Dr. Ed Reed Blazed Trail for Integration in Memphis Hospitals
Memphis, Tenn. (June 21, 2013) – Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare has donated $250,000 to create the Dr. Ed Reed Scholarship Fund at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Medicine. The scholarship fund is named in special memory of the late Ed Reed, MD, who passed away at the age of 92 this past fall.
Dr. Reed was the first black general surgeon to establish practice in the city of Memphis and he blazed the trail for the integration of the surgical staffs of the Memphis hospitals in the 1960s. He was a former faculty member of the UT Health Science Center (UTHSC) and was the first black president of the Memphis chapter of the American Cancer Society. Additionally, Dr. Reed once served as chairman of the board for the MED (Regional Medical Center at Memphis) and practiced medicine in Memphis for nearly 50 years.
“We are delighted that Methodist will support a medical student scholarship,” said David Stern, MD, executive dean for the UTHSC College of Medicine. “This gift will help us recruit a meritorious and diverse student body that can best serve the needs of the citizens of Tennessee.”
The funding will allow for enhanced diversity scholarship support at the UTHSC College of Medicine. Methodist will donate $50,000 per year for the next five years and the scholarships will be awarded to students currently enrolled at or admitted to the medical college. Students must exhibit exceptional academic performance, and financial need will be a key consideration for the awards as well.
This fall, the first five Dr. Ed Reed Scholarship Fund recipients at the UTHSC College of Medicine will each receive their $10,000 awards. The recipients are:
Class of 2014 — Megan Delores Ward, Andrew Stephen Poole and Bryauna Schunece Lewis; and from the Class of 2015 — Keadrea Renee Wilson and Petrina L. Craine.
“We are proud to honor the great clinical and teaching legacy of Dr. Ed Reed,” noted Gary Shorb, President and CEO of Methodist Healthcare. “We hope that these scholarships will encourage and allow deserving students to pursue a medical career and follow in Dr. Reed’s footsteps and provide outstanding healthcare for all citizens.”
Methodist University Hospital, a not-for-profit healthcare delivery system based in Memphis, is the major academic campus for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and was ranked as the number one hospital in the region in 2011-2012. Methodist has over 275 resident physicians, nearly 2,000 physicians on the medical staff, and over 1,700 beds.
As Tennessee’s only public, statewide academic health system, the mission of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) is to bring the benefits of the health sciences to the achievement and maintenance of human health, with a focus on the citizens of Tennessee and the region, by pursuing an integrated program of education, research, clinical care, and public service. Offering a broad range of postgraduate and selected baccalaureate training opportunities, the main UTHSC campus is located in Memphis and includes six colleges: Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. UTHSC also educates and trains cohorts of medicine, pharmacy and/or allied health students — in addition to medical residents and fellows — at its major sites in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Nashville. Founded in 1911, during its more than 100 years, UT Health Science Center has educated and trained more than 56,000 health care professionals in academic settings and health care facilities across the state.