Last week, Arizona State University hosted an event at its downtown campus discussing how universities can bring life to their surrounding communities and transform downtown areas.

Michael Crow, president of ASU, said the university has been working for years to move from “a faculty-centered institution to a student-focused institution.”

A big part of this, he said, is looking at serving the communities near its campuses. For example, the university partnered with Mesa, Arizona, to improve its downtown, adding a campus and a Media and Immersive eXperience (MIX) Center.

ASU is also looking to be a bigger player in L.A. Crow said the area is home to a number of ASU’s online students and alumni. In 2022, ASU officially opened its ASU California Center, located at the historic Herald Examiner Building to allow for more students and greater involvement in the area. The property once housed the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

“What you’ve been able to figure out is not just how to reach out to a community but how to reach in,” former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at the event.

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Late last month MemorialCare Medical Group celebrated the opening of a new health center in Carson.

“We are excited to expand our presence in this vibrant community and provide accessible, high-quality primary care services to the residents of Carson,” Annamarie Jones, chief operating officer of MemorialCare Medical Foundation, said. “At MemorialCare, our commitment to provide the right care, at the right place, at the right time, through an integrated delivery system that serves as a true medical home for our patients.”

The center, which welcomed its first patients last week, offers family medicine through both in-person and virtual care visits.

“We wanted a health care center in our community because we have a large senior population, and we want to make sure they have what they need,” Carson Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes said in a statement.

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In other health care news, Beverly Grove-based Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has raised more than $1 billion in an initiative that launched six years ago.

“This is a transformative time for Cedars-Sinai as an academic medical institution,” Arthur J. Ochoa, senior vice president of advancement and chief advancement officer for Cedars-Sinai, said in a statement. “Every dollar raised through this fundraising campaign solidifies our legacy and mission of healing and uplifting our patients and the community.”

The hospital, which announced the fundraising total last week, counts three major gifts among that total.

In 2022, the Shapell Guerin Family Foundation created Cedars-Sinai’s Guerin Children’s with a $100 million gift.  Guerin Children’s provides care children’s health services.

Last year a $143 million planned gift from the estate of Susanne and Ervin Bard was announced, the largest gift in Cedars-Sinai’s history. The hospital renamed the former Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion as the Susanne and Ervin Bard Pavilion.