HBCU Profile: Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science

Location: Willowbrook, California 

Date Founded: 1966

Mission Statment: To conduct education, research and clinical services in the context of community engagement to train health professionals who promote wellness, provide care with excellence and compassion, and transform the health of underserved communities.

History: Since it's inception in the early 1950s, The Charles Drew Medical Society had been working on the creation of a teaching hospital along with a medical school in the Watts-Willowbrook area of South Los Angeles. The Society began to partner with community leaders to advise this collaborative arrangement to better serve this urban and poverty-stricken community that also lacked even the most minimal medical services. The citizens of South Los Angeles confronted and fought the same battles that were being fought in the deep South. Racial discrimination and civil tension extended all the way to the far west end of the nation. African-Americans in California lived through the same hatred, biases, racial discrimination, indignities and poverty as our brothers and sisters from the South.

Following nearly a decade of community-based advocacy for improved medical services, the University was incorporated in August of 1966. In response to the lack of adequate medical facilities in the area, the institution later became a University and changed its name in 1987 to reflect its expanded academic role and identity. The University is named in honor of Dr. Charles R. Drew, a brilliant African-American physician, famous for his pioneering work in blood preservation. His dedication to learning and the sharing of knowledge to benefit mankind is the inspiration for the University.

The university is best known for its medical school designed to train physicians interested in working in urban environments, and founded in the response to the 1965 Watts riots to train minority doctors who would serve the poor of the South Los Angeles area.
The following other academic programs are offered: Master's of Science in Nursing, Family Nurse Practitioner Master of Science, Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Pre-Medicine, General Studies, Master's in Urban Public Health, Phlebotomy, Life Sciences, Health Information Technology, and Radiography.

Website: Charles R. Drew University