Brief Description

WISE is an Illinois-registered 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that advances the care for our veterans’ education and research initiatives. WISE realizes that a commitment to accelerating basic and clinical translational research efforts must be centered on developing multidisciplinary teams with expertise in veterans’ health both within and outside the VA medical center.

We are located at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in the Illinois Medical District near the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. WISE manages the funding of research and education at Jesse Brown and strives to connect with the communities that our veterans call home, thereby empowering the individuals this recognized Medical Center serves. We are dedicated to improving the quality of life of the veteran population through education, research, and sustainable community engagement in the greater Chicago area and beyond.

JBVAMC consists of a 200-bed acute care facility and four community based outpatient clinics (CBOCs), with approximately 2,000 full-time equivalent staff, including 200+ physicians, 450 nurses, and 500+ volunteers, providing care to approximately 62,000 enrolled Veterans. Research Service enjoys Academic Affiliations with Northwestern Univ., Univ. of Chicago, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, and the School of the Art Institute. Research Service currently administers 94 clinical trials, 42 protocols in Basic Science, and on-going activities in our specific-pathogen-free barrier VMU. JBVAMC enjoys more than 40,000 square feet of space dedicated to research and features its own Institutional Review Board.

WISE’s operations strive to be as efficient and effective as possible, endeavoring to apply every resource to advance our research and education mission. And because all results from VA-approved research are in the public domain, while our primary focus is dedicated to advancing veterans’ care, the fruits of those efforts will have a far-reaching impact that benefits every community.