Deep roots in educating diverse health leaders.

Sharing common commitments and visions for more than a century.

More than 100 years ago, three Chicagoans came together around a common vision: creating a medical school that would help open the profession to more people, including women, African Americans, and the working class. The Chicago Hospital-College of Medicine (later the Chicago Medical School) opened its doors in 1912.

In another part of the city that same year, Dr. William M. Scholl formed the team that founded the Illinois College of Chiroprody and Orthopedics. Like the Chicago Hospital-College of Medicine, it was open and egalitarian; both schools rejected the limiting racial and ethnic quotas implemented by other schools and colleges at the time.  

Five colleges joined together in a single purpose.

Today, both colleges—along with the College of Health Professions (1970), the College of Pharmacy (2011), and the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (1968)—comprise Rosalind Franklin University. We’re a cohesive learning institution, bringing together over 30 graduate health and science profession programs around a single purpose: improving the health and wellbeing of all.

Our long history of advocating for diversity and inclusion has continued to shape the University in a variety of ways today, from the diverse nature of our community to the many student organizations that support and celebrate that diversity. In 2004, the renaming of the University in honor of Dr. Rosalind Franklin made us the first medical institution in the US to recognize a female scientist through an honorary namesake.

Interprofessional, global, and innovative in a changing field.

In 2013, the DeWitt C. Baldwin Institute for Interprofessional Education, which now includes our Office of Global Health, was established at RFU. That same year, four Chicago Medical School students also initiated the Interprofessional Community Clinic. These approaches to providing care demonstrate the heart of who we are today: an institution focused on preparing diverse teams of health providers to care for increasingly diverse populations, in the U.S. and around the world.

As we look ahead, our singular focus on improving the health of the population, our outstanding facilities and faculty, and our Interprofessional approach allow us to be agile and innovative, successfully preparing students to step into a rapidly changing field and lead the way.