A University of Iowa biology professor and her husband are making meaning out of tragedy.

On Feb. 2, 2020, Maurine Neiman and Bennett Brown’s nearly 3-year old son, J.J., unexpectedly died in his sleep.

“(J.J.’s) death certificate says that he died of a combination of influenza and pre-existing lung conditions discovered after his death that were totally invisible when he was a living, active, and healthy child,” says Neiman. “Nevertheless, the day that he died he was only mildly ill, without respiratory symptoms, and with no obvious signs of danger or distress. The medical professionals involved in his case agree that what happened and why will likely always remain unclear.”

J.J., a vibrant, kind, and curious child, is living on as a symbol of positive change for UI faculty and researchers through the J.J. Neiman-Brown Academic Caretaking Fund.

The fund will support child care and other costs related to caregiving for UI tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure-track faculty and postdoctoral researchers. Neiman and her husband, a teacher in the Iowa City Community School District, wanted to support faculty and postdoctoral researchers with children or other caregiving responsibilities to help them stay academically and professionally engaged.

The devastating news of J.J.’s death rippled throughout the UI community as friends, family, peers, and colleagues reached out to lend their support to Neiman and Brown. One particular conversation sparked an idea.

While meeting her friend Susan Assouline, professor and director of the Belin-Blank Center at the UI, for a walk in downtown Iowa City, Neiman says she saw a room in the new Chauncey building named in memorium for someone and thought to herself, “Why don’t we do something meaningful like that for J.J.?”

Through professional societies and her own position at UI, Neiman, who also has an appointment in Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies and serves campus as a diversity, equity, and inclusion faculty fellow, had been involved in various fundraising initiatives, and one in particular resonated with her.

“I have been involved in a lot of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives here and as a professional biologist through my professional societies,” says Neiman. “One of the societies initiated a fund to support conference travel and participation for caretakers, which I thought was a cool idea, and I began to wonder if I could do something like that at Iowa.”

Assouline connected Neiman to the UI Center for Advancement, the university’s fundraising arm, and they began piecing together a plan. Neiman’s main request was that it be an endowed fund so it would last in perpetuity.

Neiman says she thinks some were skeptical of her lofty goal to raise the $100,000 required for endowment, but she insisted and began assembling a team to help.

“We strategized and began raising seed money,” says Neiman. “I called family and friends until we raised about $30,000 before we opened it up to a crowdfunding social media campaign.”

Neiman strategically planned the fundraising timeline to coincide with two important dates.

“We began the fundraiser on the anniversary of J.J.’s death, which was Feb. 2, 2021, and planned to close the campaign by his birthday on March 10. It helped give me something positive to do during the weeks leading up to his death and birthday. I had something to focus on that was uplifting, and that worked very well,” Neiman says.

The fundraiser was an overwhelming success, raising $100,000 from more than 400 donations in about three weeks.

“The whole process was incredible,” says Neiman. “We were so very touched and honored by the number of people who felt it was meaningful and wanted to contribute.”