100 People Who - Rosalind Franklin University

“To serve the nation through the interprofessional education of
health and biomedical professionals and the discovery of knowledge
dedicated to improving the health of its people.”
— rfums mission statement
Judith R. Masterson

Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science: A Centennial View
was published in celebration of the University’s 100th anniversary.
Copyright ©2012 Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.
All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced
in any form without prior, written consent of rfums.
published by
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
Division of Institutional Advancement
3333 Green Bay Road
North Chicago, IL 60064
www.rosalindfranklin.edu
produced by The Coventry Group, Chicago
design and typography by Bockos Design, Inc., Chicago
color separations by Prographics, Rockford, Illinois
printed by Original Smith Printing, Bloomington, Illinois
note to the reader
The following acronyms are used in this publication:
Chicago Medical School (cms)
College of Health Professions (chp)
College of Pharmacy (cop)
Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine (scpm)
Rosalind Franklin University Health System (rfuhs)
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (rfums)
School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (sgps)
School of Related Health Sciences (srhs)
University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School (uhs/cms)
INTRODUCTION 06
Celebrating Our History 07
Chicago Medical School 16
Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine 19
Rosalind Franklin (1920 –1958) 22
Pioneering Research 25
Strategic Partnerships 29
From Chicago to North Chicago 31
A Commitment to Service 33
The People of RFUMS 36
A Bold Vision for Interprofessional Leadership 41
RFUMS TIMELINE 46

06 | RFUMS
introduction
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
celebrates 100 years of growth and transformation in the pursuit of its mission
to prepare today’s medical and health care students to deliver the highest
standard of health care in the future. This publication celebrates that history
in the broadest sense.
The University and its five colleges/schools —
Chicago Medical School, College of Health Professions,
College of Pharmacy, Dr. William M. Scholl College
of Podiatric Medicine and the School of Graduate and
Postdoctoral Studies — look forward to the future with
confidence. Grounded in its collective strength, rooted
in its historic past, today’s university is building on
the progress of preceding generations that sought to
offer the highest standard of medical and health care
education. Proudly recognizing a century of service,
the independent, nonprofit university salutes more than
17,000 alumni who have devoted their professional lives
to the health of others and who recognize that the license
to practice is both a gift and a great responsibility.
Our Heritage
The Chicago Hospital-College of Medicine was founded in January 1912
by three men who believed that the privilege of practicing medicine
should not only accrue to the affluent. Two physicians and a minister —
Dr. N. Odeon Bourque, Dr. Frederic Leusman and Reverend Frederick
Landwer — were determined to open the profession to men and women
of diverse backgrounds who found it necessary to work for their living.
This was at the height of the Progressive Era, a reaction to industrialization
that brought social reforms and struggles for the advancement of women,
the working class and people of color. The same year of 1912, along with
five physicians, a pharmacist, a chiropodist, a chemist and a shoe fitter,
Dr. William M. Scholl founded the Illinois College of Chiropody and
Orthopedics, also an open, egalitarian institution. Both institutions
rejected the ethnic and racial quotas implemented by other schools and
colleges at the time.
In 1919 the Chicago Hospital-College of Medicine became the Chicago
Medical School and fought for three decades to earn national accreditation.
Its dogged pursuit of that goal made it stronger and drove administrative
and curricular reforms, elevated leadership and elicited the talents of
faculty, alumni and students alike who would take the fight for survival
to both the General Assembly
in Springfield and the halls of
Congress in Washington, D.C.
The original Chicago Medical School campus
at 3830–3834 S. Rhodes Ave., Chicago.
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08 | RFUMS
CMS also had thrown open its doors to refugee physicians and scien-
tific researchers from Europe when war was declared in 1939. The School’s
founding principle of nondiscrimination helped to drive growth and garner
financial support. In 1945, the School had added a new amendment to its
constitution, declaring “admittance based solely on academic accomplishment
and character merit without discrimination as to race, religion, sex or national
origin.” First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt lauded the academic excellence and
moral courage of CMS in her nationally syndicated “My Day” column.
In 1948, led by the gifted anatomist John J. Sheinin, MD, PhD, DSc,
CMS would become the first and only privately funded independent medical
school among 79 unapproved institutions in the nation to survive the mass
winnowing of American medical schools and thereby land on the cusp
of a new, more expansive vision for health care brought on by the 1910
Flexner Report. As Dr. Sheinin declared, “The Chicago Medical School is
as American as the very Constitution of this country.”
Meanwhile, at the Illinois College of Chiropody and Orthopedics,
Dr. Scholl enlisted the help of highly respected chiropodist Alfred Joseph,
founder of the emerging profession’s national association. Dr. Joseph raised
the bar at the College, improving its curriculum, raising admissions
requirements and abolishing a correspondence course. He also strengthened
relations with the Chicago-area chiropody community. Reorganization
brought top academic talent to the College, which changed its name in 1916
to the Illinois College of Chiropody. As the profession of “podiatry,” a term
that first came into use in 1917, continued to gain momentum, so did Scholl
College, with its graduates establishing practices across the nation. Respected
for their excellent clinical skill, many rose to prominence in national leadership
within the profession. In 1938, the College helped lead a successful
battle against a move to prohibit medical doctors from teaching in podiatric
colleges, and its faculty and alumni helped gain parity for podiatrists in
the nation’s military. The College would undergo a number of name changes,
eventually becoming Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine
in 1981, honoring its primary founder and most faithful supporter.
Surgery and observation room in the Illinois College of Podiatry, 1327 N. Clark St., Chicago.
Through the ensuing decades, Scholl College alumni, who make up
one-third of the nation’s podiatric physicians, have been instrumental
in moving the profession forward.
The evolution of both CMS and SCPM, their resilience and
commitment to the development of new and better ways of teaching
and learning, cannot be separated from the men and women recognized
above who believed in both institutions and defended them. Such
individuals drove achievement and embodied and bequeathed values
including scholarship, teamwork and optimism. They made the
institution what it is today.
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10 | RFUMS
Building on Our Heritage
In 1963, Dr. John Sheinin, then President of the Chicago Medical School,
called for the development of an independent university of health sciences
where future medical professionals from varied disciplines would train
together and learn to work in teams. Dr. A. Nichols Taylor, former President
of UHS/CMS, also stressed an integrated educational model. Accordingly,
the contemporary structure of today’s University began with the creation
of a University of Health Sciences in 1967. CMS embarked on a bold new
direction aimed at the training and education of students for a variety of
health care professions. It was one of the first such universities in the country.
Its components were the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies,
established in 1968, and the School of Related Health Sciences, established
in 1970, now the College of Health Professions. With its integrated model
for the education and training of an array of future health care professionals,
the newly linked UHS/CMS heralded a slow, but seismic shift toward a more
efficient, more collaborative system for the delivery of the nation’s health care.
The University was renamed for its longtime Chair of the Board, Herman
Finch, becoming Finch University of the Health Sciences/Chicago Medical
School in 1993.
Then UHS/CMS President Dr. A. Nichols Taylor and CMS Dean Dr. LeRoy Levitt
speaking with Senators Edward Kennedy (center) and Robert Packwood (next to Kennedy)
at a U.S. Senate health subcommittee hearing in Chicago, May 1971.
In another daring decision, the University in 1974 undertook a move away
from Chicago’s crowded West Side medical district to northern Lake County,
where there was plenty of room to grow. It was beckoned by the North Chicago
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, which offered an educational partnership,
affiliation with the nearby Great Lakes Naval Hospital, buildable land and
a multimillion-dollar, multiyear federal development grant. UHS/CMS was
eager to improve patient care wherever it could, to expand clinical opportunities
for its students and to advance the team-based, patient-centered health care of
Students in the School of Related
Health Sciences, 1976–1978.
SCPM student Sonya Cates ’00 listening to
a patient at a Peds and Pods community
outreach screening, 1999.
the future. The move north culminated in the construction
of a $45 million academic building, dedicated in 1980.
In 1982, the University, which always served area patients
through free dispensaries and low-cost clinics, opened
the Robert R. McCormick Clinic on the new campus.
Today’s successor, the Rosalind Franklin University
Health System, provides a range of medical services,
offers free health screenings and meets the health care
needs of RFUMS students.
The Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric
Medicine merged with the University in 2001, when,
as Chair of the Board of Trustees, former Dean Marshall
Falk, MD ’56, helped to engineer this major addition
to the University family. Scholl College bolstered the
University’s faculty and programs. It moved its very
active, student-staffed clinic to the campus, a boon for
area patients who needed podiatric care. “It’s a symbiotic
relationship,” said Daniel Bareither, PhD, Scholl College’s
Senior Associate Dean of Educational Affairs and Professor
of Basic Biomedical Sciences. “We added quite a bit when
we merged, some really good long-range strategic planning
among a number of abilities, and built on things already
in place. The concept of interprofessional education was
just starting to gain momentum within the University
and we became very much a part of that. We wanted to
teach students how to work together for the common
good, for patient-centered care.”
100 YEARS | 11

SCPM Associate Dean of Clinical Experiences
and Associate Professor Dr. Karona Mason and
SCPM students Benjamin Scherer ’10 and
Molly Meier ’10 examining a patient in RFUHS’s
Scholl Foot & Ankle Center, 2007–2008.
12 | RFUMS
The 2002 appointment of University President and CEO K. Michael Welch,
brought renewed focus, energy and dynamism. A neurologist and former Vice
Chancellor for Research and President of the Research Institute at the University
of Kansas Medical Center, Welch called for an institutional assessment that led
to an administrative reorganization, financial transparency and a collaborative
strategic planning process aimed at guiding the University through the
21st century.
Welch understood that despite the University’s rich
history and many contributions to its community and the
nation, it needed a more distinctive identity. The institution
was renamed Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine
and Science, and as a reflection of its expanding vision of
education, it declared a new dictum, “Life in Discovery.”
The 2004 renaming signified a commitment, posed
a challenge and offered inspiration. Franklin, a British
chemist and researcher, whose meticulous research led to
the discovery of the structure of DNA, like the University
and its member colleges/schools, confronted opposition,
worked to meet and exceed the highest professional
standards and persevered in the determination to harness
hard science in the service of humanity.
Carefully managed strategic growth has gained the
University a reputation as an innovative leader in education
that is transforming the delivery of patient-centered
care, emphasizing interprofessionalism, evidence-based
practice and quality improvement. At the forefront of the
concept of the interprofessional health care team sits the
College of Health Professions (CHP). Before national and
international commissions and task forces began calling
for health care educators to respond to the fallout of
overspecialization — a shortage of primary care physicians,
lack of accessibility and disparities in patient outcomes —
CHP was modeling and teaching teamwork. “We have
the opportunity to work with many different kinds of
health professionals and to work in teams so comfortably
because of this wonderfully diverse landscape of programs,”
said Judith Stoecker, PT, PhD, CHP Vice Dean.
“It gives us the opportunity to see the strengths of each type of practice.
Each one brings the best of what they’ve learned to the patient care experience.
We all bring something different that can provide the best health care in
the world when we work together.”
In 1970, CHP offered two baccalaureate programs — Physical Therapy and
Medical Technology. The College is now home to seven different professional
programs that confer 14 advanced degrees, enjoying the advantage of a built-in
relational complexity. Today’s College boasts graduate programs for future
physician assistants, pathologists’ assistants, physical therapists, nurse
anesthetists, nutritionists, psychologists, clinical counselors, health care
administrators and managers, and those who want to pursue interprofessional
studies. The College has also taken the lead in online programming at RFUMS,
for which it operates the only two fully online distance programs — Nutrition
Education and Healthcare Administration and Management.
CHP, which develops the interprofessional coursework taken by all
first-year students in clinical programs, has earned the University national
and international recognition. As a result, in 2011, the University dedicated
the new, 23,000-square-foot, $5.5 million Morningstar Interprofessional
Education Center (IPEC). The Center provides a modern setting for team
learning, including spaces for small groups, clinical simulation suites and
a case demonstration amphitheater. Every first-year student in a clinical
program at the University takes a required interprofessional course to gain
insight into and respect for different areas of expertise, and to learn to
interact in teams, build those teams and lead them.
RFUMS President and
CEO Dr. K. Michael Welch
and Rosalind Franklin
Jekowsky, niece of
Dr. Rosalind Franklin and
RFUMS Trustee, speaking
at the renaming ceremony,
January 27, 2004.
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14 | RFUMS
In 2011, the University welcomed the inaugural class to its new College
of Pharmacy, a key expansion of its academic health sciences programs, and
one that has embraced our interprofessional environment. The new College,
which accordingly is housed in the IPEC, offers a four-year curriculum that
exposes students to diverse experiential learning opportunities at sites in
community pharmacy, health care systems, private and public clinics and
some of the nation’s foremost pharmaceutical companies. It also prepares
them for modern pharmacy practice as vital members of the health care team.
Gloria Meredith, PhD, COP founding Dean, Chief Academic Officer and
Professor of Pharmaceutical Studies, said, “PharmDs (doctors of pharmacy)
working on teams can help ensure patients use medications safely and reduce
hospital readmissions.” Meredith cited Institute of Medicine data that shows
that the United States has a comparatively high infant mortality rate and death
rate due to medical errors. “If we can train our pharmacists, our physicians,
our physical therapists and other health professionals to work in teams, the
health care world as we know it will start to change.” Meredith said. ”When
medical professionals work in teams, they improve the quality of care and
in the process reduce costs.”
Since the time it was first established in 1968, the School of Graduate
and Postdoctoral Studies has continued to train graduate students and postdoctoral
fellows for research careers in the biomedical sciences. “The Graduate
School is both a focal point and source of innovation, discovery and progress,”
said Joseph DiMario, PhD, SGPS Dean and Professor of Cell Biology and
Anatomy. The School’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical
Sciences gives students who matriculate into SGPS the opportunity to sample
and select the best fit among research options for their interests and career goals.
SGPS also offers combined degree
programs leading to MD/PhD and
DPM/PhD degrees, allowing students,
DiMario said, “to understand how to
be a physician and a basic researcher
at the same time.”
COP founding Dean Dr. Gloria Meredith and
the COP inaugural class cutting the ceremonial
ribbon in the new Pharmacy Skills Laboratory,
July 7, 2011.
RFUMS, 3333 Green Bay Road, North Chicago, 2012.
Research at the University has grown significantly since an investment
in 2005 that recruited new basic science faculty/investigators, constructed
new facilities and provided internal funding to sustain research. “We’ve seen
reinvestment and reinvigoration of basic science research within the University,”
DiMario continued.
One hundred years after its inception, the University and its five member
colleges/schools continue to meet the challenges of the nation’s health care
needs. They continue to teach and to discover, holding to the highest standards
of research and attracting top scientific investigators. They also continue
an historic commitment to inclusion that goes beyond race, gender or ethnicity
and embraces the expertise of all health care professionals. Its drive to seek
advancement of its mission, its legacy of nondiscrimination, its dedication to
the student body, and its courage in seeking and creating solutions to some of
the nation’s most pressing health care concerns have made it a national leader
in interprofessional health care education. “The University’s foresight and firm
belief in the power of collaboration have made it open to adopting and adapting
innovations like the transformative interprofessional model, to meet the health
care needs of the future,” said University President and CEO Dr. K. Michael
Welch. “Its commitment to this model for both education and practice prepares
medical professionals who know they are not alone and understand how
to work as an integral part of a collaborative health care team.”
100 YEARS | 15

Early Chemical Laboratory
at Chicago Hospital-
College of Medicine,
3832–3834 S. Rhodes Ave.,
Chicago, 1916.
16 | RFUMS
The Chicago Medical School’s fight to win accreditation
highlights an institutional history rooted in the very qualities demanded
of those who pursue the daunting path to becoming a physician: dedication,
drive and determination.
The School’s battle for survival began within a decade of its founding in
1912. The Flexner Report, published in 1910 and aimed at improving the quality
of medical services throughout the United States, called for stricter standards
in medical education and a reduction in the number of medical colleges. The
American Medical Association (AMA) quickly endorsed the report, creating the
Council on Medical Education (CME) to administer a new system of inspections
and ratings. The council strongly urged independent medical schools like CMS
to become affiliated with major universities, establish endowments or close.
Many medical schools
succumbed. Nationwide, from 1906
to 1929, their number dwindled
from 161 to 79. In Illinois, where such
schools were winnowed to five, CMS
refused to fold. At every turn in
a nearly three-decade battle, faculty,
students, alumni and others who
believed in the mission of CMS rallied
to uphold and strengthen a school
that, unlike its peer institutions,
accepted students solely on merit
and refused to set quotas based
on religion or race.
Then CMS Dean
Dr. John Sheinin
reading a proclamation
announcing AMA
accreditation of CMS,
November 11, 1948.
By the time John Sheinin,
MD, PhD, DSc, the young chair of
the School’s Department of Anatomy,
was appointed Interim Dean in late
1935, CMS had long since abolished
its evening school curriculum, raised
admission requirements and forged
clinical affiliations with nearby
hospitals, including Cook County
Hospital. It had also restructured its
board leadership. But despite those
reforms, it was denied the credentials
needed to send its graduates into the
practice of medicine in most states.
Dr. Sheinin, one of a raft of
brilliant scientists and talented
clinicians recruited by CMS during the Great Depression, became the lynchpin
of a renewed effort to gain national accreditation. A Russian refugee who had
fled the Bolshevik Revolution and narrowly escaped a firing squad in Poland
after he was mistaken for a spy, Sheinin, an MD/PhD from Northwestern
University, brought boundless energy and a singular focus to conquering the
AMA’s resistance to CMS. His people skills proved an effective battering ram.
He developed cordial relations with AMA officials, communicated with them
frequently and sought their advice. He insisted that they provide a detailed
list of their findings after each inspection. He then methodically corrected
each deficiency.
Dr. Sheinin oversaw a constitutional revision that outlined yet another
reconstitution of the Board of Directors. He also made a convert of one of the
School’s most fearsome critics, Reverend John C. Evans, the religion and education
editor for the Chicago Tribune. Evans joined the CMS Board and connected
Dr. Sheinin with Chicago’s philanthropic community, including prominent
Jewish businessmen who were won over by the CMS policy of nondiscrimination.
Railroad magnate Lester Selig, named Chair of the CMS Board in 1946, helped
to engineer an affiliation with Mount Sinai Hospital and launch the Guarantee
Fund, which ensured the School’s immediate financial future, lifting one of
the final barriers to full accreditation.
100 YEARS | 17

CMS student Ngozi Nweze ’12 (right)
celebrating the excitement of Match Day,
March 16, 2012.
Former CMS Dean Dr. Theodore Booden
with CMS students.
CMS student Lindsey Long ’11 and CMS
Dean Dr. Russell Robertson at the Awards
Ceremony, Navy Pier, June 2, 2011.
18 | RFUMS
The CME’s complete and total endorsement of CMS
was announced at the annual convention of the Association
of American Medical Colleges on November 9, 1948.
Dr. Sheinin returned to an exultant student body two
days later. The hard-fought, hard-won accreditation of
the indomitable CMS marked the only such credentialing
among 79 independent medical schools earmarked for
closure by the AMA.
Over the next six decades CMS experienced dramatic
growth, making significant investments in research and
facilities, forging new clinical affiliations and moving
its campus to North Chicago in northern Lake County.
The establishment in 1967 of the University of Health
Sciences expanded the CMS curriculum and mission, and
made it one of the first medical schools in the nation to
develop integrated educational programs for both future
physicians and health sciences professionals. Today CMS
enrolls approximately 190 students per class; they pursue
their degrees in a wide range of basic science and clinical
science venues and learn to work as members of health
care teams, a skill that lends a competitive advantage
in health care settings of the future.
When Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine joined
forces with Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (then
Finch University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School) in 2001,
it was a marriage of two kindred and committed spirits. Both institutions
were founded in Chicago in 1912. Both fought to survive. Both broke through
barriers to meet and exceed the highest standards of medical education.
Dr. Scholl was a man of indisputable drive,
character and foresight. His conviction that the lower
extremity, all but neglected by early medicine, was a
vital part of overall health ignited the emerging field
of podiatry and helped to transform it into a respected
and highly valued discipline. Throughout his career,
Dr. Scholl shepherded both his manufacturing business
and the College and its accompanying foot clinics,
providing direction and financial support. His pride
in the podiatric profession, his generosity and support
for it and his concern for both its practitioners and
its patients never wavered. He pushed to advance the
specialty and improve the College through a series of
reorganizations, a move to larger quarters and, stronger
curriculum and research. The College would ultimately
undergo a number of name changes, taking the name
of its founder and most ardent supporter in 1981.
Dr. William M. Scholl (1882–1968).
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The Illinois College of Chiropody commencement ceremony, Sherman Hotel, Chicago, 1923.
20 | RFUMS
Current SCPM Senior Associate Dean
of Educational Affairs and Professor
Dr. Daniel Bareither teaching at
1001 N. Dearborn St., Chicago.
Scholl College proved its mettle by surmounting
a steady stream of challenges, many stemming from
a resistant medical establishment. In 1938, the Chicago
Medical Society prohibited members from teaching
in podiatric medical schools. During World War II,
Scholl students were denied deferment from the draft,
and despite the fact that foot problems were the fourth
largest cause of disability in the army, the military
withheld commissions for podiatrists. After the war,
Scholl College fought for recognition from the Veterans
Administration so that its students could receive
benefits under the GI Bill. The College also helped
to lead the podiatric medical profession’s fight for
insurance parity, inclusion in the Social Security
Medicare program, clinical privileges at the nation’s
hospitals and federal funding under the Health
Professions Education Assistance Act.
In the century since its inception, Scholl College, one of just nine
podiatric medical schools in the country, has educated more than one-third
of the nation’s podiatric physicians. “The College has been at the forefront
of inspiring and leading change within the profession,” said current Scholl
College Dean and alumna Nancy Parsley, DPM ’93, MHPE. “Rosalind Franklin
University of Medicine and Science has fostered the College’s ability to be the
leader in podiatric medical education through academic excellence, research
and interprofessionalism. Coming to a health sciences university has had
a huge impact on the College’s ability to truly prepare today’s students to
be the leaders and providers of health care tomorrow.”
SCPM Dean Nancy L. Parsley, DPM ’93, MHPE,
accepting congratulations on her appointment,
April 21, 2010.
Associate Professor and current SCPM Associate Dean of Research
and Director of CLEAR Dr. Stephanie Wu performing a procedure
in the RFUHS Scholl Foot & Ankle Center, 2005.
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22 | RFUMS
Rosalind Franklin in the laboratory.
The story of Rosalind Franklin, the courageous British chemist whose
vital role in the 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA has earned soaring,
if belated accolades, is inspiring new generations of medical, research and
health care professionals at her namesake university.
Franklin, the quintessential scientist, who possessed a gift for experimentation
and extraordinary devotion to the highest standards of research,
earned a PhD in physical chemistry from Cambridge University in 1945.
She excelled at the technique of crystallography, also called X-ray diffraction,
a skill she perfected under the tutelage of top scientists in France. She applied
that technique during World War II, studying the microstructures of carbon
and coal, research that expanded new industrial uses for carbons. She also
employed it in identifying the structure of certain plant viruses, including
the tobacco mosaic virus. At the time of her death in 1958, Franklin, 37, was
leading a research group and using X-ray diffraction in the study of the
crippling polio virus.
Franklin’s notoriety comes from a small window
of her life, two years spent as a researcher at King’s
College London. During the early 1950s, as international
scientists, including Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling,
raced to discover the secret of life, Franklin struggled to
prove to herself through mathematical equations what X-ray
diffraction of DNA fibers appeared to suggest — a double spiral of
nucleotides. She patiently labored to capture the famous Photo 51,
a brilliant likeness of the B form of DNA, through more than 100 hours of
X-ray exposure using a special camera and other equipment that she modified
and assembled herself.
The photo was fundamental to what would become the most significant
biological breakthrough of the century — the discovery and description of
the double helix structure of DNA, which earned Franklin’s fellow scientists
Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins the 1962 Nobel Prize.
While Franklin could not know for certain that Watson and Crick,
who worked out of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge, had used her
unpublished data and remarkably lucid Photo 51 in unlocking the secret of
how life is transmitted from cell to cell and generation to generation, she may
have suspected it. But by the time
Watson and Crick publicized their
hypothesis on the double helix
of DNA in the journal Nature on
April 25, 1953 — an issue that also
featured a paper by Franklin on
her own findings, including her
Photo 51 — she had turned her
attention to viruses at Birkbeck
College London.
Rosalind Franklin looking through
the microscope.
Photo 51. Nature,
Volume 171: 740–41,
©1953 Macmillan
Publishers Ltd.
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24 | RFUMS
The prospect of discovery both beckoned and pushed Rosalind Franklin.
The daughter of a prominent British family who embraced her Jewish identity
and from an early age displayed a keen intellect, Franklin was a demanding
and diligent scholar who refused to let the dangers and hardships of World
War II interrupt her education. She pursued a career at the highest levels
of research science during an era when gender discrimination was socially
acceptable. She persevered through bouts of isolation and in less than collegial
workplaces, and she fought for modest salary increases and titles commensurate
with her responsibilities and stature.
By the age of 30, Franklin was considered an international authority
on carbons. She was in demand at international scientific conferences, where
she was often the only woman presenter, and she was heavily published
in prestigious scientific journals. American biochemist and contemporary
Wendell Stanley described her as an “international courier of good will and
scientific information.”
Biographer Brenda Maddox conjectured that Franklin had come to the
same realization as Albert Einstein, that “a scientist makes science ‘the pivot
of his emotional life.’” Science may have been at the center of Franklin’s life,
but she lived a full life outside of that milieu. She was a thoughtful and
devoted friend, sister and daughter. She loved to travel and hike mountains,
and she was a creative French cook.
In 2004, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science became
the first medical institution in the United States to recognize a female scientist
through an honorary namesake. In the renaming ceremony, President and
CEO Dr. K. Michael Welch hailed Franklin as “a role model for our students,
researchers, faculty and all aspiring scientists throughout the world.”
The crystalline Photo 51, the rights to which were generously donated
by Nature, was selected as the new logo, and “Life in Discovery” became
the University’s motto.
SGPS Dean and Professor
Dr. Joseph DiMario
with SGPS students
Kristina Weimer (left) and
Eric Cavanaugh (right),
and Research Intern
Tyler Buddel (center), in
Dr. DiMario’s laboratory,
June 2012.
CMS research in
a laboratory at
710 S. Wolcott Ave.,
Chicago.
A university exists not to just teach knowledge, but to discover
new knowledge.
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science trains outstanding
research scientists who both benefit from and add to the University’s trailblazing
commitment to interprofessional medical and health care education.
“We continually strive to lead in our chosen fields of research,” said
Joseph DiMario, PhD, Dean of the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral
Studies, and Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy. “The emphasis on interprofessionalism
at RFUMS provides a truly unique, broad-based, interactive
academic climate that contributes to our careers in biomedical sciences.”
Teaching students how to conduct research, according to Ronald Kaplan,
PhD, the University’s Vice President for Research and Vice Dean of Research
for Chicago Medical School, provides them experience in the critical analysis
of scientific literature across the health care spectrum, allowing them to make
sound medical practice decisions. Scientific investigation can also generate
passion. “It exposes students to the thrill of discovery and experimental
success,” Dr. Kaplan said.
The University’s history of scientific inquiry began
in the early 1930s, as American medical schools placed
a new emphasis on pre-clinical instruction in the basic
sciences, as well as faculty research. CMS recruited
prominent basic scientists as professors and invested
in research laboratories and equipment. It welcomed
foreign-born, research-oriented faculty who sought
refuge from the rise of fascism across Europe.
100 YEARS | 25

Professor Dr. Charles
McCormack and SGPS
student Darlene Racker ’88
in the laboratory, 1980s.
Researchers at CMS in the 1940s and 1950s made seminal discoveries in
the biological sciences, including the use of stereology in visualizing anatomical
structures, and produced critical research regarding physiological hormones
and the fundamental application of the enzyme horseradish peroxidase in
labeling techniques. The School continued to expand its research focus and
attract new generations of investigators in ensuing decades, among them
outstanding cancer researchers whose work garnered substantial funding
from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In 1961,
CMS completed construction of its Institute of Medical
Research at 2020 West Ogden Avenue in Chicago. The
facility, which would become home to the entire school
in 1968, featured laboratories dedicated to oncology,
experimental cardiology and biophysics. Today the
University’s core areas of research include structural
biology, neurosciences, specifically in the areas of
addiction, and neurodegenerative disease, cystic fibrosis,
viral oncology and cancer biology.
The new millennium saw a major reinvestment in
the University’s basic science departments with a capital
infusion devoted to infrastructure, including 10 state-ofthe-art
core molecular and sub-molecular laboratories and
the hiring of 25 new basic scientists, recruited from top
laboratories around the world, all of whom have obtained
extramural funding and most of whom have gained NIH
funds to support their research. “We’re very proud of the
fact that our NIH funding over the last four to five years
continues to increase despite the fact that NIH success
rates have decreased significantly,” said Dr. Kaplan, also
a CMS Professor of Biochemistry.
University President and CEO Dr. K. Michael Welch
said the Board and administration made a strategic decision
to maintain and strengthen its basic science research.
“We believe the University should not just use knowledge,
but create it,” Dr. Welch said. “Providing opportunities
for student research is an important part of their growth,
giving them the competency to assess disease with the
precision of a basic science hypothesis.”
Students conducting psychology research.
Professor Dr. Darryl Peterson (center),
Research Assistant Elizabeth Green (left) and
Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Demetrios Zikos,
1983–1984.
26 | RFUMS
Chair of the Department of Microbiology and
Immunology and Professor Dr. Bala Chandran in
the Heather Margaret Bligh Cancer Research
Center with students, 2012.
Then Professor and current COP Dean
Dr. Gloria Meredith (right) and Associate
Professor Dr. Judith Potashkin (left)
conducting research, 2005–2006.
RFUMS also sponsors several research
institutes, including the Resuscitation Institute
and Scholl College’s Center for Lower Extremity
Ambulatory Research, or CLEAR, dedicated to
improvements in the health and function of the
lower extremities. “Very creative, very industrious
scientists have put together these institutes and
collaborate and interact with many other scientists
across disciplines,” Dr. Kaplan said.
Many student-oriented research programs,
including the DPM/PhD degree program, emphasize
multidisciplinary integration with the ultimate
goal of providing better care and preventing
disease. “By improving the health and function
of the lower extremities, we help prevent falls in
the elderly, mitigate lower extremity complications
associated with diabetes, and create tools to assess
and improve surgical outcomes,” said Stephanie
C. S. Wu, DPM, MSc, Associate Dean of Research,
Director of CLEAR and Associate Professor in
Scholl College’s Department of Podiatric Surgery
and Applied Biomechanics.
Applying a sample for
further purification are
(left to right): Research
Intern Nathaniel Saed;
Research Associate
Dr. Rusudan Kotaria; CMS
Vice Dean for Research,
RFUMS Vice President
for Research and Professor
Dr. Ronald Kaplan; Research
Assistant Steven Stark
and Research Laboratory
Manager June A. Mayor
in Dr. Kaplan’s Laboratory,
July 2012.
100 YEARS | 27

28 | RFUMS
Postdoctoral Fellows Dr. Sai Yalla
and Dr. Gurtej Grewal in SCPM’s
Center for Lower Extremity
Ambulatory Research Human
Performance Laboratory, 2012.
CHP/Physician Assistant
students Gina Roberts ’11,
Heather Hackbarth ’11 and
Crystin Robbins ’11 presenting
at the All School Research
Consortium, March 16, 2011.
The University constantly seeks to promote and
expand basic science, translational, educational and clinical
research. It recently instituted an interdisciplinary pilot
grant program requiring applications submitted by
two co-principal investigators from different disciplines,
departments or colleges/schools.
“The way to succeed in a very difficult funding
environment is to try to obtain synergy,” Kaplan said.
“We’re bringing two separate sets of knowledge to bear on
a project, bringing both approaches to create a synergistic
outlook and initiate new kinds of research that will ultimately
lead to new high-quality publications and additional
extramural funding.”
Another pilot grant program now underway aims
to jumpstart more translational research in a carefully
orchestrated collaboration between basic scientists from the
University and clinicians from its primary teaching hospital,
Advocate Lutheran General, with the current focus on
cystic fibrosis, the use of stem cells in wound healing,
traumatic injury, cancer and type 2 diabetes.
The imminent future of research at the University
will include more collaborative research that will both feed
off and foster the University’s interprofessional mission and
that will prepare practitioners who will not only navigate,
but also create the scientific advances of the future.
“It’s a very exciting time,” Kaplan said. “The University
has invested tremendous resources in research. When you
have bright, dedicated, committed people, it will pay off
in a big way.”
SCPM residency
team at Cook County
Hospital (left to right)
Richard Pulla, DPM ’84,
and residents Sheila
Westmoreland, DPM ’91,
Robert La Veau, DPM ’91,
William Chubb, DPM ’91, and
Tim Butler, DPM ’91, 1991.
The many and varied teaching affiliations cultivated by Rosalind
Franklin University of Medicine and Science are a “special strength,” according
to Dr. Russell Robertson, Dean, Chicago Medical School and Vice President
for Medical Affairs.
RFUMS students participate in community-based clinical rotations
in both urban and suburban settings — experience that helps them gain the
postgraduate opportunities they desire.
“Our students are learning in extremely well-run settings where the
quality of instruction is very high,” said Robertson. “I believe our students
may get a stronger clinical education than may take place in academic medical
centers which are often referral centers. They are seeing
patients much earlier in the evolution of their health
issues. They have the opportunity to think with greater
originality.”
The University’s first major clinical partnership
was established in 1924 with Cook County Hospital.
Nearly 90 years later, John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of
Cook County is still a highly valued affiliate.
CMS in 2011 designated Advocate Lutheran General
in Park Ridge as its primary teaching hospital. The leading
trainer of primary care physicians in Illinois, Advocate
is an excellent fit. It is the only non-university hospital
outside of Chicago that boasts physician residency
programs in internal medicine, family practice, pathology,
pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, orthopedics and
psychiatry. It also offers fellowships in cardiovascular
surgery, gastroenterology and geriatrics.
SCPM affiliate Illinois Masonic Medical Center,
Chicago, 1989.
100 YEARS | 29

CMS Class of 1960
posing in front of
Cook County Hospital,
across the street
from CMS, Chicago.
“Through that relationship, we have department chairs in all major
fields of medicine and that’s been very transformative,” said Robertson, who
is also working to enhance collaboration with the Captain James A. Lovell
Federal Health Care Center (LFHCC) in North Chicago and Mount Sinai
Hospital in Chicago.
From its inception in 1974, the affiliation with LFHCC, formerly the
North Chicago Veterans Affairs Medical Center, has proven mutually beneficial,
yielding higher quality of care, a broader range of medical services and faster
treatment times for patients, attracting top academic and clinical talent under
joint faculty appointments and providing expanded
training opportunities for university students.
Establishing its affiliation with CMS in 1947, Mount
Sinai remains a key CMS partner because as a designated
safety-net hospital it provides care to all regardless of ability
to pay. It is also the clinical setting for CMS’ innovative
Urban Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency program,
which allows doctors to choose from three areas of concentration
— community medicine, epidemiology/preventive
medicine and women’s health.
“At Mount Sinai and Cook County, our students
see patients coming from all walks of life,” Robertson said.
“It’s important for them to develop an acute awareness of
the challenges faced by people from all demographics who
are trying to meet their own health care needs.”
RFUMS is also working with both the LFHCC
and Advocate Lutheran General to develop more research
collaborations that will lead to more funding from the
National Institutes of Health and other funding agencies.
“We value the relationship we have with the hospitals
that do such a wonderful job of teaching our students,”
Robertson said.
The College of Health Professions, College of
Pharmacy and Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric
Medicine each rely on numerous partnerships through
which students report great satisfaction with clinical
instruction. The University has made the engagement of
high-quality academic and clinical partnerships, which
advance its mission and support its interprofessional
goals, a strategic priority.
Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago, 1949.
Director of the Resuscitation Institute, Section Chief
of Critical Care and Medicine, ICU Director and
Professor Raul Gazmuri, MD, PhD ’94, and students at
the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care
Center, North Chicago, 2010–2011.
30 | RFUMS
When the University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School pulled
up stakes from its cramped 11-story building at 2020 West Ogden Avenue
and left “the city of big shoulders,” it was a bold, but necessary move. It was
also a gamble.
The need for more room was evident by 1972, when the newly configured
medical school and health sciences university, one of the first of its kind in the
nation, was flooded with applications for admission. The new model demanded
access to more clinical sites, leading the University to seek new vistas.
Downey Veterans Administration Hospital in North Chicago was in
search of a medical school affiliation. It offered UHS/CMS nearly 100 acres of
unused land — and underutilized buildings to start out in — for a lease of one
dollar per year. The move would be further funded with a seven-year federal
grant — at $1.25 million per year — under the Health Manpower Training Act
of 1972, designed to alleviate a serious shortage of health care professionals.
State officials were eager to spread academic medical resources beyond Chicago
to underserved parts of the state, and University Board Chair Herman Finch
pushed for the acceptance of the VA’s offer.
The decision to relocate to what some considered an outpost provoked
immediate opposition. Several hundred of the University’s clinical faculty,
affiliated with Mount Sinai Hospital, quit in protest. Students also rallied
against the move. In Lake County,
hospitals struggling in an economic
recession warily eyed the newcomer,
which they already considered
a competitor. Resistance also came
from a local health services planning
council and the Illinois Veterans
of Foreign Wars.
Building 133 at former Downey VA Hospital, North Chicago, 1975.
100 YEARS | 31

Students learning in the laboratory, North Chicago.
32 | RFUMS
Prompted by these concerns, the University hired new faculty members
who were stronger in research. It listened to its students, appointing leaders
among them to decision-making committees. Finch and other administrators
worked to develop new clinical affiliations and forge relationships in Lake
County, where faculty and students also threw themselves into community
service, staffing free clinics and otherwise expanding care to the underserved.
By July 1974, an incremental move was underway,
first among clinical faculty and then, two years later,
by the UHS/CMS. In 1978, ground was broken for a new
$45 million academic facility. The 300,000-square-foot
building was dedicated on October 12, 1980.
Current Chair and Professor of Pharmaceutical
Sciences, Gary Oltmans, PhD, who joined the faculty
in 1976, was attracted by the prospect of new education
and research opportunities offered by state-of-the-art
construction and partnership with a large clinical site.
“We were able to expand our programs and move in a
direction that contributed to the community, enhanced our
research and added to the medical literature,” said Oltmans,
who also recalled that the move gave the university
community, previously shoehorned into a crowded medical
district in the city, a fresh perspective and boost to morale.
“It generated a lot of enthusiasm,” Oltmans said. “Energy
was really high. Expanding the faculty and bringing in
new chairs created a synergy that proved to be exciting
and offered real opportunities. The move worked out
phenomenally well.”
RFUMS campus aerial view, 2005.
UHS/CMS Groundbreaking, 3333 Green Bay Road, North Chicago, 1978.
CMS obstetrics clerkship participants departing
from the Chicago Maternity Center.
SCPM’s award-winning Foot Care for the Homeless
program providing care at a homeless shelter in Chicago,
1987. Share Your Soles, a shoe donation program,
also began in 1987.
A health sciences university, by its nature, provides a service to
its community. It educates and trains highly skilled and dedicated professionals
who take on a sacred trust to relieve suffering, heal and put others first.
The mission of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science is rooted
in the desire to improve the health of the nation and
its people. From the beginning, the University enjoyed
a mutually beneficial relationship with its neighboring
communities. Patients received treatment at the University’s
clinics, while students honed their clinical skills. Today
both patients and students reap the benefits of treatment
at the Rosalind Franklin University Health System via
the Scholl Foot & Ankle Center, Behavioral Health Center,
Reproductive Medicine Center and other clinical sites.
The RFUHS also operates a popular mobile health unit,
Community Care Connection, which offers free health
screenings, including blood pressure, blood sugar
and cholesterol tests.
100 YEARS | 33

RFUMS President and CEO Dr. K. Michael
Welch reviewing a model of the heart with
CMS student Kristopher Wnek ’12 at the
RFUMS Mini-Medical School, October 2008.
Then SRHS Dean Dr. Cynthia Adams
demonstrating a blood draw to a student
phlebotomy team as part of a Lake County
Urban League program, 1981–1982.
34 | RFUMS
Clinic at Illinois College of
Chiropody and Orthopedics,
1321 N. Clark St., Chicago, 1913.
CHP Associate Dean, Associate Vice President for
Academic Affairs and Professor Patrick Knott, PhD,
PA-C ’96, said the University’s independence has helped
forge a strong bond with its neighbors. “Historically, that’s
the thing that makes us different,” Knott said. “Because
we do not have a large university medical center in Lake
County, we need to reach out to community health care
providers, community hospitals, county government and
other institutions as our clinical partners. These sites
benefit as we use our faculty and students to promote and
staff their events, and we benefit as our students participate
in service learning. It’s a win-win situation that gives us
a strong connection to our community.”
Graduate medical and health sciences students have
been a driving force for good. They aid in the operation
and staffing of vital programs, including Health Care for
the Homeless, New Life Volunteering Service, HealthReach
Clinic and the International Health Interest Group. They
volunteer for the annual Kids 1st Health Fair, which
provides free school physicals, immunizations and dental
and other health screenings to thousands of underserved
Lake County children.
According to Knott, students attracted to medical
and health professions are very altruistic. “They want
to help others and we make that a significant admissions
requirement,” he said. “We look for students who don’t
just say they want to help others, but who have really
done it. We have to continue that opportunity, feed that
propensity, while they’re here.”
Robert Joseph, DPM ’03, PhD, said service-learning
through the University provides “real life context and
an element of empathy.” As a young podiatric medical
student at Scholl College, Joseph witnessed an ER patient
devastated upon learning that her foot required amputation
due to complications of diabetes. Joseph, who was an
Albert Schweitzer Fellow (the fellowship combats health
disparities by developing leaders in service), piloted a
grassroots effort to provide diabetic foot health education
to residents of Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood.
CHP/Physician Assistant
student Kristine Jennings ’09
conducting a back-to-school
physical at the Kids 1st
Health Fair, August 5, 2009.
Today Dr. Joseph serves as Chair and Assistant Professor of SCPM’s
Department of Podiatric Medicine and Radiology. “Service-learning happens
all the time here,” Joseph said. “Whether it’s through interprofessional
courses, in the Scholl Clinic, or working on the RFUHS Community Care
Connection, all provide a different type of interaction with different
populations. Students gain an awareness and acumen that everybody’s
unique, even if they have the same disease process.”
Faculty, staff and alumni also volunteer countless
hours in community outreach to hospitals, clinics,
homeless shelters and schools throughout the region.
The University collaborates with community partners to
offer assistance in the development of community-based
service projects and health-related services. “Students
these days want a real life connection between what
they’re learning and why they’re learning it,” Dr. Knott
said. “To sit a group of students down and teach them
anatomy and biochemistry and physiology in a vacuum
doesn’t work. Service-learning experiences — like
meeting and treating a patient with diabetes and seeing
and hearing about their difficulties — make learning in
the classroom much more meaningful.” Alumna Kristina
Hoque, PhD ’09, said community service helped teach
her how to live as a true medical professional. “The best
doctors don’t just study or operate,” Hoque said. “They
go out and experience every aspect of medicine from
very different perspectives, cultures and viewpoints.”
As part of the RFUMS student-run
International Health Interest Group, CMS
student Charles Nguyen ’11 working during
a medical service trip to Subcentro de
Salud Arajuno, Puyo, Ecuador, 2008.
CHP/Physical Therapy student
Paul Tuazon ’14 leading students from
Forrestal Elementary School in an activity
during the North Chicago Community
Partners After School Program, 2011.
COURTESY OF NORTH CHICAGO COMMUNITY PARTNERS.
100 YEARS | 35

Former
Associate Professor
Dr. Carolyn Thomas
with CMS students
Edward Blumen ’73 and
Michael Gordon ’73 at
2020 W. Ogden Ave.,
Chicago, 1970.
36 | RFUMS
Students, faculty and alumni of Rosalind Franklin University
of Medicine and Science stand on broad shoulders. In the fall of 1923,
the fledgling Chicago Medical School was engaged in a battle for survival.
The Illinois Department of Registration and Education (IDRE), unhappy with
founder Dr. N. Odeon Bourque, withdrew recognition. A small group of
second-year students rose to the challenge. These men — a vice consul for
the Peruvian government, a state senator’s son and a practicing attorney —
met with Illinois Governor Len Small, who arranged a meeting for the
students with the IDRE. The agency demanded no less than the resignation
of the School’s Board of Directors. The students found an ally in a faculty
member who agreed to reason with the unconventional and idealistic
Dr. Bourque, who soon resigned along with the rest of the board. New
leadership stepped up and the crisis was averted. In 1931, the IDRE again
threatened to close CMS. This time three young members
of the faculty, including two of the men from the 1923
committee — Abel Larrain, MD ’26, and H. Edmund
Quinn, MD ’26 — met with the School’s president and
negotiated reforms that saved it.
Then Physical Therapy Instructor, and current Chair of the Department of
Physical Therapy and Associate Professor Dr. Roberta Henderson (left),
and then Associate Professor and Chair, and current CHP Dean and
Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Wendy Rheault (right), explaining
pain management, North Chicago, 1985–1986.
CMS alumni with Dr. John J. Sheinin (center) at commencement, Chicago.
Throughout the history of RFUMS, stakeholders have come forward to
lead, bring change and pave new paths in perilous times. When the American
Medical Association in 1941 recommended that CMS students be subject
to the draft and graduates denied commissions, students, faculty and alumni
descended on Washington, D.C., armed with evidence of the School’s competitive
academic record, superior clinical facilities and distinguished faculty.
This homegrown lobby was a resounding success.
The strength and vision of the University is also rooted in its historic
commitment to diversity. Its admissions policy, based solely on merit —
a rejection of the quotas used by other schools to restrict Jewish enrollment
and deny access to people of color — is as old as the School itself. Dubbed
the American Plan in 1947 by CMS Dean Dr. John Sheinin, the policy helped
draw leadership and financial support.
100 YEARS | 37

38 | RFUMS
SRHS Department of
Physical Therapy Chair
Virginia Daniel, MS, RPT,
welcoming students,
September 1971.
Equal opportunity was also a building block at Scholl College, which
joined RFUMS in 2001 and, like other colleges/schools in the University,
admitted students regardless of race or religion. Scholl alumni Alfreda
Sluzewski, DPM ’37, and Milo Turnbo, DPM ’34, successfully battled
discrimination by state and national professional associations. Theodore
“Tedi” Clarke, DPM ’50, who was barred from membership in the Indiana
Podiatry Association in the 1950s, became the first African American —
the first member of any minority group — to serve as President of the
American Podiatry Association, a post he accepted in 1978.
“Our commitment today is as strong as ever to the recruitment of
a diverse student body that has an extraordinary track record of service
and academic achievement,” said Rebecca Durkin, Associate Vice President,
Student Affairs and Enrollment Management. “Our students bring with
them a fundamental drive toward leadership and community service,
qualities that translate into more than 80 student organizations active
in both the University and local communities.”
Then Associate Professor, and current
Vice President for Faculty Affairs and Professor
Dr. Timothy Hansen (left) with preceptors
and students participating in the Chicago
Area Health and Medical Careers
Program, 1983–1984.
Faculty, students and staff work in myriad ways to support the University.
At every turn, alumni have also been crucial in sustaining and expanding
the mission of their alma mater through their leadership, financial gifts and
volunteerism and by their commitment to the highest medical and ethical
standards of both pedagogy and patient care. “People who want to be in the
health care field, whether they’re students, faculty or staff, have a vision of
service that is part of their being,” said Timothy Hansen, PhD, Vice President
for Faculty Affairs and Professor of Physiology and Biophysics and Pharmaceutical
Sciences. “It’s about their patients whether directly or indirectly,
but it’s also about contributing to the greater good.”
RFUMS and its five colleges/schools have collectively graduated more
than 17,000 alumni who dedicate their professional lives to the health and wellbeing
of their patients. Alumni hold leadership positions in national health care
associations and serve as hospital administrators, private practitioners and
health care advocates. They are recognized in their respective fields for
excellence and dedication.
COP Inaugural
White Coat Ceremony
in Rhoades Auditorium,
September 9, 2011.
CHP/Pathologists’ Assistant Department Director
of Clinical Education and Assistant Professor Brandi
Woodard, PA(ASCP) cm ’06, and Assistant Program
Director and Instructor Lisa Dionisi, PA(ASCP) cm ’05,
with Program Director, Acting Chair and Assistant
Professor John Vitale, PA(ASCP) cm , working together
in the John J. Sheinin MD, PhD, DSc, Gross Anatomy
Laboratory, North Chicago, 2009–2010.
100 YEARS | 39

40 | RFUMS
Faculty, staff and
students who served
on the RFUMS 2012–2015
Strategic Planning
Committee receiving
acknowledgement during
the Staff Recognition
and Awards Ceremony,
February 24, 2012.
Leadership and service are hallmarks of RFUMS, an institution that
from its inception beckoned people who would not be denied the opportunity
they deserved. “People felt fiercely about that opportunity,” Hansen said.
“They’ve been extremely loyal to this University. They’ve fought for it.”
CMS alumna Lisa Gelman, MD ’08,
giving a physical at the Kids 1st Health Fair,
Waukegan, August 3, 2011.
SCPM student Sallee Taylor ’15 providing nutrition
information to children during a service learning project
for the Interprofessional Teams and Culture in Health
Care course, Lambs Farm, Libertyville, 2011.
CMS student and
Executive Student
Council President
Zubin Wala ’14
speaking at the ribbon-
cutting ceremony
for the Morningstar
Interprofessional
Education Center,
July 7, 2011.
Interprofessionalism is promoted by the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, the World Health Organization, the Institute of Medicine,
the Association of American Medical Colleges and other groups that cite
research indicating patient health and safety can be compromised when
health care professionals do not communicate. Rosalind Franklin University
of Medicine and Science has been a pioneer of interprofessional health sciences
education in the nation, a model in which students in different disciplines
learn from, with and about one another as a means of improving collaboration
and quality of care.
RFUMS has already become a national leader in this paradigm shift in
the delivery of health care that is even now improving patient care and patient
satisfaction, and addressing a growing shortage of primary care physicians.
Graduates of the University are entering their professions with a new attitude,
and a new skill: the willingness, expectation and ability to work in interprofessional
health care teams. “We’re a small, nimble university. We don’t
have a silo structure. We’re well positioned to do this,” said Wendy Rheault,
College of Health Professions Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
“We’re training the leaders of the future who will go out and promulgate this
educational model, and make a sea change in clinical practice.”
100 YEARS | 41

CHP/Clinical Laboratory Sciences students
Julie Babarik ’10 (center) and Melissa Jones ’10 (right)
demonstrating dental hygiene during a service
learning project for the Interprofessional Teams and
Culture in Health Care course, Lambs Farm,
Libertyville, 2008.
42 | RFUMS
CHP Dean and Vice President for
Academic Affairs Dr. Wendy Rheault
(left) and CHP Vice Dean and Associate
Professor Dr. Judith Stoecker (right),
North Chicago, 2011.
“The future of American health care demands
practitioners who can work together and communicate
effectively,” said Ruth Rothstein, Chair, RFUMS Board of
Trustees. “We’re graduating men and women who are
carrying the commonsense concept of interprofessionalism
into clinical practice.”
The University has boldly stated its vision to become
the leading interprofessional health sciences university
in the U.S., training the health care professionals of the
future; and its own future is deeply invested in their
success. How will we achieve our vision? In the past decade
everything the University has accomplished has been
strategically driven. The voluntary commitment to the
planning process by students, administrators, faculty
and staff is a reflection of their pride and ownership in
the institution. Initiated in 2003 under the leadership of
President and CEO Dr. K. Michael Welch, strategic planning
has established a mission and vision for the University
and helped it maneuver through University accreditation;
respond to an economic recession, grow enrollment, facilities
and research; and establish the new College of Pharmacy.
The University’s Strategic Plan is a map and a mirror.
“You can’t grow if you don’t know where you’re going,” said
Margot Surridge, MA, RFUMS Executive Vice President
and Chief Operating Officer and RFUHS President.
Students in the Multidisciplinary
Computer Laboratory in the Learning
Resource Center, 2005–2006.
Students working in interprofessional
teams in the John J. Sheinin, MD, PhD, DSc,
Gross Anatomy Laboratory, 2010.
“We are truly in a growth mode. We use the plan as a
guide to get us to the next step,” Surridge said. “We have
emerged from the economic recession leaner, more efficient
and financially well disciplined,” said Roberta Lane, MBA,
CPA, Chief Financial Officer. “Our Strategic Plan leverages
our financial and human resources and strengthens our
financial condition for future generations.”
In accord with the University’s vision, interprofessionalism
is a top priority of the latest Strategic Plan, which
charts a bold course from centennial year 2012 through
2015. Rooted in the institution’s proud past and crafted
by stakeholders in the present, the plan stresses the
University’s commitment to pioneering interprofessional
medical and health care education and its determination
to promote this progressive model for graduate medical
education across the nation. Goals in expanding the
interprofessional model include the establishment of
an Institute for Interprofessional Education, the further
development of interprofessional clinical education sites
and the fostering of collaboration across all aspects of
the University and its affiliates.
Another strategic priority is establishing new ways
to make medical and health care education accessible to
those who have the aptitude and desire, including pipeline
opportunities reflecting community needs, professional
pathways and accelerated competency-based learning.
RFUMS is also working to develop programs with undergraduate
schools aimed at helping students shorten their
educational time and expense by streamlining entry
into certain graduate health sciences programs.
CMS student Indu Kannan, MS ’08/’12, examining a mannequin
simulator in the Simulation Laboratory of the Morningstar
Interprofessional Education Center, 2011.
100 YEARS | 43

SGPS students Daniel Hafez (left) and
Jeffrey Huang (right) with local high school
student Deyanira Ochoa-Mercado (center)
as part of the INSPIRE mentoring
program, 2011.
44 | RFUMS
How else will the University choose to strategically
grow? It will add new programs and expand existing ones
relevant to meeting the changing patterns of health care
delivery. It will invest in students by developing a plan
to help make graduate medical and health care education
more affordable. It will expand basic science research and
increase translational, clinical and educational research.
When the present Strategic Plan is completed in
2015, the University will have doubled its enrollment of
the prior decade and will educate close to 2,500 students.
Diversity in professional skill and cultural background
and oneness in the belief that teamwork can improve
health care have positioned RFUMS to offer more and
more students opportunities worthy of their promise.
The University stands ready to make opportunities out
of the challenges a new century will surely bring.
CHP/Physician Assistant alumni (left to right) Daniel Johnston, PA-C ’09,
Alan Wilson, PA-C ’09, Jacqueline Upton, PA-C ’09, and Derrick Brown, PA-C ’09,
celebrating commencement, Civic Opera House, Chicago, 2009.
© STEINKAMP PHOTOGRAPHY/LEGAL ARCHITECTS.
The William J. and
Elizabeth L. Morningstar
Interprofessional Education
Center, 2011.
RFUMS President
and CEO Dr. K. Michael
Welch and Board Chair
Ruth Rothstein (center)
cutting the ribbon to
open the Morningstar
Interprofessional
Education Center,
July 7, 2011.
100 YEARS | 45

46 | RFUMS
A B
C
D
1910 Carnegie Corporation issues Flexner Report, aimed
at improving standards of medical education in
the United States.
1912 In January the Chicago Hospital-College of Medicine
opens, enrolling many first-generation students and those
prevented from gaining admission elsewhere.
National Association of Chiropodists founded on July 1.
In October the Illinois College of Chiropody
and Orthopedics opens at 1321 N. Clark St., Chicago.
Founders led by Dr. William M. Scholl. [A]
Free dispensary where patients received medical care
and CMS students gained clinical experience, near CMS
building on S. Rhodes Ave., Chicago. [B]
Original CMS campus, 3830–3834 S. Rhodes Ave.,
Chicago. Architectural rendering featuring the Chicago
Hospital-College of Medicine Laboratory Building and
Fort Dearborn Hospital, home to CMS, 1912–1930. [C]
1916 Illinois College of Chiropody and Orthopedics becomes
Illinois College of Chiropody.
1917 The Chiropody Record published at SCPM, featuring
articles on the foot, material on the College’s programs
and alumni activities. Publication continues
through 1955.
1919 Chicago Hospital-College of Medicine becomes
Chicago Medical School.
1920 Rosalind Franklin born in London on July 25. [D]
Scholl College Alumni Association founded.
1924 CMS forms first-ever official clinical affiliation with
recently opened Cook County Hospital.
CMS Alumni Association established.
1928 Dr. Scholl transfers ownership of college and foot
clinics to newly named Illinois College of Chiropody
and Foot Surgery.
1930 CMS purchases former Frances Willard Temperance
Hospital, 710 S. Wolcott Ave., Chicago, in June. [E]
Sign outside of 710 S. Wolcott Ave., Chicago, home
to CMS, 1930–1968. [F]
1936 SCPM’s Durlacher Honor Society established, known
as the Scientific Pedic Society until 1937. [G]
1938 Influx of refugee physicians to United States begins
as a result of the rise of fascism in Europe. Many are
welcomed by CMS and join the faculty.
1940 CMS Board undertakes national fundraising campaign.
The scientific journal Chicago Medical School Quarterly
debuts. Publication continues through 1974.
1941 United States enters World War II. CMS alumni
successfully lobby Congress to gain draft deferments
and commissions for students and graduates of CMS.
1942 U.S. Navy is the first branch of the military to
commission podiatrists.
U.S. Senate hearing to establish Chiropody Corps
in Army on May 26.
1945 Nondiscrimination amendment added to CMS
constitution in June.
Rosalind Franklin earns PhD in physical chemistry
from Cambridge University.
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1946 Dr. Scholl establishes Dr. Scholl Foundation.
1947 In response to AMA accreditation requirements,
CMS establishes Guarantee Fund in June, the School’s
first endowment.
1948 AMA grants full accreditation to CMS on November 9,
making CMS the only previously unapproved medical
school in the history of the United States to accomplish
this feat.
1949 Eleanor Roosevelt features story of CMS and Dr. John
Sheinin in her nationally syndicated “My Day”
column on December 21.
1951 U.S. Office of Education recognizes Council on Chiropody
–Podiatry Education as official accrediting agency.
1952 Rosalind Franklin captures Photo 51, revealing
the structure of the “B” form of DNA in May. Photo 51.
Nature, Volume 171: 740–41, ©1953 Macmillan
Publishers Ltd. [H]
1957 Dr. Sheinin receives Horatio Alger Award of
the American Schools and Colleges Association.
1958 Rosalind Franklin dies of ovarian cancer on April 26.
Rosalind Franklin in the Cabane des Evettes on
a mountain holiday, 1950–1951, photographed by friend
Vittorio Luzzati. [I]
1960 Dr. Scholl receives Horatio Alger Free Enterprise Award.
1961 CMS builds 11-story Institute of Medical Research
at 2020 W. Ogden Ave., Chicago.
CMS President Dr. John Sheinin (center) reviews
plans for the Institute of Medical Research,
2020 W. Ogden Ave., constructed in 1961 and
home to UHS/CMS, 1968–1980. [J]
1962 National Association of Chiropodists renamed
American Podiatry Association; all schools become
colleges of podiatric medicine and offer Doctor of
Podiatric Medicine degree.
Time magazine features story on 50th anniversary
of Illinois College of Chiropody and calls Dr. Scholl
“the man who made the world foot conscious.”
Illinois College of Chiropody and Foot Surgery becomes
Illinois College of Podiatry.
Illinois College of Podiatry celebrates 50 years of
dedication to the study of podiatric medicine with
a banquet at the Knickerbocker Hotel, Chicago. [K]
1963 CMS Alumni Association presents first Distinguished
Alumnus Award.
1965 Chapter installation of Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA)
Medical Honor Society at CMS.
1967 UHS/CMS established.
1968 After heavy rains damage 710 Wolcott building, CMS
moves into four vacant floors of 2020 W. Ogden Ave.,
Chicago.
SGPS established.
Illinois College of Podiatry becomes Illinois College
of Podiatric Medicine (ICPM).
1970 SRHS established. [L]
1973 ICPM celebrates new home on March 13, a renovated
11-story building, the former McCormick YWCA,
at 1001 N. Dearborn St., Chicago. [M]
University clinical faculty moves to campus of Veterans
Affairs Medical Center in North Chicago in July.
1974 University academic affiliation with the Downey VA
in North Chicago begins.
1976 SRHS moves to VA campus.
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1978 VA leases 92.3 acres to UHS/CMS. Groundbreaking for new
university building.
1980 UHS/CMS granted full accreditation by North Central
Association.
UHS/CMS dedicates new 300,000-square-foot Basic Sciences
Building on October 12. Architectural rendering by
Chicago firm A. Epstein and Sons, Inc. University campus,
3333 Green Bay Road, North Chicago. [N]
1981 ICPM changes name to Dr. William M. Scholl College of
Podiatric Medicine. Main entrance to 1001 N. Dearborn St. [O]
1982 UHS/CMS opens Robert R. McCormick Clinic.
1983 UHS/CMS combined MD/PhD and MD/MS dual degree
programs begin.
1984 SCPM presents the first Honor Medallions at the inaugural
President’s Ball (later becoming the Scholarship Benefit)
on March 17.
1990 SCPM establishes clinic to treat uninsured patients.
Receives award from U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services for its commitment to the homeless.
SCPM Alumni Association establishes the Alumnus of
the Year Award.
1991 SCPM affiliation with Illinois Masonic Medical Center
established.
1992 Heather M. Bligh Cancer Research Lab dedicated on March 6.
1993 University renamed Finch University of Health Sciences/
Chicago Medical School.
Dr. Scholl exhibition “Feet First: The Scholl Story” opens
in Chicago.
The William J. Stickel Society established in honor of
William J. Stickel, DPM ’23, former SCPM Dean and the
profession’s first Executive Secretary. The Stickel Society
recognizes major donors who bestow at least $25,000 to
the College.
1998 University’s Learning Resource Center constructed.
Basic Sciences Building expansion dedicated as
the Daniel M. Solomon, MD, and Mary Ann Solomon
Learning Resource Center. [P]
2001 SCPM joins RFUMS as its fourth college/school.
2002 SCPM moves to University’s North Chicago campus.
“Feet First: The Scholl Story” moves to the Health
Sciences Building, North Chicago campus. [Q]
Health Sciences Building, a 140,000-square-foot,
state-of-the-art facility, constructed, bringing all
colleges/schools of the University under one roof.
2003 University constructs three new buildings and offers
first-ever on-campus student housing. [R]
Education and Evaluation Center dedicated on
October 16.
John J. Sheinin, MD, PhD, DSc, Gross Anatomy
Laboratory dedicated on October 25.
2004 RFUMS becomes the first medical institution in the
United States to recognize a female scientist through
an honorary namesake on January 27.
SRHS renamed College of Health Professions in
recognition of new integrated approach to education
on March 1.
Center for Lower Extremity and Ambulatory Research
(CLEAR) founded at SCPM.
Interprofessional Teams and Culture in Health Care,
an experiential interprofessional first-year course for
all clinical on-campus students, instituted.
New university research wing connects to the main
existing research areas on the upper two levels of the
Basic Sciences Building, creating a more interactive
environment and allowing more collaborative
research. [S]
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2005 RFUMS establishes Werner Straus Live Cell Imaging
Laboratory, in honor of pioneering chemist and former
CMS faculty member.
CHP Alumni Association founded.
2006 Staff Recognition and Awards Program begins.
First RFUMS student enters combined DPM/PhD dual
degree program.
SGPS students organize and host first annual All School
Research Consortium, bringing together students and
faculty from different disciplines to share research.
2007 RFUHS established.
2008 Higher Learning Commission grants RFUMS a resounding
10-year reaccreditation.
2009 COP established on July 1.
New Scientist poll ranks Rosalind Franklin, PhD,
second most inspirational woman scientist of all time,
following Marie Curie.
2010 Rosalind Franklin, PhD, featured in 100 People Who
Changed the World, published by LIFE Books.
2011 University dedicates new College of Pharmacy, housed
in the newly constructed William J. and Elizabeth L.
Morningstar Interprofessional Education Center
on July 7.
RFUHS aquires the Community Care Connection,
a mobile health screening vehicle. [T]
2012 Under the leadership of President and CEO Dr. K.
Michael Welch’s administration, RFUMS launches
a four-year strategic plan and a five-year Centennial
Scholarship Campaign. [U]
RFUMS students, faculty and staff celebrate
100 years of Life in Discovery, RFUMS Centennial
celebration. [V]