The Illumination Dinner
benefiting the Institute for Spirituality and Health
Tuesday, May 19, 2026 | 6:00 - 9:00 PM
In-person at the TMC Helix Park
7255 Helix Park Avenue, TMC3, Houston, TX 77030
The 2026 Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center fundraiser dinner on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, benefits the Institute's four Centers of Excellence:
Center for Faith and Public Health
Center for Body, Spirit, and Mind
Center for Aging and End of Life
Rabbi Samuel E. Karff Center for Healthcare Professionals
The event features keynote speaker Dr. Sunita Puri, Director of UC Irvine Palliative Care and author of the acclaimed memoir That Good Night. A Rhodes Scholar and global speaker, Dr. Puri explores how compassionate language empowers patients and physicians to navigate the complexities of living and dying.
We are also honoring the 2026 Rabbi Samuel E. Karff Caring Heart Award recipient, Melanie Lawson, an award-winning journalist, community rights advocate, spiritually committed, and proud Houstonian.
All underwriters are recognized in the event program and publicity, at the event, and on the Institute’s website, social media, and annual report.
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Sunita Puri is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, where she is the Director of the Inpatient Palliative Care Service. A 2025 Literature Fellow of the Bogliasco Foundation, she is the author of That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour, a critically acclaimed literary memoir examining her journey to the practice of palliative medicine, and her quest to help patients and families redefine what it means to live and die well in the face of serious illness.
A graduate of Yale University and the recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship, her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Slate, Wall Street Journal, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. She and her work have been featured in the Atlantic, People Magazine, PBS’ Christian Amanpour Show, NPR, the Guardian, BBC, India Today, and Literary Hub. In 2019, the Guardian made a mini documentary of her work with her patients, which has been viewed over 3.5 million times. She has been awarded writing residencies at the Bogliasco Foundation, MacDowell, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, Mesa Refuge, and UCross.
A sought-after speaker who has delivered lectures around the world, she is passionate about the ways that the precise and compassionate use of language can empower patients and physicians to have the right conversations about living and dying.
