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TUCSON - The Steele Children's Research Center at the University of Arizona College of Medicine has been selected for a Phoenix Suns Charities (PSC) Program Grant in the amount of $10,000.

The Steele Center will be awarded the grant on June 21, from 4 to 6 p.m., at the Phoenix Suns Charities grant recipient awards reception taking place at US Airways Center inside the Casino Arizona Pavilion in Phoenix.

The funds will be used to help complete the PANDA Children's Neurological Center. The new outpatient center will help children suffering from neurological conditions including traumatic brain injury, stroke, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and autism. The facility will be staffed with developmental pediatricians, neonatologists, a neurologist, psychologist, psychiatrist, epileptologist and speech, occupational and physical therapists.

"Children with neurological problems have many complex issues, so it will be enormously beneficial to have all of the specialists in one location, working as a team to help these children," says Sydney Rice, MD, assistant professor, section of developmental and behavioral pediatrics in the UA Department of Pediatrics.

The center is scheduled to be completed in 2011.

The new center is funded in part by PANDA, the Phoenix Women's Board of the Steele Center. Through an annual golf tournament and fashion show, the group has raised $1 million for the center's creation.

"The sick children, doctors and researchers of the Steele Center continue to inspire us to raise much-needed funds to end children's disease and illness, and we're very excited that Phoenix Suns Charities is part of that effort," says Stephanie Helsten, 2010 PANDA president.

The PANDA Children's Neurological Center will complement current specialty comprehensive care centers at the Steele Children's Research Center, including the Angel Wing for Children with Diabetes and the PANDA Children's Aerodigestive Disorders Center.