Established in 1978 under the leadership of Tufts President Jean Mayer, the Cummings School was the first school of veterinary medicine in New England since the closure of Middlesex University in Waltham in 1947. The school is supervised by a dean, appointed by the university president and the provost, with the approval of the trustees. The dean is responsible for all aspects of operating the school, including admissions, education, faculty appointments, partnerships, and affiliated research institutions. Appointed in July 2019, Alastair Cribb is the current dean of the school, as well as the Henry and Lois Foster Professor of Biomedical Sciences.[citation needed]
Since 1981, the school has run the Omicron chapter of the Alpha Psi professional veterinary medicine fraternity.[citation needed]
In 2005, the school was named in honor of Bill Cummings and his wife, Joyce, who are founders of the Cummings Foundation, after a fifty-million dollar commitment was made. Bill graduated from Tufts in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts in economics.[2] Another major donor to the school was Agnes Varis.[citation needed]
In 2015, along with the generosity of the Cummings family, the school was an early partner to help establish the University of Global Health Equity.[3]
