Marian University receives $1 million gift from Eli Lilly for new medical center

Special to The Criterion

Marian University in Indianapolis recently received a $1 million gift from the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation—a gift that will help the Franciscan university construct its Center for Health Sciences and the Healing Arts.

Scheduled to open in 2013, the center will be a 140,000 square foot building that will house the university’s School of Nursing and the new college of osteopathic medicine.

“We are grateful for the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation’s support of this important initiative to educate more osteopathic physicians, which in turn helps make this community a better place to live,” said Daniel Elsener, the president of Marian University.

The university’s college of osteopathic medicine will enroll 150 students each year, many of whom will become primary care physicians. Indiana is projected to have a shortage of 5,000 physicians by 2020, and will need 2,000 more primary care physicians, according to university officials. In Indiana, 57 of its 92 counties are medically underserved.

“Eli Lilly and Company Foundation is deeply interested in improving health care, especially for the underserved,” said Robert L. Smith, the president of the foundation.

Planned to begin this summer, construction of the new center is expected to create 318 construction jobs and an additional 185 jobs in central Indiana. University officials also state that when the building opens in 2013, the economic impact on the Indianapolis area will be nearly $29 million. And when the center is fully operational in 2016, the annual economic impact will be more than $45 million.

“Clearly, the college of osteopathic medicine and our new Center for Health Sciences and the Healing Arts will be a game-changer in Indiana for the health care industry and for the Hoosier economy,” Elsener said.

The gift from the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation is the latest contribution to the university’s health and life science initiative. More than $120 million is needed for this initiative, which includes the new building, the new college of osteopathic medicine, technology and scholarships. As of March 1, the university had raised $81 million.

Other companies and organizations that have made significant gifts to the medical school project include St. Vincent Health with a $5 million gift, Community Health Network with a $5 million gift, and Hill-Rom with a $1 million cash gift and state-of-the-art equipment.

Fundraising efforts for the project began in 2010 with two anonymous pledges of $30 million and $18 million. †