A $10 million gift from Northwest Baltimore resident Ellen W.P. Wasserman to LifeBridge Health will create an endowment to fund scholarships for medical students training at the Regional Medical Campus (RMC) at Sinai Hospital.
The RMC is a partnership with The George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences (GW SMHS).
The donation is the largest gift from an individual in the 26-year history of the LifeBridge Health system. This gift brings Wasserman’s lifetime donations to LifeBridge Health to about $24 million, with her previous gifts focused primarily on children. This includes endowing the Ellen W.P. Wasserman chair of pediatrics position at the Herman & Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital at Sinai.
Wasserman, who turned 101 last March, became an emeritus member of the LifeBridge Health board in 2022. She served on the Sinai Hospital board of directors for nearly 20 years and was a founding member of the LifeBridge Health board in 1998.
The RMC program is now in its second full year with 15 GW SMHS students currently training at Sinai. There will be a total of 60 students — 30 third year and 30 fourth year — when the program is at full capacity. The RMC has a focus on primary care and community-based medicine.
The incoming GW SMHS class starting medical school this fall already has 30 first-year students who will come to the RMC in Baltimore for their clinical rotations in April of 2026. Through the endowment, these students will receive tuition scholarships of $10,000 annually and will be known as Wasserman Scholars.
“We are so grateful to Ellen Wasserman for this transformational gift to invest in the education of future physicians, who we hope will go on to practice in our communities,” said Neil Meltzer, president and CEO of LifeBridge Health. “Ellen trained as a social worker and truly understands the challenges facing so many of our patients. With her many years of support to Sinai Hospital, our patients and our communities, this gift is part of Ellen’s legacy and a way to take on health disparities and make a positive difference in the health of people, particularly those who may be at increased health risks due to social or economic challenges.”
Said Dr. Scott Krugman, senior associate dean at for the GW SMHS RMC: “The RMC students are a remarkable and enthusiastic group of students, and we are so thankful for Mrs. Wasserman’s gift that will support our students in this special learning environment and community-focused program. The current RMC students have shared how much they value the individualized, hands-on education and training they are receiving at Sinai, as well as connections they are able to build with their patients and our greater community.”
During their time at Sinai, the third-year students rotate through all medical specialties, ranging from family medicine and internal medicine to pediatrics, psychiatry, obstetrics/gynecology, neurology, surgery and more. They work alongside doctors, nurses and other team members on hospital units, in physician clinics and in the community. Fourth-year students can take electives unique to the RMC, such as population health, value-based care and technology/digital health.
RMC students do their first two years of medical classroom coursework at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ campus in Washington, D.C., before coming to Baltimore for their final two years of medical school.
“From the division of newborn medicine and the pediatric emergency department to our Center for Hope’s pediatrician and other pediatric areas she’s supported, Ellen’s passion for helping families has touched so many lives over the years,” said Julie Cox, chief philanthropy officer for LifeBridge Health. “Through this extraordinary gift to endow scholarships for our RMC students, she now builds on that legacy to create the next generation of physicians to care for families in our communities.
“Ellen Wasserman is a caring and compassionate woman who always asks about our patients and how we can help people in our communities. We are so appreciative for her leadership and support to LifeBridge Health over more than quarter century.”
The Wasserman endowment ensures ongoing scholarship support for RMC students. The first two classes received scholarship support from other benefactors, including the Herman & Walter Samuelson Foundation, the Kahlert Foundation, Louis and Phyllis Friedman, the Blavatt Family, the Israelson Family Foundation and Dr. Stanley Friedler.
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