McMaster receives $50M gift for local kinesiology institute, scholarships

McMaster University received a $50 million philanthropic donation, which it will use to develop a new Kinesiology institute and provide new scholarships to students.

It’s one of the largest philanthropic investments in kinesiology in Canadian university history.

The gift is from alumna Dr. Marcy McCall MacBain with the McCall MacBain Foundation, and will help establish the McCall MacBain Kinesiology and Healthspan Institute, four McCall MacBain chairs in Healthy Living, and the Marcy C. McCall Kinesiology Scholarships.

The foundation was established in 2007 and operates out of Geneva, Switzerland, and has provided scholarships to students across the country.

The landmark donation will help the school become a “global leader in kinesiology and healthspan optimization.”

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“Kinesiology is a powerful foundation for understanding health — and what sets McMaster’s program apart is how it builds on that through global leadership in evidence-based medicine,” said Marcy McCall MacBain in a statement.

“At the McCall MacBain Foundation, we are proud to accelerate the momentum McMaster’s faculty have already built. This grant has two goals: to put healthspan research at the forefront of how Canada thinks about health policy, and to give kinesiology students the leadership and training opportunities they need to make a lasting difference in the health of people’s lives.”

Student scholarships will be directed towards undergraduate students, with certain awards to be available for graduate students as well.

The newly created institute will serve as a location to advance cutting-edge research and improve on McMaster’s existing strengths in health research and community engagement.

It will be jointly affiliated with the school’s Department of Kinesiology and the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact.

The collaboration will include the Physical Activity Centre of Excellence (PACE), a community-focused hub for research, education and programs using physical activity to improve health and well-being.

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“I’m a Mac alum, so I’m really proud of the institution getting the donation,” said Stuart Phillips, Professor and chair in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University and Director at PACE. “As the chair of the Department of Kinesiology, this is an amazing — we throw around ‘game changer’ a lot, but I think that it’s truly a game changing gift.”

Phillips says the endowment is in perpetuity, and the interest from the fund will last for many years.

The hub serves over 500 members each year, and hosts over 250 students as they work alongside health professionals.

“PACE is a community program, trains five different populations, probably about 500 members, but now hopefully we’ll be able to spread the good work and the work that we’re doing, and put some of it, maybe into public policy,” said Phillips. “That’s part one of the chair’s jobs: to accelerate the discovery and get it down to policy-type levels.”

The new institute will begin laying the foundation for its launch later this year, with recruitment and application processes expected to begin this summer.

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