A Partner in Pediatrics

Daughter’s care at the U-M prompts Janette Ferrantino to give back

In 1986, when Janelle Williams was just 5 years old, she developed a rare blood disease that proved difficult to diagnose and treat. After consulting a number of doctors at several hospitals, her mother, Janette Ferrantino, came to the University of Michigan.

“From the moment we arrived, I experienced a tremendous feeling of trust with every doctor, every nurse,” says Ferrantino, president and chief executive officer of the Detroit Salt Company. “As a result, I felt like the whole world was lifted off my shoulders.”

Janelle underwent emergency surgery that helped her return to a normal, active life. Out of gratitude for the care Janelle received, Ferrantino began to make annual gifts to the Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases.

Janette Ferrantino (second from right) and her children (from left) Angela Williams, Janelle Williams, Sean Williams and Elise Williams Photo: Martin Vloet

Ferrantino’s support has been integral in fostering success in a department that boasts some of the highest survival rates in the nation for children suffering from pulmonary diseases, multi-system organ failure and cancer. As her involvement grew, she was invited to learn more about some of the department’s latest pediatric research.

Ferrantino was impressed by a presentation given by Valerie Castle, M.D. (Residency 1990), then a young assistant professor, who discussed her ongoing work to better understand and treat neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer that most often begins in children younger than 5.

Although Ferrantino didn’t understand all the complexities of Castle’s highly experimental research, she was deeply impressed by her intensity and dedication. She asked Castle to draft a proposal describing the funding she would need to further her research goals.

Castle produced a modest proposal, suggesting $10,000 for research support, hoping Ferrantino might be willing to provide at least a portion. Ferrantino studied the proposal carefully before asking if $10,000 was enough to accomplish her goals. Castle admitted that it was not really enough, but that she had been reluctant to ask for more.

“So tell me,” Ferrantino said, “what do you really need?”

Castle returned to the drawing-board and came back with a “best-case scenario” for a fully-funded research project. Ferrantino agreed to fund the full $250,000 price tag.

“Without Janette’s early support, we would not have been able to make research progress and achieve the advances we have in fighting neuroblastoma,” says Castle, who is the Ravitz Foundation Professor and Chair of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases.

Ferrantino’s establishment of the Janette Ferrantino Pediatric Hematology Research Fund was just the beginning of a long and successful collaboration with the U-M. The next step in that evolution was the establishment, in 2002, of the Janette Ferrantino Investigator Award Fund, which has helped support the research careers of six outstanding junior, instructional-track faculty in the department.

Most recently, she established the Janette Ferrantino Research Professorship in Pediatrics, awarded to Thomas P. Shanley, M.D., an associate professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases.

Support like Ferrantino’s is more important than ever because of a steady decline in research funding available from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — the primary funding source for much of the cutting-edge research that drives significant biomedical breakthroughs, particularly in areas such as cancer, where Castle says many of the most important advances have occurred in pediatrics. Philanthropy such as Ferrantino’s is particularly crucial for young researchers because it provides an important source of seed money to catalyze promising new research, as well as “bridge funding” for researchers navigating the challenges of securing NIH support.

And gifts like Ferrantino’s help the U-M attract and retain the brightest and most talented students, faculty and researchers, such as Shanley.

“In the current climate of limited and increasingly competitive research funding in general, and pediatric critical care, specifically, this endowment provides substantial support. I remain indebted to Janette for this, as well as for her enormous commitment to pediatrics,” says Shanley, who directs the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine program, as well as its Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program.

Ferrantino says she has long been fascinated by the field of medicine. Before she decided to stay home to care for her four children — Janelle, Elise Williams, Sean Williams and Angela Williams — she had been a registered nurse with experience working in both intermediate- and intensive-care units.

“If I had taken a different path, I might well have become a doctor myself,” she says. “But having the chance to be so closely involved in Valerie’s career, and in the careers of these talented young doctors, has allowed me to enjoy the experience vicariously, and I have found that to be very gratifying.”

—Glen Sard

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