COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER’S BIOGRAPHY
Richard A. “Rick” Vincent, M.B.A., chief executive emeritus of the Osteopathic Heritage
Foundations, built a remarkable 47-year career on advancing osteopathic medical education
and research and improving health and quality of life for the people of Ohio. He retired as
president and CEO of OHF in December 2017.
Under his leadership, the OHF provided more than $123 million in support for the Ohio
University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, including the Vision 2020 gift of
$105 million in 2011 – at that time, the largest single gift to a college or university in
Ohio and the largest in support of primary care education in the United States.
That award has been truly transformational for the college, allowing the medical school to
create new scholarship programs; establish a $17 million research endowment; launch its Office
of Advanced Studies, Clinical and Translational Research Unit, Office of Rural and Underserved
Programs and Office of Primary Care Research; hire new faculty, staff and researchers; and
expand and strengthen existing research institutes. The gift also provided funding toward the
planned new academic and research facilities in Athens, and made possible the establishment
of an Ohio University campus in Dublin and the 2014 opening of the Heritage College, Dublin –
whose first graduating class is receiving D.O. degrees at Commencement 2018.
In 1971, after four years as a U.S. Air Force medic, Vincent took an entry-level position with the
Columbus-based Doctors Hospital system. While working there, he earned his undergraduate
degree from Franklin University, followed by an M.B.A. from the University of Dayton. He held
a number of management positions with the system, ascending to president and CEO in 1988. A
few years afterward, he was named to lead the Doctors Hospital Foundation, which became the
OHF following the 1998 sale of the system’s hospital assets to OhioHealth, at which time Vincent
took over full time as president and CEO of the renamed foundation.
In that role he oversaw the OHF’s reorganization and development into the largest health-
support foundation in Ohio and the largest osteopathic support foundation in the United
States. The Heritage College is not the only entity to benefit from OHF’s generosity; since
their first direct philanthropic investments in 1999, the OHF and affiliated OHF of Nelsonville
have approved some $240 million in grant funding to more than 1,000 projects in support of
programs addressing public health issues ranging from nutrition to aging to domestic violence.
Vincent’s many honors from the osteopathic community attest to his visionary leadership.
These honors include the American Osteopathic Association’s 2017 Distinguished Service
Award and the Heritage College’s Phillips Medal of Public Service in 2000. He was named an
honorary alumnus of the college in 2005.
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