Xavier University has a long tradition of educating more African-American physicians than any other undergraduate university in the nation. According to data compiled by the Association of American Medical Colleges, Xavier conferred medical degrees to 60 African-American graduates in 2011, the last year for which a complete set of data is available. This success has always been a source of great pride for the many alumni who are a part of making the “We Are #1” a tradition.
To further capture this spirit and help ensure that this tradition continues, Xavier physician alumni have recently announced that they are officially forming a new alumni association. The Xavier University of Louisiana Physician Alumni will become a national alumni association whose focus will be to promote and maintain the long tradition of preparing Xavier students for medical school.
The Physician Alumni Association will be led by Emergency Medicine physician Trevonne Thompson (Class of 1997).
“I am honored to serve as part of the leadership of this new Xavier Physician Alumni Association. We have a very proud tradition of helping prepare future physicians and many of our fellow alumni have gone on to do amazing things in medicine. We believe that this alumni association will allow us to better network and allow us to work together to keep Xavier number one,” said Dr. Thompson.
Dr. Thompson will be joined in leading the Physician Alumni Association by Family Medicine physician Stephanie Hightower (class of 1996) and Pediatric physician Shameza Boyd (class of 1996). Drs. Hightower and Boyd will serve as Vice Presidents of the new alumni association.
“I am very excited about this opportunity to help represent the long tradition of Xavier’s pre-med program. We all know that the educational experience that Xavier provided us laid the foundation for our success in medicine. We all want to see that continue and expand for future generations,” expressed Dr. Hightower.
“Xavier physician alumni are all over the world providing medical services. We have alumni who are leading hospital departments, conducting critical medical research, running successful practices and even a U.S. Surgeon General. Our collective experiences can be a great resource to Xavier and future students and we hope that this new alumni association will allow us to better connect with the University,” said Dr. Boyd.
The Physician Alumni Association is currently enlisting the help of Facebook to reach out to other physician alumni and to keep them informed of their progress. For further information, please email Xavier University of Louisiana at [email protected].
By Dr. Myiesha Taylor
