UCSF Osher Center receives challenge gift for integrative medicine
Bernard and Barbro Osher
The UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine has received a matching-gift challenge to spur other philanthropists to contribute to the center’s new endowment.
The commitment from Bernard and Barbro Osher will match dollar-for-dollar all contributions to the UCSF Osher Center Endowment Campaign, up to $2.5 million, until Jan. 15, 2011, when the center officially reopens in the newly built Osher Building.
“Bernard and Barbro Osher already have been exceptionally generous in helping create the Osher Center and provide a new facility for UCSF integrative care,” said Center Director Margaret Chesney. “This gift will help launch an ongoing endowment to fund the center’s world-renowned research, education and care for years to come.”
The endowment campaign was conceived to enable the Osher Center to tackle three of the greatest challenges facing the field of medicine, she said: leveraging the benefits of technology without forgoing personalized, compassionate care; empowering patients to take control of their own health and well being; and transforming the way healthcare is practiced.
The new gift enables Friends of the Osher Center to double the impact of their gift and to ensure the continued growth and enrichment of the Center by supporting its $25 million endowment campaign.
Founded in 1998, the UCSF Osher Center has become a premier integrative health resource for the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. It is the first center of its kind to offer fully developed programs in research and clinical care, as well as education for healthcare practitioners and patients seeking an integrated, healing-oriented approach to healthcare.
In January, the center will open its new facility in the Osher Building at 1545 Divisadero St. on UCSF Mount Zion campus in San Francisco. The facility will enable all of the center’s programs to be housed under one roof and to expand with time, while creating a healing environment with natural light, fresh air and calm areas for meditation and reflection.
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.