Public Health Service, Lenore worked in medical social work in New Orleans, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. After Bob’s service ended, they moved to her hometown of Boynton Beach, Florida, where they raised three children and helped found Bethesda Memorial Hospital in the late 1950’s. True to Bob’s public health background, in the 1960’s the family ran the oral polio vaccine distribution in the Boynton/ Delray area from the Delray Drive-In theater, successfully immunizing 80% of the community. The effort was a family affair – the Raborn children ran back and forth delivering paper cups with sugar cubes that held drops of the vaccine to families who drove through.
Lenore and Bob were both active civic leaders in the community. Lenore served as president or charter member for many local groups, including the Palm Beach County Medical Auxiliary, Seacrest University Women, Bethesda Memorial Hospital Auxiliary, Poinciana Garden Club and the St. Andrews School Mothers’ Association. She also served on the Boards of the Bethesda Memorial Hospital Foundation and the Bethesda Memorial Fund. A charter member of the Bethesda Memorial Hospital staff and celebrated cardiologist, Bob was an active outdoorsman and an avid environmentalist, earning recognition not only for his work in the medical field but also for his volunteer work in conservation.
Through a trust established by Robert in 1974, Tulane received generous gifts in 2020 and 2021 to establish endowed funds supporting the School of Medicine and the School of Social Work.
