he Lebermann Foundation has made a gift to fund a professorship in health policy at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. The gift, the largest health policy chair at the LBJ School, is made in honor of Lowell Henry Lebermann, Jr., a three-term Austin City Council member, former University of Texas System regent and a civic, cultural and business leader. The Lowell Henry Lebermann, Jr. Chair in Health Policy is a permanent endowment that will drive revolutionary health research and advance the LBJ School.
“Since my father founded the Lebermann Foundation of Austin, this organization has been dedicated to supporting research and education opportunities for the future leaders of Texas—and the LBJ School is a world-class institution where such leaders are made,” said Virginia Lebermann, Chair of the Lebermann Foundation. “This moment is especially significant to our family given that my father was a great friend and admirer of President Johnson and his unique legacy of Texas-sized leadership. We could not be more pleased to extend this gift.”
"Since my father founded the Lebermann Foundation of Austin, this organization has been dedicated to supporting research and education opportunities for the future leaders of Texas—and the LBJ School is a world-class institution where such leaders are made."
Virginia Lebermann
The Lowell Henry Lebermann, Jr. Chair in Health Policy will serve to attract and retain outstanding faculty for the LBJ School and advance excellence in teaching, research and scholarship in health policy disciplines at The University of Texas at Austin. Establishing this endowed Chair will enable the LBJ School to bring exceptional health policy leaders to campus, fund key research activities, and further enhance service to students. While positioned at the LBJ School, the Chair will closely partner with Dell Medical School on research and education efforts.
“By investing in research in an area that impacts us all, the Lebermann Foundation is shaping our impact on a huge scale,” said LBJ School Dean JR DeShazo. “The Foundation’s generosity will support high impact research and attract exceptional graduate students who want the know-how to respond to society’s greatest challenges. I would like to extend a special thank you to LBJ Foundation Board Members Cappy McGarr and Ben Barnes. Without their stewardship this gift would not have been possible.”
"Lowell was an outstanding public servant to the people of Austin and an extraordinary mentor to countless,” said Cappy McGarr, LBJ Foundation and Lebermann Foundation Board Member. “It is appropriate that this endowment in his name will advance the next wave of health research at the LBJ School; his father was a beloved physician in Commerce, Texas, and Lowell himself was a living embodiment of what can be achieved in the face of health challenges. There is no doubt that Lowell would be immensely proud that this essential work is being made possible in his honor."
Lebermann had a lifelong passion for civic engagement and public service, and he was admired and appreciated by the Johnson family for his devotion to the community. Lebermann grew up in Commerce, about 60 miles northeast of Dallas, where his father practiced medicine. At the age of 12, he lost the sight in his right eye in a gunshot accident. Vision in the other eye deteriorated as a repercussion of the accident until he was completely blind by age 23. But his dimming sight did not stop him from academic achievement. A student in the Plan II Honors program at The University of Texas, he was elected student body president in 1961.
To most Austinites, he was known for his work as a member of the Austin City Council in the 1970s. Then-Mayor Roy Butler dubbed Lebermann “the Green Panther” because of his environmental efforts. Lebermann wrote the ordinance establishing the city’s Office of Environmental Resource Management and pushed through a measure governing development on Lake Walter E. Long, Lake Austin and what is now Lady Bird Lake. He also wrote the city’s creeks ordinance and its historic zoning ordinance.
His civic participation continued after he left office. A diverse investor, Lebermann ran a car dealership, owned the beer distributor Centex Beverage Inc., and served on the boards of several banks and companies. Active for years in state and national fundraising for the Democratic Party, he was elected treasurer of the state party in 1981 and for several years was on the executive committee of the Democratic National Finance Council. The list of his civic involvements was lengthy, including his service on the boards of the United Way, Salvation Army, Austin Community Foundation and the Austin Symphony Orchestra Society. He was president of the Laguna Gloria Art Museum and chairman of the Paramount Theatre board. Lebermann was on the Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee at UT, the Ex-Students Executive Council and the Symposium Planning Committee for the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He was appointed to the UT System Board of Regents in 1993 by Gov. Ann Richards and served as vice chairman from 1993 to 1995.
The gift totals $2 million and supports The University of Texas’s $6 billion What Starts Here campaign, the largest philanthropic campaign in Texas higher education history, launched in March of 2022.