As we celebrate the many blessings we enjoyed throughout 2012…

As we celebrate the many blessings we enjoyed throughout 2012 and as we look to all that the New Year brings, it is good to reflect on the message of hope. Our overall mission at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is to provide children and their families with a sense of hope — through the delivery of specialized medical and surgical services for children, our commitment to discovery of better ways to prevent and treat disease and our educational programs. We collaborate across our hospital and campus and also partner with our greater community to accomplish these activities. We especially rely on our community partners to share our story of hope.

This summer, we lost one of our special partners, Ann Scott Carell, wife of the late Monroe Carell Jr., our hospital’s namesake. Ann Carell was a devoted wife, mother and grandmother who loved to travel, played the piano, and enjoyed both tennis and bridge. She was a teacher as well as a life-long learner, and as such, was an advocate for education at many levels through the building of several school campuses and establishment of scholarships to numerous high schools and universities. Together with Monroe, she shared a deep commitment to the care of sick children. Their vision for a special experience for children and their families resulted in the foundational gift that launched the capital campaign to build the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

The Carells’ vision has benefited nearly a thousand children every day who come here for their health care. The stories you will read reflect the hope that our patients, families and staff at Children’s Hospital experience every day. These stories highlight the amazing work done by our best doctors and scientists, nurses and staff who are committed to excellence in care and in research.

We do many great things every day to positively impact the health and well-being of children and their families – but we cannot do them without special people, like Monroe and Ann Carell, who share in our mission and commitment to children, who partner with us to make a vision become a reality, and who help us share our story.

Ann graced our community with a beautiful smile, a wonderful sense of humor, a generous heart and a steadfast commitment to make a difference in the lives of children. We thank her and the Carell family for sharing our mission to serve as a place of unwavering hope for all the families who walk through our doors every day.

Sincerely,

Luke Gregory, FACHE
Chief executive officer

Meg Rush, M.D.
Chief of staff and executive medical director

Steven Webber, MBChB, MRCP
Pediatrician-in-chief, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and James C. Overall Professor

John W. Brock III, M.D.
Surgeon-in-chief, director of the Division of Pediatric Urology and Monroe Carell Jr. Chair