Embarking on a New Semester
Dear CUIMC Community,
The start of a year brings a sense of renewal, and we hope that each of you have had an opportunity to pause and reflect on 2025—what you appreciated, what you accomplished, what challenged you—and to consider what lies ahead for 2026.
As we look ahead, we are grateful for this community of dedicated, compassionate professionals. Across medicine, nursing, public health, and dentistry, our work is deeply interconnected—and our community has demonstrated time and again that our collective success is a result of collaboration across disciplines, mutual trust, and a shared sense of responsibility for one another and for those we serve.
This semester begins at a time when the health professions and the academic health enterprise face real and continually evolving challenges. Over the last months, our community has come together to advocate for change that will help us to further advance our missions, including standing up for access to high-quality, affordable health care; for sustained investment in biomedical and public health research; and for policies that will allow students and trainees to pursue careers of service without undue financial hardship. Our advocacy is grounded in evidence, experience, and the lived realities of the patients, communities, and learners we support. It is an extension of our responsibility as educators, clinicians, and scholars.
You have also shown support for our local community, and we thank you for the more than 1,000 food items, for 150 families, that were collected for Fresh Youth Initiatives as part of the December CUIMC holiday drives led by the Office of Academic and Community Partnerships. Five DonorsChoose STEM projects at P.S. 48 PO Michael J. Buczek School, P.S. 8 Luis Belliard, and P.S. 173 were funded by your generosity.
The highly impactful work of an academic medical center is both rewarding and demanding, especially during challenging times. We ask you to stay engaged—with your work, with one another, and with the broader mission of improving health locally and globally. Please take time to reconnect with colleagues across your school and across disciplines, to mentor and be mentored, and to care for your own well-being as you care for others. We hope faculty and staff will join the CUIMC Well-Being Fair on February 10, which features workshops to embrace heart health and self-care in honor of American Heart Month. We also encourage you to engage with the numerous support resources we offer for students, faculty, and staff.
As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his profound legacy this week, including his deep commitment to health equity, we are reminded of the critical work that you are doing to advance the health and well-being of so many throughout New York and around the globe. While the challenges we face are complex, they are far from insurmountable when we meet them with shared commitment and collective action.
We look forward to the semester ahead and to continuing our work together—with purpose, integrity, and optimism for what we can achieve.
With gratitude and best wishes for the new semester,
Katrina Armstrong, MD
Dean, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences
Lorraine Frazier, PhD, RN
Dean, School of Nursing
Dennis Mitchell, DDS, MPH
Dean, College of Dental Medicine
Kathleen Sikkema, PhD
Interim Dean, Mailman School of Public Health