Kettering Health Becomes a Regional Loma Linda University Campus

Story by Ben Riggs

Kettering Health’s commitment to the Seventh-day Adventist health care tradition rests on a clear conviction: Healing should address the whole person. That conviction is shared across Adventist organizations, including Loma Linda University in California. For years, Kettering Health has welcomed Loma Linda medical students as a “proposed regional campus” to contribute to their formation as future physicians. Now, that relationship has entered a new chapter.

In January 2026, the State of Ohio formally recognized Kettering Health as an official regional campus of Loma Linda University School of Medicine for students’ clinical training. “We are no longer proposed. We are official,” said Lyndi Schwartz, MD, Kettering Health’s vice president of medical education.

The designation strengthens a pipeline of clinicians trained in an Adventist model of care—care that holds clinical excellence and spiritual attentiveness together. “The curriculum is standardized across all campuses, so that it’s seamless,” Dr. Schwartz said. Students complete their first two years of basic sciences at Loma Linda and then come to Ohio for their third and fourth years, receiving the same core instruction and meeting the same requirements. Dr. Schwartz added that Loma Linda recently made whole-person care a required clerkship for graduation and conducts reviews of regional campuses to ensure consistency.

Dr. Schwartz emphasized that the goal is not simply to produce competent clinicians, but for physicians to understand that a patient is never only a diagnosis.

“You can heal the physical person, but there is a person behind the physical,” Dr. Schwartz said. “We want to train our students … to be really attentive … with how to deal with that spiritual piece.” The partnership affirms that whole-person care belongs at the center of credentialed approved medical education.

Kathleen Mayer, medical school regional campus manager, noted that the regional campus concept has been developing for several years, building on longstanding educational connections. Early student participation was voluntary, and the results have been encouraging. More than 80% of students who chose to complete their clinical years at Kettering Health have stayed for residency training within the system, an indicator that learners find both strong training and mission alignment.

After the requisite interviewing process, the graduating class of 2031 will be the first official Loma Linda University-Kettering Health Main Campus students. The campus is committed to hosting 12 third- and fourth-year students per class—24 total—who will complete their training through the regional campus. Those intentional numbers will ensure a robust training environment, wonderful education and meaningful mentorship.

Kettering Health’s mission—“To live God’s love by promoting and restoring health”—finds a natural partner in Loma Linda’s Adventist legacy. Together, the institutions are shaping physicians whose competence is matched by conscience, and whose training is anchored in whole-person healing.