Scheduled to open in fall 2026, Slattery Center will be located within Elon’s Innovation Quad, home to the university’s engineering and other STEM programs.
A generous gift from Elon Trustee Bill Slattery and his wife Tish Slattery P’24 P’28 will name the university’s new center for health and wellness and also create 14 additional scholarships in the Odyssey Program to assist talented students with significant financial need.
Elon President Connie Ledoux Book and the Board of Trustees announced the Slatterys’ gift at the board’s spring meeting April 10-11. Book thanked the Slattery family for their generosity and leadership in supporting a center that will integrate academics, wellness, campus recreation and fitness programs to ensure students gain the skills they need to thrive on campus and throughout every stage of their lives.
“The Elon community is deeply honored to name the HealthEU Center in recognition of the Slattery family,” Book said. “This extraordinary investment from Bill and Tish Slattery will help Elon meet its mission to transform the mind, body and spirit of every student, and prepare healthy graduates ready to share their gifts with the world.”
The ability to address the health and well-being of students early in their lives inspired the Slatterys to make their gift.
“My career at the intersection of science and investment often requires decades to witness the outcomes of success,” Bill Slattery said. “HealthEU is an opportunity to intervene with our students at an early age and engage in these activities in a more structured, thoughtful way, and hopefully reduce some of their adversities in life.”
“I believe social media has impacted students greatly, and institutions like Elon that provide centers like HealthEU will be at an advantage going forward,” Tish Slattery said. “Health and wellness encompass so much more than just the physical aspect. I’m incredibly grateful that we’re able to impact Elon with this gift.”
Slattery Center is a central component to the university’s broader HealthEU initiative that focuses on six dimensions of health and wellness: community, emotional, purpose, financial, physical and social. The three-story center will feature new classrooms, student-faculty research spaces, multiple floors for wellness and fitness activities, and the Mark and Kim Tyson Counseling Center, which will provide individual and group therapy, as well as workshops and outreach programs.
Through coursework, as well as workshops and training programs focused on health and wellness, Slattery Center will impact all students as they progress through their education and learn essential skills and practices related to wellness and well-being. The center is a key priority of the Boldly Elon strategic plan that will guide the university to 2030. Scheduled to open in fall 2026, Slattery Center will be located within Elon’s Innovation Quad, home to the university’s engineering and other STEM programs.
The Slatterys’ gift will also endow the William and Tish Slattery Odyssey Program Scholarship, funding 14 new scholarships in the program that gives bright, passionate students with high financial need and/or no family history of college attendance access to Elon’s nationally recognized engaged learning programs.
These new investments bring the total number of Odyssey Program scholarships to nearly 300, more than halfway to the university’s goal of having a total of 400 Odyssey Scholarships, or 100 scholars per class, as called for in the Boldly Elon strategic plan. Housed in Elon’s Center for Access and Success, the Odyssey Program is nationally recognized as a model for need- and merit-based initiatives, with a nearly 100% first-to-second-year student retention rate and an 87% graduation rate, well above the national average.
The Slatterys have been impressed by the educational experience Elon delivers to students. Their daughter Madelyn graduated in 2024, and their son James is an Elon sophomore.
“I’ve been very happy to see the school excel at its academic responsibility in education while equally addressing students’ needs as people at the social level,” Bill said. “It’s a pleasant, inviting and warm place that cares for its students.”
“From the moment you step foot on Elon’s campus, you feel a great sense of community,” Tish said. “The close relationships that students have with their professors makes Elon stand out among its peers.”
Bill Slattery is a partner at Deerfield Management Company, Therapeutics. Prior to joining Deerfield in 2000, Slattery served as a senior healthcare analyst for 10 years at Amerindo Investment Advisors in New York, where he oversaw biotechnology investments. He has also held various positions in research, including those at National Medical Enterprises, Johnson & Johnson, and HMSS. He is the former chair of Red Door Community, which supports those impacted by cancer and their families.
Bill was elected to Elon’s Board of Trustees in 2024. Tish is a member of the Slattery Family Foundation and served in administration at Amerindo Investment Advisors. Recently, Tish was named chair of the Miss Hall’s School Arts Advisory Council. The couple reside in Rye, New York.