10 BRAND STORY PRODUCED BY THE OREGON BUSINESS MARKETING DEPARTMENT BY JON BELL Does the name Western University of Health Sciences ring a bell? If not, it should. WesternU, as it’s informally known, is one of only two medical schools in Oregon, the other being Oregon Health & Science University. Its campus in Lebanon, Oregon, established in 2011, has graduated more than 1,000 medical students. Thanks to a generous land donation of 150 acres and a $50 million gift from the Heatherington Foundation of Innovation and Education in Health Care, the medical school has now been named Heatherington College of Osteopathic Medicine (founded as COMP-Northwest) and WesternU is positioned for an expansion that will help address Oregon’s provider shortage and ensure that Oregonians can get the health care they need. “We have a health professional shortage crisis in the United States, and I believe we’re the solution for a multitude of reasons, the most compelling of which is that we’re very unique,” said Robin Farias-Eisner, MD, PhD, MBA, president of WesternU. “It’s not just that we have all these amazing colleges and that we provide superb education, but we really are about academic excellence — so not just quantity of service, but quality as well.” Backed by humanism and science The quantity — and quality — that Farias-Eisner mentioned spans beyond Oregon. WesternU was originally founded in 1977 in Pomona, California, where it still maintains its main campus. Over the years, it expanded, adding colleges specializing in health sciences, pharmacy and graduate nursing as well as veterinary medicine, dental medicine, optometry and podiatric medicine. The Oregon campus, which more than 400 students attend annually, is home to both the medical school and the College of Health Sciences-Northwest, which launched with a physical therapy program in 2021 and graduated its first Doctor of Physical Therapy students in 2024. For the past two years, U.S. News & World Report ranked WesternU a Tier 1 medical school in primary care — one of only 16 medical schools in the nation to receive such an accolade. Farias-Eisner, himself a surgeon and a scientist, said WesternU stands apart from other universities partly because of its adherence to the osteopathic tenets of medicine and its holistic philosophy, which encompasses the body, mind and spirit. A Med School Making a Difference WesternU, one of two medical schools in Oregon, is expanding and tackling the provider shortage. Left: WesternU student doctors volunteer at free clinic in Lebanon. Below: WesternU President Dr. Robin Farias-Eisner.
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