Ruth J. Simmons, a three-time college president, recently made a gift to Texas Southern University to establish the Nora B. Wilson Endowment and Health Clinic in honor of her late sister, a breast cancer survivor who passed away in May.
The new endowment will support the HBCU’s Breast Cancer Screening and Prevention Center, which provides prevention and early detection resources to women in nine counties throughout Southeast Texas. Beyond funding the clinic’s operations, Dr. Simmons’ gift will also help expand access to educational resources, strengthen community partnerships, support student and faculty involvement in health equity initiatives, and address disparities that disproportionately impact underserved communities.
“Nora Wilson was such a person who lived a life of dignity and worth without ever being singled out for her importance, but she was important,” said Dr. Ruth J. Simmons. “She was a daughter who sacrificed by going to work early to help support our family, a sister whose strong independence inspired us to live our lives with purpose and a respect for others, a mother whose strong independence protected her children and imparted inestimable values to guide their lives, and a wife whose loyalty and love to her husband Nathaniel endured until his death. This endowment that we are pleased to give Texas Southern honors one who labored largely without praise, who symbolizes the vast and diverse communities that universities ostensibly seek to serve. People like Nora across this land showed us what everyday determination and persistence could overcome.”
Dr. Simmons is the former president of a women’s college, Smith College in Massachusetts; an Ivy League institution, Brown University in Rhode Island; and an HBCU, Prairie View A&M University in Texas. Since retiring from PVAMU in 2023, she has served as a President’s Distinguished Fellow at Rice University in Houston, as well as a senior adviser to the president of Harvard University on engagement with historically Black colleges and universities.
A graduate of Dillard University in New Orleans, Dr. Simmons holds a Ph.D. in romance languages and literatures from Harvard.
