Honoring Osher Center Founding Director, Susan Folkman, PhD

Spotlight: Donors Honor Susan Folkman at Her Retirement

On Monday, October 26th, friends, supporters, and the faculty and staff of the UCSF Osher Center joined together at the De Young Museum in San Francisco to honor Susan Folkman and recognize her contributions to the fields of psychology and integrative medicine. Under her leadership, the UCSF Osher Center rose to national prominence, broke ground on a new home, became the only center to have two center of excellence grants from NIH and introduced and expanded curriculum on integrative medicine for medical students as well as for public program participants.

Bernard Osher, Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann and
Barbro Osher honor Susan Folkman

During the program, Bernard Osher celebrated Folkman’s work with the naming of the Susan Folkman Conference Room to be located in the new Osher Building (currently being constructed at 1545 Divisadero Street) and Phil Schlein, a member of the Osher Center’s Endowment Committee, announced the establishment of the Susan Folkman Fund in her honor. Gifts to the fund will support the Osher Center’s Endowment campaign.

Dr. Folkman is internationally recognized for her field-shaping theoretical and empirical contributions to psychology in the area of psychological stress and coping. Her research has provided an important bridge between behavioral science and integrative medicine.

Reflecting upon the evening, Dr. Folkman expressed:

“I have been privileged to work with the truly outstanding team at the Osher Center. We have accomplished a great deal over the 10 years, and we can take pride in how far we have come. I thank each member of the team and all of our supporters and friends, from the bottom of my heart, for what you have done and continue to do to make the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine a model of how “to do” integrative medicine research, education, and patient care, working together in a climate of collaboration and mutual respect.

I am delighted that Margaret Chesney is my designated successor. I thank the search committee, chaired by Nancy Adler, PhD, for recommending the very person I would have chosen, and I thank Dean Hawgood for making the appointment. I could not feel more optimistic about the Osher Center’s future.”

-Susan Folkman, PhD

If you would like more information about the UCSF Osher Center Endowment Fund, please contact: Sue Merrilees, UCSF Senior Director of Development at (415) 514-2612 or smerrilees@support.ucsf.edu.

Margaret Chesney, PhD Appointed as New Osher Center Director

UCSF School of Medicine Dean Sam Hawgood, MBBS, announced the appointment of Margaret A. Chesney, PhD, as the new director of the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine.

In her new position, effective Jan. 1, 2010, Chesney will expand the Osher Center’s programs, which emphasize the combined use of modern medicine with complementary approaches and established healing practices to promote health, wellness and healing. She plans on developing partnerships throughout UCSF to encourage greater integration of the Osher Center’s successful programs in research, education and patient care with programs in the broader UCSF community.

“Dr. Chesney brings an extraordinary record of scientific achievement and leadership in integrative medicine to her new role as director of the Osher Center,” Hawgood said. “At least one-third of the adult population in the U.S. uses integrative approaches, such as acupuncture or mind-body techniques, as part of their health care. It is crucial that UCSF stays on the leading edge of this area of medicine, providing an evidence base for its diverse approaches. Dr. Chesney is well-positioned to lead these efforts.”

Chesney will succeed Susan Folkman, PhD, as director of the Osher Center. Hawgood thanked Folkman for her dedicated service to UCSF. “Under her leadership, the center developed successful programs in research, education and patient care which focus on prevention, patient empowerment and whole-person healing—critical elements of health care today,” he said.

This appointment represents a return to UCSF for Chesney who served as the co-director of the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, associate director of the California AIDS Research Center, and director of the Behavioral Medicine and Epidemiology Core of the Center for AIDS Research at the UCSF-Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology.

Read the entire article on UCSF Today.

Fundraising Progress

Friends of the UCSF Osher Center have an unprecedented opportunity to ensure the continued growth and enrichment of the Center. Contributions to the Osher Center priorities are growing: