UNMC alumni Mark Houser, MD, and Catherine Houser spent much of their health care careers caring for pediatric patients. Inspired by a desire to give back to UNMC, the couple decided to leave a legacy by investing in the care of children with kidney disease in their home state of Nebraska.
The Housers have made a multi-year commitment to create the Mark and Catherine Houser Professorship in Pediatric Nephrology at UNMC. The couple also made a deferred pledge to endow the position later through their estate.
“We feel a deep connection to UNMC,” Dr. Houser said. “Making this gift was important to us because Catherine and I are Nebraskans at heart. We lived here nearly all our lives.”
Dr. Houser was a physician in the UNMC Division of Pediatric Nephrology from 1983 to 1996, including serving as division chief, and played a key role in initiating and growing the division. He went on to work in the pharmaceutical industry for 20 years. Catherine Houser was a longtime pediatric cardiology nurse in Omaha.
“It’s incredible to see how far the program has come,” Dr. Houser said. “Anything that helps faculty ultimately leads to better care for children from the region with kidney disease. Professorships and chairs are essential to retaining and attracting faculty, especially when the university’s resources are limited.”
Pending approval of the University of Nebraska, Melissa Muff-Luett, MD, will be the inaugural recipient of the Mark and Catherine Houser Professorship in Pediatric Nephrology. She is an associate professor and chief of the UNMC Division of Pediatric Nephrology, which provides comprehensive clinical training in kidney disease, hypertension, dialysis and transplant management for infants, children and adolescents.
“Thank you to the Houser family for their generous contribution to establish the Mark and Catherine Houser Professorship in Pediatric Nephrology,” Dr. Muff-Luett said. “On behalf of the UNMC Division of Pediatric Nephrology and dialysis division, I want to express my gratitude for their generosity. Their gift will be used to expand and improve nephrology, dialysis and kidney transplant care for the children of Nebraska and western Iowa with a focus on advancing the current research efforts of our division. Our team is dedicated to continuing Dr. Houser’s legacy of excellence in pediatric nephrology care.”
The recipient will receive an annual stipend to support scholarly research and creative activities within the division.
“On behalf of the UNMC Department of Pediatrics, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Houser family for their gift in establishing this new professorship,” said Kari Simonsen, MD, the Carol Remmer Angle, MD, Presidential Chair of Pediatrics and chair of the department. “This professorship will support and enable our continued academic success in pediatric nephrology.”
The Housers hail from western Nebraska, with Mark growing up in Scottsbluff and North Platte and Catherine in Scottsbluff. Dr. Houser is a 1975 graduate of the UNMC College of Medicine. Catherine Houser received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1978 and a Master of Science in Nursing in 1993, both from UNMC. The couple now live in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
The Housers made the gift commitment through the University of Nebraska Foundation. They hope to inspire others to create endowed chairs and professorships to provide a perpetual source of support for the UNMC Department of Pediatrics.
The gift was made as part of Only in Nebraska: A Campaign for Our University’s Future. The campaign is a historic effort to engage 150,000 benefactors to give $3 billion to support the University of Nebraska. A top campaign priority is to create new endowed chairs and professorships to recruit and retain preeminent educators and researchers in every field.