The College of Medicine is celebrating many key milestones in 2025, including the 175th anniversary of the founding of Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, the 150th anniversary of the founding of St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, and the 30th anniversary of our esteemed Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program. Our storied history and proud traditions are among the many things that make me honored to lead this institution.

At the time of this writing, I am preparing to attend Match Day, which will be held for the first time at two campuses for our largest-ever MD class. Indeed, the College of Medicine at Tower Health in West Reading is excited to host its first Match Day at the campus. Everyone who has been involved in the education of the inaugural class there is enormously proud of all they have achieved as Drexel medical students. Of course, our impressive class of Philadelphia-based MD students will also celebrate their successful matches in a ceremony in University City.

As the landscape of academic medicine continues to evolve, the College of Medicine is preparing for our future success through the College Forward and Strategic Plan 2030 initiative. This imperative work in setting strategic priorities will include input and ideas from our faculty, professional staff and students. Together, we must build the future of our College in the key mission areas of medical and graduate education, research and innovation, clinical care and faculty professional development. I encourage you to visit the College Forward website and submit your ideas via the online form.

Phase 1 included an analysis of the College’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within the academic medicine landscape and was completed in February. Next, we will set forth implementation plans for working groups and evaluate Phase 2 strategies to be completed by July. Information will continue to be provided as phases develop and opportunities to participate in the work arise. We are excited to come together in this endeavor to ensure the long-term success of everyone at the College.

Speaking of success, Commencement is just around the corner! I look forward to connecting with members of our community at our wonderful event at the Kimmel Center. In addition to celebrating our graduating students, we will honor the recipients of the new Dean’s Excellence Awards at the Commencement luncheon. We created these awards to recognize the outstanding contributions and achievements of our faculty and professional staff. I also look forward to welcoming this year’s Commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient, Carl June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. June is an immunologist and oncologist who researches T cell therapies for the treatment of cancer; he received a 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for the development of chimeric antigen receptor T cell immunotherapy. We have many reasons to celebrate our achievements this year. Together, our community will find innovative ways to meet challenges, care for each other, and demonstrate the resilience that our predecessors instilled in our culture.