Lori Driscoll
When Dolores (Lori) Driscoll retired from Standish Investment Management after a successful career, she knew that she wanted to 
give back. In 2014, after volunteering for almost 20 years with Tufts Medical Center’s Board of Governors, a group of business and community leaders who serve as ambassadors for the Medical Center, she attended a presentation by Mark Sarnak, MD, the hospital’s Chief of Nephrology. During the presentation, Dr. Sarnak shared a statistic that is not widely known outside of the medical community: one in every nine Americans suffers from kidney damage or low functioning kidneys that can lead to debilitating and life-threatening chronic kidney disease (CKD). There and then, Lori knew where she wanted to make her impact.
“I was so surprised to learn of the pervasiveness of kidney disease. It is a silent disease. People are usually unaware that they have it until it becomes serious and harder to control,” says Lori.
Since that fortuitous presentation by Dr. Sarnak, Lori has supported research in CKD through the creation of the Driscoll Family Endowed Fund in Nephrology. She eventually recruited her daughter, Christie Blier, a vice president at Goldman Sachs, to join the Board of Governors and to help establish their family’s philanthropic legacy.
“Given the prevalence of kidney disease, I was also surprised that no one had ever asked me to donate to kidney research,” says Lori. “So when I learned of Tufts Medical Center’s long history of preeminence in nephrology, I saw an important opportunity to support clinical trials and fundamental research, including studies on the link between kidney disease and other diseases, especially cardiac disease. As a family, we are pleased to support the critical work of Dr. Mark Sarnak, Dr. Lesley Inker, Director of the Kidney and Blood Pressure Center, and the entire Division of Nephrology.”
Lori established the Driscoll Family Endowed Fund in Nephrology in 2017 with a gift of $100,000. The endowment provides ongoing support for Dr. Sarnak and his team to advance the most necessary and promising research on kidney disease. Lori and Christie make annual gifts to the fund, knowing that its growth will only increase the difference it makes in the lives of patients living with kidney disease.
Says Dr. Sarnak, “The Division of Nephrology is incredibly grateful for the financial stewardship that the Driscoll family provides through this endowment and their gifts each year. Their unwavering support of kidney disease treatment and research at Tufts Medical Center has had a profound impact on our ability to advance patient care, research, education, and even, public health policy."
In addition to their personal commitment to raise funds for the Medical Center, Lori and Christie had used their gifts to create a matching gift opportunity for Giving Tuesday in 2019 and will do so again this year.
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