The Pritzker School of Medicine and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation this week announced the creation of the Holly J. Humphrey Scholarship in Medical Education Fund, honoring the late Dean for Medical Education’s profound impact at the University of Chicago. The scholarship fund at Pritzker will be established with a gift of $1.75 million from the Macy Foundation.
The Macy Foundation will also give $200,000 to establish and endow the Holly J. Humphrey Transition to Residency Fund to assist medical students with costs related to residency application and their transition to graduate medical education. Both gifts were announced at a memorial service on the University of Chicago campus celebrating Dr. Humphrey’s life and legacy.
View a replay of the memorial service celebrating the life and legacy of Holly J. Humphrey, MD, MACP.
The new scholarship fund is designed to support students with demonstrated financial need, representing a significant contribution to the combined efforts of Pritzker and the Division of Biological Sciences to reduce debt among graduating medical students.
“Much like Holly’s leadership and vision were for Pritzker, this gift from the Macy Foundation will be truly transformative,” said Pritzker’s current Dean for Medical Education Vineet Arora, MD, MAPP. “While the Macy Foundation’s generosity will certainly honor Holly’s legacy for years to come, she would be most heartened by the fact that this gift will help fulfill one of the goals that always remained central to her leadership: to reduce debt and lower barriers for exceptional students who might not otherwise have the means to attend Pritzker.”
Dr. Humphrey spent nearly 40 years of her career at the University of Chicago, beginning with her matriculation at the Pritzker School of Medicine in 1979. She remained at the University for an internal medicine residency, a chief residency, and a pulmonary and critical care fellowship. She led the internal medicine residency program for 14 years before serving as Pritzker’s Dean for Medical Education and Ralph W. Gerard Professor in Medicine for 15 years.
In 2018, Humphrey left the University to become the eighth President of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, which is dedicated to improving health and healthcare in America through advances in medical education and the training of health professionals. Last month, Dr. Humphrey posthumously received the 2025 AAMC Award for Excellence in Medical Education, the organization's most prestigious award, for her tremendous impact on medical education.
Read more about Dr. Humphrey’s life and legacy.
In each role she held throughout her extraordinary career, Dr. Humphrey championed medical education as an important field of scholarship and led efforts to provide faculty and trainees alike with organized opportunities for professional development. Among these efforts were the Medical Education, Research, Innovation, Teaching, and Scholarship (MERITS) Fellowship and Training Program and the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators. She also helped lead the country's first White Coat Ceremony at the University of Chicago in 1989.
At the Macy Foundation, Dr. Humphrey elevated the organization’s signature Macy Faculty Scholars Program, designed to identify and nurture the careers of promising educators in medicine and nursing, aligning it with the Foundation’s mission and vision. Through her namesake scholarship and residency transition funds, Pritzker and the Macy Foundation intend to keep Dr. Humphrey’s legacy of promoting accessible medical education for talented students alive.