In 1999, a vision was born — a world-class medical campus with the ability to transform medicine and bring novel therapies to people in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region. This pioneering vision sought to bring basic, clinical and translational science together with clinical care on one campus to serve people of all ages, genders, ethnicities and races. “If you don't have good health everything else is sort of secondary,” said Ted Harms, former executive director of The Anschutz Foundation. “Quality of life begins with health. If you don't have good health, how do you have a quality life?” It was this notion that inspired Phil and Nancy Anschutz and The Anschutz Foundation to make transformational gifts to the CU Anschutz Medical Campus and the Center for Women’s Health Research – now named the Ludeman Family Center for Women’s Health Research.  

Mr. Anschutz felt that a medical campus needed to focus on all aspects of health, and that meant investing in women’s health and research relating to differences attributable to sex and gender. Having a wife, a sister and two daughters meant that women’s health was personally important to him and a critical component of the healthcare field.  

In 2012, the Anschutz Health and Wellness Building was completed, and Mrs. Anschutz knew that the Ludeman Center needed to be included in the building. “Mr. and Mrs. Anschutz knew that healthcare didn’t adequately study the differences between men and women,” said Mr. Harms. “They thought that wellness had to include women, so that sex differences could be identified and studied. Including the Ludeman Center in the new building was a way to develop the talent and solutions necessary to ensure better health outcomes for women.” 

The Anschutz Foundation has supported the Ludeman Center for more than a decade and has created two endowed chairs in women’s health and sex differences. “We saw the need to be a catalyst to move women’s health research forward,” said Mr. Harms. “We wanted to support the center programmatically, and in particular we wanted to foster research and help mentor young scientists who are dedicated to studying women’s health.” The Nancy Anschutz Endowed Chair In Women’s Health Research is a unique endowment that specifically calls for protecting mentorship time for faculty.  

As the inaugural holder of the Nancy Anschutz Endowed Chair In Women’s Health Research, Wendy Kohrt, PhD, mentors early-career faculty and supports them in their research efforts. “At least half of the chair distributions go to mentoring activities,” said Dr. Kohrt. “Mentorship has always been important to me, and I've spent probably 30 years of my career mentoring others. It is high on my priority list in terms of bringing early-career investigators into an environment where they feel supported and secure and have the protected time and resources they need in this extremely competitive research world.” This endowed chair allows Dr. Kohrt to invest in early-career faculty by providing them with time to work with a biostatistician, lab manager and other individuals to help with their research. “I let my mentees know that every individual has their own expectations, and they have an idea of what their ideal career looks like. It’s not my job to change that, so my message to them is that I'm here to support them and maybe to offer suggestions on career paths,” said Dr. Kohrt. “When I tell a trainee that I'm going to accept the role of being their primary research mentor I am committed to seeing them through many years. It is usually three to five years to get somebody to the point where they can really have an independent career path lined up and be successful.” 

Mr. Harms and The Anschutz Foundation believe that mentoring is the key to opening doors and encouraging early-career scientists. “Sometimes you need somebody to help guide you to something that you might find incredibly rewarding. Mentoring young people to understand what they are interested in and encouraging them to consider different areas where they would be of great value is important,” said Mr. Harms. 

The second endowed chair — The Anschutz Foundation Endowed Chair in Women’s Integrated Mental and Physical Health Research— was created to further expand mental health efforts on campus. “We are hoping that the chair is an impetus to drive the program forward in the area of integrated mental health and physical health,” said Mr. Harms. “This goes along with the idea that if you don't have the brain involved, you can’t really be healthy. You can eat right, do all the exercise you want, but if your brain isn't functioning appropriately, your health suffers.” The Anschutz Foundation believes that mental and physical health are connected and should be treated as such. The inaugural holder of the endowed chair is Tracy Bale, PhD, professor and director for InterGenerational Stress and Health and the director for Sex Differences Research in the CU Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Bale’s work focuses on understanding the role of stress in neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric diseases. Much of her research looks at sex differences that underlie diseases. She is an excellent addition to the Ludeman Center senior faculty group. “Men and women are very different in how they respond to medication, how they metabolize medication and their risk factors for different diseases across the lifespan,” Dr. Bale said. “When it comes to mental health, we need to understand the connections between the brain and the body.” 

The Anschutz Foundation hopes that the two endowed chairs in women’s health and sex differences research are used as incentives to recruit talent. “These chairs are tools to be used to move the needle forward with the right talent and specialized expertise,” said Mr. Harms. “We like funding translational research where you take knowledge from the lab and move it into something that has near-term healthcare benefits. This research must start somewhere, and chairs are a powerful tool used to start this work.”  

Nearly 13 years ago, Mr. Harms joined the foundation and began to familiarize himself with the foundation’s philanthropy. He met with faculty from various departments at CU Anschutz, including faculty associated with the Ludeman Center. “I spent some time with Dr. Regensteiner and she was passionate and persuasive about the needs for understanding women's health and mentoring young scientists,” said Mr. Harms. “It made sense to me that women's health needed to be a focus.’”  

Looking forward, Mr. Harms and The Anschutz Foundation hope that the work of the Ludeman Center continues and has an even greater impact on the community. “We hope that women receive the kind of care that's appropriate for the unique way in which their bodies present with various illnesses and that they have the best quality of care right here in Colorado. I am thankful that we have been part of making this a reality."