EOS Foundation: Brightening Lives in Southern Arizona

A 2024 gift to the College of Science from University of Arizona alumna Gwendolyn “Gwen” Weiner and the EOS Foundation will be used to brighten the lives of individuals affected by conditions that impact psychological health.

Gwen established the EOS Foundation Endowed Chair in Health Psychology in the College of Science and also funded a much-need renovation of the Department of Psychology’s Behavioral Health Clinic. The gift was based Gwen’s nearly two-decade connection with Professor of Psychology David Sbarra who was named the inaugural chair holder effective July 1, 2024. Dr. Sbarra’s research centers on how people recover from social separation and cope with loss. He is internationally-recognized for his significant scholarly, clinical, graduate teaching and mentorship contributions in the area of health psychology. 

Gwen first met Dr. Sbarra in 2007, and over the years, she witnessed his commitment to serving patients and students, and it resonated with her lifelong interest in supporting mental health services. When Gwen learned that as part of the University’s Fuel Wonder Campaign, gifts to establish new endowed chairs could be enhanced through the Eminent Scholar Program which provides a 1:1 match for the endowment’s payout for five years and an additional one-time award to support graduate students working with the chair holder, she was excited to learn more. 

Also, she came to understand that the Department of Psychology’s Behavioral Health Clinic needed to be updated and expanded to better respond to growing community needs. The clinic serves as a training facility for advanced Clinical Psychology doctoral students and provides assessment and therapy services to individuals in southern Arizona. Funding for the clinic will support increased supervisor time, provide student support for training, make critical infrastructure improvements, and pay for software and telehealth technology costs. Gwen quickly decided to fund the endowed chair and the upgrades to the Behavioral Health Clinic. 

Yet this was only the latest of Gwen’s gifts to the College of Science. Over the years, she has supported and brought her design expertise to the complete renovation of Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium’s main theater, now named the EOS Foundation Theater, and contributed to the Marine Discovery and Universe of Science exhibits. Through her generous support of the University of Arizona, she is bringing light to the lives of adults and children in southern Arizona.

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“Being appointed as the EOS Foundation Endowed Chair in Health Psychology is a tremendous honor. The Endowed Chair position provides important new resources that are helping grow my research laboratory and, in particular, we have plans to hire a new data scientist with the endowment funds. This kind of support will be a game changer in terms of our work, and I am thrilled to serve as the inaugural holder of this chair position.”