Welcome to the Drexel University College of Medicine Body Donor Program! Our body donation program is managed through the Humanity Gifts Registry of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

For more information, please view our FAQs or contact Sara Solomon at 215.991.8858 or sms858@drexel.edu for our University City Campus or Jennifer Lees at 267.857.6835 or jl4467@drexel.edu for our West Reading Campus.

2025 HGR Celebration of Remembrance

The 2025 HGR Celebration of Remembrance will take place on May 12, 2025, at 1 p.m. in the Irvine Auditorium of the University of Pennsylvania. Many M1 College of Medicine student volunteers will be participating in the event! The celebration of remembrance is an annual event hosted by the Humanity Gifts Registry, where we honor the body donors from our anatomy lab. Students, faculty, and staff from all Philadelphia medical schools will be in attendance, as well as family members of our donors.

• Eulogist: Zoe Boston
• Reading of names: Supriya Behl (PHL), Vivian Bui (PHL), Eimile Cusenza (PHL), Paulina Daugis (PHL), Mohammed Kahn (PHL), Katherine Landry (PHL), Priscilla Mejia (PHL), Laura Brigandi (WR), Corinne Packel (WR), Dylan Persaud (WR), Sachin Pranesh (WR), Maggie Vacchiano (WR)
• Musical performance: Akshara Kannan
• DUCOM’s Doctors Note: David Shin, Katie MacNary, Gopika Pillai, Taylor Forry, Celena Fei, Rudra Amin, Akshara Kannan, Shreya Ranadive
• Greeter: Natalia Kelley (PHL) and Jane Taylor (PHL)

About Whole-body Donation

Whole-body donation is when an individual donates their body to medical education and research. It is considered one of the most selfless gifts an individual can give to medical education and research. This unmatched gift will help our Drexel University students learn about human anatomy and teach them materials that cannot compare to a traditional textbook.

The main courses that benefit from whole-body donation are professional level Gross Anatomy courses. Anatomy is the study of the structure and function of the human body while Gross Anatomy is the study of body structures large enough to be examined without the help of magnifying devices. It is one of the most important courses in the education of doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and many other health care professionals.

The gift of body donation plays a critical role in helping medical and health-related science students master the complex anatomy of the human body and provides researchers with an essential tool for making discoveries to aid in the advancement of medical science.

Body Donation in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, all whole-body donations must be made through the Humanity Gifts Registry. Please contact the registry at 215.922.4440 or visit their website at hgrpa.org for more information.

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• Employee Spotlight: What's it Like to Work With Medical-School Cadavers?
• Dennis Depace, PhD, On Teaching Gross Anatomy
• Celebration of Remembrance

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