About

Deborah Prothrow-Stith, M.D. is dean of CDU College of Medicine (COM) and the founding dean of its new MD degree program, the 157th in the United States and the 4th at a historically Black university. In her 7-year tenure at CDU, she built the team and led the planning, faculty development, and fundraising required to start the program, fulfilling a 57-year-old CDU dream to have its own medical school. In addition, Dean Prothrow-Stith led the restart of CDU’s residency programs in South Los Angeles after a 12-year hiatus with the 2007 closure of the former LA County King Hospital.

Today, CDU runs residency programs in Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Psychiatry; fellowship programs in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine; and is planning residency programs in General Surgery and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Prothrow-Stith’s leadership has generated significant growth in the COM faculty, from 100 to over 350, who are appointed in 9 basic science and clinical departments. With the monumental start of a new medical degree program that opened with an inaugural class of 60 diverse students in July 2023, Dr. Prothrow-Stith and CDU have earned considerable recognition from peers and the media.

Before joining CDU, Dr. Prothrow-Stith was a principal at Spencer Stuart and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Henry Pickering Walcott Professor of Public Health Practice and Associate Dean for Diversity. At HSPH, she created the Division of Public Health Practice and broke new ground by defining youth violence as a public health problem. In 1987, Governor Michael Dukakis appointed her Commissioner of Public Health for Massachusetts, where she led a department with 3,500 employees, eight hospitals, and a budget of $350 million. She and her family lived in Tanzania during her husband’s tenure as U.S. Ambassador. Dr. Prothrow-Stith is a Spelman College and Harvard Medical School graduate and a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine. In 2003, she was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine. She has received ten honorary doctorates, and in 2017, she was named Woman of the Year for the 2nd District by the LA County Board of Supervisors.