![Sgu picture](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Sgu_picture.jpg)
St. George's University is a private
medical school and international university in
Grenada,
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
, offering degrees in
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
,
veterinary medicine
Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...
,
public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
, the
health sciences
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to health sciences:
Health sciences are those sciences which focus on health, or health care, as core parts of their subject matter. Health sciences relate to multiple ac ...
,
nursing
Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...
, arts and sciences, and
business.
St. George's University was established by an act of
Grenada's parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
on July 23, 1976. Classes in the School of Medicine began January 17, 1977. In 1993, the university added graduate and undergraduate programs. In 1996, it was granted a charter for the School of Arts and Sciences and a Graduate Studies Program. In 1997, undergraduate courses in international business, life sciences, medical sciences, pre-medical and pre-veterinary medicine were added. The School of Veterinary Medicine was established in 1999, as was the university's Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.
History
St. George's University was founded on July 23, 1976, by an act of Grenada's Parliament, which was then effectively controlled by Prime Minister
Eric M. Gairy.
The school was named for the capital city of Grenada, but it was the brainchild of Charles R. Modica,
[ a 29-year-old lawyer and education entrepreneur.] Modica envisioned creating a for-profit medical school in the English-speaking Caribbean that would cater to academically qualified American students who failed to gain admission to medical schools in the United States.[ Besides Modica, the other three original founders of the school were also from Long Island: Louis J. Modica, Charles' father and a successful real estate developer; Edward McGowan, also a land developer; and Patrick F. Adams, a business lawyer. The university's corporate structure is currently held within Medforth Global Healthcare Education, which also operates the Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Parker, ]Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
and in Ivins, Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
.
Classes at St. George's School of Medicine began on January 17, 1977, with 125 students and six part-faculty. Almost all of the founding faculty members had been educated either in the United States or Europe. By the early 1979, the school had expanded to 23 full-time faculty and about 600 island-resident students.
On March 13, 1979, a Marxist-inspired revolutionary party forcibly overturned Gairy's rule. Despite the school's association with the ousted Gairy regime, it survived and prospered under the new prime minister, Maurice Bishop, because it generated significant income for the government and people of Grenada. The school amicably co-existed with the revolutionary regime until Bishop also became embroiled in a domestic leadership challenge four years later.[
On October 19, 1983, Bishop and seven of his closest supporters were executed by Army soldiers loyal to an insurgent element in Bishop's own party. To quell any mass protests, the island's military declared martial law and placed the entire island under a 24-hour, shoot-on-sight curfew. The repression raised fears in the Eastern Caribbean that Grenada's turmoil would destabilize democracy and law and order in the entire region. In Washington, the Reagan Administration feared for the safety of 1,000 US citizens on the island (including students, faculty, families, etc.). The U.S. government, urged on by allies in the English-speaking Caribbean, launched Operation Urgent Fury on Oct. 25, 1983. The surprise invasion was an attempt to secure the safety of American nationals on the island, but also sought to restore Westminster-style democracy and evict the Soviet-Cuban presence on Grenada.
The operation was supposed to have been essentially over in a day, but the invading multi-national forces ran into stiffer than expected resistance from the Grenada's People's Revolutionary Army and militarized Cuban workers on the island. On D-Day, the principal independent information coming out of the island was from a ]ham radio
Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communica ...
operated by a St. George's student.
Because of an intelligence failure, the American-led forces landed on the island without knowing that the medical school had more than one campus. It took the invaders three days to reach all the students and staff on the island. Eventually 564 were evacuated back to U.S. soil without suffering any injuries.
In his memoirs, President Reagan recounted the return to the U.S. of the St. George's students as an event that affected him deeply. "I was among many in our country whose eyes got a little misty when I watched their arrival in the United States on television and saw some of them lean down and kiss U.S. soil the moment that they stepped off the airplanes that brought them home."
Charles R. Modica, the school's founder and chancellor, initially criticized the invasion as "very unnecessary," but changed his mind the next day after receiving a private State Department briefing that convinced him the intervention was justified. Classes were moved to Long Island, New York; New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, and Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...
temporarily until 1984.
In response to Hurricane Ivan in 2004, students were again relocated temporarily to campuses in the United States. The school has a comprehensive hurricane plan in place currently.
In August 2014, SGU received a $750 million investment from Baring Private Equity Asia
BPEA EQT (formerly known as Baring Private Equity Asia and BPEA) is an Asian private equity firm. Previously it was an affiliate of Barings Bank before becoming an independent firm. In 2022 it was acquired by EQT Partners to act as its Asian inve ...
and Altas Partners, a Canadian private equity company whose other major investment is in a salt mining operation. In August 2015, G. Richard Olds, the founder and past dean of UC Riverside School of Medicine
The University of California, Riverside (UCR), School of Medicine is the graduate medical school of the University of California, Riverside, acting as one of six University of California medical schools. It enrolled its first class in 2013, with ...
, was named as the school's president and CEO. Dr. Andrew Sussman, former executive vice president of clinical services for CVS Health
CVS Health Corporation (previously CVS Corporation and CVS Caremark Corporation) is an American healthcare company that owns CVS Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy chain; CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager; and Aetna, a health insurance prov ...
, was appointed the university's CEO in May 2017.
Campus
St. George's University owns 65 buildings on 42 acres of land, spread out in a peninsula in the southwest corner of Grenada located in the West Indies. A major campus expansion begun in the early 1990s resulted in 52 new buildings. The architecture of the buildings are of Georgian architecture.
Academics
School of Medicine
St. George's University School of Medicine
St. George's University School of Medicine is the medical school of St. George's University located in St. George's, Grenada. The school was founded by Charles R. Modica on July 23, 1976. Because of its size, the school placed more doctors int ...
offers a Doctor of Medicine degree program that can be earned individually or as part of a dual degree with a Master of Public Health, Master of Business Administration, Master of Science, or Bachelor of Science. The School of Medicine is accredited by the Grenada Medical and Dental Council (GDMC). GMDC has been recognized by the World Federation of Medical Education (WFME) and the U.S. National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation (NCFMEA), a panel of experts organized by the U.S. Department of Education, which determined that GMDC uses standards that are comparable to the standards used to accredit medical schools in the United States.
School of Veterinary Medicine
St. George's University School of Veterinary Medicine (SGUSVM) was started in 1999, with the first faculty member Dr. Sunil Gupta, a veterinarian and anatomist, being tasked with forming a veterinary school. By 2011, the university had obtained probationary accreditation from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), and it was awarded full accreditation in 2018. Additionally, the school obtained accreditation by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) making it one of few schools to be accredited by both the AVMA and RCVS.
School of Graduate Studies
St. George's University School of Graduate Studies (SGUSGS) is composed of 100+ faculty members and 300+ post-graduate students studying in excess of 200+ fields of research. The campus is also home to the Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation (WINDREF), a non-profit organization that is focused on "the promotion of health, well-being, and sustainable development through multi-disciplinary research, education, and community programs".
School of Arts and Sciences
St. George's School of Arts and Sciences (SGUSAS) was started in 1996 and currently offers degrees in accounting, arts, biological sciences, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, English, marine sciences, mathematics, music, physics, and psychology.
As of 2022, the School of Arts and Sciences also houses the university's Honor's college, which consists of the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) accredited honor's Bachelor of Science degree (BSc Hons) in Marine, Wildlife and Conservation Biology.
University administration
Chancellors
* Charles R. Modica (1976–present)
Presidents
* Charles R. Modica (1976–2015)
* G. Richard Olds (2015–present)
Vice Chancellors
* Geoffrey H. Bourne, anatomist
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...
/ primatologist (1978–1988)
* Keith B. Taylor, gastroenterologist
Gastroenterology (from the Greek gastḗr- “belly”, -énteron “intestine”, and -logía "study of") is the branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders. The digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract, ...
(1989–1998)
* Peter Bourne
Peter G. Bourne (born 6 August 1939 in Oxford, England) is a physician, anthropologist, author and international civil servant with experience in several senior government positions. He is currently a visiting senior research fellow at Green Temp ...
, physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
(1999–2003)
* Richard Liebowitz, internist (2018–present)
Notable alumni
* Rosalind Ambrose
Rosalind Ambrose (born 1953) is a Vincentian radiologist who has been instrumental in the development of the field in her country and throughout the Caribbean region. She served as Director of Education for the Kingstown Medical College, was a ...
, founding member of the Caribbean Society of Radiologists
* Suzanne Mallouk
Suzanne Mallouk (born September 10, 1960) is a Canadian-born painter, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst based in New York City. She is best known for being amongst a core of East Village creatives in the 1980s and for her relationship with artis ...
, Canadian-born painter, psychiatrist, best known for her relationship with artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
* Roxana Mehran
Roxana Mehran is an Iranian-American cardiologist and Mount Sinai Endowed Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is known for her work in interventional cardiology.
Early life and education
Mehran was born i ...
, cardiologist and the Mount Sinai Endowed Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City. It is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eig ...
* Robert Lewis Morgan
Robert Lewis Morgan (born January 5, 1952) is an American Democratic Party politician who served in the New Jersey General Assembly for one term from 2004 to 2006, where he represented the 12th legislative district.
Morgan served in the Assembl ...
, politician who served in the New Jersey General Assembly for one term from 2004 to 2006
Notable faculty
* Peter Bourne
Peter G. Bourne (born 6 August 1939 in Oxford, England) is a physician, anthropologist, author and international civil servant with experience in several senior government positions. He is currently a visiting senior research fellow at Green Temp ...
, physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
* Mary Jeanne Kreek, neuroscientist
A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial ...
– visiting professor, neurobiology, 1979-2015
* Stephen S. Morse, epidemiologist
Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population.
It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidenc ...
, influenza researcher, specialist on emerging infectious disease
An emerging infectious disease (EID) is an infectious disease whose incidence has increased recently (in the past 20 years), and could increase in the near future. The minority that are capable of developing efficient transmission between human ...
s – senior research fellow, Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation, SGU
* Robert R. Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...
– visiting professor, pathophysiology
Notable speakers
White Coat Ceremony Speakers
''School of Medicine''
* Ben Carson
Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American retired neurosurgeon and politician who served as the 17th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2017 to 2021. A pioneer in the field of neurosurgery, he ...
, neurosurgeon, 2016 US presidential candidate (August 1996)
* Jonathan Mann, former director of the Global Programme on AIDS (now UNAIDS
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) (, ONUSIDA) is the main advocate for accelerated, comprehensive and coordinated global action on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The mission of UNAIDS is to lead, strengthen and support an ...
) (January 1998)
* Donald Hopkins, Director of Health Programs, The Carter Center (August 2000)
* Mark Siegler
Mark Siegler (born June 20, 1941) is an American physician who specializes in internal medicine. He is the Lindy Bergman Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Chicago. , He is the Founding Director of Chi ...
, director, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics
The MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, founded in 1981, is a non-profit clinical medical ethics research institute based in the United States. Founded by its director, Mark Siegler, the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics aims to ...
(January 2001)
* Arnold P. Gold, founder and president, Gold Humanism Honor Society
The Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) is a national honor society that honors senior medical students, residents, role-model physician teachers and other exemplars recognized for excellence in clinical care, leadership, compassion and dedication ...
(January 2005)
* Ezekiel Emanuel
Ezekiel Jonathan "Zeke" Emanuel (born September 6, 1957) is an American oncologist, bioethicist and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He is the current Vice Provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and chai ...
, chair, Department of Clinical Bioethics, Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
(January 2006)
* Sir Kenneth Calman, Chief Medical Officer of Scotland (August 2009)
* Lord Walton of Detchant (August 2010)
* Charles Twort, physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS foundation trust of the English National Health Service, one of the prestigious Shelford Group. It runs Guy's Hospital in London Bridge, St Thomas' Hospital in Waterloo, Evelina London Child ...
(January 2013)
Bourne Lecture Speakers
* Anthony S. Fauci, head, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's ...
(NIAID
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID' ...
) (1998)
* William Foege
William Herbert Foege (; ''-ghee''; born March 12, 1936) is an American physician and epidemiologist who is credited with "devising the global strategy that led to the eradication of smallpox in the late 1970s". From May 1977 to 1983, Foege serve ...
, director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...
) (2001)
* Lord Soulsby of Swaffham Prior, microbiologist/parasitologist (2002)
* Sir Graeme Robertson Dawson Catto, president, General Medical Council, United Kingdom (2003)
Keith B. Taylor Memorial/WINDREF Lecture Speakers
* Lord Walton of Detchant (2002)
* Lord Soulsby of Swaffham Prior, microbiologist/parasitologist (2004)
* Valentín Fuster
Valentín Fuster Carulla, 1st Marquess of Fuster (born January 20, 1943) is a Spanish cardiologist and aristocrat.
He is editor-in-chief of the ''Journal of the American College of Cardiology'' (JACC), past President of the American Heart Asso ...
, cardiologist and past president, American Heart Association ( AHA) (2010)
* Baron Peter Piot, co-discoverer, Ebola virus disease; former director of the Global Programme on AIDS (now UNAIDS
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) (, ONUSIDA) is the main advocate for accelerated, comprehensive and coordinated global action on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The mission of UNAIDS is to lead, strengthen and support an ...
) (2012)
* Robert Gallo
Robert Charles Gallo (; born March 23, 1937) is an American biomedical researcher. He is best known for his role in establishing the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the infectious agent responsible for acquired immune deficiency syndrome ...
, director/co-founder, Institute of Human Virology
The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1807, it comprises some of the oldest professional schools of dentistry, law, medicine, pharmacy, social work and nursing in the United States ...
( IHV); co-discoverer of HIV
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...
(2013)
See also
* List of medical schools in the Caribbean
This is a list of medical schools in the Caribbean. Schools are listed in alphabetical order by country or territory, then by name. The list includes medical schools recognized by their local governments that award the Doctor of Medicine (MD) and/ ...
* International medical graduate An international medical graduate (IMG), earlier known as a foreign medical graduate (FMG), is a physician who has graduated from a medical school outside of the country where he or she intends to practice. The term non-local medical graduate may be ...
References and notes
External links
St. George's University Home
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint George's University
Education in Grenada
Educational organisations based in Grenada
Medical schools in the Caribbean
Medical schools in Grenada
Universities in Grenada
Veterinary schools
1976 establishments in Grenada
Educational institutions established in 1976
Buildings and structures in St. George's, Grenada