About the College
The John & Alice Butler College of Osteopathic Medicine is the newest college within the University of Dubuque — established in 2026 to prepare physicians for the rural and underserved communities of Iowa and the upper Midwest.
The John & Alice Butler College of Osteopathic Medicine is the newest college within the University of Dubuque — established in 2026 to prepare physicians for the rural and underserved communities of Iowa and the upper Midwest.
To educate osteopathic physicians who serve the health of rural and underserved communities in Iowa and the upper Midwest through evidence-based, whole-person care.
The upper Midwest faces a widening shortage of primary-care physicians, particularly outside of urban centers. Our vision is to be a college whose graduates choose to practice — and stay — in the small towns and underserved communities that have shaped this region for generations.
We will pursue this vision through deliberate admissions practices, immersive rural rotations, and a research agenda tied to the lived realities of the patients we will serve.
Our values are not posters on a wall — they are commitments that shape curriculum, hiring, and clinical partnerships.
Osteopathic philosophy at the center of every course and every clinical encounter.
Curriculum, partnerships, and research grounded in the realities of rural and underserved communities.
Scholarship integrated with care — not separated from it. Faculty who teach, treat, and publish.
A culture of curiosity and humility that begins on day one and continues across a career.
The College bears the name of John and Alice Butler in recognition of a generation-spanning commitment to the people of the upper Midwest. The Butler family's founding gift made it possible for the University of Dubuque to establish a college dedicated to the medical workforce of the communities that raised them.
Their story — and the story of the gift that made this work possible — is one of patient, considered philanthropy: investing in institutions that serve the public good for the long term.
"They believed Iowa deserved its own physicians."
The College of Osteopathic Medicine joins the University of Dubuque's existing schools and graduate programs. UD has educated leaders for the upper Midwest since 1852, and this College extends that mission into the discipline of medicine.
The College draws on the University's existing infrastructure — library and research resources, academic governance, student services — while developing the specialized facilities and faculty required for osteopathic medical education.
Learn more about UD →