School of Medicine Awards 117 Degrees at Spring ’24 Commencement

The University of Missouri School of Medicine celebrated the graduation of 117 medical students in the class of 2024 on Saturday, May 11, inside Jesse Auditorium.

This year’s graduating class included 26 graduates who trained at the school’s Springfield Clinical Campus in southwest Missouri. The Springfield Clinical Campus is a public/private partnership with MU and CoxHealth and Mercy hospitals.

MU School of Medicine Vice Chair for Education, and associate professor of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, Shellaine Frazier, DO, was selected by this year’s graduating class to serve as commencement speaker. In 2022, Frazier was the recipient of The Jane Hickman Teaching Award, the most prestigious teaching award at the MU School of Medicine.

The 2024 class of medical students from the MU School of Medicine was highly sought after: 97% of the class received a residency program match, meaning many hospitals and health systems chose graduating MU medical students as their top resident physician candidates.

After receiving their medical degrees, these physicians will go on to receive additional training in their chosen specialties. Many of the physicians – 26% – will remain on the MU campus for their residency training. 39% of this year’s graduates will remain in Missouri, and 39% selected residency programs in primary care fields.

Graduates of the MU School of Medicine consistently score higher than the national average on the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). MU School of Medicine graduates are trained, evaluated and expected to be competent in their ability to deliver patient-centered care, including their capability to communicate with the patient, family members and colleagues working as part of an interdisciplinary team.

The ceremony also featured a special honor. Gilbert Ross Jr., MD, was conferred with an honorary degree of Doctor of Science. Ross was the first urology resident at MU in 1960. He joined as faculty and served as the second chief of the Division of Urology from 1977-98. Ross established the kidney transplantation program at MU in 1972 and served as the principal surgeon and program director from 1972-99 and again from 2004-08. Under his leadership, more than 1,100 patients received needed organs. Ross is responsible for authoring and co-authoring more than 125 publications over his professional career.

See the 2024 Photo Gallery