The Shadow
HARRISONBURG, Va. (VR) – A $3.5 million gift from longtime James Madison University friend and philanthropic partner Richard Gilliam will name the university’s College of Health and Behavioral Studies building in honor of his late wife, Leslie Flanary Gilliam (’82). She was a Board of Visitors member, a JMU alumna, businesswoman and philanthropic leader whose influence continues to be felt across the university.
The gift comes as JMU prepares for a significant expansion of its healthcare programs, including nursing, and advances its vision to help address some of Virginia and the nation’s most pressing healthcare needs.
“My late wife, Leslie, and her sister both attended and loved their experiences at JMU. This gift is a way for our family to honor Leslie’s memory,” Gilliam said. “We hope that it provides more students with the opportunity to pursue a career in healthcare and enables the university to further health science efforts across our state.”
For JMU President Jim Schmidt, the gift represents both an endorsement of the university’s vision and an invitation to others to help JMU realize its full potential in the healthcare sector.
“Healthcare workforce shortages affect every community in Virginia. Universities have a responsibility to help meet that challenge, and JMU is prepared to do its part in a significant way,” Schmidt said. “Richard Gilliam’s gift honors Leslie’s remarkable legacy while helping us prepare the next generation of healthcare professionals. Her name will be associated with a place dedicated to learning, service and improving lives, which feels especially fitting given the impact she had on this university and the people around her.”
The Gilliam gift builds on growing momentum behind JMU’s healthcare and nursing vision, including nearly $150 million in new investment from the Commonwealth of Virginia and support from the Bedford Falls Foundation. The commonwealth’s investment includes a new five-story building that will expand the College of Health and Behavioral Studies alongside the existing building that soon will bear Leslie Gilliam’s name. It also funds the renovation and furnishing of Johnston Hall, which houses the Department of Graduate Psychology, and ongoing support for JMU’s new Nursing Fast Flex pathway.
“The commonwealth’s investment has created an extraordinary opportunity for JMU to expand healthcare education,” Schmidt said. “Philanthropic partners like Richard help turn that opportunity into reality. Their support allows us to think even more boldly about how many students we can serve, how we prepare them for their professions, and how JMU can contribute to the health and well-being of communities across Virginia. We are deeply grateful for this generous gift and for Richard’s commitment to advancing healthcare education at JMU while honoring Leslie’s extraordinary legacy.”
Proceeds from the Gilliam gift and future naming gifts will bring these new and existing spaces to life and help elevate them into a truly world-class environment for healthcare education. Philanthropy will provide and continually update the sophisticated technology and equipment students use in simulation laboratories — from high-fidelity patient simulators that replicate real-world clinical scenarios to electronic observation and monitoring systems that allow faculty to guide and assess students’ work. It will also support the specialized equipment, furnishings and supplies needed across CHBS’s many community-facing clinics, including audiology, speech-language, occupational therapy and counseling, where students gain hands-on clinical experience while providing services to members of the community.
“CHBS already has a strong reputation for interprofessional and interdisciplinary education, advanced community-facing clinical care and innovative approaches to rural health,” said Dr. Sharon Lovell, dean of the College of Health and Behavioral Studies. “Our students learn with and from faculty, students and practitioners in multiple disciplines, and they gain meaningful clinical experience alongside faculty and professionals while serving individuals across the lifespan in our communities. Richard Gilliam’s gift gives us the opportunity to build on what we already do exceptionally well and set an even higher standard for education, innovation and service.”
A legacy of leadership and philanthropy
A 1982 management graduate, Leslie Gilliam was a businesswoman, philanthropist and university leader who served on the JMU Board of Visitors, co-founded Women for Madison and helped establish The Madison Trust. She was an inaugural member of the Women for Madison Executive Advisory Council and believed deeply in the potential of collective philanthropy: “When women come together with a goal … great things will happen.”
Women for Madison posthumously presented Gilliam with its inaugural Spirit of Philanthropy Award, which now bears her name.
The Gilliam family has continued her legacy since her death in 2016. In 2018, the family made a $5.2 million commitment — then the largest gift in JMU history — to name the Leslie Flanary Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship in the College of Business. Leslie was especially committed to the center because its reach extends beyond the College of Business, serving students from all majors across the university. At the time, her daughter Julia Gilliam Sterling recalled her mother saying of JMU, “I love JMU. Julia, those are my people.”
Now Leslie Gilliam’s name will become part of another ambitious chapter in JMU’s future — one centered on preparing healthcare professionals and advancing the university’s role in improving health across Virginia.
Realizing that larger vision will require continued partnership among the university, the commonwealth, philanthropists and other organizations.
