2 women, 2 legacies: The power of planned giving

Linda Brown quietly provided scholarship support to five UAA students every year. She cared deeply about ensuring that students from diverse backgrounds had access to education at UAA. Every year, five students' lives were changed because Linda believed in their potential.

Through her estate plan, Linda made a decision that transformed her annual generosity into something permanent. When she passed away in October 2025, UAA received a $400,000 gift to create a permanent endowed fund so that Linda's legacy of supporting students will continue forever. An estate gift can turn five years of generosity into 50, 100 years and beyond.

And then there's Lois Ann Reeder. Lois was not widely known at UAA. In fact, UAA learned about her through her obituary. She graduated from West Anchorage High School in 1958 and spent 20 years working as a clinical dental hygienist in Anchorage. She cared deeply about Alaska, and when she planned for what would happen after her lifetime, she included UAA.

When Lois passed away in September 2025, UAA learned that she had directed a significant portion of her estate to programs at UAA that were meaningful to her. Her gift of more than $600,000 created a new scholarship for health students, established a new endowment for the UAA Justice Center, and provided support for UAA's Institute of Social and Economic Research. Lois' one gift will have numerous impacts.

Neither Linda nor Lois sought attention for their generosity. Neither required a complicated plan to make a significant difference. They simply made the choice to extend the things they valued during their lives beyond their lifetimes.
Planned giving doesn't always produce an immediate result that a donor gets to see. But it can change the trajectory of an institution like UAA - and the lives of students we will serve for generations.

Linda will never meet the students who receive scholarships from her endowment. Lois will never see the health professionals, justice students or Alaska research her generosity will help support. But they chose to make those things possible anyway.

As we think about building a sustainable future for UAA - for our students, our faculty, our programs and the communities we serve - we also need to let people who care about this university know that UAA is a place where they can leave a lasting legacy.

Linda and Lois did, and their stories challenge the rest of us: What can my legacy be at the University of Alaska Anchorage?