Kaiser Announces $50 Million Gift to OU-Tulsa
Kaiser Announces $50 Million Gift to OU-Tulsa
COMMUNITY SCHOOL: From left, George Kaiser Family Foundation Executive Director Ken Levit, University of Oklahoma President David Boren, George Kaiser, Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor and OU-Tulsa President Dr. Gerard Clancy spoke at an event announcing a $50 million gift from the George Kaiser Family Foundation to OU-Tulsa. The gift is the largest in OU’s history and will be used to construct a Community School of Medicine at OU-Tulsa.
MIRANDA ENZOR for GTR Newspapers
The George Kaiser Family Foundation announced a $50 million gift to improve the health of Oklahomans through community-based medicine.
With the gift, the College of Medicine at OU-Tulsa will change its focus and become the first formally named School of Community Medicine in the nation. The OU School of Community Medicine’s explicit purpose will be to improve the overall health status of underserved Oklahoma communities by providing additional community-based medical student education programs and resident training and by increasing the number of physician graduates.
“Our state has the unfortunate distinction of having the worst health outcomes in the nation, a situation made even worse by the enormous disparities that exist according to income and access to care,” says Executive Director of GKFF Ken Levit. “The effort to establish the nation’s first School of Community Medicine is designed to address this challenge.”
“We are deeply grateful to George Kaiser and the Foundation for this gift,” says OU President David Boren, “which will truly make a difference in the lives of Oklahomans for years to come. Creating the OU School of Community Medicine will provide programs and scholarships which will guide medical students into areas of care which impact lower-income families and others who have limited access to quality medical care.”
To achieve the goal of the OU School of Community Medicine, the gift includes: $35 million to endow 35 faculty chairs in the OU School of Community Medicine, all of which will be based in Tulsa; $7.5 million for start-up costs; and $7.5 million for a scholarship and loan forgiveness program for students.
The gift will be staged and funded according to benchmarks, such as enrollment goals, agreed upon by the University and GKFF.
For more information, visit www.tulsa.ou.edu or call (918) 660-3098.
Updated 02-18-2008
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