University of Minnesota Medical School receives $2.3 million gift to support Native Americans Into Medicine program
DULUTH (2/04/2026) — The University of Minnesota Medical School’s Center of American Indian and Minority Health (CAIMH) has received a $2.3 million gift to support Native Americans Into Medicine (NAM), a long-standing program dedicated to increasing the number of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) students entering health professions.
The gift, made by Ingrid T. Lee, will establish an endowment fund to sustain the NAM program. NAM offers AIAN undergraduate students a two-year summer internship designed to build skills in AIAN-informed qualitative and quantitative research, while strengthening preparation for graduate and professional health programs.
The endowment will cover essential program costs, including student living stipends, housing, books, technology, and other programmatic needs, ensuring that financial barriers do not prevent students from participating.
“NAM is more than just a health profession or research training opportunity. It's a program that builds cohorts of Native leaders in research and healthcare — cohorts that are aware of Indigenous contributions to science and health,” said Mary Owen, MD, director of the Center of American Indian and Minority Health. “It's impossible to overstate the importance of Mrs. Lee's gift to the Center and to Native students.”
The new endowment ensures that NAM can continue to support AIAN students for generations to come, strengthening the pipeline of Native health professionals and advancing health equity in Indigenous communities.
Since 2018, 50 students have participated in the program. Of those participants, 65% have attended or are in the process of applying to graduate programs, including medicine.
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About the University of Minnesota Medical School
The University of Minnesota Medical School is at the forefront of learning and discovery, transforming medical care and educating the next generation of physicians. Our graduates and faculty produce high-impact biomedical research and advance the practice of medicine. We acknowledge that the U of M Medical School is located on traditional, ancestral and contemporary lands of the Dakota and the Ojibwe, and scores of other Indigenous people, and we affirm our commitment to tribal communities and their sovereignty as we seek to improve and strengthen our relations with tribal nations. Learn more at med.umn.edu.