The 16th Annual Celebrating Champions Dinner and Auction was nothing short of spectacular! Thanks to the incredible generosity of our dedicated sponsors and individual donors, we raised an astounding $175,000 for two remarkable causes: the UPMC Senior Communities Benevolent Care Fund and the UPMC Western Behavioral Health Making Minds Matter Fund.
Your participation, in any form, made a significant impact. Your contributions will help sustain the finest healthcare programs in the region, ensuring they remain accessible to everyone, including you, your family, friends, and employees.
The bar has been set high for future events, and we’re already gearing up for 2025. Mark your calendars for October 16, 2025, at The Westin Pittsburgh. It’s going to be another unforgettable evening!
For more information about Celebrating Champions, reach out to Debbie Panei, Director of Development, UPMC Senior Services, at 412-864-3524 or paneid@upmc.edu.
The proceeds from Celebrating Champions will be shared between the UPMC Senior Communities Benevolent Care program, which supports senior residents who have outlived their financial resources, and the Making Minds Matter Fund at UPMC Western Behavioral Health, which enhances patient and family experiences for those navigating mental health challenges. Since 2009, this event has raised over $3.1 million to further charitable care.
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K. N. Roy Chengappa, MD
Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Service Line Chief, Comprehensive Recovery Services
Senior Medical Director of Clinical Innovations in Quality Improvement
Western Psychiatric Hospital and Western Behavioral Health, UPMC
Dr. Roy Chengappa is a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine. Since 1991, upon completion of a NIH/NIMH supported fellowship at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, he has held direct patient care, teaching, research and quality improvement roles and titles. These include attending psychiatrist, director of the Special Studies Center at Mayview State Hospital, service line chief of the Comprehensive Recovery Services of Western Psychiatric Hospital, course director of the Annual Pittsburgh Schizophrenia Conference, senior medical director of Innovations in Quality Improvement at Western Psychiatric Hospital and Western Behavioral Health, and UPMC Beckwith Physician Fellow for Shared Decision Making.
For more than 30 years, Dr. Chengappa has been involved in 45 funded grants supported by NIH-NIMH/NCATS/NIDA/SAMHSA, foundations, and the pharmaceutical industry as a co-investigator, co-principal, or principal investigator. In collaboration with teams across the country, these efforts led to the approval of several medications in current use for persons with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Dr. Chengappa has investigated the use of nutraceuticals and herbal-botanical extracts as potential medicines to treat symptoms of mental illness that are impervious to standard of care medications. Observational and quality improvement projects resultant from direct patient care interactions led him to drive the creation of pragmatic educational and decision-making tools for healthcare professionals, patients, and their caregivers.
Dr. Chengappa’s most gratifying reward as a physician is seeing the smiles and realistic hopes in persons with mental illness and their families when they move forward with their recovery journey and integrate into society.
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The Branch
Nancy E. Gale, Executive Director
Under the leadership of Nancy Gale, The Branch supports individuals with psychiatric, intellectual, and/or developmental disabilities, helping them to live, learn, work, and socialize as valued members of the community.
The organization was founded in 1993 as Jewish Residential Services and re-branded as The Branch in November 2022. The name change was motivated by a desire to better represent the current organization, with its broader range of services.
Like many other organizations supporting individuals with disabilities, a group of family members was instrumental in establishing the agency, developing it in response to identified, unmet needs of people with disabilities in the area’s Jewish community. With the continued support of their original founding families, The Branch has expanded its programs from one group home serving eight individuals with mental illness to three programs serving hundreds across diverse segments of the community.
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Noelle and David Conover
Founders, Matt’s Maker Space
Matt’s Maker Space is a nonprofit that creates learning spaces in schools, libraries, churches, community centers, hospitals, and outpatient settings. In the six years since it became a nonprofit, more than 40 spaces have been donated, providing more than a million dollars in equipment, training, and programming.
Matt’s Maker Space honors the memory of Matt Conover, an inquisitive 12-year-old boy who loved to build, tinker, and dream. His life was taken by pediatric cancer, and his family wanted to find a way to remember their son and brother and to help kids like Matt learn in new and exciting ways.
