The Department of Psychiatry Establishes the Laurel E. Zaks Memorial Research Fund
The Department of Psychiatry expresses profound gratitude to Dr. Arnold Zaks and Mrs. Maryanne Walko Zaks, whose recent generous gift will enable the establishment of a research fund in honor of their daughter Laurel, who passed away on March 28, 2008. The Laurel E. Zaks Memorial Research Fund will provide support for Department of Psychiatry research pertaining to depression and suicide.
Laurel Zaks earned her BS in Clinical Nutrition from the University of Pittsburgh and completed graduate and postgraduate work at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. While a student at Pitt, she traveled to Romania with a team of pediatricians to work as a nutritionist in orphanages, which deepened her resolve to work in international nutrition. She then traveled the world, providing training on nutrition and primary health prevention strategies. With the Peace Corps, Laurel established a clinic in Ecuador to help malnourished children and their mothers, developing practical recipes that would allow families to create nutritious meals from available food. Her in-depth work in Ecuador required her to remain in the country for an extra year, which she joked that she agreed to do “only for the mangoes.” In Vietnam, she organized the first international nutrition conference ever held in that country. A dedicated champion for global public health, Laurel also developed policy and legislative strategy on domestic hunger for Congress and worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her mother explains that Laurel “knew every day was precious,” and she dedicated herself completely to everything she did. She was relentlessly devoted to the mission of supporting public health in places where it was needed most.
Dr. and Mrs. Zaks have deep connections to the University of Pittsburgh, having attended for undergraduate and graduate school, as did several family members. The decision to create a research fund at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry was, for them, the best way to honor and remember their daughter. “Pitt meant a lot to Laurel,” they explain. “When we read about the research and progress that is happening at Pitt in the field of depression and suicide, we knew that was exactly what we wanted. And it’s so meaningful to us that we are here to be a part of it.”
The Laurel E. Zaks Memorial Research Fund is established today, March 28, 2019.