HBCU medical programs get massive cash infusion from Bloomberg Philanthropies
Beneficiaries are Howard University, Morehouse College, Charles R. Drew University, Meharry Medical College and Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine.
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HBCU medical programs get massive cash infusion from Bloomberg Philanthropies
Todd A. Price Eduardo CuevasUSA TODAY
NEW YORK − The presidents of America's four historically Black medical schools were invited to meet last week with Bloomberg Philanthropies in New York. They thought it would be a chance to celebrate a $100 million gift the foundation made to the schools in 2020 to help relieve their students' debt. Instead, they learned the foundation of entrepreneur and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg planned to make a new gift that left the presidents speechless.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg formally unveiled that his philanthropic organization would donate $600 million to four historically Black medical schools: $175 million each to Howard University College of Medicine, in Washington, D.C.; Morehouse School of Medicine, in Atlanta; and Meharry Medical College, in Nashville; and another $75 million to Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, in Los Angeles. He announced the "history-making gift" in New York at the annual conference of the National Medical Association, an organization that has represented Black doctors since 1895.
"I’m excited for what this history-making gift will mean for Black physicians, Black medical school students and faculty and communities across the United States,” Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association, said in a statement. “This investment will directly improve the pipeline for Black physicians and help to close the health care disparity gap.”
The gift is part of Bloomberg Philanthropies' Greenwood Initiative, a program aimed at building wealth among Black Americans and redressing historic underfunding in Black communities. Along with the four medical schools, Bloomberg is donating $5 million to establish the Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine, in New Orleans. The new medical school is a partnership between the Xavier University School of Louisiana, a historically Black university renowned for producing graduates who go on to medical school, and Ochsner Health, a nonprofit in the region.
"We have much more to do to build a country where every person, regardless of race, has equal access to quality health care – and where students from all backgrounds can pursue their dreams," the former New York mayor, said in a statement.
