New Carilion cancer center to be named after Taubman family in honor of $25 million gift

Roanoke philanthropists Nick and Jenny Taubman have given Carilion Clinic $25 million to open a state-of-the-art cancer research center on the Virginia Tech Carilion Health Sciences and Technology campus in Roanoke.

This is the largest gift Carilion has ever received; in honor of the donation, the center will be called the Carilion Taubman Cancer Center.

[Disclosure: Carilion Clinic is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy .]

The capital campaign for the project was announced in 2019 with the goal of raising $100 million for the facility. The project is being funded largely through philanthropy. Carilion CEO Nancy Agee kicked off the capital campaign with a $1 million donation.

“My husband, Steven, and I started this campaign; honestly, we didn’t have much more than an idea, a hope and a little down payment,” Agee said Thursday, when more than 200 people gathered to thank the donors and unveil the name of the new facility.

Other donations have come in large and small packages, some from employees of the health system. With the gift from the Taubmans, Carilion has raised just over $70 million, Agee said.

While the building is still in the planning stages, Agee said she hopes to break ground this fall. The center will be positioned at the western entrance to the campus off Reserve Avenue, and it will take two and a half years to complete the construction, Agee said.

The 265,000-square-foot facility will be able to support many more patients than Carilion’s current oncology center, which was built in the 1980s and is operating beyond capacity.

Agee added that the new facility is being designed to support the healing process with natural light, gardens and a warm environment for hope and healing.

Nick Taubman is the former CEO and chairman of Advance Auto Parts and served as the U.S. ambassador to Romania from 2005 to 2008.

He was born at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, and his roots in Roanoke run deep. When he and his wife started a family, they decided to raise their children in Roanoke.

“Roanoke is right in the middle of what is a desert for cancer treatment,” Taubman said. “That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any, but the leading-edge kind of treatment someone hears about coming here, [which] is already here in part, has got to give them hope. And in cancer treatment the most important medication is hope for the patient.”

His wife, Jenny Taubman, chaired the fundraising campaign for the Taubman Museum of Art, and the couple donated millions to get that project off the ground.

“I wanted to do what I could to make Roanoke better for everybody. To have a state-of-the-art institution like this makes a difference,” she said at the Thursday event.

The couple were presented with white coats during the celebration, making them honorary members of the Carilion staff for the day. They were joined by Carilion’s oncology team, all sporting their white coats and standing for a photo to commemorate the day.

This is the first capital campaign Carilion Clinic has embarked on. To complete the project, hospital leadership will need to raise another $30 million.

“It will be a state-of-the-science building that brings together personalized care, advanced technology and treatment options along with sophisticated clinical trials and cutting-edge research,” Agee said.

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