Dean's Message

Donald E. Wilson, MD, MACP, The John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean

The cover story for this issue of the Bulletin is “Doctors of Distinction,” featuring Roderick E. Charles and Donald W. Stewart, Maryland’s first African-American medical students. Admitted in 1951, they became central figures in the struggle to integrate Maryland’s system of higher education. This issue also includes profiles on alumnae Willarda V. Edwards, ’77, the first female African-American president of Med-Chi; and Sara F. Goldkind, ’83, the first bioethicist of the Food and Drug Administration. As we prepare to celebrate our 200th anniversary in a few years, it is important to remember that an issue featuring African Americans and women would have been unfathomable just 100 years ago. We’ve come a long way, but the journey continues.

The women came first to Maryland. In 1918, some 36 years after the founding of the Women’s Medical College in Baltimore, we announced the change in policy. Three reasons were cited: first, the shortage of physicians due to the war; second, the fact that as the medical school was receiving an appropriation from the State, it was not considered proper that one-half of the youth of Maryland be excluded from this benefit; and third, women had for years been admitted to the schools of dentistry and pharmacy, and they made excellent students. Theresa O. Snaith became our first female medical graduate in 1923.

Consistent with national figures, the percentage of women medical students was minuscule early on but began accelerating in the 1980s. We graduated our first predominantly female class in 1996, and this year’s entering class of 2008 is 63% female.

As was the case with women, Maryland was neither the first school, nor the last, to admit African Ameri-cans. The first black American to receive a doctor of medicine degree had to earn it overseas. After being turned away by American colleges, James McCune Smith was admitted to the University of Glasgow in Scotland where he received a BA in 1835, MA in 1836, and MD in 1837. The first American college to award a medical degree to an African American was Rush Medical College, and the recipient was David J. Peck in 1847. So, it was 108 years after the awarding of the first U.S. medical degree to Dr. Peck that Drs. Charles and Stewart crossed the stage at Maryland.

Since 1955, we’ve awarded medical degrees to more than 200 African Americans. Consistent with national trends, our most significant gains occurred in the 1990s, as applications of African-American students increased by 35%. During this time our percentage of all underrepresented minorities exceeded the national averages, reaching 23% in 1995. But while the number of women applying to medical school remains strong, the same cannot be said for African Americans. Since the late 1990s the trend has been downward. In crunching the numbers, we learn that the increasing percentage of female applicants is even more accentuated among African Americans. Nationally, women accounted for 57.3% of the African-American pool in 1990, and this percentage soared to 65.8% in 2001.

We are committed to having a student body and faculty that reflects the diversity of our great nation. With regard to diversity, President Jimmy Carter had it right when he said: “We are of course a nation of differences. Those differences don’t make us weak. They’re the source of our strength.”

I hope you enjoy the issue.