Greetings, fellow alumni!
Our always full lives have alas been made even busier this year by the myriad personal and professional challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since you’ve chosen to spend a few moments with the College of Medicine Alumni Magazine, I hope you will find this brief update on your Alumni Association informative and the articles that follow compelling.
Despite the COVID-imposed cancellation of our May 2020 Alumni Weekend, I am happy to share that on May 14, 2020, we experienced a successful albeit virtual — thank you, Zoom! — “passing of the gavel” from Mark Codella, MD, HU ’84, outgoing Alumni Association Board president, over to me. I am honored and delighted in equal measure to serve as the Association’s president for the next two years. As a graduate of one of the College of Medicine’s legacy schools I, just as many of you, witnessed the incorporation of my medical school into a series of entities that ultimately led 18 years ago to the creation of the Drexel University College of Medicine of today.
The Alumni Association, 18,537 strong at last count, welcomes all graduates of Hahnemann Medical College of Pennsylvania, Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, Medical College of Pennsylvania, Hahnemann University, MCP Hahnemann University, and Drexel University College of Medicine and its Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Professional Studies. Our Association is strengthened by the diverse professional experiences and varied talents of our graduates, as illustrated by the work of the Association’s Board of Directors. The Board meets four times yearly and has continued to meet over the summer and fall in spite of the pandemic, via videoconferencing. Each Board member also joins one of the Board’s working committees: Awards, Cultivation & Engagement, Finance, and Nominating. The work of those four Board committees allows the Association to formally and effectively recognize our distinguished alumni, to foster meaningful exchanges between alumni as well as between current College of Medicine students and alumni, to fund grants to student organizations and to individual students taking part in research projects, and to identify alumni interested in participating in the activities of the Association.
The Alumni Association Board recognizes the importance of our alumni and, as we look to 2021 and beyond, we are actively planning to promote activities and interactions among as many alumni as are interested. We are arranging more virtual events that you can join from around the globe. We want to hear from you! We want to include you! Write us at medical.alumni@drexel.edu to share updates and let us know what matters to you as an alum. You can check us out on the web at drexel.edu/medicine/alumni, on Facebook or LinkedIn, and connect with other alumni on Dragon Network, our new alumni/student professional mentoring platform. Links to these sites are available on the “Stay Connected” page of the website. And, however you choose to get in touch, I hope to get to meet you — virtually or in person — sooner rather than later!
Claudia S. Plottel, MD, MCP ’84
President, Alumni Association Board