Meet our Donors
Judith Tam
From Patient to Advocate
Judith Tam, the daughter of Richard Tam, heads the Richard Tam Foundation. She had a varied background before she began directing his many companies and his Foundation upon his death. Her former positions included work at the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis and then 3M as a statistical programmer moving to residential real estate at a RE/MAX office before assuming her role as the decision maker for his many companies holding commercial properties in Las Vegas. Her past jobs prepared her well for the new challenges that lay ahead. She is a long-time philanthropist who cares to make a difference in the lives of others with the grants that she has recommended to the Board. Her former grants includes gifts to the Semper Fi Fund, Wounded Warriors, Three Square, Communities in Schools, and Cornerstone Stones here in Detroit where a commitment from the Foundation kept two schools from shutting down which would have dropped 800 children back into the Detroit School System that had a dismal 25% graduation rate. She also directed gifts for Bipolar Research to the University of Michigan providing support for the first precision health initiative ever undertaken there.
Within months of discovering that she had stage IV ALK+ lung cancer in September of 2021 she reached out to figure what research efforts might be the most promising for developing new and better treatments for patients who were in her shoes. She chose to sponsor the development of a brand new research project at University of Michigan under the direction of the esteemed researcher, Dr. Sofia Merajver, funding it with a commitment of $9.6 million dollars.
ALK Positive
A patient-driven organization that seeks a cure for ALK+ cancer and works to improve patients’ quality of life and life expectancy worldwide. Learn more at the ALK Positive website.
Astellas
Astellas is a global life sciences company committed to turning innovative science into VALUE for patients. Learn more by visiting the Astellas website.
RESEARCH SAVES LIVES
Researchers at the Judith Tam ALK Lung Cancer Research Initiative are at the cutting edge of medical research. With a vast interdisciplinary team, we have fostered a collaborative environment that will expedite the rate of scientific discovery and clinical implementation.
100% of funding goes directly to research.
