Janice Suber McNair is Co-Founder and Senior Chair of the Houston Texans. Since moving to Houston in 1960, Janice and her husband Bob raised four children and embarked on a lifelong career of giving back to the community. The McNairs have been generous philanthropists, making education and medical research the cornerstones of their charitable giving. To date, Bob and Janice have contributed more than a half billion dollars to charity. Contributions are made through The Robert and Janice McNair Foundation, the Houston Texans Foundation and The Robert and Janice McNair Educational Foundation in Forest City, N.C. Janice currently serves as a director of each foundation.
The Houston Texans Foundation was created in 2002 at the inception of the franchise. It was born out of Janice and Bob's strong desire to do great things for Houston, especially Houston's youth. Thus, the mission of the Texans Foundation is to be Champions for Youth. Since 2002, more than $45.3 million has been raised through annual fundraising events, disaster response programs, United Way campaigns and partnerships with nonprofit organizations. The Texans Foundation is aligned with three strategic community partners: the Houston Texans YMCA, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston and the Houston Food Bank.
Through The Robert and Janice McNair Foundation, Janice and Bob established McNair Scholars programs which recruit the best and brightest students and faculty to the University of South Carolina, Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Texas Children's Hospital. Their contributions to academic medical research, including a transformational gift in 2007 to Baylor College of Medicine for the McNair Scholars Program, are leading to discoveries and seeking cures for disease. The McNair Campus was named in recognition of their generosity, and the McNair Medical Institute was created. In 2015, the McNairs established McNair Centers for Entrepreneurism and Free Enterprise. Today, these Centers at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, the University of St. Thomas Houston, Houston Christian University, the University of South Carolina and Northwood University in Midland, Michigan promote an understanding and appreciation of the role innovation, entrepreneurism and free enterprise play in society.
The McNairs have four children, sixteen grandchildren and thirteen great grandchildren. Janice grew up in Orangeburg, S.C., was active in sports, choir and student government, president of the South Carolina Association of Student Councils and governor of the South Carolina Girls' State. She graduated from Columbia College in Columbia, S.C. with a degree in education and later received an honorary doctorate from Columbia College. Janice is a breast cancer survivor.
