Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) is a public medical school in Rootstown, Ohio. It specializes in graduate education in medicine and pharmacy but also has a College of Graduate Studies. Its medical school has partnerships with four public universities (Akron, Cleveland State, Kent State, and Youngstown State) and one private college (Hiram). It also has 24 hospital partners, while the pharmacy school has over 100 pharmacy partners. The class size has grown to around 160 medical and 80 pharmacy students. History The medical university was begun by Leonard Caccamo, who became its first chairman of the Board of Trustees. As medical director of St. Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown, Ohio, he began the planning for the university. He was assisted by Harry Meshel, then majority leader of the Ohio Senate. With the assistance of Lyle Williams, Congressman for the Ohio 17th district, a feasibility study was begun in concert with the Youngstown Hospital Association to address a regional need for primary care physicians and use existing facilities at the state universities and hospitals in the area. Based on that initial study a three-city consortium of Akron, Canton, and Youngstown was developed with the University of Akron, Kent State University, and Youngstown State University. Cleveland State University was added in 2008. The school was established as the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (NEOUCOM) by the Ohio state legislature in 1973, and the campus site in Rootstown along Ohio State Route 44 near Interstate 76 was selected in 1974 with groundbreaking in December 1975. The first class was selected in September 1977 and included 42 students from UA, KSU, and YSU in a combined B.S./M.D. program. They graduated in 1981, the same year the school became fully accredited. The College of Pharmacy, approved in 2005, was inaugurated with 75 students in August 2007 in the Doctor of Pharmacy degree program, and the school's name was changed accordingly to the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy. In keeping with the school's rural setting, the Doctor of Pharmacy program has a community pharmacy emphasis. In May 2011, the university graduated its inaugural class of 61 pharmacists. The university has collaborative arrangements with other colleges and universities to offer graduate-level education in biomedical sciences and biomedical engineering. Jay A. Gershen, D.D.S, began his term as president of the university on January 15, 2010. In his February 2010 address, he announced a name-change for