The Friedman Family Foundation, funded by Stephen and Board of Fellows Vice Chair Barbara Friedman, is propelling women’s health to new levels of precision and sophistication, thanks to a new $10 million gift that will establish a clinical arm of the Friedman Center for Nutrition and Inflammation at Weill Cornell Medicine.
As part of Weill Cornell Medicine’s planned expansion of clinical programs at 575 Lexington Avenue, the new program will connect relevant, trailblazing science to modern-day clinical approaches to disease and disease outcomes. This direct bench-to-bedside approach to care will transform how academic medicine incorporates diet and nutrition into medical strategies that will enhance and prolong life and will be focused on nutrition and diseases that largely impact women.
Physicians and staff will pay particular attention to the nutrition issues and autoimmune diseases that disproportionally impact women and affect life cycle, pregnancy, menopause and other conditions. Just as important, the new clinical arm will promote the participation of women in clinical nutrition research.
With this gift – of which $1 million will be directed to the Dean’s Strategic Initiatives Fund – Barbara and Stephen Friedman and the Friedman Family Foundation have given more than $22 million to the We’re Changing Medicine campaign. Recently, together with the Weil, Gotshal & Manges Foundation, they honored Dr. Rahul Sharma, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, with the first endowed professorship in the Department of Emergency Medicine.
“Barbara and Steve are remarkable and visionary donors,” says Dr. Robert A. Harrington, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine and provost for medical affairs of Cornell University. “Their outstanding philanthropy furthers the goals of our We’re Changing Medicine campaign to transform women’s health and expand health care to more patients throughout our region.”
The Friedmans have a long history of philanthropy at Weill Cornell Medicine. They are both Cornell alumni, class of 1959, who have actively supported the university, where Barbara Friedman is trustee emerita and a presidential councilor. A member of Weill Cornell Medicine’s Board of Fellows since 1993, she has also served on the advisory board of Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar. Over the past three decades, the couple have made gifts to Weill Cornell Medicine totaling nearly $40 million.
Their current gift builds on their 2018 gift, which established the Friedman Center for Nutrition and Inflammation. Led by Dr. David Artis, director of the Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and the Michael Kors Professor in Immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine, the Friedman Center works toward developing treatments and preventive strategies for a range of illnesses, including cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease.
“Steve and I firmly believe in the unique capacities of Weill Cornell Medicine to help patients achieve optimal health with cutting-edge technologies and world-class expertise,” says Mrs. Friedman. “We are excited to continue to support an institution and campaign that is at the forefront of medical innovation.”
The Friedman Center’s clinical program will serve as the clinical partner of the research arm of the Friedman Center for Nutrition and Inflammation, expanding the Center’s academic mission to encompass clinical as well as research and educational endeavors. Research and clinical faculty and trainees will convene on a regular basis to share knowledge from the lab to the clinic, and vice versa.
Two respected Weill Cornell Medicine physician-scientists will serve as interim co-directors during the first two years: Dr. Laura Alonso, chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, director of the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Center for Metabolic Health and the E. Hugh Luckey Distinguished Professor in Medicine; and Dr. Orli Etingin, founder and medical director of the Iris Cantor Women’s Health Center and the Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz Professor in Women’s Health. A full-time director will eventually take over leadership duties, oversee clinical activities and mentor junior faculty, and partner with Dr. Artis.
“We see a bright future where new technologies and transformative science will yield personalized therapies,” says Dr. Etingin. “Dr. Alonso and I are honored to be part of this amazing opportunity to advance the cause of women’s health.”
