Osher Foundation invests another $2.1M in UC Center for Integrative Health

Five years after helping establish the Center for Integrative Health at University of Cincinnati, the Bernard Osher Foundation is investing another $2.1 million in its future.

The gift will support the Osher Center for Integrative Health’s endowment while expanding its new UC Osher Wellness Suite and John & Carrie Hayden Community Learning Kitchen. Funding also will grow culinary medicine, community outreach, education and patient engagement focused on wellness.

This investment builds on the foundation’s $5.5 million gift in 2021, which helped UC join the Osher Collaborative, a network working to advance evidence-based integrative healthcare. The UC Center for Integrative Health is one of just 11 Osher Centers around the world.

“The impact that integrative therapies and lifestyle medicine are making on our community would not be possible without the Bernard Osher Foundation,” said Sian Cotton, the center’s director and Turner Farm Foundation chair. “I am so grateful that they are on this journey with us to create a healthier community.”

Expanding access to wellness

Part of the new funding will support chef Stephanie White, the center’s culinary medicine director, who oversees education, research and community programming through the UC Osher Wellness Suite and John & Carrie Hayden Community Learning Kitchen.

Opened earlier this year on the fifth floor of the UC Blood Cancer Healing Center, the space brings together a teaching kitchen, a wellness studio and a rooftop healing garden. Patients, caregivers, students and community members can take part in evidence-based programs centered on culinary medicine, movement, mindfulness, nature and art therapy, with classes integrated into patient care and open to the public.

Overall, the center’s programs serve people living with cancer and other chronic conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and chronic pain. It also provides wellness resources for caregivers, community members and healthcare workers. There’s also a training site for students and researchers studying integrative health.

The classes are tailored to different abilities, making them accessible to beginners and experienced participants alike.

“Philanthropy is enabling us to bring evidence-based lifestyle and integrative medicine into everyday clinical care,” said Dr. Mladen Golubic, the center’s medical director.

Golubic said the center also is incorporating those principles into UC’s medical school curriculum, preparing future physicians to deliver “more effective, compassionate, whole-person care.”

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