Howard University College of Medicine

Founders of Howard University appreciated the urgent need for medical education in the District of Columbia after the Civil War. The name of Howard University is in honor of Major General Oliver Otis Howard. The civil war had just ended, and freed African American people were migrating to the nation's capital in large numbers. In September 2020, Michael Bloomberg donated $32.8 million to help lower student debt at the institution. In October of 2022, Andrea A. Hayes Dixon became the first Black woman to become dean of the school. In 2024, Howard University College of Medicine received a $175 million gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies to support the school's endowment. Also in 2024, the orthopedic surgery residency program lost its accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education due to a valid resident complaint. The resident cited structural issues as the basis of the complaint. Howard University was the only HBCU to offer an orthopedic surgery program. ==Graduate programs==

Howard University College of Medicine has six training programs leading to the M.S. or Ph.D. degrees. These are anatomy, genetics and human genetics, microbiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, and physiology and biophysics. The largest training program in the college is their four-year M.D. program. HUCM is known for producing physicians who provide healthcare to under-served communities throughout the United States. A major emphasis of HUCM is preparing physicians for under-served communities. Much of the experience these medical students gain with under-served communities is at Howard University Hospital, the primary teaching hospital for HUCM, but students also gain experience with other demographics by working at other hospitals in the D.C. metropolitan area including, Washington Hospital Center, St. Elizabeth's Hospital, and Inova Fairfax Hospital. The community surrounding Howard University Hospital under-served and is promoted as an excellent teaching environment for the HUCM students. The Howard University Health Sciences Simulation Center opened a major state-of-the-art virtual medical training facility to advance the education of medical students and healthcare professionals. The simulation center, a 6,000-square-foot facility, is a simulated hospital environment that promotes improved communication skills between healthcare workers and their patients. The college is served by the Louis Stokes Health Sciences Library, named in honor of Louis Stokes, the first African American congressman elected from the state of Ohio. A long association has existed between Georgetown University and the college. The Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science (GHUCCTS) promotes clinical research and translational science. This National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded multi-institutional consortium provides improved research infrastructure, inter-institutional collaboration, research on problems of on underserved populations, and educational programs. Senior investigators such as Dr. Thomas O. Obisesan guide teams of students, trainees, and junior faculty in research on high-impact diseases such as dementia. Dr. Thomas Mellman, co-director of the center, pursues innovative research on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). ==Service==

In conjunction with the New York chapter of the National Organization for the Advancement of Haitians (NOAH) and the Haitian American Alliance, the college has engaged in an ambitious service-learning-based medical project in Haiti. The team from the college consists of physicians from the departments of obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, pediatrics, pathology, and anatomy. The team travelled to Haiti as a humanitarian response to the devastating earthquake in 2010. ==Deans of the college==

Former deans of the college are: • Silas Laurence Loomis - 1868–1870 • Robert Rayburn - 1870–1871, 1900–1908 • Gideon S. Palmer - 1871–1881 • Thomas B. Hood - 1881–1900 • Edward A. Balloch - 1908–1928 • Numa Pompilius Garfield Adams - 1929–1940 • John W. Lawlah - 1941–1946 • Joseph L. Johnson - 1946–1955 • Robert S. Jason - 1955–1965 • K. Albert Harden - 1965–1970 • Marion Mann - 1970–1979 • Russell L. Miller - 1979–1988 • Charles H. Epps Jr. - 1988–1995 • Floyd J. Malveaux - 1995–2005 • Robert E. Taylor - 2005–2011 • Mark S. Johnson - 2011–2014 • Hugh E. Mighty - 2014–2022 • Andrea A. Hayes Dixon - 2022–present ==Notable faculty members==

• Alexander Thomas Augusta, reportedly the first African American to serve on a medical school faculty in the United States • Lillian Beard, pediatrician and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics • Quinn Capers IV, interventional cardiologist, professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine • Debra Ford, colorectal surgeon and academic administrator • Celia Maxwell, infectious disease physician and academic administrator • Ruth Ella Moore, professor and chair of the microbiology department, researcher, reportedly the first African American woman awarded a Ph.D. in the natural sciences in the United States • Daniel Hale Williams, the first person to conduct successful open heart surgery. == See also ==