When Christine Koch was notified that she was being honored by UW Medicine with a 2026 Brotman Leadership Award, she didn’t quite understand why. In her mind, she’s just an ordinary donor.

Established in 2008, the award recognizes those whose visionary philanthropic leadership makes a significant impact on UW Medicine’s ability to carry out its mission: improving the health of the public.

Christine will quickly point out how grateful she is to be part of the teams advancing mental health and educating the next generation of medical leaders.

“I’m grateful on many levels,” Christine says. “I’m grateful to the faculty and staff for turning ideas my husband, Peter, and I had into reality. I’m grateful to students for their dedication to helping those in underserved areas. It’s heartening to see how it’s all blossomed over the years and is having a global impact.”

That impact began with a question.

A new approach to mental health care

Christine and Peter were enjoying an afternoon at a state fair when they stopped to watch a hypnotist’s presentation. For Peter, the experience lingered. One day, he turned to Christine and asked, “Do you think hypnotism would have helped Barbara?”

Before meeting Christine, Peter had dated Barbara for some time, and she had died by suicide after struggling for years with depression. “It really distressed him,” Christine says. “He always carried a sense of survivor’s guilt.”

Unsure of the answer but hopeful there might be one, Christine reached out to UW Medicine. There, the Kochs met with Richard Veith, MD, then chief of UW Medicine’s Psychiatric Services, and later Barbara McCann, PhD, a professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. The Kochs learned that while hypnosis was commonly used for pain suppression, it also showed promise for mental health care. Inspired by that potential, the Kochs began thinking about how they could help others struggling with depression.

In 2008, the Kochs established the Mental Health Counseling and Hypnosis Endowed Chair, held by McCann. This was followed by the Depression Therapy Research Endowed Professorship, which supports research and clinical care focused on depression and is held by Anna Ratzliff, MD, PhD, professor and vice chair for faculty development.

These gifts made a tremendous difference to the field.

For example, Ratzliff helped lead a study examining the effectiveness of collaborative care for mental health and opioid use disorders in primary care settings. She says, “The generous support of Christine and Peter has made it possible for me to engage in national leadership, large-scale research and transformation in the workforce to improve access to high-quality depression care. The professorship provides me the protected time necessary to lead complex, policy-relevant initiatives that are leading to meaningful innovations in depression care for Washington state and beyond.”

McCann notes, “As a result of being named the endowed chair, I was able to become president-elect of the Society for Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis in 2021. That role has enabled me to prioritize encouraging a new generation of clinicians and scientists to study hypnosis, not only within the University of Washington, but internationally.”

It was such a rewarding experience that the Kochs decided to do more.

Training future medical leaders

In conversations with Veith, the Kochs learned more about the growing shortage of medical providers, particularly in rural communities. While the UW School of Medicine’s WWAMI program (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) has played a critical role in making medical education accessible to students from rural areas, the high cost of tuition and the mounting burden of student loan debt often push graduates toward higher-paying specialties or urban practices.

“I think it’s essential to have strong healthcare in every community, especially rural ones,” says Christine. “If medical students are burdened with enormous debt, it becomes much harder for them to serve places where salaries may not be enough to repay it.”

Motivated by that reality, the Kochs established a scholarship fund in 2014 to support medical students who are committed to practicing in underserved communities, and Christine notes that she is very grateful to the Huckabay family, recipients of the 2009 Brotman Leadership Award, who generously matched the Kochs’ contributions.

When Peter passed in 2017, Christine increased the aid, and the impact of the scholarships has been deeply personal. She’s found that meeting the recipients and listening to their stories has become one of the most meaningful experiences of her life.

“I’m in awe of them,” she says. “They’re so dedicated, they work very hard and some come from really difficult circumstances. Others might be the first to go to college, let alone medical school.”

A collaboration — and team effort — to improve health

In the beginning, the Kochs didn’t expect to become so deeply involved. But the more they learned about UW Medicine’s mission — and the ways it serves people across the region — the more meaningful their investment became.

Their legacy of giving is already making a difference today and will continue to improve health for countless people in the years ahead.

“I really feel like we’re working together,” Christine says. “It’s about teamwork — pulling the rope in the same direction. I don’t see myself as a leader. I see all of us moving forward together.”

Written by Nicole Beattie