Who We Are
Our Mission
The Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation seeks to assist Greater Cleveland’s organizations and leaders to improve the health and well-being of the Jewish and general communities now and for generations to come.
Victor Gelb
Chair, Board of Directors
Mitchell Balk
President
Our History
- The Mt. Sinai Legacy of Caring
- Sea Change: The Cleveland Health Care Marketplace
- A New Health Care Philanthropy for Cleveland
The Mt. Sinai Legacy of Caring
More than one hundred years ago, in June 1903, an institution destined to achieve a national reputation for medical excellence first opened its doors to care for the people of Cleveland. That institution, Mt. Sinai Hospital, was generously supported by the Cleveland Jewish community.
Not only did Mt. Sinai develop into a superior teaching and research medical center, but from the 1960s to the 1990s, it was perhaps the largest private provider of care to the poor in the State of Ohio. The Mt. Sinai Medical Center operated the east side’s only Level I Trauma Center and had Cleveland’s first and, for many years, only emergency medicine residency training program. Clearly Mt. Sinai, which was affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, has been part of Cleveland’s reputation as a medical hub.
Back to Our History
Back to top
Sea Change: The Cleveland Health Care Marketplace
In the mid-1990s, consolidation of Cleveland’s health care industry and the entrance of for-profit hospital corporations into Northeast Ohio forever changed the medical landscape. Several non-profit hospitals in Northeast Ohio sold assets to for-profit corporations or created joint ventures, resulting in a number of new health grantmaking foundations. In the case of Mt. Sinai, one of the largest of the resulting foundations, hospital leadership decided to sell the institution’s operating assets in April of 1996 to position the Mt. Sinai Health Care System (Mt. Sinai, Richmond Heights and Laurelwood Hospitals, as well as several outpatient facilities) to compete successfully with developing systems of University Hospitals and The Cleveland Clinic, with The Mt. Sinai Medical Center as the flagship tertiary care center of the new system.
Back to Our History
Back to top
A New Health Care Philanthropy for Cleveland
An additional goal of the sale of Mt. Sinai assets was to create a philanthropic legacy that would perpetuate the mission of the non-profit Mt. Sinai into the future, no matter what the future held for the health care delivery business.
The Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation developed into a leading health philanthropy, already distributing more than $62 million in its initial ten years of grantmaking. Major programs have included:
- ChildSight® in the Cleveland Municipal School District
- The Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation Scholars Program at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine
- The Monarch School at Bellefaire
- The Greater Cleveland Health Education and Service Council
- The Case/Mt. Sinai Center for Medical Simulation, a collaboration among Case School of Medicine and Cleveland’s academic medical centers.
- The Health Policy Institute of Ohio
- Senior Transportation Connection of Cuyahoga County
ChildSight® provides free vision screenings and free quality eyeglasses, as needed, to all 12,000 middle school students in the Cleveland Municipal School District, as well as students in the East Cleveland Public Schools. With puberty come changes in eyesight, and urban children do not get to the eye doctor on a routine basis. Kids who can’t see the blackboard can’t learn. ChildSight® provides these services on-site, in-school.
Back to Health Care Philanthropy
Back to Our History
Back to top
The Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation Scholars Program has assisted the Case School of Medicine attract young, highly promising research stars in order to build its basic science departments. The Foundation’s initial $1.5 million investment in the first six Scholars has already leveraged more than $7 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health. An additional grant of $1.5 million will be used to recruit an additional six Mt. Sinai Scholars to Case.
Back to Health Care Philanthropy
Back to Our History
Back to top
Established in 2001, The Monarch School at Bellefaire is Northeast Ohio’s first school for children in the autism spectrum. The School is at capacity and has developed a teaching and research affiliation with Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. With help from the Foundation, the Monarch Boarding Academy, a residential facility for children with autism spectrum disorders, has recently opened its doors.
Back to Health Care Philanthropy
Back to Our History
Back to top
The Greater Cleveland Health Education and Service Council (GCHESC) continues to operate Mt. Sinai’s long-recognized programs in urban health. Focused on reducing health disparities in minority populations, GCHESC operates cardiovascular risk reduction and smoking cessation programs, as well as other initiatives in the area of health promotion/disease prevention.
Back to Health Care Philanthropy
Back to Our History
Back to top
The Case/Mt. Sinai Center for Medical Simulation is the result of a $10 million grant by the Foundation to Case School of Medicine. Designed as an interdisciplinary center to improve clinical competency of physicians and other health professionals, the Center will be a major tool in efforts to improve patient safety. The Center is a collaboration among Case, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, University Hospitals of Cleveland, MetroHealth Medical Center and the Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Back to Health Care Philanthropy
Back to Our History
Back to top
The Health Policy Institute of Ohio, based in Columbus, was established in 2003 by health-focused grantmaking foundations from around the state to inform state health policy and to ensure that decisions on health program spending in Ohio are research-based and data driven.
Back to Health Care Philanthropy
Back to Our History
Back to top
Senior Transportation Connection of Cuyahoga County. The Foundation has been an advocate and funder of efforts to launch a countywide system of senior transportation and to inform federal policymakers on the importance of transportation to a senior’s ability to remain at home in the community and deter institutionalization for as long as possible. Led by the County Planning Commission, and with additional funding assistance from the United Way-initiated Senior Success Vision Council, and the Deaconess, Saint Luke’s and Sisters of Charity foundations, the Senior Transportation Connection of Cuyahoga County will soon provide a system that is safe, efficient, affordable and sustainable to serve the transportation needs of seniors countywide.
Back to Health Care Philanthropy
Back to Our History
Back to top
Board of Directors
OFFICERS:
Victor Gelb
Chair
Susan Hurwitz
Sally H. Wertheim, PhD
Vice-Chairs
Marc C. Krantz
Treasurer
Renee Chelm
Secretary
Leslie D. Dunn
S. Lee Kohrman
Robert S. Reitman
Bennett Yanowitz
Life Directors
Morton G. Epstein
Director Emeritus
Mitchell Balk
President
Back to top
DIRECTORS:
Thomas W. Adler
Richard J. Bogomolny
Beth W. Brandon
Morton S. Frankel
Avrum I. Froimson, MD
David Goldberg
Henry J. Goodman
Harley I. Gross
J. David Heller
Patricia M. Inglis
Marcia W. Levine
Keith Libman
Zachary T. Paris
Dan A. Polster
Jeffrey L. Ponsky, MD
Susan Ratner
Elaine H. Rocker
Norton W. Rose
Shelley Roth
Susan E. Rubin
Judith Weiss
Nancy G. Wolf, MD, PhD
Staff
Mitchell Balk
President
Back to top
Ann Freimuth
Program Officer
Shelly Galvin
Program Officer
Melanie Gavin
Financial Officer
Genese Hewston
Program Assistant
Lisa Zwolinski
Administrative Assistant
Watch a Video
See and hear firsthand the positive impact Mt. Sinai has on our community through a selection of people served.
View "How a Foundation Works...When Its Really Working; Senior Transportation in Cuyahoga County, A Case Study in Strategic Grant Making"
Choose from these formats and sizes:
- Large Version - 40MB
Small Version - 23MB
VIew a video about the origins and history of Mt. Sinai in Cleveland in "A Seed Planted. The 1915 Mt. Sinai Time Capsule"
Choose from these formats and sizes:
- Large Video - 46MB. Coming Soon.
Small Version - 23MB
Back to top