CAMPAIGN GOAL: $15 MILLION

We are on the edge of a health care transformation. The current unsustainable and fragmented “system"—health professionals trained in isolation from each other, limited implementation of the latest research findings that would improve practice and outcomes, rapidly changing technology, workforce shortages across professions that are particularly severe in rural areas, problems in delivery, quality, cost, access, and more—must be revolutionized. Washington State University Spokane is ideally positioned to be a national leader in addressing these critical issues as we build America’s next great academic health science center.

WSU Spokane has been established as the health sciences anchor for the entire WSU system. With this charge and the support of the region’s leaders and communities WSU Spokane will transform the Riverpoint Campus into a comprehensive, research-intensive health science center. Elements essential for success are already in place:

  • Spokane’s top-notch medical community

  • WSU’s strength as a major research and land-grant university and our long history of teaching the health professions and exploring the intersection of human and animal health

  • The opportunity to lead a partnership that leverages the complementary strengths of multiple higher education institutions in the region

  • Involvement of our design, education, early childhood, and policy programs to support health in ways that go beyond direct clinical care into daily life

  • The opportunity to build a brand-new campus with multidisciplinary programs and an innovation culture in a prime urban location that serves a large rural region

Four elements frame the defining difference that will set WSU’s academic health science center apart and ahead of all the rest:

  • An emphasis on interprofessional education that brings physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and others together, prepared to work as team members and to use the latest research findings and technology to improve patient care

  • Community-based learning with a network of providers, clinics, and hospitals as our partners in preparing students to practice in real-world settings

  • Recruitment and preparation of students for practice in rural and underserved communities, starting with K-12 programs to inspire the next generation of practitioners

  • A focus on leveraging translational research for a measurable impact on the health of individuals and communities

Nestled on 55 acres along the Spokane River in downtown Spokane with prime development opportunities on and around campus, the Riverpoint Campus is poised to meet the needs of the region. A future campus buildout will accommodate a four-year medical program, expansion of nursing, the consolidation of the College of Pharmacy from Pullman and significant growth in research commercialization and technology transfer that creates companies.

Based on research by the consultant firm Tripp-Umbach, the envisioned academic health science center is projected to create more than 13,000 jobs and deliver a $2.1 billion annual increase to the state’s economy, $1.6 billion of that increase within eastern Washington. The preeminent academic health science center will address the ever-expanding workforce needs, increase access and quality health care, and foster innovation. WSU Spokane and WSU Health Sciences have the exciting opportunity to build a new one-of-a-kind systemwide enterprise that will catalyze truly interprofessional collaborations throughout the health care industry essential to transforming human health worldwide.

Through the Campaign for WSU, Washington State University seeks the extraordinary generosity of our alumni and friends to apply our comprehensive vision to the broad and complex issues of human health and disease. This is no small undertaking, but we have built the foundations and begun to harness the talent and thinking that will yield remarkable achievements in the way we care for people. By working together, we have the possibility to shape more efficient and coordinated systems, save billions of dollars, and change people’s lives and our communities for the better.

Your partnership with us will advance new knowledge and new approaches to practice that will transform human health in Washington and the world. We invite you to join us on this journey through the following partnership opportunities:


MEDICAL SCIENCES $6.5 million

Student Stars

  • Undergraduate Medical Education Scholarships $2 million

  • Graduate Fellowships $.5 million

  • Research Assistantships $.5 million


Premier Faculty

  • Endowed Medical Sciences Chair $3 million

  • Translational Research Distinguished Professorship $.25 million

  • Rural and Underserved Distinguished Professorship $.25 million


HEALTH SCIENCES $7.5 million

Premier Faculty

  • Endowed Medical Informatics Chair $3 million

  • Endowed Interprofessional Education Chair $1.5 million

Named Endowments

  • Sleep and Performance and Critical Job Tasks $1 million

  • Early Childhood Learning and Complex Trauma $1 million

  • Interprofessional Education $.5 million

  • Project Lead The Way $.5 million

WORLD-CLASS FACILITIES $1 million

  • Biomedical Complex $1 million

TOTAL $15 million