Chicago Medical School Impact Fund

The Agnes D. Lattimer, MD '54 Memorial Endowed Scholarship Matching Gift Challenge was created by an anonymous donor who offers you and members of the CMS Classes of 1980, 1981 and 1982 the opportunity to contribute to this endowed fund by matching dollar for dollar donations of $1,000 or more.   

Agnes D. Lattimer was the first woman and African American to be named a CMS Distinguished Alumnus.  She faced the triple obstacles of poverty, sexism, and racism, yet she refused to be discouraged. As she said, "No obstacles could deter me from my purpose. Not the negative attitudes of others, not lack of money, nor lack of encouragement from outside my family; nothing could dissuade me from my goal." Dr. Lattimer, who passed away in 2019, entered CMS in 1950 as one of only two women and the only African American in her class. Lack of financial resources had forced her to turn down acceptance at a medical college in her home state of Tennessee. She then came to Chicago and worked as a housekeeper for 18 months to earn enough money to attend CMS. Dr. Lattimer spent her more than three-decade career as a board certified pediatrician and physician executive leading systemic change in the medical treatment of Chicago’s poor.

To make your match-qualifying gift to the Lattimer Memorial Endowed Scholarship that removes barriers to education, promotes diversity in our classrooms and fuels the drive toward a medical culture that better represents a multicultural society, click here.