Alice L. Walton School of Medicine Announces Board of Directors and Welcomes New Board Chair

Alice L. Walton School of Medicine will offer a four-year medical degree program that integrates conventional medicine with whole health principles. The 154,000 square-foot medical education building will be located on the campus of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. For more information, visit alwmedschool.org.

Founding Board Members include:

• Founder, Alice Walton

• Board Chair, Dr. Lloyd Minor, Stanford Medicine

• Dr. Cheryl Pegus, Morgan Health

• Dr. James “Jim” B. Young, Cleveland Clinic

• Dr. Kate Hobbs Knutson, Psychiatry

• Dr. Marc Nivet, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center

• Dr. Patrick Conway, Optum

• Steve Nelson, Carbon, Inc.

• Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, Morehouse School of Medicine

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Lloyd B. Minor, MD, has been named Board Chair for Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. In this role, he will provide board leadership, oversight of committees, and will advise senior leadership at the new School of Medicine. Dr. Minor is Dean for the enterprise of Stanford Medicine, an academic medical center that includes the Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Health Care, and Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. Prior to Stanford, he was provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs for Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Minor is a scientist, surgeon, and academic leader; he is a professor of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and a professor of Bioengineering and of Neurobiology. In 2012, Dr. Minor was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

“I am pleased to welcome Dr. Minor as our Board Chair,” said Alice Walton, founder of Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. “He is Dean of one of the highest-performing medical schools in the country and has years of both classroom and clinical experience. Dr. Minor brings a research and student-centered approach to his leadership that will guide our School in facing the health care challenges of the 21st century. I am grateful for his commitment to the School’s vision, along with the other nationally-respected board members who share a passion for medicine, whole health, higher education, and innovation.”

“I’m deeply honored to serve among such professional and forward-thinking leaders as stewards of Alice’s vision to create an MD program that combines conventional medicine and whole health principles, said Alice L. Walton School of Medicine Board Chair, Dr. Lloyd Minor.

Alice L. Walton School of Medicine Board of Directors held their first meeting and voted unanimously to approve the name change, from Whole Health to Alice L. Walton School of Medicine on June 29. A national search for the Dean of the School of Medicine is currently underway and the School is actively recruiting a variety of other roles including faculty and support staff. Visit the website for open positions.

About Alice L. Walton School of Medicine

Founded in 2021, Alice L. Walton School of Medicine (AWSOM) is a nonprofit, four-year MD program that will enhance traditional medical education with the arts, humanities, and whole health principles. The School’s culture embraces self-care to empower students to care for their own well-being as well as their patients’. The School’s state-of-the-art medical education facility is under construction in Bentonville, Arkansas on the Crystal Bridges campus, home to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Heartland Whole Health Institute. The School has been granted preliminary accreditation status by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.

Media Contact:

Beth Bobbitt

media@ALWmedschool.org