When students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign need assistance, they now have a one-of-a-kind campus hub designed to help Illinois students find their way. The Connie Frank CARE (Coordination, Assistance, Response, and Education) Center, located on the fourth floor of the Turner Student Services Building, provides resources for individualized non-clinical case management, basic needs, assistance with problem-solving, and emergency resources in times of distress or crisis. The Connie Frank CARE Center is designed to support all U. of I. students.
For donor Connie Frank (LAS ’65), community well-being is a shared responsibility. Her vision for the center is that the space—and the services provided—will adapt to meet the needs of Illinois students. At a large public research university with an enrollment of 60,000+ students, Illini can now experience a higher level of personalized care that is responsive to both immediate needs and the holistic student experience.
“The goal is for the center to be a safe and secure place for students to find the assistance they require to be successful as they meet the daily challenges of life,” said Frank. “The CARE Center will hopefully be a good first stop in navigating a rewarding path to graduation.”
“Be Kind and Have a Caring Heart”
Frank understands firsthand how to navigate life’s unexpected, rewarding paths. Born in Chicago and raised in Springfield, Illinois, Frank attended the U. of I. with the initial ambition to study medicine. After three weeks in Chemistry 101 during her first semester at Illinois, she pivoted and ended up graduating with a B.A. in English from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1965. Post graduation, Frank moved cross-country to Los Angeles in 1972, where she raised her two sons.
Throughout her life, Frank has regularly contributed to local charities that depend on community support to continue their operations: multiple food banks, two fire stations—one in L.A. and one in Santa Barbara—the Children’s Burn Center, and ten scholarships for students at University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). Frank has also served on the board of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and is currently a board member for the University of California Health Services.
In 2010, Frank established the Connie Frank Transplant Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the Connie Frank Kidney Transplant Center at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2015. At UCLA, Frank provides assistance to the Immune Tolerance Program, which enables transplant patients to be free of drugs that they must take, so their immune system does not reject their transplanted organ. Frank considers this groundbreaking medicine one of her most important projects to date.
Frank’s philanthropic impact is legion: supporting countless lives, spanning over several decades and extending over 2,392 miles—from northern California to central Illinois.
When Frank and her husband, Evan Thompson, were looking for a way to give back to her alma mater, they had numerous conversations with university staff and administrators to assess how best to serve the Illinois community. From these deliberative discussions, a shared vision for the Connie Frank CARE Center was born.
“The Connie Frank CARE Center exists for a simple but powerful reason: to help students stay on track when life gets in the way,” said Stephen Bryan, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Advocacy & Dean of Students. “Students arrive here with incredible promise, but also with real challenges—financial strain, housing instability, health concerns, family emergencies, and moments of crisis that don’t fit neatly into a semester timeline. And when those moments happen, students don’t always know where to turn. That’s where the Connie Frank CARE Center comes in.”
From the initial idea through the execution and implementation phases that extended over a period of 27 months, Frank, Thompson and Connie Frank Foundation board members Daisy Kessler and Brian Schultz, were intricately involved in each stage of the process. Her philanthropic work is a family endeavor. Many of Frank’s projects involve close partnership with Thompson and her village of family and friends—including Greg and Ellen Zeiger, Brad and Sheila Zeiger, Kathy Schultz, Steve Martini and Elinor Beerman. Though Frank’s life has turned out differently than she initially expected, she has always been driven by her “why.”
“My dream as a student at the U. of I. to be a doctor has become so much more through my philanthropy. I am able to help countless numbers of people,” Frank said. “My grandparents and parents gave me an important message: to be kind and to have a caring heart. My reward has always been knowing that I can make a change—whether big or small.”
Investing Boldly in Student Success
Frank’s gift expands efforts to champion student persistence, retention, and belonging at Illinois, including the creation of a centralized and easily accessible location that complements existing health and wellbeing resources. The fourth floor of the Turner Student Services Building was completely transformed. In collaboration with Connie and her team, the space was re-built and intentionally designed with the needs of students and staff at forefront. This gift provides coordinated operational support to ensure that students’ needs can continue to be met in perpetuity.
The Connie Frank CARE Center provides a variety of resources including assistance navigating through academic difficulties, advice for living off-campus, food insecurity and essential needs support, a technology loaner program, a CARE ambassadors program led by student peer mentors, and more. Additionally, this gift has allowed the university to hire a full-time campus-wide Ombudsperson, a critical position that assists students experiencing conflict with university faculty, staff, or policies and helps to promote effective conflict management and resource utilization.
“The Connie Frank CARE Center represents a bold and deeply important investment in student success. It reflects our understanding that the needs of students today are real, complex, and constantly evolving,” said Dr. Danita M. Brown Young, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. “And it reflects our commitment to meet those needs with intention, humanity, and care.”
At Illinois, the Connie Frank CARE Center strengthens the community of care—a university community that actively nurtures the intellectual, social, and personal development of the entire Illinois student body. CARE Center staff will work with campus partners both inside the Turner Student Services Building and across campus to help students achieve academic and personal success at Illinois.
Supporting Illini Futures
Thanks to Frank’s gift, students at Illinois will now have a clearer path to support, stability and an enhanced understanding of what success can look like. Frank attests that her college years in Urbana-Champaign gave her a perspective on different cultures and ideas that broadened her view of the world. With the establishment of the Connie Frank CARE Center, Frank is creating many pathways for Illinois student success in the present day and for future generations of Illini.
“We have a shared responsibility for each other, and we are all part of something bigger than ourselves,” Frank said. “After completing their college studies, Illinois graduates will possess the education and opportunity to contribute to a brighter future for themselves and others.”
Illinois Chancellor Charles L. Isbell, Jr. agreed.
“We can talk about the students who are here now, but remember, it’s not just those students. It’s the people those students will touch. It’s the jobs they will have, the organizations they will lead. It’s the children they will have, who will live a better life because they were able to be supported here.”
Learn about the Connie Frank CARE Center
Starting May 26, 2026, Illinois students can visit the space during regular business hours. Until May 26, students may continue to access support on the third floor of the Turner Student Services Building (610 E. John St., Champaign, IL).
