Dear Members of the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine Community,
Welcome to our 139 first-year medical students, five MD/PhD students, 22 PhD students and 459 master’s students, and of course, welcome to our returning students as everyone begins the 2025-26 academic year! It also is a new beginning for me as I fully immerse myself into the role of dean ad interim, which I began on July 1.
In my initial communication to the community that day, I affirmed my commitment to the mission and values of the school and said I would keep you updated on our activities.
The Research Infrastructure and Strategy Committee (RISC) is continuing their work. They will be holding Town Workshops in the coming weeks to solicit your input regarding ways to improve efficiencies, eliminate redundancies, increase research activities and improve the quality of our grant submissions. More details will follow.
We have started planning for the MD program’s 2027 LCME reaccreditation site visit and soon will begin the self-study process.
As you may have heard, a fitness center on the Medical Campus is close to becoming a reality, thanks to the $1M gift from Deans Advisory Board Member Richard Catrambone, DMD, MD’92, and his wife Sophia Catrambone. The Development office is actively seeking other donations to fund the remaining $1M needed for the project. Another critical fundraising priority is support for our PhD students through named fellowships, as part of the University’s You Are Why campaign, which just launched. If you would like to make a contribution to either of these important initiatives, please contact Suzanne Maselli, associate dean of development.
In other news, congratulations to Rod Hochman, MD (CAMED’79, CAS’79), who recently accepted an invitation to join the University’s Board of Trustees. Dr. Hochman was the keynote speaker at our MD White Coat Ceremony earlier this month. It was a wonderful event. In case you missed it, you can watch the ceremony here.
Best wishes for a successful academic year,
Hee-Young Park, PhD Dean, ad interim