Message from the Dean

Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons is proud to be a leader in medical education, research, and clinical care through programs that benefit both our neighbors in Washington Heights and West Harlem and patients who travel from around the world to seek care.

Katrina Armstrong, MD 

VP&S shares a campus with Columbia’s schools of dentistry, nursing, and public health, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and the New York State Psychiatric Institute to provide one of the New York City metropolitan area’s most comprehensive destinations for education, research, and patient care. We share this mission: to prevent illness and improve health for all.

Our claims of excellence are backed by more than 250 years of educating and training some of the world’s most noted physicians and scientists, conducting research that has resulted in new ways to prevent and treat disease, and delivering the best clinical care possible to patients. We partner with our Washington Heights and West Harlem communities to offer programs, services, and events that support our neighbors. We build on our legacy by training the next generation of leaders in medicine and biomedical research.

Diversity, inclusion, and belonging are fundamental core values. We are a welcoming place for women, for individuals of color, for people of all nationalities, faiths, gender identify, and sexual orientation. To ensure that VP&S is an inclusive place to work and study, several programs are in place to advance a culture that makes every person able to thrive while feeling proud to be associated with our great medical school. People who study and train here carry our values into their careers, and professionals who join our faculty and staff are important contributors to our success.

VP&S is filled with people dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of clinical care, research, education, training, and engagement in our local communities and in the world beyond.

Katrina Armstrong, MD
Chief Executive Officer, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Executive VP for Health and Biomedical Sciences, Columbia University
Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Harold and Margaret Hatch Professor of the University