Dean’ s Message
on every campus that recognizes the importance of being intentional.
The holidays are the perfect time to give thanks for the many blessings that the past year has brought. They also offer an opportunity to pause and reach out to longstanding friends and colleagues while we make new acquaintances. The end of the year allows us to refresh while we envision the plans that must be put into place to ensure that the future will be as fruitful and dynamic as we might ever imagine.
It is in that spirit that I first and foremost thank everyone at the University and our friends in the community who support our mission and daily work. This year has shown how dedicated you are to making CDU a truly world class institution. You know what? People all over the country want to stand in your shade.
The bright light that CDU casts today is a work of sheer brilliance. We have made enormous gains through dedication to key values and beliefs that matter most in these quarrelsome times. Be it social justice in health care delivery, or the crusade devoted to cost-effective medical training for eager students with high ideals but shallow pockets, we have now crafted a model of diversity worthy of being emulated worldwide
Your consistent effort in making CDU what it is becoming shows that you are committed to the serious business of educational leadership through innovation. You have demonstrated how very driven you are to create a legacy. Just think of all the hours that you, as a body, are toiling to make sure that the initial dream of our founding fathers and mothers here in Watts-Willowbrook is within our sights.
How incredibly wonderful to think that fifty-five years after the mandate to bring effective health care solutions to this community, a feat of magic is about to occur! The irony? This is happening in a area with a history of formerly being branded as a collective pariah, off the beaten path, the road much less traveled.
Whether it is saving our community from the horrors of the COVID-19 pandemic or taking aggressive action in making sure that all persons in need have equal access to quality care, CDU is fully vested in the struggle and is leading the charge. With our wealth of outstanding alums and eager students, we are in the forefront of change that is on the horizon, most assuredly certain to come.
We have a deep bench. We have the power. We have the time. We have the will and the inclination. And we certainly have been blessed to be here at this moment in an exciting crucible of transformation.
Deborah Prothrow-Stith, MD Dean of the College of Medicine Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 2