The Dean of the new Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine understands the transformational opportunity before him.
“It’s going to change downtown New Orleans forever,” said Dr. Leonardo Seoane. “To be able to lead something like that is incredible.”
Set to be the only Historically Black College and University (HBCU) medical school in the Gulf South and only the fifth in the nation, the medical school currently plans to welcome its first class of 50 students into Benson Tower after preliminary accreditation, which takes several years. Seoane hopes to raise a $150 million endowment for faculty and scholarships to support up to 100 medical students per year.
The program, which will be housed in BioDistrict New Orleans inside the Benson Tower next to Caesars Superdome, will also partner with New Orleans schools to boost coursework in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
“Our strategic advantage is our diversity,” said Seoane, who is a first-generation Hispanic immigrant. “Black and brown students can see a path to becoming a physician. Students realize that I can be a doctor, there are doctors that look like me. There are doctors that speak Spanish like I do. There are doctors that come from my community.”
Xavier University, with its 3,400 student body, already sends more African Americans to medical school than any other U.S. university.
In addition to addressing an acute shortage of physicians nationwide, research has shown that improving diversity in medicine leads to improved outcomes for underrepresented minority patients.
The program would also add a third medical school downtown, which would make New Orleans unique among U.S. cities its size, said Seoane, who noted, “That can be an incredible catalyst.”
