Little Rock, Arkansas – A $1 million estate gift pledge to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences will create a new scholarship designed to help an Arkansas student complete medical school without the burden of full tuition costs.
UAMS officials announced Thursday that the gift from former faculty leader Dr. Jeannette “Jan” M. Shorey II and Lindsay McFaddin Thomas will establish the Shorey Family College of Medicine Scholarship. The award will provide full tuition for four years to a student from Arkansas enrolled in the UAMS College of Medicine.
The scholarship will be awarded annually, giving future medical students the opportunity to receive financial support throughout their four years of medical education. For a student pursuing a medical degree, that kind of assistance can make a significant difference as they work through the demanding academic and clinical training required to become a physician.
For Shorey, the gift represents a personal connection to UAMS as well as a commitment to the future of healthcare in Arkansas.
“For many decades, UAMS has been a truly special place for me and my family, not only because of the purposeful work and wonderful memories we have experienced, but also for what the institution does for the people of Arkansas,” Shorey said. “Education is the foundation of UAMS, supporting clinical care and research in the creation of the healthcare professionals of the future. I am honored to be able to help the medical students who will be the doctors that will one day serve our state.”
Shorey has spent much of her career in medicine and medical education. She earned her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983 before completing an internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
She later spent 18 years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, where she practiced medicine and led primary care residency programs. In 2002, she joined UAMS as an associate professor of geriatrics.
Her career at UAMS eventually included several leadership positions. She served as associate dean of the College of Medicine and later became associate provost for faculty. Shorey retired from UAMS in 2020.
The new scholarship also carries forward a long-standing family connection with the university.
Shorey’s father, Dr. Winston K. Shorey, served as dean of the UAMS College of Medicine from 1961 to 1974. Her mother, Dr. Jeannette M. Shorey, was also a member of the UAMS faculty and played a role in helping physicians who arrived in the United States as Vietnamese refugees.
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During the mid-1970s, her mother directed a program that helped Vietnamese refugee physicians obtain U.S. medical licenses, providing them with a path to continue practicing medicine.
The family’s history at UAMS therefore stretches across generations and includes leadership, teaching and service. The new scholarship adds another part to that legacy by supporting a future Arkansas physician at the beginning of a medical career.
By covering full tuition for four years, the Shorey Family College of Medicine Scholarship is intended to help an Arkansas student focus on medical education while preparing to eventually serve patients and communities in the state.
For UAMS, the gift also reinforces the connection between education and the broader mission of training healthcare professionals. The scholarship will give future medical students an opportunity that extends well beyond financial assistance, potentially helping them move through medical school and toward careers serving Arkansas.
