Cincinnati Business Courier: Billionaire businessman, foundation gift $5.5 million to UC center

Bernard Osher, a billionaire businessman and philanthropist who founded a San Francisco-based foundation, has donated $5.5 million to the University of Cincinnati Center for Integrative Health and Wellness. The Cincinnati Business Courier reported that the funds will allow the center to expand its work and provide permanent, endowed funding. Integrative health combines traditional medicine with complementary therapies.

“This transformational gift will allow our center to expand and deepen our efforts,” said Sian Cotton, PhD, director of the UC Center for Integrative Health and Wellness and Turner Farm Foundation chair at the UC College of Medicine. “We are so very grateful to the Bernard Osher Foundation for their continued investment in the growth and sustainability of integrative health.”

As part of the gift, the center will be named the Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of Cincinnati, pending approval from UC’s board of trustees. Specifically, the Osher gift will endow key leadership positions and programs within the center’s operations and enhance funding for clinical services for under-resourced patients.

The gift will also accelerate the center’s programming for future health care providers at the UC College of Medicine.

“We are so grateful for this opportunity to deepen our partnership with the Bernard Osher Foundation,” said UC President Neville Pinto, PhD. “Through their generosity, we can have an even greater impact on promoting holistic health and wellness for our students, our faculty and our Greater Cincinnati community — a truly important goal in this time.” 

Read the entire story here. 

Lead photo/Colleen Kelley/UC Creative + Brand