The University of Washington’s vision to expand medical education in Spokane has been buoyed this month by stellar hires, resolute community support, a promising partnership with Gonzaga University and construction on the new UW Spokane Center in the heart of the city.
New faculty and a new curriculum
Preparing our UW Spokane faculty for our incoming and returning medical students has been our top priority for the past several months. For more than three years, our medical school faculty have been reinventing the way we teach our medical students with an exciting new state-of-the-art curriculum. The new curriculum vastly improves the classroom experience, gets students into the clinical setting more quickly and allows us to offer all four years of medical school in Spokane. Their work will culminate this August with implementation of that curriculum for all our medical students.
Our commitment to our incoming Spokane medical students is unwavering. After the mutual dissolution of our medical education partnership with WSU last October, we have acted quickly to ensure that the transition for our Spokane-based students is seamless. We are finalizing the hiring and training of medical school faculty, and we continue to seek state funding from the Legislature to ensure the UW School of Medicine’s future in Spokane beyond this coming academic year.
Exploring a partnership with Gonzaga
Our discussions with Gonzaga University continue, and while we await the outcome of the legislative session and have some important details to work out, our goal is to institute a new Spokane medical education partnership with Gonzaga beginning in the 2016–17 academic year. Our two universities share a rich history of education and service to the state of Washington, and our mutually shared commitments to social justice, diversity, global engagement and care for the planet have all the makings of an exciting collaboration.
Our efforts to address the medical needs of our state continue to gain support. Members of the Executive Committee of Greater Spokane Incorporated (GSI) and the Vision 2030 Oversight Board recently penned an open letter to legislative leaders, lending their support to fund both the expansion of the UW School of Medicine in Spokane and Washington State University’s initiative to create its own medical school. GSI has been a longtime advocate of medical education in Spokane, and we appreciate their advocacy work and their shared vision to expand higher education in the region.
A strengthened UW presence in Spokane
This month, we’re welcoming Catherine Brazil as our new director of government and community relations for the region, effective May 26. Catherine will represent the University of Washington in Spokane, building and maintaining relationships in the community and throughout Eastern Washington.
In addition, I invite you to visit the UW’s new Spokane Center, which is set to open officially next month at 201 W. Main St. We will host a public open house on Wednesday, June 24, from 2–5 p.m. I hope you can join us to learn about the center’s interactive features, the UW’s limitless opportunities for current and future students, and our long-term plans for higher education and community engagement in the Spokane region.
In the meantime, you can keep up with our progress at spokanemedschool.uw.edu.