Latin: 'Veritas et Utilitas' | |
Motto | Truth and Service |
---|---|
Type | Private |
Established | 1868 |
Dean | Hugh E. Mighty |
Location |
Washington, D.C., U.S. 38°55′3″N 77°1′13″W / 38.91750°N 77.02028°WCoordinates: 38°55′3″N 77°1′13″W / 38.91750°N 77.02028°W |
Campus | Urban |
Website | medicine.howard.edu |
The Howard University College of Medicine (HUCM) is an academic division of Howard University, and grants the Doctor of Medicine (MD), Ph.D., MS, and the MPH. HUCM is located at the Howard University Health Sciences Center in Washington, D.C., and was founded in 1868 in response to the city's growing population. The College of Medicine ranks among the top three schools in meeting the nation’s medical needs and social mission. With more than 4,000 living alumni, the College has produced a sizeable share of the African-American physicians practicing in this country.
The mission of the College of Medicine includes improving health care through training programs and initiatives, discovering knowledge through research and supporting the education and training of postgraduate physicians, other healthcare providers and graduate students in biomedical sciences. Many College of Medicine students gain professional experience at Howard University Hospital, the primary teaching hospital for the school.
Founders of Howard University appreciated the urgent need for medical education in the District of Columbia after the Civil War. Howard University is named after Major General Oliver Otis Howard. The civil war had just ended, and freed African-American people were migrating to the nation's capital in large numbers.
The first opening exercise for the newly created Medical Department was held at the First Congregational Church of Christ on November 5, 1868. The charter approving incorporation of Howard University specified that a department would be devoted to medicine. Dr. Silas Loomis, one of the University’s founders, was named the Medical Department’s first dean in 1868. One of the first five faculty members was Alexander Thomas Augusta, reportedly the first African-American to serve on a medical school faculty in the United States.