The UNC Center for Functional GI & Motility Disorders was established in 1994 by its Co-Directors -- Douglas A. Drossman, MD and William E. Whitehead, PhD -- as a center of excellence within the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Within ten years, the UNC Center has evolved into a multidisciplinary patient care, research, training, and public education initiative with an annual budget of $1.8 million and a base of 32 faculty, investigators and staff, in addition to visiting and collaborating scholars.