In April 2020, the Jolene hitmaker also made a $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to help fund COVID-19 vaccine research and Moderna vaccine.
Dolly Parton is donating $1 million to pediatric infectious disease research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). This is her second large donation to VUMC in the past couple years. In 2020, Dolly made a $1 million contribution to VUMC to help with research efforts to find a cure for the coronavirus. Dolly said, "I love all children. No child should ever have to suffer, and I'm willing to do my part to try and keep as many of them as I can as healthy and safe as possible." Among Dolly's other gifts to VUMC was a contribution to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt Pediatric Cancer Program in honor of her niece, Hannah Dennison, who was successfully treated for leukemia as a child at Children's Hospital.