Donor Stories

New Fund Established to Support the Geoarchaeology Lab at DRI

Stanley Shumaker, a retired civil engineer and an amateur archaeologist, initiated the Geoarchaeology Lab Fund with a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) at the end of 2024. The fund will support Dr. Teresa Wriston’s Geoarchaeology Lab, and her research centering on how past cultures coped or adapted to changing environmental conditions.

DRI Launches New Corporate Partners Program

DRI is thrilled to announce that Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix is our first official Corporate Partner. “Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix is excited to join DRI’s Corporate Partners program. This partnership aligns well with our sustainability goals and we look forward to working with DRI in the year ahead.” – Lori Nelson-Kraft, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Brittany Kruger, Ph.D. receives the 2024 Harold J. Kruse Farming and Environment Award

Brittany Kruger, Ph.D. was selected as the 2024 recipient of this award for her proposal “Nitrogen Dynamics in Arid Agriculture: Optimizing for both Farmer and Environment.” The Harold J. Kruse Farming and Environment Award was established in 2022 by Stephanie Kruse, DRI Foundation Trustee, to honor her father’s legacy and recognize his farming business sense. Thank you to Stephanie Kruse and her brother, Norm Kruse, for their continued support of this award.

DRI Raises Funds to Ensure Groundbreaking Science can Continue in Perpetuity

Thank you to the generous donors who supported the Innovation Research Program Endowment through DRI’s 2024 year-end giving campaign. These gifts brought us significantly closer to raising the $5M needed to fully fund the IRP Endowment and ensure support for innovative research is available to DRI scientists for generations to come.

This Giving Season, Please Consider Supporting the IRP Endowment

This giving season, please join us in supporting bright minds and their best ideas by donating to the IRP Endowment, which was established earlier this year to ensure that innovative science continues for generations to come. Your gift will bring us one step closer to our goal of raising $5 million to fully fund this endowment. To date, this program has supported more than 20 research teams and several successful research programs have grown out of IRP-supported preliminary research.

Ray of Sunshine Ministry Uses Green Boxes to Bring STEM Education to Foster Children and Homeschool Families

Tiffany Morales, Founder and President of Ray of Sunshine Ministry, is bringing STEM education to foster children and homeschool students in Southern Nevada. This year, Ray of Sunshine is utilizing DRI STEM Education Program’s Green Boxes to provide STEM and robotics programs to these groups. Morales said, “With DRI’s service, we’re able to provide excellent robotics programs to homeschool groups and foster care facilities, absolutely free of cost to us and to them.”

Peter B. Wagner Memorial Endowment Honors the Work of Exceptional Women Graduate Students for 26th Year

Twenty-six years since it was first awarded, the Peter B. Wagner Award for Women in Atmospheric Science remains the only award in the United States for female graduate students in the atmospheric sciences. Thanks to the generosity of Sue Wagner, the exceptional work of women graduate students in the atmospheric sciences will continue to be recognized and honored in perpetuity.

Nell J. Redfield Foundation Supports Hands-On Computer Science, Math, and Literacy Classroom Lessons Through DRI’s Nevada Robotics

The Nell J. Redfield Foundation recently made a three-year commitment to support Nevada Robotics’ Books and Bots Teacher Trainings, which will provide classroom lessons in Pre-Kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms using robots and storybooks.

Donors Fund Endowment that Transforms Big Ideas into Groundbreaking Environmental Solutions and Offer a Dollar-for-Dollar Match up to $2 million

Earlier this year, thanks to generous matching commitments from the Tom and Mary Gallagher Foundation and the Bretzlaff Foundation, DRI established the IRP Endowment, ensuring funding in perpetuity. To maximize the impact of the IRP Endowment, the Gallagher Foundation and Bretzlaff Foundation have made their commitments a dollar for dollar match up to $2 million with a goal of raising a $5 million endowment.

DRI Donors Value Hard Work, Integrity, and Service to Their Community by Establishing an Endowment

Betty Gallifent recently established the Elizabeth and John Gallifent Endowment, which will provide unrestricted support for DRI.

DRI Celebrates World Environment Day

World Environment Day is June 5. “Everybody alive now is part of the generation that is the first to witness the devastating effects of environmental degradation.” - United Nations World Environment Day Announcement 2024 The 2024 global theme for World...

Community Support for Nevada Robotics

Proceeds from Click Bond’s Valentine candy-gram employee fundraiser, which were matched through its Employee Charitable Giving Match program, were donated to Nevada Robotics to help ensure students have equitable access to computer science and STEM education.

MGM Resorts Funds STEM Educator Professional Development Trainings

At the end of 2023, the DRI STEM Education Program received generous funding from MGM Resorts International to host four STEM Co-Lab teacher trainings in southern Nevada. The first training, which took place in January at the southern Nevada DRI STEM Co-lab, focused on the use of photon robots in K-12 classrooms to teach coding.

The DRI Foundation Welcomes New Trustees for 2024

The DRI Foundation is pleased to welcome the new members to its Board of Trustees, each serving a four-year term. These board members were formally approved at the December NSHE Board of Regents meeting and will serve alongside existing DRI Foundation Board Members.

Duane Moser, Ph.D., Receives the 2023 Harold J. Kruse Farming and Environment Award

Moser’s research, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, focuses on the development and implementation of environmental DNA (eDNA) tools for tracking endangered and invasive aquatic species on historic ranch properties on the headwaters of the Amargosa Wild and Scenic River.