Scholarships top $1M, ease debt, light way for medical students
At East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, the annual scholarship celebration is more than a recognition of financial aid — it’s an incantation of the transformative power of generosity and enduring mission to serve North Carolina.
This year’s event featured a keynote address from Dr. Mary Raab, a pioneering oncologist whose legacy is woven into the very fabric of eastern North Carolina medical history. Raab and her late husband, Dr. Spencer Raab, arrived in Greenville in 1977 to help launch the medical school’s oncology division. Together, they established the Leo W. Jenkins Cancer Center, bringing life-saving care to thousands across the region.
“Sixty years ago, I was a young student aspiring to become a physician,” Raab told the audience. “It was because of a generous donor that I was given an opportunity that changed my life.”
Dr. Mary Raab and Lindsay Branch greet each other inside the large conference room at Eastern AHEC during the ECU Health Foundation scholarship luncheon earlier this month. (Photos by Bobby Ampezzan)
Her sentiments joined so many others at the lecturn and became the event’s unofficial theme — that scholarships are more than financial relief; they are catalysts for communities as big as an underserved region of the state and as small as a medical school student body.
Among those scholarship students recognized was Alexis Moore, a fourth-year medical student and recipient of the Dr. Mary Kathy Lawrence and Dr. Art Klose Scholarship. Moore is a quintessential nontraditional medical student. She was a high school science teacher after graduation, and at other points in her life, a pharmacy tech, a staffer at a pregnancy center and more. Her scholarship and those of others, she said, “represents time that we can dedicate to fully learning, to fully caring, and to growing into compassionate, capable physicians.”
This year, 73 unique scholarships were awarded to Brody students — two more than last year — resulting in 109 scholarship awards totaling more than $1 million.
Moore’s story is emblematic of ECU’s commitment to training doctors for North Carolina who reflect the communities they serve. Today, that mission is being amplified by a historic expansion: a $265 million investment from the state for the construction of a seven-story, 195,000-square-foot Center for Medical Education (CME) that’s set to open in 2027. The new facility will increase medical school class sizes from 100 to 120 and feature cutting-edge simulation labs, anatomy spaces and collaborative learning environments.
Once open, the CME will be connected to the existing Brody Medical Sciences building at every level, providing high-tech classrooms, anatomy labs and simulation technology integrated with space for the growing student body to learn.
The Golden LEAF Foundation recently pledged $1 million to outfit the CME’s learning studio with 360-degree screens and whitebox simulation technology. “Golden LEAF’s support builds on ECU’s proven record of preparing health care professionals who stay and practice in rural North Carolina,” the foundation’s president and CEO Scott T. Hamilton said in the announcement.
Scholarship donor Dr. Phillip Timmons (at right) with scholarship students Emma Rayfield, Nia Hammett and Emma McCollum at the ECU Health Foundation scholarship luncheon at Eastern AHEC Nov. 7, 2025.
Dr. Michael Waldrum, dean of the Brody School of Medicine and CEO of ECU Health, emphasized at the luncheon that Brody students carry some of the lowest medical school debt in the country — a key factor in attracting applicants committed to primary care and service in underserved areas. “Healthy rural communities need access to excellent physicians, and no one does that better than ECU,” Waldrum said.
The Brody Scholars program, ECU’s most prestigious medical scholarship, continues to be a cornerstone of this effort. In 2025, three new scholars — Alessio Fratarcangeli, Gage Outlaw, and Benjamin Woodard — joined the ranks of students whose education is fully funded through the program. Fratarcangeli, who plans to become a pediatrician, called the honor “something I will forever be thankful for.” Outlaw, aiming for hematology/oncology or family medicine, said, “It has always been my dream to treat the people who raised me and shaped me into who I am today.”
ECU expects to soon sift through its largest applicant pool yet for seats in the Class of 2030. The school is growing, evolving, but staying true to its mission. Scholarships, state investment and community support are key to the transformation as the school continues to train the next generation of life-saving physicians for the region and the state it was created to serve, Waldrum said.
To learn more about supporting medical education at ECU, visit the ECU Health Foundation.
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