Anschutz gives $15M for CU wellness center

Denver businessman Philip Anschutz's foundation is donating $15 million to build a Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado Denver's Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.

"The Anschutz Foundation's generosity will help us make a significant impact on people's lives throughout Colorado and beyond," CU President Bruce Benson said in a statement Thursday.

The new facility, part of what's becoming one of America's largest medical research and treatment centers. will "translate research into programs and tools to help all people in Colorado improve their diet and physical activity patterns," said James Hill, who will serve as interim director of the wellness center.

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Hill is director of the UC Denver School of Medicine's Center for Human Nutrition and co-founder of America On the Move, a national nonprofit promoting healthy habits.

"Small steps and small changes can make a big difference in our health, but today we took one big step in breaking down the silos and bringing people together in Colorado to improve health, combat obesity and prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes," Hill said.

The gift is the latest of many large donations from The Anschutz Foundation to support medical treatment and research facilities at the former site of the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center on East Colfax Avenue in Aurora, dating back to a $25 million gift in 2000 for an outpatient center -- at the time the largest private cash gift ever received by CU.

Anschutz and his wife, Nancy, also gave $25 million in November 2006 for a research center. The billionaire now has given more than $100 million to the Aurora medical complex in nine years.

The Health and Wellness Center will house CU Denver's existing Center for Human Nutrition as well as its Center for Integrative Medicine and the Center for Women's Health Research.

The center's research facilities will focus on alternative medicine, holistic wellness and counseling, weight management, and improving nutrition and physical fitness, officials said. It will also house community wellness programs.