Editor’s note: the former integrated learning and
research facility has been named the Academic & Research Center.
ATHENS, Ohio
(March 3, 2007) — The Brentwood Foundation recently made a
$200,000 gift to Ohio University’s integrated learning and
research facility. The $30 million multidisciplinary facility is
a joint project of the College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-COM),
the Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ College of Engineering and
Technology, and the Colleges of Health and Human Services Arts
and Sciences.
The grant will
fund two of the facility’s 12 state-of-the-art medical research
laboratories, which will be named by the Brentwood Foundation.
These unique lab spaces will enhance the university’s
multidisciplinary research efforts by promoting an integrated
approach to the exploration of the complex problems investigated
by OU-COM researchers and collaborators from across campus and
around the world.
To be built on
the university’s West Green in Athens, the integrated learning
and research facility will combine world-class research spaces
with classrooms and study rooms. The facility will bring
together under one roof a variety of disciplines — from
electrical and mechanical engineering to biomedicine and
physical therapy — to explore new medicines, develop new
clinical treatments, and advance science, engineering and
technology.
Scientists and clinicians will come together with other
researchers, clinical affiliates, and industry partners to
engage in research to improve osteopathic health care, community
health and quality of life. The innovative center is designed to
create an active community in which faculty, students,
clinicians and scientists make discoveries that will take the
university to a new level.
“As part of our
funding allocation to the community, we like to have a
connection to osteopathic research and osteopathic medical
education,” said Terri Kovach, executive director of the
Brentwood Foundation. The foundation is a private,
not-for-profit organization that supports leadership in the
osteopathic medical profession by funding activities that
promote improvement in patient care through professional
education, research and public awareness. In 2002, the
foundation was one of Ohio’s top 50 charitable organizations.
“Since enhancing
and strengthening osteopathic research is part of the Brentwood
Foundation’s mission, we felt that the development of the
integrated research and learning facility reflected that aspect
of our mission,” Kovach said. “A large part of the facility’s
purpose is the advancement of osteopathic research. Our grant
will help expand osteopathic clinical research.”
The foundation
was created after Brentwood Hospital was acquired by Meridia
Hospital in 1994, which later took on the name South Pointe. The
foundation was established as a charitable trust to continue
Brentwood Hospital’s mission to support osteopathic research,
training and community health.
Since its
inception, the foundation has given $877,661 to OU-COM in
support of medical education.
“I would like to
thank the Ohio osteopathic profession for its support of medical
education at Ohio University,” said OU-COM Dean Jack Brose,
D.O. “We are very grateful to the profession for its
unwavering long-term and generous support of medical research
and education in the state, which benefits not only Ohio but the
nation as well. The members of the Ohio osteopathic profession
are our most valued partners and collaborators.”
More than $20
million has been raised to support construction of the
four-level, 100,000-sq. ft. research building. Inside the
facility will be project rooms, learning studios, a competition
hangar, research laboratories, a student leadership center, a
faculty collaboration suite, a graduate teacher training suite,
a Center of Excellence, a rotunda/living room, an exhibition
gallery, informal gathering nooks, a cyber lounge and a café.
To learn more about Ohio University’s integrated learning and
research facility, please go to
www.ohio.edu/development/ilrf/.
The mission of Ohio University
College of Osteopathic Medicine is innovative learning, focused
research and compassionate care for Ohio and beyond. Each year
more than 100 osteopathic physicians graduate from OU-COM,
Ohio’s only college of osteopathic medicine. Fifty-four percent
of OU-COM alumni practice in primary care fields, and more than
60 percent of its graduates remain in Ohio, where they are more
likely to practice in rural and other physician-shortage areas.
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