Carolyn Rowan focused her attention on women’s health when she realized she could help future generations of women to experience a lifetime of well-being in mind and body. Thus, the vision for the Carolyn Rowan Center for Women’s Health and Wellness at Mount Sinai emerged. Recently opened on the corner of 99th Street and Madison Avenue in the heart of the Upper East Side, the Rowan Center is elevating women’s health care to a level of luxury by bringing together women’s health services at a single location—a design element Rowan believes is central to ensuring women receive care and attention of the highest quality.
“Imagine a wellness center for women where you know you’re getting the best care, where all of the best doctors are focused on you and every interaction comes from a place of caring,” says Carolyn, whose transformational gift established the Rowan Center. “I was born at Mount Sinai, my children were born at Mount Sinai, and I feel so fortunate to be able to do this with them.”
–Carolyn Rowan
Carolyn joined the Mount Sinai Boards of Trustees in 2023, crediting the decision to her lifelong fascination with health care, medicine, and wellness. That passion shows in her motivation to educate women from a young age on how to optimally care for their bodies. A philosophy of prevention is primary to the Rowan Center and made possible in part through research, one of the foundational pillars on which Mount Sinai stands. The Blavatnik Family Women’s Health Research Institute and the newly established Women’s Biomedical Research Institute conduct basic and translational research specific to the biology of women’s health across the lifespan, and each will directly inform care at the Rowan Center.
Carolyn envisioned a colocation of providers who are at the top of their practice in every area of women’s health, making the Rowan Center a premier destination for the women of New York City. Not only does the convenience of accessing multiple services at the same hospital lower barriers to care, but such proximity naturally empowers provider collaboration, improving health outcomes while giving every patient certainty that care is centered on them. A range of women’s health services available at the Rowan Center will anchor additional care options provided across the Mount Sinai Health System, working intimately with the Raquel and Jaime Gilinski Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at Mount Sinai to deliver the highest level of patient-centered care.
Moreover, Carolyn is enthusiastic about the infusion of integrative medicine that will give patients access to services typically spread across disparate offices, if available at all. By bridging practices with roots in Western as well as Eastern systems, from precision diagnostic testing, bone density testing, and pelvic floor physical therapy to acupuncture, massage, and use of medicinal herbs, the Rowan Center is expanding the range of care options such that care can be personalized to an individual patient at any stage of life.
At the heart of the Center’s approach is MyPath, a series of guided care experiences that organize services around specific areas of women’s health, such as hormonal and cardiometabolic wellness, postpartum recovery, and surgical transitions.
Rather than navigating multiple referrals and follow-up calls, patients work with care teams who coordinate across specialties. A woman managing menopause symptoms, for example, will also be able to address her heart, metabolic, bone health, and mental health, while someone recovering postpartum will be referred to pelvic floor therapy, nutrition counseling, and emotional wellness support—all within a single, connected environment.
The first of these specialized paths is centered around menopause services attuned to the needs of women in midlife, with experts proactively providing care to keep a woman feeling her best in the years before, during, and after menopause. Menopause “is not a sexy subject,” Carolyn acknowledges, and so “it has been a largely dark conversation that’s recently come to light. Mount Sinai can be the foremost in that space.”
Tying it all together is a team of dedicated patient navigators available to help patients schedule appointments and manage coordination of care for those following more complex treatment plans.
Carolyn hopes that her gift to establish the Rowan Center will give women “something that’s just for them,” a place where they will be heard, treated compassionately, and receive recommendations specific to the female body, whether for screenings, self-care, or exercise. Most of all, she hopes to give women peace of mind, knowing they are in a place designed to help them be healthy.
“It’s great to have something you envision come to life…and I’m only one small piece. Caring faculty and staff will be the superstars who make this happen.”
–Carolyn Rowan
Learn more about the Carolyn Rowan Center for Women's Health and Wellness
