SUMMER 2020

TORCHLIGHT

Perspectives on tax-wise charitable giving

THANKS TO YOU...

Steinhardt students can pursue their passions (Holli Gersh)
Students at the Meyers College of Nursing can dream big (Nadia Sultana)
Doors are opened to support physics and mathematics students (John Zavada)
The next generation of business leaders can get their start at Stern (Christine Schneider)

Christine Schneider: Proud to Aid the Next Generation of Business Leaders

Christine Schneider, who graduated from NYU Stern’s MBA program in 1994, set her sights on attending the School years before officially becoming a Sternie. She knew that Washington Square was where she wanted to be, and here she met some of her closest friends, including Susan Jurevics MBA ’96 and Ashok Sani BS ’74.

Christine was a long-time volunteer, a former Chair of the Stern Alumni Council, and an instrumental part of the establishment of the Stern Women in Business (SWIB) Alumnae Committee. Christine also helped found the Career Center for Working Professionals.

Christine’s experience at Stern launched an illustrious business career, during which she worked at Oppenheimer Capital and DB Advisors, became the executive director and head of consultant relations for the Americas at UBS Asset Management, and served as a managing director at Jennison Associates.

Christine Schneider

As Christine’s family shared, “She was self-assured and courageous and could give a presentation to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies without breaking a sweat. As she ascended through the ranks she never forgot where she came from. She was a mentor to many and always helped the people around her achieve their highest potential.”

Christine chose to make a transformative, testamentary gift to the School to support undergraduate scholarships. In addition to this incredible legacy, Christine also established a scholarship fund in 2019 and was buoyed by the opportunity to meet with her students and see the tangible impact of her gift. Christine shared that supporting the next generation of business leaders was one of her proudest accomplishments.

In April of 2020, Christine lost a very courageous battle with breast cancer. The NYU Stern community is notably less bright without her, and the School is planning a celebration of her life for friends and family when we are able to gather together again.

Holli Gersh: Encouraging Problem Solving

When Holli designed the interior of Ed Gersh’s home, they became friends—a friendship that turned into love and then marriage. When Ed passed away in 2014, Holli and Ed had known each other for more than thirty years.

Holli shared that Ed often talked about his strong feelings for NYU and the opportunities that the university provided for him. He received a football scholarship to attend NYU, but unfortunately, he suffered a career-ending injury his freshman year. Still, NYU agreed to honor his scholarship, allowing Ed to eventually earn his bachelor’s degree in Education from the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development in 1943. He added a master’s degree from Steinhardt in 1950. As a way of giving back, Ed established the Edward Gersh Scholarship at Steinhardt in 2005.

Holli Gersh

Through the years, Holli and Ed met many of their scholarship recipients, and Holli has continued to meet the recipients since Ed’s death. Holli believes that creative problem solving will be increasingly important in the years to come, and she enjoys hearing students share about the educational opportunities at Steinhardt that foster and enhance that ability. In addition to meeting the Gersh Scholarship recipients, Holli has remained engaged with Steinhardt by serving on the Dean’s Advisory Council. She also has established a charitable gift annuity that solved some financial issues that she was facing. She sees the gift annuity as a “win-win” for her and for Steinhardt. We are thankful for her generosity and thoughtful planning that will benefit so many students in the years to come.

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Nadia Sultana: Paying a Dream Forward

“NYU Meyers helped me achieve goals that I never thought I could attain.” These are the words of Nadia Sultana, DNP, MBA, RN-BC. Nadia grew up in Queens, New York, and was a first-generation college student. While attending college in the city on a NY Regents Nursing Scholarship, she loved the magic of walking around the Washington Square Campus and wished that her parents could have afforded to send her to NYU.

Nadia graduated from college with a Nursing degree and then completed her MBA and became a hospital administrator. In this role, she was an early adopter of technology as a way to meet healthcare needs. As she served and learned, she accepted a position at NYU as an adjunct professor in the newly formed Nursing Informatics Master’s and Advanced Certificate Program. She recalls the feeling when she taught her first class: “I could not believe it…I was at NYU!”

Nadia Sultana

After teaching as an adjunct professor for ten years, Nadia was appointed Program Director and served the NYU community for another ten years. In this role, working with and mentoring students had a great impact on Nadia—in fact, her professional experience drove her decision to include NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing in her estate plan. “There is nothing that gives me greater satisfaction than watching students work hard to reach their potential, and it is my hope that, through my gift, more students will have these opportunities and realize their dreams. My estate will provide scholarships for research related to the use of technology to promote positive patient outcomes. This has been my passion, and what better way to leave a legacy than to provide NYU Meyers students the opportunity to collaborate and study and to create new knowledge!”

NYU Meyers students will appreciate Nadia Sultana’s gift for generations to come.

John Zavada: Opening Doors for Scientists

New Jersey native Dr. John Zavada proved that you can go home again. Eager to leave the New York City area when he went to college, he chose Catholic University in Washington, D.C., earning a bachelor’s degree in Physics. After graduation, John chose NYU for his graduate studies. He earned both his masters (’65) and doctorate (’71) in physics from NYU.

With his advanced NYU degrees, John secured a position with the federal government as a research physicist in optoelectronic materials and devices, making significant contributions to optoelectronic science and technologies that have led to the development of light-emitting devices (LEDs) and lasers. In 2010, he was appointed a research professor at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU.

John Zavada

John believes that his NYU education was essential to his career success because it increased his ability to think broadly within his discipline. To ensure that future generations of scientists have the same opportunity, John established the John M. Zavada, Jr. Graduate Fellowship Fund in 2019, which provides tuition assistance for graduate students studying physics and/or mathematics. John used gifts from his donor-advised fund to set up the Fund, and he made provisions to add to the Fund through a gift from his estate.

Although he retired in 2017, John remains active in professional societies. He also received the Army’s Meritorious Civilian Service Award. Thanks to John’s appreciation for his NYU education, which helped open the door to a rewarding career, future NYU students will receive important tuition support for a quality education that opens doors for them. We are extremely grateful for John’s commitment to the NYU community.

The Impact of the CARES Act

The impact of the coronavirus has been felt across the globe. In a move to combat its devastating impact on the U.S. population and economy, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Some CARES Act provisions may impact your charitable planning in 2020.

Temporary waiver of RMDs

The CARES Act waives the required minimum distribution (RMD) rules for certain defined contribution plans and IRAs, both for calendar year 2020 RMDs and for 2019 RMDs that were required to be taken by April 1, 2020.

Charitable contributions

The CARES Act contains two significant charitable contribution provisions.

For those who do not itemize, it allows a $300 above-the-line deduction for gifts to charitable organizations in 2020.
It increases the limitation on deductions for cash gifts to public charities (but not to donor-advised funds). For 2020, the individual limitation is raised to 100% of AGI (which means for some donors, 2020 could be an excellent year for a large cash gift). The 10% corporate limit is also increased to 25%.

Early retirement distributions

The 10% early withdrawal penalty is waived for distributions needed as a result of COVID-19. Rules and limits apply.

Photo: Students walk in front of NYU's Welcome Center

NYU Langone Health has launched two major clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine and antibody treatment.

Researchers at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology and the Vaccine Center at NYU Langone Health have partnered with major pharmaceutical companies to launch two COVID-19 related clinical trials: one for the development of a vaccine and one to test an antibody therapy.

Working with the University of Maryland, Pfizer Inc., and BioNTech SE, the vaccine clinical trial will test whether four experimental messenger RNA vaccine candidates can prevent infection with COVID-19. Concurrently, the team is working with Eli Lilly and Company to treat its first patients with an antibody therapy designed to safely reduce COVID-19 severity. The experimental treatment consists of identical copies of antibody, a blood protein related to those that occur naturally in the human immune system.

NYU chemists design molecules to treat COVID-19.

NYU Chemical Biology laboratories are working to develop and screen new classes of compounds to inhibit coronavirus entry and replication in order to develop new drug treatments. The initiatives include experts in the computational design of molecules, synthesis of drug candidates, synthesis and screening of peptidomimetic ligands, expression of proteins and biochemical assays, and structural biology. The goal of these initiatives is to discover molecular entities that can specifically target the viral life cycle and treat SARS-CoV-2 in its current or future mutated forms.

NYU study looks at how racial inequality is produced online.

NYU Steinhardt designed a study to conceptualize how race is represented and systematically reproduced online, specifically looking at how users navigate the web’s structure and how that structure influences users’ navigational patterns. The researcher used the lens of racial formation theory, which conceptualizes how institutions draw on prevailing racial common sense to produce advantages and disadvantages that flow to racial groups. The findings of the research demonstrate that variables that have historically contributed to racial inequality offline, such as segregated traffic patterns and destinations, are also present within the web’s environment.

TORCHLIGHT: Profiles of generosity

For more information about ways to meet your philanthropic goals, be sure to request our free booklet, Estate Planning Today, or contact:

Meryl R. Cosentino
Executive Director, Gift Planning
Office: 212-998-6960
Cell: 646-983-1646
meryl.cosentino@nyu.ed

Greg Teeter
Senior Director, Gift Planning
Office: 212-998-6920
greg.teeter@nyu.edu

You may also visit giving.nyu.edu/giftplanning/ to learn more.