The Foundation was chartered to provide healthcare on Galveston Island through the support of the John Sealy Hospital and related medical buildings. Currently, the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) operates the John Sealy Hospital and Jennie Sealy Hospital. The Foundation assists UTMB in a variety of ways, including providing and maintaining clinical and other properties on the UTMB campus, endowing academic chairs for various healthcare specialties, advocating for UTMB and providing grant funding to ensure Galveston citizens receive excellent health care.

As mentioned in question 1, the Foundation supports UTMB in a number of ways. For example, the Foundation has provided John Sealy Hospital and UTMB over $900 million in funding over the decades. These funds have been used to build, purchase, or provide over 25 major buildings and hospitals at the medical campus. The Foundation's funding has allowed UTMB to acquire cutting edge medical devices, such as MRI and PET scanning machines, one of the first Robotic Surgery Machines in Texas and recently 3-D Mammography equipment. The Foundation was also instrumental in helping UTMB establish the first BSL-4 lab to be constructed on a University Campus in the United States. This led to UTMB being chosen for the site of a National Lab in response to the 9/11 events. In addition to building and equipment needs, the Foundation supports research at UTMB with 31 academic chairs and a $50 million contribution to the Biomedical Research Endowment. Moreover, the Foundation played a pivotal role in securing State funding for UTMB's hurricane Ike recovery efforts.

As the Foundation is a Type III supporting organization benefiting UTMB, the Foundation does not make grants to individuals.

UTMB is part of the University of Texas System and can be found on line at www.utmb.edu.

The Sealy & Smith Foundation almost immediately after the outbreak manifested itself in Texas; granted funds for testing kits, PPE, and supplies to employ a testing regimen for all of Galveston’s uninsured residents. The Foundation then granted funds to UTMB for the purchase of Pediatric Respiratory equipment for training, treating, and studying respiratory infectious diseases like Covid-19. The Sealy & Smith Foundation was also proud to announce a two year grant to research, provide staff, and equipment to study exclusively Covid-19, which includes vaccine development. To further the great work of UTMB researchers; The Foundation provided yet another grant to establish the Emerging Viral Disease Biorepository and Central Tissue Repository to help develop and validate antibody tests and identify progression factors in infected persons, as well to isolate strains from patient samples. Within this repository, additional grants from the Foundation purchased equipment to house and preserve virulent samples for continued study. Recently, The Sealy & Smith Foundation established the John Sealy Distinguished Chair in Innovations in Molecular Biology; whose first recipient Dr. Pei-Yong Shi, PhD., whose pioneering work in genetic marker systems has been used to research potential vaccines for Covid-19, which is fundamental to Pfizer’s current development of a Covid-19 vaccine.