Indeed, this is also a time of year when we acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our tremendous faculty. In May, the College honored faculty and professional staff with Golden Apple Awards for teaching and service, and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Professional Studies bestowed their Teaching and Mentorship Awards to faculty in each division. I thank the recipients and all of our faculty for your leadership and excellence in teaching our students.

Faculty recruitment, engagement, development and retention are critical to our institution’s success, and I am grateful to the Office of Faculty for their tireless efforts to provide engaging, effective programming. The team has offered several recent development opportunities for our faculty, including a workshop that guided attendees in strengthening their CVs in preparation for academic promotion, with the help of senior faculty mentors. Our 2022 Faculty Day addressed “Creating a Culture of Mentorship” and featured a plenary talk and panel discussion on leadership and mentoring.

Another recent area of growth is the launch of the Executive Leadership in Health Care (ELH) program, a complementary program of the nationally renowned Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program. ELH supports the advancement of women in mid-career to senior-level leadership positions in U.S. and Canadian health systems. The program welcomed its first cohort of 27 fellows in May. This expansion of ELAM’s critical mission of increasing the representation of women in leadership roles in academic medicine and health care carries forward the College’s legacy as the first degree-granting medical school for women in the world.

The number of our regional clinical campuses continues to expand. This spring we were pleased to finalize an affiliation agreement with Cape Fear Valley Health System in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to serve as a regional medical campus for the College of Medicine. Drexel medical students can now opt to complete their third- and/or fourth-year clinical rotations within the health system. Our affiliate and regional clinical campuses are vital to the MD students’ clinical training years, and we are proud of the high-caliber hands-on education they provide.

Our Philadelphia facilities continue to evolve as well. The new Drexel Health Sciences Building in University City is on schedule to open this fall. The College of Nursing and Health Professions will move into the building when it opens, and we plan on moving our medical education components next summer. I will update you all on this exciting move throughout the next year.

Finally, we will be meeting our new crop of MS, PhD and MD students within the next few weeks! I look forward to getting to know them alongside the rest of our community. Until then, I wish you a safe, relaxing summer.

Charles B. Cairns, MD
Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Dean
Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs