Leading an advocacy group trying to represent 2,026 employees is not exactly how Brigitta Jozefowski (pronounced joe-zah-fow-ski) imagined her job when she first started working at Washington State University Spokane back in 2004.
After all, she was “just an hourly staff person” still working on an undergraduate degree she had started years earlier.
President Elson S. Floyd, March 1, 1956 – June 20, 2015
Elson Floyd’s fingerprints are all over our campus.
The WSU president saw the opportunity that WSU had in Spokane – a large medical sector, a beautiful University District – and designated WSU Spokane as the University’s health sciences campus.
This spring, Floyd helped convince lawmakers from both sides of the state to allow WSU to operate its own medical school. The impacts of that work will live on for many years to come as the WSU medical school grows.
The following was written by Dr. George Novan, FACP, Associate Dean, WSU College of Medical Sciences, for the April issue of The Message, a publication printed monthly by the Spokane County Medical Society (SCMS). It is republished here with permission from both Dr. Novan and the SCMS.
It’s not often a person has a chance to be part of starting a new medical school. We at Washington State University have been picturing what we want to create with a new WSU College of Medicine.
The WSU Spokane health sciences campus sits along the Spokane River on the east end of downtown Spokane. Photo courtesy of Isaacson Aerial Photography.
(Ed. Note: The latest edition of the WSU Spokane Magazine is available as a PDF here. It is also distributed statewide to WSU alumni and friends. This is the final story from the magazine. Enjoy!)
By Terren Roloff
From as far back as Spokane’s early years, the 50 acres a few blocks east of downtown were anything but pretty.
By the 1960s, when community leaders realized that area and the rail yards downtown had become a blight on the community, those 50 acres were plagued by waste and neglect.
Fortunately, it wasn’t too long after that realization that things changed for the better.
Governor Jay Inslee and Washington lawmakers recognized the branch campuses of Washington State University and the University of Washington this week with a proclamation celebrating the two schools.
Governor Jay Inslee signed legislation today that allows WSU to operate a medical school in Spokane. This is a great day for WSU, Spokane and the entire state. As the Governor was signing, the audience around him broke out into a nice rendition of the WSU fight song – a fitting way to celebrate.
The legislation – officially House Bill 1559 – changes a 1917 law that restricted medical education solely to the University of Washington.
It’s been a long road to this point. So what comes next?
Washington State University President Elson S. Floyd was on “Inside Olympia” this week on TVW to talk about higher education tuition, a WSU medical school and more.
On an unrelated note, Floyd is also the recipient of the CASE District 8 2015 Leadership Award.