Founders Auxiliary Board

Providing Hope & Healing in Our Community

The Founders Auxiliary Board is a vital part of Children’s National Hospital. The board’s generosity and volunteerism touch the lives of families throughout the Washington, D.C., community and beyond.

This year, the board is helping to revolutionize pain management for children with sickle cell disease through a $1 million gift. This investment enables our Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Program to establish a patient-centric, holistic pain management program.

The initiative will pioneer new ways to reduce pain for patients with this often-devastating condition and support their mental health. It will improve lives, lead to fewer missed school days and reduce barriers to care.

The board’s generosity provides much-needed support for a disease that is historically underfunded,” says Jeffrey Dome, M.D., senior vice president of the Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and chief of Oncology at Children’s National.

“This grant helps our best-in-class physicians and pain specialists reimagine how we treat children living with sickle cell disease,” says Dr. Dome. “We hope this multidisciplinary work will be a model for other programs.”

The Founders Auxiliary Board is comprised of members of the former Children’s Health Board and The Board of Visitors. It celebrated its inaugural year in 2021. Both boards have a rich history of supporting Children’s National. Together, they have awarded grants and gifts totaling $22 million. Two signature events, A Vintage Affair and Light Up the Season, engage the public to raise funds for patients and families

The Board of Visitors formed more than 150 years ago when a group of 12 women brought in bedding and supplies for Washington, D.C.’s first children’s hospital. Its most recent major gift supports The Board of Visitors Telehealth Command Center. This technologically advanced center, which opened in March 2022, allows the hospital to vigilantly care for fragile hearts in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. It uses surveillance and artificial intelligence to help predict and prevent complications. The monitoring system flags early warnings signs, such as when a patient is about to experience cardiac arrest.

The Children’s Health Board was founded in 1866 to feed sick and hungry orphans after the Civil War. Its relationship with Children’s National began in 1925. Support for patients through community advocacy and hospital grants, includes a $500,000 gift to renovate our Pediatric Dental Clinic that reopened in 2017. The clinic ensures that the thousands of children who come to Children’s National for dental care every year have access to comprehensive oral health care.