School of Allied Health Professions

The VCU School of Allied Health Professions is an international leader in the education of outstanding allied health professionals. The school’s eight departments, which include Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Gerontology, Health Administration, Nurse Anesthesia, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Radiation Sciences and Rehabilitation Counseling, and its program in Patient Counseling enroll more than 1,000 students each year.

The school also is home to the Virginia Center on Aging, a unique program that partners with organizations and businesses across the commonwealth to address the capacities and needs of the growing aging population, their caregivers and health care providers. The center’s Elderhostel learning programs for older adults is among the top 20 of some 1,000 providers in the U.S.

U.S. News and World Report ranks six of the school’s graduate programs among the top 25 in the nation, testament to the exceptional faculty and superb education the school provides, and a factor in its standing as one best allied health schools in the country.

The school’s Ph.D. Program in Health Related Sciences, one of the first of its kind, fuses many health-related disciplines into a blended, hybrid distance education program that produces professionals with the ability to practice, educate and conduct research in multiple fields.

Contact information

For information on supporting the School of Allied Professions, please contact:

Jessica F. Gurganus
Senior Director of Development
Phone: (804) 828-3269
E-mail: jfgurganus@vcu.edu

School of Dentistry

As the only dental school in Virginia, the VCU School of Dentistry is a critical resource for the commonwealth. Established in 1893, it has a long history of educating practitioners to meet the oral health care needs of the communities they serve.

The highly competitive school enrolls approximately 500 students annually in its D.D.S., dental hygiene and advanced dental education programs. The school occupies the Lyons Dental Building, Wood Memorial Building and the new W. Baxter Perkinson, Jr. Building on the MCV Campus.

In anticipation of the 2009 completion of the 56,000-square-foot Perkinson Building, the school increased enrollment of the entering dental hygiene class from 20 to 40 students, and the D.D.S. entering class from 90 to 100. The school also will expand its research in head and neck cancer and build a new research program in tissue bioengineering.

Contact information

For information on supporting the School of Dentistry, please contact:

Edward G. Kardos
Senior Director of Advancement
Phone: (804) 828-0324
E-mail: egkardos@vcu.edu

School of Medicine

The VCU School of Medicine, founded in 1838, is the largest medical school in Virginia. Today, the school has 29 basic science and clinical care departments as well as more than two dozen affiliated institutes and centers.

A full- and part-time faculty of 2,300 — representing more than 200 specialty areas — pursues the school’s mission of clinical care, research and education.

For the 2008-09 academic year, the school had approximately 740 students from around the world in its M.D. program, as well as 515 residents, 119 fellows-in-training and about 540 students in its master’s, Ph.D. and certificate programs.

The school continually strengthens each component of its three-part mission, often in conjunction with the VCU Medical Center. In 2008, the new Critical Care Hospital opened, followed by the new Molecular Medicine Research Building, which opened in spring 2009. In 2010, ground will be broken for a new School of Medicine building.

Contact information

For information on supporting the School of Medicine, please contact:

Tom Holland
Associate Dean for Development
Phone: (804) 828-4800
Toll free: (800) 332-8813
E-mail: tehollan@vcu.edu

School of Nursing

The VCU School of Nursing’s commitment to new discoveries in patient care and safety, research, teaching, and service positions the school among the nation’s leaders in nursing education. A new state-of-the-science facility incorporates the latest educational technologies and cutting-edge research, and dedicated faculty members prepare students to excel as nurses, nurse leaders and nurse educators. A strong partnership with the VCU Medical Center — the area’s only academic medical center with an ANCC Magnet Hospital — ensures clinical experiences found only here.

Almost 1,000 students are enrolled in the school’s undergraduate, master’s, doctoral and post-master’s certificate programs each year.

A major goal of the School of Nursing is to achieve long-term solutions to the national nursing shortage. Initiatives are under way to expand enrollment in graduate-level programs that will provide advance practice nurses for clinical care, as well as nurses who are academically prepared to serve as faculty members in nursing programs in Virginia and throughout the nation.

Contact information

For information on supporting the School of Nursing, please contact:

James Parrish
Director of Development
Phone: (804) 828-5172
E-mail: jtparrish@vcu.edu

School of Pharmacy

Since its beginnings in 1898, the VCU School of Pharmacy has been a national leader in pharmacy education, shaping curricula to respond to sweeping changes in the health care industry and the profession of pharmacy. The quality and innovation of the school’s programs continue to be key factors in attracting outstanding faculty, sponsored research funding, international acclaim and highly qualified students. Recently, the school earned full six-year accreditation, the only pharmacy school in Virginia with that status.

The school’s Doctor of Pharmacy program, which ranks 21st out of 101 schools/colleges of pharmacy by U.S. News and World Report, enrolls approximately 500 students each year. Additional academic options include M.P.S., M.S., Ph.D. and postdoctoral programs. Enrollment in the pharmaceutical sciences graduate program — which offers concentrations in medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutics, pharmacy administration and pharmacotherapy — has more than doubled in the past 10 years.

During the 2007-08 academic year, the school expanded to include the INOVA Campus in Fairfax, giving Pharm.D. students the opportunity to spend their third and fourth years taking advantage of Northern Virginia’s diverse experiential learning environments. The first satellite-campus cohort graduated in 2009.

Contact information

For information on supporting the School of Pharmacy, please contact:

Ellen Leverich
Director of Development
Phone: (804) 828-3016
E-mail: emleverich@vcu.edu

Massey Cancer Center

VCU Massey Cancer Center, part of an elite group of 65 National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Centers, helps to lead and shape the nation’s cancer research agenda. Only the best cancer centers in the country earn the NCI designation, and they offer a high level of care backed by research for all types of cancers.

At the forefront of new discoveries, Massey’s 500 researchers — 175 faculty members from 28 academic departments — specialize in genetics and molecular medicine, radiation biology and oncology, cancer cell biology, drug discovery, and cancer prevention and control. Their goal is to bring scientific research to the clinical arena as quickly and safely as possible, often through clinical trials. Massey offers more clinical trials than any cancer center in Virginia.

As a true public-private partnership, the world-class research at Massey depends on philanthropic support to find new ways to save and extend the lives of people with cancer.

Contact information

For information on supporting Massey Cancer Center, please contact:

Rosemary LaVista
Executive Director of Development
Phone: (804) 828-1452
E-mail: rlavista@vcu.edu

Organizational charts

• MCV Hospitals
• VCU Health Sciences
• VCU Health System