OHSU Knight Cancer Research Announcement
August 14, 2025
Good morning! I am so excited to be here to celebrate this incredible moment. We are here to celebrate an audacious idea, an incredible historic gift that will give that idea flight, and a singular, shared commitment to Oregon doing something big to transform people’s lives when they get the worst news. Already on the leading edge of health sciences, OHSU will now have the opportunity to push the limits of what’s possible towards the highest calling of all: saving lives by going head-to-head with the odds.
For OHSU, for Portland, and for Oregon, there will always be the time before today – and the era after today.
Phil and Penny Knight’s gift will launch OHSU into its future, building on its incredible legacy. That future is bright and it is bold. And, that future has a mandate to ‘give cancer hell.’ Looking out across this room today, I know we will.
A cancer diagnosis – and how you live your life with that diagnosis – touches so many lives. My father outlived two cancer diagnoses. My mother was not so fortunate. This new cancer care initiative here at OHSU – one that is envisioned to provide a better, more holistic, more compassionate approach to helping individuals and their families live with and through a cancer diagnosis – will put Oregon on the map as a home of transformative and innovative health care that will change lives.
I played a lot of sports in high school. Whether individual or team practices and competitions, those sports experiences prepared me to serve as your governor. Because I know the meaning of persistence. And teamwork, And being a part of a mission greater than myself.
I see persistence and a team ready to get started. We have the grit and the ingenuity to realize something truly amazing. We know how to fight like hell for something better. Frankly, the Knights and all of Oregon wouldn’t have it any other way.
Again, thank you to Phil and Penny Knight for their belief in a better way to do health care. Thank you to everyone at OHSU for showing the kind of promise necessary to receive a gift of this magnitude. All of you, each day, prove that Oregon is a place with amazing people where amazing things happen. Let’s keep going!