Announcing the Endowment of the UCSF Osher Mini Medical School for the Public
The UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and the Osher Mini Medical School for the Public are pleased to announce that The Bernard Osher Foundation has gifted an endowment for the Osher Mini Med School within the Osher Center. Since 2007, annual funding from The Bernard Osher Foundation has enabled the Osher Mini Med School to be the premier source for health education in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Approximately one thousand attendees participate in programs each year and online content has been viewed more than 120 million times. This new, pivotal support provides the stability needed to reimagine the reach of the Osher Mini Med School through its high-impact public education programs taught by UCSF expert researchers and clinicians.
The Osher Mini Med School is led by Bobby Baron, MD, the associate dean for continuing medical education, in partnership with the Osher Center. Dr. Baron explains that the “UCSF Osher Mini Medical School for the Public is about the university’s commitment to serving the community by developing more informed patients and community members. We are very pleased that an endowment can help us continue this work in a more integrated way into the future.”
The endowment of the program will enhance the collaboration between the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and the Osher Mini Med School. Integrative medicine, featured in many previous courses, will be even more prominent in upcoming programming. Shelley Adler, PhD, director of the Osher Center, says, “I look forward to partnering more closely with Dr. Baron, who has done phenomenal work to develop and sustain this public education program since its inception. The Osher Center can now enhance our collaboration with the Mini Med School to expand the reach of courses to include people from a range of backgrounds and contexts by developing additional community partnerships, providing more scholarships, and ensuring that all courses reflect the needs and interests of the diverse populations of San Francisco.”
The Osher Mini Med School offers the public timely and reliable information as our world rapidly changes. At the outset of the pandemic, the Osher Mini Medical School moved online and began offering courses that address COVID-19. Audiences grew even larger. In response to recent wildfires, the Mini Med School now includes programs on climate change and health. By focusing future series on well-being, integrative medicine, and other topical themes, and by serving participants that reflect the Bay Area’s diversity, the Osher Mini Med School will continue to improve the health of our greater community.
To learn about upcoming programs, visit osherminimed.ucsf.edu. To view the vast public archive of recordings of previous courses, visit www.uctv.tv/minimed.
