TIMOTHY FREEMAN, MD,
CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES
Advancing Care, Improving Lives
Friends of the Freeman Center,
Every day we are inspired by our patients and their families. Their experiences with the healthcare system sparked the vision that became the Timothy Freeman, MD, Center for Developmental Disabilities and their stories continue to drive our mission to elevate care for adults with developmental disabilities.
With the opening of our state-of-the-art health center in 2025, we celebrated a dream built through years of collaboration with patients, caregivers and community partners. Together we shaped not only the physical space but also the services and care model that define our center.
Today this is a place where patients receive expert care from providers they trust, where future leaders and practitioners gain invaluable training and where care is first and foremost person-centered.
But our work is far from finished. We are committed to advancing healthcare for our community and beyond, but we cannot do it alone.
Your partnership allows us to live out our mission. With your support, we can deliver world-class services from clinical care to integrative therapies and clinical trials. We can expand our reach through training, education, innovative research and national collaborations.
Thank you for being an integral part of this movement. Together we will redefine what healthcare can and should be.
With gratitude,
Lauren Wang, MD Center Director
Timothy Freeman, MD, Center for Development Disabilities
Associate
Professor of Family & Community Medicine
MISSION
To advance healthcare for adults with developmental disabilities by providing person-centered, coordinated and interdisciplinary care, educating health professionals and partnering with the community.
VISION
Healthcare equity and access for adults with developmental disabilities.
OUR FIVE-YEAR VISION
Since its founding, the Freeman Center has flourished due to the support of countless donors and community partners. Your belief in what is possible has brought us to this moment. Continued investment will ensure that the Freeman Center not only meets today’s needs but leads the way for generations to come.
UC Health is steadfast in its commitment to this mission, but it is philanthropy that makes progress possible. Every advancement, every new program, every person whose life is touched by the Freeman Center happens because generous partners share our vision for what compassionate, inclusive healthcare can be.
Each day, new patients reach out seeking the care, connection and expertise that the center provides. To meet this rising demand, and to grow as a national leader in our field, we must expand our clinical team and enhance our research and educational programs.
Over the next five years, we will invest in:
care Education and training Research
Clinical
CLINICAL CARE
Our interdisciplinary team provides comprehensive care to more than 1,800 patients across Greater Cincinnati and beyond. Demand continues to grow, with a waitlist of individuals seeking our person-centered, coordinated services. Strengthening support for our expert clinicians and expansion of vital support staff will ensure we can maintain excellence while meeting increasing care needs.
Funding priorities:
Center director
The center director provides strategic leadership, guiding program innovation, community and national partnerships and long-term planning. An endowed directorship ensures dedicated time for Lauren Wang, MD, to lead the interdisciplinary team and support the continued growth and success of the center.
Psychiatry director
The psychiatry director provides dedicated leadership and oversight for the psychiatric services within the program. The director provides strategic input, clinical oversight, consultation and quality monitoring across outpatient, inpatient and emergency settings. This dedicated leadership role is essential to maintain excellence in care as psychiatric services grow.
Behavioral health director
The Freeman Center behavioral health director oversees a robust care team including specialists from psychology, social work, therapy and behavioral support, in addition to managing clinical and programmatic activities.
Program director
The program director supports the center director by coordinating center development, managing strategic partnerships and advancing capital and programmatic growth initiatives. This role ensures smooth execution of center priorities and expansion efforts.
Community navigator
The community navigator supports patients and caregivers to identify, understand and access community resources. The navigator guides individuals through complex systems to ensure connection to housing, benefits, transportation, respite and other essential services.
Behavior supports
Our behavior support specialist provides direct, compassionate assistance in the clinic and across the broader UC Health system. Responsibilities include delivering individualized behavior support within the clinic and across the UC Health settings, improving patient experiences and reducing stress and anxiety related to medical visits. The behavioral support specialist offers staff training and resources to enhance safety and quality of care for patients with developmental disabilities in outpatient, inpatient, emergency and surgical environments.
Registered nurse (RN) care manager
This role coordinates patient care throughout the healthcare system. The RN care manager works with our most medically complex patients who see numerous specialists and subspecialists to ensure continuity of care and improve patient outcomes. The RN care manager also serves as a support to patients and their families when they are in need of medical supplies like feeding tubes or oxygen.
Licensed social worker (LSW)
Our licensed social worker provides mental health counseling, resource linkage, advocacy and crisis intervention for our patients experiencing depression, anxiety, grief or other life stressors. Our LSW also facilitates group visits with patients to not only address mental health needs but also build social connection and emotional support.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Ensuring a lasting impact for our patients and families means preparing the next generation of healthcare professionals to deliver exceptional care for adults with developmental disabilities.
Our partnerships with the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and UC Health’s residency programs are growing, and there is tremendous opportunity to expand education to other interdisciplinary team members, including physicians, advanced practice providers, dietitians, dentists, psychologists and therapists.
Funding priorities:
Developmental medicine fellowship
The Freeman Center has created one of only five developmental medicine fellowships in the country dedicated to training physicians to provide primary care to adults with developmental disabilities. This unique fellowship attracts talented physicians to Cincinnati and expands our capacity to deliver exceptional care to patients.
• Fellowship director: The fellowship director is a physician who recruits, trains and mentors fellows during the one-year fellowship.
• Freeman center developmental medicine fellow: A fellow provides primary care to approximately 250 patients per year at the center. Dedicated scholarly support for the fellow will ensure they have the necessary resources to maximize their clinical training through participation at conferences, specific training opportunities outside of the Freeman Center and research. This enriches their experience and prepares them for a career as a leader in developmental medicine.
Medical student and residency training director
The Freeman Center oversees the developmental disability curriculum at UC’s College of Medicine. The curriculum includes interactive panel presentations and clinical experiences for first- and second-year students as well as a fourth-year clinical elective rotation at the Freeman Center.
All UC internal medicine pediatrics residents, as well as family medicine and psychiatry residents who are interested in serving adults with developmental disabilities, train within the center. These physicians-in-training receive direct instruction from our Freeman Center clinicians, provide care to patients and have the opportunity to learn from interdisciplinary team members.
A dedicated medical student and residency training program director will ensure that these learners receive a best-in-class educational experience, inspiring and equipping them with the necessary skills to serve patients with developmental disabilities no matter what medical specialty they pursue. This education is critical to our mission as it allows the Freeman Center to transform healthcare beyond our walls and reach numerous communities and specialties.
Professional development
• Training within UC Health: The Freeman Center has the unique ability to provide educational opportunities to our UC Health colleagues to significantly improve the patient experience throughout the adult healthcare system. Self-advocates and those with lived experience will be involved in the development of education and training opportunities to ensure their voices are heard by the medical community.
• Ongoing staff education: By providing opportunities for staff to attend training and conferences regionally and nationally, we will ensure we have a highly trained interdisciplinary team that is not only up to date on the latest medical information and techniques but involved in shaping emerging best practices.
• Serving as national leaders: As the Freeman Center grows, we are increasingly approached by other academic health systems seeking to replicate our model of care. To share our expertise with organizations that strive to promote health equity in similar centers, we need dedicated time to consult with our colleagues and host groups interested in the Freeman Center to learn how to replicate our model. This time will allow us to extend our impact far beyond Cincinnati and help shape the future of care nationally for individuals with developmental disabilities.
RESEARCH
The Freeman Center is committed to growing our research program, to create knowledge in our field and advance evidence-based care for the individuals we serve and for those beyond our walls. Building our research infrastructure allows us to offer clinical trials for patients and launch our own pilot studies here in Cincinnati.
Funding priorities:
Research director
A research director will explore and pursue funded research opportunities and partnerships with other national leaders in the field. The research director will also encourage other Freeman Center team members to participate in research, publish and present at regional and national conferences. This support ensures dedicated time for this work outside of the director’s clinical care activities.
Pilot research grants
Many large-scale research studies begin with a pilot research grant. Private philanthropy can jump-start these novel research projects that would otherwise remain idle. Dedicated research funding will allow Freeman Center researchers to explore new ideas and opportunities and to create breakthrough discoveries right here in Cincinnati.
GROWTH THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS
Partnerships bring more support to patients and their families, giving them additional service options and access within the Freeman Center. The center has the ability to transform care through expanded services and programs in every step of their healthcare journey.
These partnerships include:
Dental
Oral care is often cited as the number one unmet healthcare need for people with disabilities. The “why” is a complex mix of stigma, misconceptions, a lack of training, poor reimbursement models and a need for expanded dental benefits. As a result, many people with disabilities face long wait times, sometimes spanning years, for a dental appointment. Many others require sedation for dental exams, adding another barrier to receiving care.
The consequences are enormous. A lack of available, affordable coverage for our most vulnerable population means that their rates of dental disease are much higher than the general population. According to an Indiana University Center for Health Equity survey, half of those with disabilities were experiencing active dental issues, such as pain or bleeding gums. Two-thirds had lost teeth due to untreated dental issues.
The Freeman Center, in partnership with UC Health’s Dental Center, understands and seeks to challenge these disparities. Our vision is to deliver on the promise of better oral and overall health for people with developmental disabilities.
Legal
The Freeman Center and the Legal Access Clinic (TLAC) at the University of Cincinnati Donald P. Klekamp College of Law are coming together to start an innovative medical-legal partnership to identify and address unmet legal needs frequently faced by adults with developmental disabilities.
Through this partnership we hope to help patients and families navigate legal concerns that are frequently brought up during medical visits and overcome barriers to accessing legal services. In addition to providing direct legal and medical service, TLAC and the Freeman Center also share an educational mission: educating the next generation of public interest lawyers, and the next generation of leaders in developmental medicine. Through this partnership we hope to help patients and families navigate legal concerns that are frequently brought up during medical visits and overcome barriers to accessing legal services.
Integrative medicine
Another unique partnership for the Freeman Center is with the Osher Center for Integrative Health at UC. This interdisciplinary collaboration will provide center patients and their caregivers access to integrative and lifestyle medicine programming, including tai chi, yoga, mindfulness-based stress reduction and expressive therapies like music and art therapy. Enhanced clinical offerings such as acupuncture, massage therapy and lifestyle medicine consultations can also be available.
For patients, these therapies improve physical health by enhancing mobility and reducing pain while promoting mental and emotional well-being through stress reduction and emotional expression. They also foster vital social interaction, helping patients feel more connected. For caregivers, these programs offer stress management tools, build emotional resilience and reduce burnout, ultimately contributing to the overall well-being of both patients and caregivers.
TIMOTHY FREEMAN, MD
For more than 30 years, Tim Freeman, MD, focused his medical practice on the care of adults with developmental disabilities. He was a pioneer in this field, long before there was national recognition of the need for improved care for this community.
He taught, mentored and inspired hundreds of physicians during his career.
We are honored to continue his legacy through our work at the Freeman Center.
THANK YOU
We are grateful for your thoughtful consideration of a gift to support the Freeman Center.
Our growth and expansion will position us as a national leader in developmental medicine and interdisciplinary care models, transforming healthcare for adults with developmental disabilities in our community and beyond.
CONTACT
Ben Jager
Associate Director of Development, UC Foundation
Ben.Jager@foundation.uc.edu
859-992-1136
Kaylee Balzano
Assistant Director of Development UC Foundation
Kaylee.Balzano@foundation.uc.edu
513-558-2384
