President's Welcome Address

I want to extend my welcome to the USU School of Medicine Class of 2012 and entering graduate students.
 
Welcome to USU, to the National Capital Area and to the study of medicine and biomedical sciences. I know you have worked hard and long to get here and you and your families are justifiably proud of this accomplishment. We at the university are also proud of you.
 
For the School of Medicine (SOM), almost 2,000 applicants competed for the 171 positions in your class. We often tell others how accomplished you are: your average MCAT is 30 and your average GPA is 3.53. A number of you have Master's degrees, two of you have earned law degrees and one of you has a Doctorate in Pharmacology. You hail from all across the country: 22% from the Northeast; 41% from the South; 9% from the Midwest and 28% from the West; 33 members of your class are from minority groups. More than half of you do not have prior service and those of you who have served have done so as active duty officers, active duty enlisted, prior active duty enlisted; 21 of you are service academy graduates, 22 were direct ROTC graduates and four of you were reservists.
 
You are joining a group of highly distinguished individuals. Among USU alumni are Major General Tom Travis ('86), the commander of the 79th Medical Wing at Lackland AFB, Texas; Rear Admiral Sandra Kweder, U.S. Public Health Service ('84), Deputy Director, Office of New Drugs, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Captain (select) Paul Kane, U.S. Navy ('92), Force Surgeon, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, in Djibouti; Brigadier General Joe Caravalho, U.S. Army ('83), and Colonel John Powell, U.S. Army ('86), who are leading medical efforts in Iraq as the Surgeon, Multinational Force-Iraq/Multinational Corps-Iraq, and Chief of Staff for Health Affairs, Multinational Security and Transition Command-Iraq, respectively. More USU alumni have been assigned to the White House Medical Unit than from any other medical school in the United States.
 
Additionally, this year, there are 64 graduate students entering the SOM Graduate programs in the three interdisciplinary programs, Medical and Clinical Psychology, and the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics. Of these 64 graduate students, there are 34 entering Ph.D. students and 30 Master's students, including U.S. citizens as well as students from Italy, Canada, Peru and Brazil. This year's class has 35 military students from various branches of the uniformed services.
 
You have undertaken an extraordinary mission at an extraordinary time. Military and public health medicine are at the forefront of much of 21st century medicine and biomedical science. Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) have challenged us as never before and the Military Health System has risen to these challenges by saving more lives than ever before and working to restore those wounded warriors to fuller lives than ever before. The university is deeply involved in addressing the challenges of combat injuries and at the same time deeply involved in health promotion, disease prevention, public health, and humanitarian medicine. The university is the focal point for cutting edge research and development of health care in infectious disease, confronting the issues of worldwide epidemics including HIV-AIDS and pandemic influenza. Our faculty also leads biomedicine in issues relating to PTSD and TBI as well as fundamental and applied medical science as they relate to human health.
 
Recently, the university has stood up a new Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine. This Center will extend the collaborations between the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services and is based on working closely with the National Institutes of Health.
 
You are also entering USU at a remarkable and historic time in military medicine. In 2011 the new WRNMMC -- a tri-care facility -- will open on this base. The new tertiary care facility will be the flagship of military medicine and this campus has been characterized as the model academic health center of the 21st Century.
 
On the morning of July 23, I attended a ceremony in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol led by the leadership of the House and Senate, joined by DoD Secretary Robert Gates, many members of Congress and the former Secretary of Sate and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell. Particularly moving were remarks from two veterans of the famed Buffalo Division. This ceremony, "Marching Forward," commemorated the 60th anniversary of the integration of the United States Armed Forces. Sixty years is both a moment ago and a very long time ago but today's Armed Forces are the most representative organization in the United States. The university continues to strive to reflect this diversity and it is these men and women and their families for whom you will care whether you are serving in the Army, Navy, Air Force or U.S. Public Health Service: there is no higher calling.
 
Welcome to the USU and to this great mission: learning to care for those in harm's way.
 
Charles L. Rice, M.D.
President

Contact Information

Uniformed Services University
4301 Jones Bridge Road
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
Phone: 301-295-3013
Email: president@usuhs.edu

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