The UC Riverside School of Medicine has received full continued accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). The school met all 93 LCME accreditation elements and 12 standards with no citations or concerns.
The school celebrated the occasion with a reception for faculty, staff, and students on Tuesday, August 11 at the SOM Education Building II.
“This is an extraordinary accomplishment,” said Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences and the Mark and Pam Rubin Dean of the School of Medicine, Deborah Deas, MD, MPH, at the event. “In my entire professional career, I have never seen a perfect report card. And what makes me most proud is not simply the outcome, but how we achieved it.”
“This was not accomplished by just one person, or by a few. The accreditation process required all hands on deck and included our leadership, associate deans, department chairs, faculty, staff, and students,” she added.
Deas acknowledged the work of Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education Pablo Joo, MD, who served as the LCME lead and was part of the LCME Executive Team.
“Pablo's leadership, vision, and tireless dedication guided this process from beginning to end,” Deas said. “He led an extraordinary team of faculty, staff, students, committee chairs, and partners who approached this work not as an accreditation exercise, but as an opportunity to continuously improve our educational program and the medical school.”
Joo said that celebrating the achievement felt “a little surreal,” and that he was very proud of what had been accomplished, adding, “I do plan to frame that rare LCME letter.”
“For the past several years, accreditation has been woven into nearly every meeting, every committee agenda, every planning session, and more emails than I care to remember,” Joo said. “Today, instead of preparing for the next accreditation deadline, we have the opportunity to pause, reflect, and celebrate what we accomplished together.”
Joo also commended the teams who participated in this process, thanking them for their professionalism, honesty, and commitment to excellence.
“One of the greatest lessons from this experience is that excellence is never accidental. It is built every day through thousands of small decisions made by people who care deeply about our mission,” he said.
The event concluded as master of ceremonies Vladimir Oge, director of Strategic Initiatives, invited attendees to share their experiences and feelings.
The School of Medicine’s next accreditation process will take place during the 2029-30 academic year.
