The following is an excerpt from an article that the University Foundation will publish about Jan Hogan, who is best known to UMRA members as the program chair of the association’s Professional Development Grants for Retirees. The Foundation is a sponsor for UMRA’s Newsletter.

Professor emeritus Jan Hogan, Ph.D., devoted her academic career to studying family economics to promote and support healthy, happy families. Through her fellowship for graduate students, she has inspired another generation of students devoted to similar work at the University of Minnesota.

“My work is in family economics, or personal finance, and I just see fellowships as one of the best investments you can make in the next generation,” Hogan says.

Hogan set up the Janice Hogan Fellowship Endowment in 2001 to support graduate students in the Department of Family Social Science, and she’ll add to her endowment with an estate gift from her IRA. She chose an IRA contribution after working with her tax advisor, who explained that her gift could be transferred to the University tax free.

Tax-deferred retirement assets are subject to income tax and estate tax when transferred to heirs, but if left to the University, retirement assets are free of those taxes. That makes tax-deferred retirement accounts an excellent choice to use for a charitable estate gift.

A portion of Jan’s gift will also support the Professional Development Grants for Retirees, which provide  funding for retired University employees to pursue professional development or research projects. [Active with the University of Minnesota Retirees Association, which supports the grants program, Jan has served on its board of directors and is the current chair for the grants program.]

The grants program assists retired faculty and staff, who have an interest in finishing up a research project or pursuing a new interest, to stay connected with the U and academic life.

Hogan’s giving to the U has allowed students the opportunity to pursue their interests while also supporting the future of her academic passion. Her commitment to family social science research is carried on through students like Jaime Ballard, a doctoral student who received the fellowship this year. Ballard earned a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy and is now working on her Ph.D. in family social science. She’s writing her dissertation on parenting in communities of Karen refugees, who come from Burma, in an area near the border of Thailand.

“It wouldn’t be possible for me to do this work on my dissertation without the fellowship,” she says. “It really is an honor to have this fellowship, particularly to do research in the spirit of Dr. Hogan and her incredible work supporting families.”