Meet Our UB Believers
They are a dedicated group of Western New Yorkers from all walks of life. They are business and community leaders, students and parents, alumni and university faculty, professionals, and area residents. Yet those who belong to this diverse group all have something in common, they are UB Believers. As part of this broad-based advocacy group they share a belief that a strong UB will lead to a brighter future for all of Buffalo Niagara.
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“The idea of UB 2020—expanding downtown, increasing enrollment, bringing top notch faculty, helping the medical campus and corridor are all great news for Buffalo. We all know UB’s success is tied to Western New York’s success, and I think this is a great plan that’s going to help turn the corner in WNY.”
Chuck Schumer, United States Senator
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“We have a tremendous research program ongoing at UB, which provides an opportunity for start-up business and organizations to latch on, piggyback, and develop to their full potential.”
Willie Evans, Past President UB Alumni Association; Retired Educator
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“With the Center of Excellence, Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, UB is leading the way with pioneering discoveries improving health care creating jobs in Western New York and influencing medical advances throughout the world. When UB succeeds Western New York succeeds.”
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Former United States Senator
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“Good regions have solid universities that contribute readily to the area, and UB is that crown jewel for us.”
Martin J. Berardi, Moog Medical Devices Group
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“We need more jobs, we need to grow our population and we need more economic development. It’s not about politics; it’s about the growth of our community. UB 2020 is the cornerstone growth and revitalization of our community and it’s a proper investment of our taxpayer dollars.”
Chris Collins, Erie County Executive
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“Investing in UB is a way for the state to say that we are investing in our future. UB can look at our city in different ways, it can lead our city in dramatically new directions, but more than anything else, UB’s the pride of our city and region.”
Niraj Verma, Professor and Chair, Department of Urban and Regional Planning
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“Strong relationships like the one that East high school has with UB are rare and we are excited about the continued investments they have placed in our students, our staff and we are here as a partner, a supporter and a believer.”
Geraldine Horton, Principal, East High - Buffalo Public Schools
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“UB is such an integral part of Western New York—it’s such a huge economic engine. A billion and a half dollars goes into our economy from just this school alone, just this university. So you can imagine how much this means to our community and Western New York.”
Kevin Donovan, President, Northeast District Energy Corporation
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“I really believe in what UB is all about. I love what UB is planning for the future with the UB 2020 initiative and what they’re beginning to do in the communities, in the city, on the south and north campus, and their whole focus on education K through 16.”
Brenda Williams McDuffie, President and CEO, Buffalo Urban League
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“UB 2020 means planned growth. We’re talking 10,000 people—practically an entirely new campus to this university, a whole new set of professional studies and increasing the undergraduate backbone to make it all happen. To me that says, revitalization, growth, strength, everything that this city needs right now.”
Robert Pape, Undergraduate Student Association, Department of English
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“So many students graduate in such a diverse number of degree programs from the University every year. Keeping them here, helping to integrate them into the community and into businesses is crucial because they are the future leaders.”
Amy Maxwell, Chairperson, Revitalize Buffalo
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“We can provide tremendous leadership in this region to improve the quality of healthcare. I think UB has tremendous potential as a university—and as my school—to have a major impact on the lives of our students and the lives of our faculty and the lives of those in our region.”
Jean Brown, Professor and Dean, School Of Nursing
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“It is very important to see the university grow as a catalyst for economic growth. I absolutely believe it is important to the overall organization as well as the community.”
Tim Klein, President and CEO, ATTO Technology, Inc.
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“Education is critical to a region...there’s absolutely no doubt that we are turning out talent which can populate the jobs that are important to this region.”
Nancy Nielsen, M.D. Senior Associate Dean, UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Education
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“We didn’t have the money, we didn’t know how to do it, we didn’t have the resources, and the state said it was too expensive and too old. So we brought in UB law school, the housing clinic and the domestic violence clinic and we asked them for help and they became part of our team.”
Kathleen Granchelli, CEO, YWCA of Niagara
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“There’s no doubt that the university is a pillar of our community and that the community depends on the university’s civic engagement to thrive. The bottom line is preparing the workforce for the 21st century.”
Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker, President and CEO, Program Department,Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo
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“The implementation of UB 2020 really can be a driver, in part, to create new jobs, discover new knowledge and start to move us to a knowledge-based economy. Our region needs economic stimulus. When you look at two economic engines that could really make a difference in the economy of WNY it’s education and healthcare.”
James R. Kaskie, President & CEO, Kaleida Health
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“I think that UB offers a very affordable option for students, especially New York State residents who might look at private universities in other places in NY or other states. And for me UB offered an affordable opportunity to get the caliber of education that I wanted.”
Kristin Kielar, Undergraduate, Pre-pharmacy
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“I think it’s hard to overestimate the growth of UB for the influence it will have on the community. It’s important for Roswell Park as we synergize in the development of research, educational, and clinical programs. But even more broadly for the whole community the impact of a major university center on the quality of life.”
Donald Trump, President & CEO Roswell Park Cancer Institute
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“A company is only as good as its people. We see the fact that UB is turning out some tremendously talented engineers; we like to get them excited about an opportunity at Fisher Price. With the cream of the engineering talent we are going to be innovative and going to play a bigger role in the toy realm and the consumer electronics market.”
James Meade, Principal Engineer, Fisher Price
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“UB is a world-class university to the region. It provides a unique opportunity for students to get specialized education and training and access to unbelievable resources, which will make them more competitive in a job market and more innovative in what they accomplish on their own as they graduate.”
Ben Porcari, President, IBC Digital, Inc.
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“I’m fired up about UB 2020 because this could be the driving force to change Western New York. Give the university all the support it needs, politically from Albany, from the business community, from labor and from personal households. If we can do that this area is going grow, our children are going to stay here, our companies are going to prosper.”
Mark Stevens, Business Representative Painters District Council 4
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“The university has the resources and relationships to allow us—a private company to be able grow new jobs and to be able to do this research we couldn’t do by ourselves. The university can think over the horizon and we can latch on to that and drive the business that’s necessary. That becomes our future.”
Michael Colson, Senior Vice President CTG (Computer Task Group)
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“Everyone has said that the state must revitalize Western New York. UB2020 has the largest single potential to do that. In order for the state to be viable—upstate has to be viable. The biggest economic engine in upstate is the university and you need to look at it as a business development issue.”
Randall Clark, Chairman, Dunn Tire
