Dear Boilermakers,
After a smooth, successful and strategic 2023, the new year started with an exciting announcement on January 9: Lilly Endowment Inc. has committed a $100 million philanthropic gift to Purdue, the largest such gift in the history of our university. We are truly grateful for the tremendous support from Lilly Endowment, which has already provided many significant gifts to Purdue prior to this transformational commitment.
The $100 million gift will accelerate and amplify two intersecting initiatives announced last year: the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business and Purdue Computes. Together with Purdue University in Indianapolis — our first comprehensive urban campus, set to open this July — these strategic initiatives will further elevate Purdue’s excellence at scale for our students, faculty, staff and partners.
As announced at the Board of Trustees meeting at the end of last year, we are bringing back, as part of our “ABCD” strategy to serve our state and our country, commercial passenger airline service to the Purdue University Airport, with a new terminal to be named after Amelia Earhart. We are also gathering input from you about pedestrian safety on a campus that will see groundbreakings for many new academic and residential facilities this year; about the use of AI in teaching and learning and agility in offering new courses and credentials; about further investment in master’s and doctoral students, including another increase of the stipend minimum and expansion of the new Presidential Awards in Doctoral Excellence; and about student access and success, including the Business Opportunity Program, Minority Engineering Program and other programs that support success for Purdue students from all backgrounds.
Later this year, as we celebrate the Purdue Memorial Union’s centennial, we will unveil the collection of Degas sculptures gifted to us by Avrum Gray (ME’56). Come back to campus and see us on the Day of Giving in April, annual Homecoming in September, or the first Healthcare Professional Alumni Reunion in November!
In 2023, Purdue University was the only university as a leading partner in three out of three national hub competitions (Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen, Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons, Heartland BioWorks). And Purdue remains the home to a top-4 men’s basketball team in America.
A Happy Boilermaker 2024!
Mung Chiang
President
Roscoe H. George Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Purdue University
Dear Boilermakers,
After a smooth, successful and strategic 2023, the new year started with an exciting announcement on January 9: Lilly Endowment Inc. has committed a $100 million philanthropic gift to Purdue, the largest such gift in the history of our university. We are truly grateful for the tremendous support from Lilly Endowment, which has already provided many significant gifts to Purdue prior to this transformational commitment.
The $100 million gift will accelerate and amplify two intersecting initiatives announced last year: the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business and Purdue Computes. Together with Purdue University in Indianapolis — our first comprehensive urban campus, set to open this July — these strategic initiatives will further elevate Purdue’s excellence at scale for our students, faculty, staff and partners.
As announced at the Board of Trustees meeting at the end of last year, we are bringing back, as part of our “ABCD” strategy to serve our state and our country, commercial passenger airline service to the Purdue University Airport, with a new terminal to be named after Amelia Earhart. We are also gathering input from you about pedestrian safety on a campus that will see groundbreakings for many new academic and residential facilities this year; about the use of AI in teaching and learning and agility in offering new courses and credentials; about further investment in master’s and doctoral students, including another increase of the stipend minimum and expansion of the new Presidential Awards in Doctoral Excellence; and about student access and success, including the Business Opportunity Program, Minority Engineering Program and other programs that support success for Purdue students from all backgrounds.
Later this year, as we celebrate the Purdue Memorial Union’s centennial, we will unveil the collection of Degas sculptures gifted to us by Avrum Gray (ME’56). Come back to campus and see us on the Day of Giving in April, annual Homecoming in September, or the first Healthcare Professional Alumni Reunion in November!
In 2023, Purdue University was the only university as a leading partner in three out of three national hub competitions (Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen, Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons, Heartland BioWorks). And Purdue remains the home to a top-4 men’s basketball team in America.
A Happy Boilermaker 2024!
Mung Chiang
President
Roscoe H. George Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Purdue University
Patsy earned a bachelor’s degree in food and nutrition in business from Purdue in 1969, in addition to an MBA in food marketing from Michigan State University in 1970. She retired from Kraft Foods in 2006 after 36 years in corporate food marketing and marketing communications management.
A community volunteer, Patsy serves on the Women’s Fund of Central Indiana Advisory Board and the Purdue College of Health and Human Sciences Dean’s Leadership Council, in addition to the President’s Council Advisory Board. She is a former member of the Health and Human Sciences Alumni Board. Patsy held several offices from 2006 through 2013, including president and treasurer. She serves her community’s Discover Indianapolis Club in Fishers, holding several leadership roles for over 10 years.
Patsy has received several honors, including the Purdue University Nutrition Science Department Hall of Fame recipient in 2009 and the Purdue University College of Health and Human Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016. She also received the college’s Gold and Black Award in 2016, an honor reserved for donors who have moved the college forward by committing exceptional financial resources.
In addition to endowing two scholarships, the Patsy J. Mellott Scholarship and Patsy J. Mellott HHS Scholarship, she established the Patsy J. Mellott Teaching Innovation Award in the College of Health and Human Sciences in 2013. In 2015, she endowed the Patsy J. Mellott Women’s Tennis Coach Performance Award. She is a lead donor in the Christine M. Ladisch Faculty Leadership Award and the Purdue Women’s Network Virginia C. Meredith Scholarship for the College of Health and Human Sciences.