200 Years Look Good on Us!

Dear Alumni,

In 2024, we’re marking one of Jefferson’s most momentous occasions—our 200th anniversary of the founding of an institution that, because of you, is one of today’s most respected universities, health systems and health insurance organizations.

For two centuries, our alumni—over 77,000 strong—have set the foundation for an inspired third century. In 1824, we began as Jefferson Medical College—among the first to require students to have hands-on experience with patients, and the nation’s first medical school to open a clinic for the poor. We set out to change the practice of medicine and selflessly support those in need of our help. We did that and inspired so much more.

Today, Jefferson is a professions-focused, research university with 10 colleges, three schools, 200+ diverse academic programs on the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels; a nationally ranked, 17-hospital health system; and an award-winning health insurance organization. We’re a community of healers, creators, builders and explorers—all dedicated to improving lives—by seeing things others can’t, reimagining things others won’t, and doing things others don’t. This is our legacy. Your legacy.

Our 200th Anniversary will be a celebration of all of you and the major milestones we’ve marked along the way, like the founding of the Philadelphia Textile School and the merger of Thomas Jefferson University and Philadelphia University in 2017. It will be a year-long event—with a host of activities to mark the occasion and showcase to the world how we’ve shaped the future of higher education, medicine and patient care.

We invite you to join us to participate in the many initiatives we have planned –
to honor our past and to celebrate the next generation of Jefferson leaders who will boldly, and unapologetically, define what’s possible in our next two hundred years.

Joseph G. Cacchione, MD
CEO, Jefferson

Susan Aldridge, PhD
Interim President, Thomas Jefferson University