Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science is a private university in Willowbrook, California, focused on health sciences. It was founded in 1966 in response to inadequate medical access within the Watts region of Los Angeles, California.^[2] The university is named in honor of Charles R. Drew.

Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School was incorporated in the State of California as a private, nonprofit educational institution in 1966^[3] in response to the McCone Commission's recommendations to improve access to healthcare in South Los Angeles following the Watts Riots in 1965.^[4][5] In 1973, Governor Ronald Reagan signed Senate Bill 1026 authored by State Senator Mervyn Dymally to allocate funding and support for the institution from the General Fund to the University of California.^[6] In January 1970, the offices of the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School and the Watts-Willowbrook Regional Medical program formally opened at 12012 Compton Avenue,^[7] and would serve as the central center for CDU's operations until the W.M. Cobb Building's construction in 1984.^{[citation needed]}

Three schools and colleges are housed on CDU's 11-acre campus: the College of Science and Health, the College of Medicine and the Mervyn M. Dymally College of Nursing (MMDCON).

In May 1978, a proposed agreement between the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School and the UCLA School of Medicine to jointly establish an undergraduate medical program at Drew was approved.^[8] Medical students complete their first two years of medical school at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, then finish their last two years of clinical work at Charles R. Drew University, including rotations at the Martin Luther King Jr Outpatient Center as well as local community clinics near the Charles R. Drew University campus.^[9]

The Mervyn M. Dymally College of Nursing opened in 2010.^[10] The school was the first comprehensive nursing program to open in Southern California in decades, and the first ever of its kind in South Los Angeles.^[11]

In 2010, the university introduced the Community Faculty Track, a unique model for community-academic partnerships in which community leaders are integrated into the university's research goals and the education of medical professionals.^[12][13]

In 2018, the school partnered with Ross University School of Medicine, a for-profit medical school in Barbados, to educate doctors for South Los Angeles, since Charles R. Drew University typically receives more than 3,000 medical school applications, but only has space for 28 medical students each year.^[14]

In September 2020, Bloomberg Philanthropies made a $100 million donation to the four historically black medical schools in existence in the United States: Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Meharry Medical College, the Morehouse School of Medicine, and Howard University College of Medicine.^[15][16]

In February 2022, MacKenzie Scott made a $20 million, unrestricted donation to Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, the largest private donation in the university's history.^[17][18]

In July 2023, the university accepted its first class of 60 medical students in a new MD program that is independent of the existing joint program with UCLA (which accepts at most 28 students).^[19][20] Full LCME accreditation for the program will be possible after the first class of 60 students has graduated from CDU.^[21]

The university offers degrees in three colleges:

• College of Medicine
• College of Science and Health
• Mervyn M. Dymally College of Nursing

Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital closed in 2007.^[54] Both the university, which is private, and associated County-owned public hospital fell into serious trouble at the outset of the 21st century.^[28] By 2006, several residency programs had to be terminated because they lost accreditation for not meeting the necessary amount of oversight, and the hospital itself was forced into a radical restructuring plan in late 2006.^[55] The restructuring caused the County-owned hospital to sever its ties to the neighboring private, non-profit medical school and terminate support to 248 medical residents.^[56] In October 2006, the national Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education informed school officials that it planned to revoke the university's ACGME accreditation because of the hospital's upcoming loss of Medicare money; as a result the university voluntarily withdrew its accreditation.^[55] The school was eligible to seek reinstatement to relaunch its residency program in July 2008. As a response to the problems, the university reorganized, terminating its president, and dismissed nearly two-thirds of its board of trustees.^[55]

On March 6, 2007, officials from the university announced that they would sue Los Angeles County for $125 million for breach of contract, claiming that the restructuring of the hospital gutted the adjacent university.^[56] In September 2009, the lawsuit was settled with an agreement under which the county would rent space to the university on favorable terms and the county and university would work together toward the reopening of MLK Hospital.^[57]

In June 2007, the school began an 18-month rebranding effort aimed at preventing people from associating the school with the continuing ordeals of King-Harbor; the school criticized the hospital for leaving an old sign bearing the King/Drew name.^[55]

Notable past and present Charles R. Drew University faculty members include Patricia Bath, an ophthalmologist and the first black female doctor to receive a medical patent, for inventing a laser treatment for cataracts ^[58] and Deborah Prothrow-Stith, a pioneer in addressing youth violence as a public health issue and the first woman Commissioner of Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Prothrow-Stith is Professor of Internal Medicine and current Dean of the College of Medicine.^[59]

• Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital — adjacent, opened in 2015
• King/Drew Magnet High School of Medicine and Science — adjacent
• Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital/King Drew Hospital — formerly adjacent
• History of African Americans in Los Angeles
• South Los Angeles-related topics