In 1970, the University of Minnesota’s previously autonomous College of Pharmacy and School of Dentistry were reorganized, together with the Schools of Nursing, Medicine, and Public Health, and the University Hospitals, into a centrally organized and administered Academic Health Center (AHC). The university’s College of Veterinary Medicine was also closely aligned with the AHC at this time, becoming formally incorporated into the AHC in 1985.
The development of the AHC made possible the coordination and integration of the education and training of the health care professions and was part of a national trend which saw academic health centers emerge as the dominant institution in American health care in the last third of the 20th century. AHCs became not only the primary sites of health care education, but also critical sites of health sciences research and health care delivery.
The University of Minnesota’s Academic Health Center Oral History Project preserves the personal stories of key individuals who were involved with the formation of the university’s Academic Health Center, served in leadership roles, or have specific insights into the institution’s history. By bringing together a representative group of figures in the history of the University of Minnesota’s AHC, this project provides compelling documentation of recent developments in the history of American health care education, practice, and policy.
Project Staff
Dominique A. Tobbell, Ph.D. is the oral historian for the Academic Health Center Oral History Project and assistant professor in the Program in the History of Medicine at the University of Minnesota. She is a historian of 20th century medicine, science, technology, and health care politics and policy and the author of Pills, Power, and Policy: The Struggle for Drug Reform in Cold War America and its Consequences (University of California Press/Milbank Books on Health and the Public, 2012).
dtobbell@umn.edu
510A Diehl Hall
Phone: 612-626-5114
Erik Moore is acting head of University Archives and co-director of the Digital Conservancy. He is also the archivist for the Academic Health Center History Project.
moore144@umn.edu
218 Elmer L. Andersen Library
Phone: 612-625-5756
Lauren Klaffke is a research assistant for the Academic Health Center Oral History Project and a Ph.D. student in the Program in the History of Medicine.
Emily Hagens is research assistant for the Academic Health Center Oral History Project and a Ph.D. student in the Program in the History of Medicine.
Eli Vitulli is research assistant for the Academic Health Center Oral History Project and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of American Studies.
Beverly Hermes of Hermes Transcribing & Research is the transcriber for the Academic Health Center Oral History Project.