The Icahn School of Medicine has announced a $5 million gift from the John and Daria Barry Foundation for the Center for Ophthalmic Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human Health. The Center, launched in 2023, will now carry the name “The Barry Family Center for Ophthalmic Artificial Intelligence and Human Health.” This gift will expand the Center’s clinical programs focused on equitable, primary care-based vision care and support research aimed at the early diagnosis of eye diseases and the creation of innovative risk assessments of systemic health conditions linked to eye disorders.  

The Woodson Center today announced that the John and Daria Barry Foundation, established by John Barry, CEO and Chairman of Prospect Capital, is continuing its generous support of the center's mission by contributing a $2.1 million grant to its programming. The grant will largely support local leaders who have demonstrated success in overcoming problems such as poverty, violence, and failing schools in their neighborhoods.

Jon D. Levenson, Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard, received the 2023 Barry Prize for his exceptional contributions to Jewish biblical theology and interfaith dialogue. His influential work, notably in understanding key religious concepts, has significantly advanced the study of ancient sacred traditions.

Robert P. George, esteemed McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton, has been awarded the inaugural 2023 Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters. Recognized for his profound contributions to law, philosophy, and constitutional studies, George received the honor at a ceremony at the Library of Congress, underscoring his significant impact on intellectual discourse and academic excellence.

A transformative legal scholar, Ruth Okediji’s scholarship has helped nations around the world grasp the revolutionary implications of a simple but powerful notion: that an idea can be someone’s property.

What this means to patients:  Approximately 12% of patients with metastatic prostate cancer carry heritable mutations that contributed to their disease.  Relatives of these patients are encouraged to get genetic testing to determine their own carrier status. Dr. Sokolova and team will develop provider-initiated cascade genetic testing measures as an effort to increase the numbers of family members who get tested, which will ultimately improve cancer prevention in families with inherited cancer syndromes and improve equity and equality in access to cascade genetic testing.

This is also why the John and Daria Barry Foundation chose to help protect academic freedom by becoming AFA’s first donor.

“To carry out their mission, scholars must be free to pursue the truth,” Daria Barry emphasized. “Our foundation helped to create the Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA) to ensure that professors who are unfairly censored can find a common source of strength by banding together with their peers from across the political spectrum.”

And it’s not only the scholars who benefit, notes Barry. “In today’s climate, the AFA serves to recall universities—and their broader communities—to their first duty to their students: to pursue the truth,” she said.

The Veterans Consortium (TVC) is pleased to announce that the John and Daria Barry Foundation has awarded a three-year long grant to fund our Women Veterans Legal Assistance Program (WVLAP).

Years of hard work and planning by the Inner City Scholarship Fund are realized with a fully renovated School of the Blessed Sacrament.

Mental health issues frequently appear when members of the armed forces make the transition from military life to civilian life. One group is helping - one puppy at a time. Since Guardian Revival’s inception in 2019, the program has given out 10 dogs.

Woodson Center Community Affiliate Network will provide grants to local grassroots leaders solving America's most pressing problems in their neighborhoods

David Atkinson, Gulf War Veteran, discusses his prostate cancer journey and the impact of his participation in a clinical trial.

Gianna Buccieri dreams of breaking barriers and bursting through the glass ceiling by working as a strong woman in the STEM fields.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the 16-year-old junior at Maria Regina High School in Hartsdale was initially afraid it would set her back in achieving those aspirations.

John and Daria’s son, Matthew and his now wife Dr. Courtney Barry are both big supporters of the JoyJ Initaiative. Pre-pandemic, Matthew and Courtney spent many weekends volunteering. Together they have led JoyJ groups for several homeless outreaches, helped coordinate the activities and groups during the Annual JoyJ walk, and donated generously to the organization.

With the addition of 2 new centers, the PCF has established 12 COEs to date, executing the ambitious mission of improving patient care for U.S. Veterans with prostate cancer. Located in Boston, MA, and Portland, OR, these new COEs join 10 other established Centers in cities across the U.S. in delivering advanced precision oncology treatments to save the lives of Veterans battling prostate cancer. The John and Daria Barry Foundation currently supports the centers based in Manhattan, NY and Tampa Bay, FL and are excited to watch the network develop overtime.

Thank you to the John and Daria Barry Foundation for its ongoing support of Simply Smiles! We’re excited to tell you about some of the recent developments from the Simply Smiles Children’s Villages in Oaxaca, Mexico and on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation in South Dakota.

The regional nonprofit organization Save the Sound released results of its “2020 Long Island Sound Report Card” on October 6. For the first time, in addition to open-water testing, the biennial report includes water quality grades and findings for 50 bays and bay segments in the Long Island Sound. The report revealed surprising results, raising concern about the current ecological health of local bays and their resilience in the face of warming trends and ongoing pollution from Sound communities. Funding for the Report Card is provided by the John and Daria Barry Foundation

For the third year in a row we are thrilled to support Fritz and his orphanage in Port au Prince, Haiti. Through the recent violence, food shortages, coronavirus and Hurricane Laura, Fritz has maintained a peaceful and joyful home for 30 kids! We continue to be amazed at his resourcefulness and commitment to the children.

In a few months from now, the John and Daria Barry Scholarship will send its first full cohort of recent baccalaureates to the oldest and arguably greatest university in the English-speaking world, Oxford, for two years of graduate study. This is not an award tied in any way to the pandemic — the recipients learned of their selection last December — but it is one whose recipients, individually and as a group, possess qualities that will lead all of us, including members of the academy, into a safe and just new normal: respect for truth, difficult or complicated as it may be, and that rare combination of scholarly rigor and joy in discovery that makes every professor’s heart sing.

We sat down with Elizabeth Swanson and James Barry to learn more about their family’s foundation, and why supporting Save The Bay’s 50th Anniversary Campaign was high on their priority list.

The beginning of a new year brought a fresh start for Catholic school students in the Archdiocese of New York thanks to a generous $2 million donation to Inner-City Scholarship Fund (Inner-City) and the School of the Blessed Sacrament from the John and Daria Barry Foundation. The donation from the Barry Foundation includes $1 million for scholarships assisting low-income students and an additional $1 million to support capital improvements at the West 52nd Street Upper School campus of Blessed Sacrament, with a focus on much-needed school repairs in the pre-war building.

Wonderful article about the partnership between the VA and the Prostate Cancer Foundation. In 2016 the PCF committed to speeding up the development of treatment and cures for Veterans with aggressive - or metastatic- prostate cancer through precision oncology. Four years later we are seeing impressive results. The John and Daria Barry Foundation continues be thrilled to support this initiative with our two Center of Excellences.

A gift from the John and Daria Barry Foundation to the Prostate Cancer Foundation has launched a Precision Oncology Center of Excellence at the James J. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and the Bay Pines VA Healthcare System in Tampa, Florida, that is supporting some of the most promising and innovative scientists pursuing bold, life-saving research. With this philanthropic investment, Dr. Yamoah is leading the Tampa Center of Excellence to ensure that our Veterans, especially those with advanced prostate cancer, now have access to genomic testing for mutations and potential clinical trials that target their specific tumor variant, giving these heroes a shot at a more durable remission of their disease.

The John and Daria Barry Foundation recently pledged $2 million to Catholic schools in New York City. Managed through the archdiocese’s Inner-City Scholarship Fund, the grant will pay for physical improvements, teacher training and scholarships for low-income families.

Gifts to religious schools, which tend to be smaller and come from more low-key giving operations, don’t get much attention. However, taking a closer look at the Barry Foundation is a valuable lens through which to examine how giving to faith-based education tends to work.