University of New Mexico, School of Medicine, Office of Faculty Affairs and Career Development

In the early 1960s a pioneering group of medical educators, recruited from across the United States, undertook an audacious experiment. They came together to create a medical school in a state beset by endemic poverty and daunting geographic barriers.

Today, New Mexicans are justifiably proud of their School of Medicine, which owes so much to the foresight, vision and courage of those educational pioneers. Over and over, we learn of their fearless questioning of the status quo and their compulsion to ask, "Why?" They are icons to us, but in their day they clearly relished being iconoclasts.

The school they created is celebrated for its innovations in medical education, and has earned a reputation for making diversity in the physician workforce a priority. Its programs in rural and family medicine are nationally recognized and its groundbreaking Combined BA/MD Degree Program has provided a new pathway for students from throughout New Mexico to pursue a medical career.