Atlanta, Georgia · Founded 1975
“The only predominantly Black medical school founded in America in the 20th century — an Atlanta institution that trains doctors, scientists, and public-health leaders to serve the communities medicine forgot.”
MSM's official 50th-anniversary film — the single best short telling of the school's story, from its 1975 founding to its health-equity mission today.
A 2008 Georgia Public Broadcasting in-depth interview with MSM's founder on growing up in the segregated South, founding the school, and serving as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The full May 16, 2026 commencement at the MLK Jr. International Chapel, with Congressman and MSM alumnus Rich McCormick (Class of 2010) as speaker.
The full May 21, 2022 commencement, held at Morehouse College's Century Campus under COVID protocols, with CommonSpirit Health CEO Lloyd H. Dean as speaker.
The December 12, 2025 winter commencement, with former CDC chief medical officer Dr. Debra Houry as speaker.
The 2026 convocation welcoming the incoming class of MD, PA, biomedical-science, public-health, and nursing students, with Dr. Barney Graham of the Satcher Global Health Equity Institute as speaker.
The full 2021 commencement — the school's first-ever off-campus ceremony, at the Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park — with U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock as speaker and the inaugural 100-student 'Road to 100' MD class.
Playback of the 2018 commencement exercises from MSM's official commencement archive.
One of six featured videos from MSM's 2020 virtual graduation celebration, which awarded $600K+ in student-debt scholarships with celebrity shoutouts from John Legend, Gabrielle Union, Dwyane Wade, and Dr. Bernice King.
A second featured clip from the 2020 celebration honoring graduates with debt-relief scholarships and messages from national figures.
A third featured clip from MSM's pandemic-era 2020 graduation celebration.
A fourth featured clip from the 2020 celebration of graduates and scholarship recipients.
18th U.S. Surgeon General (2010–2013) and MacArthur 'genius' Fellow; member of MSM's second graduating class who built the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic for Alabama's uninsured poor
U.S. Congressman for Georgia's 7th District; MSM MD/MBA, Class of 2010; delivered the school's 42nd commencement address in 2026
General and trauma surgeon; spent 16 years on the MSM faculty at Grady Memorial Hospital as associate professor of clinical surgery; president of the MSM National Alumni Association; created the 'Ask A Black Doctor' COVID education series
MSM alumna; Vice Chair of Education in the MSM Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; past president of the Georgia Council on Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
MSM graduate; board-certified pediatric psychiatrist specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry
MSM-trained family physician (MS in Clinical Research); associate professor of family medicine and strategic advisor for research at MSM's National Center for Primary Care, also on faculty at Case Western Reserve
MSM graduate; pediatric hospice and palliative medicine specialist; assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah and faculty mentor for medical students
MSM Class of 1990; board-certified psychiatrist practicing in New York with 35+ years in the field
MSM's real alumni distinction is collective, not celebrity: school leadership reports two-thirds of graduates practice as primary-care physicians in underserved communities — the founding mission, fulfilled class after class
The push came from Atlanta community doctors who watched Black patients get worse care and worse outcomes across Georgia. They took the problem to Morehouse College president Hugh M. Gloster, who put together a feasibility committee led by administrator Joseph N. Gayles Jr. to study whether a medical school could work inside the Atlanta University Center complex. The answer came back yes — Georgia had a severe physician shortage, and the doctors serving Black neighborhoods were stretched thin.
The Medical Education Program at Morehouse College opened its doors in 1975 with Dr. Louis W. Sullivan — a Morehouse College graduate and Boston University hematologist — as its inaugural dean and director. Sullivan had been recruited back to Atlanta by Gloster with a single charge: attract students from underserved neighborhoods and train them to go home as primary care doctors. The school would later be described as the only predominantly Black medical school established in the United States in the twentieth century.
MSM admitted its first 24 students in 1978 to a two-year program covering only the basic medical sciences. After those two years, students transferred to other medical schools around the country to finish their clinical training. One of the earliest of those pioneers was Regina Benjamin, who would later become the 18th U.S. Surgeon General; she finished her M.D. at the University of Alabama at Birmingham after her MSM years.
In 1981 the school became an independently chartered institution — Morehouse School of Medicine, separate from Morehouse College — and the first minority medical school established at an HBCU in the 20th century. That July the Liaison Committee on Medical Education authorized MSM to begin planning a full four-year degree program, with a contractual arrangement for Emory University School of Medicine to teach all required third-year clinical clerkships. Graduate medical education started the same year, when the Family Practice Residency earned ACGME accreditation.
In April 1985 the LCME granted MSM authorization to award the Doctor of Medicine degree, and on May 17, 1985 the first class of students received M.D. degrees from Morehouse School of Medicine itself — no transfer required. The school was growing up fast: a Preventive Medicine Residency run with the Georgia Department of Human Resources, the CDC, and Emory's Rollins School of Public Health earned accreditation in 1986, and by the early 1990s five more residencies followed — psychiatry, internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics.
Construction finished on a 70,000-square-foot Medical Education Building attached to the Hugh Gloster Basic Medical Sciences Building, which had gone up in 1982. The new space doubled the size of the school's library and added faculty offices and research labs. A nearby 30,000-square-foot renovated structure added administrative offices, maintenance shops, and central stores — the physical footprint of a school that was no longer anyone's junior partner.
President George H.W. Bush tapped Louis Sullivan to be U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Sullivan left MSM after 14 years to run the nation's health department, where he launched Healthy People 2000, campaigned against tobacco, and improved FDA food labeling. James A. Goodman took the presidency of the young school from 1989 to 1992, holding the line while its founder served in the cabinet.
Beginning in August 1990, MSM assumed full responsibility for teaching its own third-year clerkships in family medicine, surgery, and psychiatry instead of contracting them to Emory. In 1991 the LCME extended the school's accreditation for the maximum period of seven years. By 1997 the school's clinical faculty had taken over every clinical course — the four-year program was fully homegrown.
After four years running HHS, Louis Sullivan returned to Atlanta in 1993 to serve again as president of the school he had founded. His second tenure — lasting until his retirement in 2002 — covered the school's 1990s expansion into research and national primary-care leadership. When he stepped down he was named president emeritus, a title he still holds.
MSM opened and dedicated its Multi-Disciplinary Research Center in 1996, housing the Clinical Research Center, the Neuroscience Center, and NASA programs on campus. It was a statement that the school intended to be a research institution, not just a teaching one — and it laid the groundwork for the federal research dollars that followed, including the NIH's Research Centers in Minority Institutions awards that put MSM alongside Meharry and Charles Drew.
The National Center for Primary Care opened on the MSM campus in 2002 — later known as the Louis W. Sullivan National Center for Primary Care — as a national resource promoting primary-care medicine and training doctors for shortage areas. The same year, diabetes researcher James R. Gavin III — a former Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientific officer and president of the American Diabetes Association — became MSM's president, succeeding the retiring Sullivan.
Dr. David Satcher — the 16th U.S. Surgeon General and former CDC director, who had chaired MSM's Department of Community Medicine and Family Practice back in 1979–1982 — returned to campus in fall 2002 to direct the National Center for Primary Care. In December 2004 he was named interim president of the school. Few institutions anywhere could claim a sitting president who had run both the CDC and the Surgeon General's office.
Dr. John E. Maupin Jr., a dentist with a 30-year career in academic medicine and health administration, became president in 2006 and would lead the school for seven years, expanding programs and clinical affiliations and modernizing facilities. The same year, David Satcher founded the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at MSM, dedicated to eliminating health disparities through leadership development and policy — an institute that would later be led nationally by health-equity scholar Daniel E. Dawes.
On February 3, 2009, MSM board vice chairman Eric Holder was confirmed as U.S. Attorney General. Five months later, President Obama nominated MSM trustee Dr. Regina Benjamin — the MSM-trained rural Alabama physician who built the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic from nothing — as U.S. Surgeon General. It was a remarkable moment: two of the school's own trustees holding two of the most visible health and justice posts in the country.
A landmark study in the Annals of Internal Medicine ranked Morehouse School of Medicine the number one medical school in America for social mission — measured by graduates practicing primary care, working in health-professional shortage areas, and being underrepresented minorities. It was the first time the school's founding purpose had been quantified nationally, and MSM has cited the ranking ever since as proof its model works.
MSM named Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice — a Macon native, Georgia Tech and Harvard Medical School graduate, and reproductive endocrinologist who had directed Meharry's Center for Women's Health Research — as executive vice president and dean. At the time she was the only Black woman serving as dean of any U.S. medical school, among 141 deans nationwide.
On July 1, 2014, Valerie Montgomery Rice succeeded the retiring John Maupin as president while keeping the dean's title — becoming the nation's first African-American woman chief executive of an independent medical school. 'Our mission today is as relevant as it was when Morehouse School of Medicine was founded nearly 40 years ago,' she said at the transition. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2016.
MSM and Atlanta developer Carter broke ground on a $52 million, 7.2-acre mixed-use Lee Street Campus at Lee Street and Westview Drive — including the school's first-ever graduate student housing (187 units), a 25,000-square-foot ambulatory health facility, a fitness and wellness center, retail, and a parking deck, aimed for completion by the 2020 school year. The same year, MSM's Physician Assistant Studies program earned its first ARC-PA accreditation, adding a new degree path to the school's MD, MPH, MS, and PhD programs.
When COVID-19 hit Black communities hardest, MSM became a national hub for the response: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded the school a $40 million grant to run the National COVID-19 Resiliency Network, linking vulnerable communities to testing and services. That September, philanthropist Michael Bloomberg gave MSM $26.3 million to reduce medical student debt. In December, MSM and CommonSpirit Health formed the More in Common Alliance — a ten-year, $100 million initiative to train more Black physicians and advance health equity.
In May 2022 MSM broke ground on a $45 million, 52,300-square-foot academic facility named for longtime board member and state lawmaker Calvin Smyre — the newest academic building on the Westview campus, slated to open in early 2024. The same year's 38th commencement, held off-campus at Morehouse College's Century Campus under COVID protocols, featured CommonSpirit Health CEO Lloyd H. Dean as speaker.
Bloomberg Philanthropies gave Morehouse School of Medicine $175 million for its endowment — one of the largest gifts ever made to an HBCU, and a transformational sum for a school whose 2024 endowment had been $141 million. The gift was aimed at the school's long-term sustainability and its ability to keep training physicians for underserved communities without loading them with debt.
MSM celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2025, opening the Calvin Smyre Education Conference Center with a grand celebration on April 3 at 720 Westview Drive SW. The 15th annual Hugh M. Gloster Society celebration — the school's donor society, founded in 2007 — marked the milestone at Mercedes-Benz Stadium with the Vanguard and Health Equity IMPACT Awards and performances by Babyface and Doug E. Fresh. The 42nd commencement followed in May 2026, with Congressman and MSM alumnus Rich McCormick (MD, MBA, Class of 2010) as speaker.
Morehouse School of Medicine has no marching band and no band program. It is a graduate medical school with no undergraduate student body and no athletics; the band tradition belongs to neighboring Morehouse College, a separate institution.
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No Greek-letter social organizations. Morehouse School of Medicine's student life runs through professional and honor societies: the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society chapter (installed May 12, 1989), the Student National Medical Association, AMSA, AMA's Medical Student Section, and AMWA per the official 2014-15 Student Handbook. As a graduate medical school rather than a four-year undergraduate college, it does not run the Divine Nine chapter scene — that belongs to Morehouse College, the separate undergraduate institution sharing the campus. Alumni commonly hold Greek memberships from their undergraduate years.
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The school's first purpose-built home: a 91,000-square-foot facility on Westview Drive with classrooms, laboratories, faculty offices, an animal facility, and research labs — most basic-sciences instruction still happens here.
A 70,000-square-foot building attached to the Gloster building, completed in 1987. It doubled the size of the school's library and added faculty office and research space; a second, renovated 30,000-square-foot structure nearby added administrative offices and central stores.
Opened and dedicated in 1996 to house the Clinical Research Center, the Neuroscience Center, and NASA programs on campus — the building that announced MSM as a research institution, not just a teaching one.
A dedicated home for the Louis W. Sullivan National Center for Primary Care, built to promote primary-care medicine nationally and train physicians for shortage areas — now also the auditorium where commencement-week events like Class Day are held.
MSM and developer Carter broke ground on a $52 million, 7.2-acre mixed-use development at Lee Street and Westview Drive: the school's first-ever graduate student housing (187 studio, one-, and two-bedroom units), a 25,000-square-foot ambulatory health facility, a 9,000-square-foot fitness and wellness center, retail space, and a four-level parking deck — a new gateway to the Atlanta University Center in the Historic West End.
MSM announced plans for a $50 million campus expansion to grow academic and research capacity, the precursor to the Smyre building and subsequent federal support for a new Academic & Research building.
The $45 million, 52,300-square-foot academic facility named for longtime MSM board member and Georgia state lawmaker Calvin Smyre — the newest building on the Westview campus, with a grand opening held April 3, 2025 during the school's 50th anniversary year.
U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams secured $950,000 in 2023 Community Project funding to help MSM construct a new Academic & Research building, expanding biomedical research and workforce development — presented to President Valerie Montgomery Rice with a ceremonial check.
MSM's campus master plan envisions a glass-facade student Pavilion as the most visible building on campus — a hub for students, faculty, and staff to connect and learn — plus renovations to the first and second floors of the Hugh M. Gloster building for technology-enabled classrooms, collaborative study spaces, and informal gathering areas. Proposed in the school's expansion materials; build status unverified.
MSM's faculty culture is built around physician-scientists who chose service over prestige — many, like James Reed and James Densler, were firsts in their fields who came to Atlanta specifically to train Black doctors. The school's research enterprise centers on the National Center for Primary Care, the Satcher Health Leadership Institute, the David Satcher Global Health Equity Institute, the CDC-funded Prevention Research Center, and NIH Research Centers in Minority Institutions programs — all aimed at diseases and disparities that hit Black and poor communities hardest.
Sixth president (2014–present); first Black woman CEO of a freestanding U.S. medical school; National Academy of Medicine member.
Serving as interim dean alongside the presidency; a longtime MSM basic-sciences leader.
Founder (1975); former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; chairs the Sullivan Alliance to Transform America's Health Professions.
16th U.S. Surgeon General and former CDC director; MSM president 2004–2006; the school's conscience on health equity.
Nationally known health-equity scholar and author of 'The Political Determinants of Health'; co-led MSM's National COVID-19 Resiliency Network.
The NIH vaccine researcher behind the COVID-19 vaccine effort; now leads MSM's global health equity institute and spoke at the 2026 convocation.
Family medicine professor who co-led the $40 million National COVID-19 Resiliency Network.
Surgical oncologist (melanoma, tumor immunotherapy) with a national profile in cancer care for underserved populations; American Board of Surgery director.
Tasked with matching CommonSpirit Health's $100 million More in Common Alliance commitment.
The first African-American pediatric surgeon to practice in the United States; honored at retirement after a pioneering career on the MSM faculty.
Recruited by Sullivan in 1985; son of migrant farm workers turned U.S. Army colonel and internationally renowned hypertension/diabetes expert; five years as president of the International Society for Hypertension in Blacks. MSM created the annual James W. Reed Lectureship in his honor in 2009.
Served as dean before Montgomery Rice; led academic affairs during the school's research-expansion years.
There is no undergraduate quad life here — MSM is a graduate health-sciences campus of working medical, public-health, biomedical-science, PA, and nursing students in Atlanta's West End, inside the Atlanta University Center. The culture is mission-first: the student body runs about 70% Black and two-thirds women, most students arrive intending primary care or underserved practice, and the school is built around community clinics, Grady Memorial Hospital rotations, and health-equity research rather than campus spectacle. The standing joke and the standing truth are the same — nobody comes to MSM for the spotlight; they come to become the doctor their neighborhood never had.