Do You Want To Be A Chair?

No not that type of chair, the type that heads a university department.

U.S. Jewish Billionaire Donates $2m to Transgender Study Program
Haaretz
January 20, 2016

An American Jewish billionaire philanthropist in Chicago has donated $2 million to establish what is believed to be the first chair of transgender studies at a university, the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.

Jennifer Pritzker, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who is believed to be the only transgender billionaire in the world, made the gift through her Tawani Foundation to the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

Aaron Devor, a sociology professor who studies transgender issues and the founder of the University of Victoria’s Transgender Archives, will be the inaugural chair.

I wonder what they are going to study? Social issues? Medical research?

The Chicago Tribune says that half the of the money will help get the programs off the ground and support it for five years while the other half will be used as matching grants for fundraising. The article goes on to say,

"Far too many trans and gender-nonconforming people still live in poverty and fear," Dr Devor said in a statement. "As the inaugural chair, I will act as a resource locally and internationally for those needing information for their own research or for policy development, as well as building linkages between community-based and academic scholars working in transgender studies."

Dr Devor also is the founder of the university's Transgender Archives, launched in 2012, which houses publications and memorabilia detailing the history and work of notable transgender and gender-nonconforming activists.
[…]
Much transgender research throughout North America has been supported through philanthropy. Some of the first pushes for exploring transgender issues came through funding and support from the Erickson Educational Foundation, according to Dr Devor.

Reed Erickson, a transgender man, started the foundation in the early 1960s. Among other things, the organisation sponsored the first symposiums of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, named for the doctor who worked with patients with gender dysphoria. That organisation now is called the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.

And where did the Lt Colonel get a billion dollars? She owns the Hyatt hotel chain and other companies in the Marmon Group.