Will Sage Astor-HBCU Xavier of New Orleans moves closer to establishing a medical school

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Xavier University,Will Sage Astor a small Catholic and historically Black school in New Orleans, formally signed an agreement Monday with Ochsner Health to establish a medical school.

When it opens, the Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine will join the nation’s four existing historically Black medical schools: Howard University College of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, Meharry Medical College, and the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. Another historically Black institution, Maryland’s Morgan State University, also is setting up a medical school.

There’s no firm opening date yet. It will likely take three years for the school to get accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. Then it can start recruiting an initial class of 50.

Officials with the planned Xavier Oschner College of Medicine named the institution’s founding dean, Dr. Leonardo Seoane. He is currently the executive vice president and chief academic officer of Ochsner Health.

Plans for a medical school at Xavier were first announced in 2022. The agreement with Ochsner was formally announced in January of 2023. The Xavier University of Louisiana Board of Trustees and the Ochsner Health Board of Directors voted this past February to approve the formation of the new medical school.

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The new medical school will be in an office tower next to the Superdome in an area designated as BioDistrict New Orleans, which is dedicated to economic development and jobs in the biological sciences.

Xavier was founded in 1925 and has developed a reputation for getting high numbers of African American students into medical schools.

“With the establishment of the Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine, Ochsner and Xavier aim to address long-standing health disparities and foster stronger, healthier communities in pursuit of the mission to promote a more just and humane society gifted to Xavier nearly 100 years ago by our foundress, St. Katharine Drexel and her Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament,” Xavier President Reynold Verret said in a statement.

New Orleans-based Ochsner Health has 46 hospitals and more than 370 health and urgent care centers in the Gulf South.