Dr. Kiran and Dr. Pallavi Patel Making Tampa Bay and the World a Better Place
This month we seek to acknowledge the phenomenal accomplishments and generous contributions of Doctor Kiran and Doctor Pallavi Patel.
“Dr. K” and “Dr. P” (their affectionate nicknames) met in medical school in India. After graduation, they both began practicing medicine in Zambia. But after a short time they left for America, landing in our country on Thanksgiving Day 1976. A lot has transpired since then and one can only conclude that the best is yet to come.
After spending the morning visiting with the Doctors at their private retreat in the Wyndham Grand on Clearwater Beach, I quickly realized that covering the “Patel Philanthropy Story” would take volumes rather than one page. So, here are a few of the highlights of our conversation.
First, when they came to America on Thanksgiving Day, the significance has not been forgotten. Give back often and as much as you are able. So far (the number keeps growing). The Patel’s have given in excess of $240 million to support the arts, education and health care in Florida. Another Patel guideline, “Education is the best gift, good health is the second.”
The Patel’s have made their gifts with a keen eye on the “multiplier effect”. Let me explain:
•Doctor Kiran C. Patel Charter School at University of South Florida and the Dr. Pallavi Patel Pediatric Care Center at the school
•The Doctor Pallavi Patel Performing Arts Conservatory at The Straz Center for Performing Arts
•A heart research institute at Tampa General Hospital
•The Doctor Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions –University of South Florida
•The Patel College of Global Sustainability – University of South Florida
•Support for early learning, athletics, and computer sciences atneedy schools in Tampa
AND
•Several gift to form the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Sciences at Nova Southeastern University in Clearwater.
The Patel’s have not limited their generosity to Florida. They have helped restore villages in India, established medical schools in Zambia and countless other gifts that could fill volumes of information.
Each of their goals that have been targeted to education and health care, have an overriding focus on how to make the “gift” beneficial over and over and over. Hence, the multiplier effect. The Patel Philanthropy Story has principles grounded in expanding the reach of basic education and health services, bringing the costs down and making delivery more efficient. Thereby, effecting more individuals more often.
The most recent and perhaps most notable gift is the funding of the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine at Nova Southeastern University. This partnering between the Patel’s vision for multiplying the number of health practitioners and Nova Southeastern’s established administrative excellence will generate hundreds of doctors and other health care professionals that will treat thousands of people not only in Florida but around the world. Hence, the multiplier effect of The Patel Philanthropy Story.
When Dr. K says he is blessed to have the resources to provide gifts that have the potential to impact many, many people, he is partly correct. It is all of us who are blessed to have The Patel Philanthropy Story impact all of us in the Bay Area and around the world. The lesson learned here is to “give back often and as much as you are able” and to do so with an eye on positively effecting as many human beings as possible.
Thank you Dr. K and Dr. P.
