The Annenberg Center for Health Sciences was founded to address issues vital to health and science, to provide continuing professional education, and to promote public wellness. Ambassador Annenberg's vision was to establish “an unmatched facility where leaders
in education, medicine, government, and industry will gather to contemplate issues of
the next century.”

 

In 1979, Ambassador and Mrs. Walter H. Annenberg donated $4 million for health sciences, and construction began on the Annenberg Center in 1980. The Center began hosting its first medical conferences in 1982.

 

The Annenberg Center was among the first cohort of organizations to become accredited by the newly formed Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education in 1981 and has remained continuously accredited since that time. Continuing professional development in the health professions has remained a primary focus throughout the Center's history, and it now carries accreditation for multiple health care professions.