Newswise — Baltimore – A $10 million gift from Ellen WP Wasserman to LifeBridge Health will create an endowment to fund scholarships for medical students training at Sinai Hospital’s Regional Medical Campus (RMC), a partnership with George Washington University’s School of Medicine & Health Sciences (GW SMHS).
GW’s RMC students spend their third and fourth years of medical school in clinical rotations at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, where they receive training and work in a community-based health care system. One goal of the RMC is to develop the next generation of physicians who could one day practice in the Baltimore area. During their training at Sinai, students help care for many patients who come from underserved communities where economic and social inequities can negatively impact their health. The RMC focuses on primary care and community-based medicine.
“We are so grateful to Ellen Wasserman for this transformational gift investing in the training of future physicians who we hope will go on to practice in our communities. Ellen trained as a social worker and truly understands the challenges faced by so many of our patients. With her longstanding support of Sinai Hospital, our patients and our communities, this donation is part of Ellen’s legacy and an opportunity to address health disparities and positively improve the health of people, especially those who may be at increased health risk due to social or economic challenges,” says Neil Meltzer, President and CEO of LifeBridge Health.
The RMC program is now in its second full year, and 15 GW SMHS students are currently training at Sinai. When the program is at full capacity, there will be a total of 60 students (30 in the third year and 30 in the fourth year). The new GW SMHS class starting medical school this fall already has 30 freshmen who will come to RMC in Baltimore for their clinical rotations in April 2026. Through the foundation, these students will receive tuition scholarships of $10,000 per year and will be known as Wasserman Scholars.
“The RMC students are a remarkable and enthusiastic group of students and we are very grateful for Mrs. Wasserman’s gift, which will support our students in this special learning environment and community-focused program. Current RMC students have told us how much they value the individualized, hands-on education and training they receive at Sinai, as well as the connections they are able to build with their patients and our larger community,” says Scott Krugman, MD, pediatrician and senior associate dean of the GW SMHS Regional Medical Campus.
During their time at Sinai, third-year students rotate through every medical specialty, from family medicine and internal medicine to pediatrics, psychiatry, obstetrics/gynecology, neurology, surgery, and more. They work alongside physicians, nurses, and other team members on hospital wards, in physician offices, and in the community. Fourth-year students can take electives offered only at RMC, such as population health, value-based care, and technology/digital health.
RMC students complete the first two years of medical school on the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences campus in Washington, DC, before coming to Baltimore for their final two years of medical school.
Ms. Wasserman’s gift is the largest gift from an individual in the 26-year history of the LifeBridge Health system. This $10 million gift brings her total giving to LifeBridge Health to approximately $24 million, with her previous giving primarily benefiting children, including the endowment of the Ellen WP Wasserman Chair in Pediatrics at Herman & Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital at Sinai.
“From the Division of Neonatal Medicine and Pediatric Emergency Department to our Center for Hope pediatrician and other pediatric areas she supports, Ellen’s passion for helping families has touched so many lives over the years. Now, with this extraordinary gift to endow scholarships for our RMC students, she is building on that legacy to train the next generation of physicians to care for families in our communities,” said Julie Cox, Chief Philanthropy Officer of LifeBridge Health.
She added, “Ellen Wasserman is a caring and compassionate woman who is always asking about our patients and how we can help those in our communities. We are very grateful for her leadership and support of LifeBridge Health for more than a quarter century.”
Ms. Wasserman, who turned 101 in March, became a member emeritus of the LifeBridge Health board of directors in 2022. She served on the board of Sinai Hospital for nearly 20 years and was a founding member of the LifeBridge Health board of directors in 1998.
The Wasserman Foundation provides ongoing scholarship support for RMC students. The first two classes received scholarships from other benefactors including the Herman & Walter Samuelson Foundation, the Kahlert Foundation, Louis and Phyllis Friedman, the Blavatt Family, the Israelson Family Foundation, and Stanley Friedler, MD
The RMC expands on Sinai Hospital’s existing medical education programs. Third- and fourth-year medical students from Johns Hopkins, the University of Maryland School of Medicine and other medical schools already complete four- to eight-week clinical rotations at Sinai. Each year, more than 160 residents work and train at Sinai in Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education programs in seven medical specialties.
About LifeBridge Health
LifeBridge Health consists of Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Northwest Hospital, Carroll Hospital, Levindale, Grace Medical Center, and subsidiaries and affiliates, including LifeBridge Health & Fitness. Sinai, Northwest and Carroll hospitals are general acute care hospitals with complementary clinical centers of excellence. For more information, visit lifebridgehealth.org.
About the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Founded in 1824, the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (GW SMHS) was the first medical school in the nation’s capital and is the 11th oldest in the country. Working with integrity and determination in our capital city, GW SMHS is committed to improving the health and well-being of our local, national and global communities: smhs.gwu.edu
