Fifteen Black medical students stood in their white coats on the ground where their ancestors were once enslaved. The image traveled the world overnight.
Covering 2023 through mid-2026 · Figures noted "since founding" are cumulative from 2019
A single image declared what was possible. Then the harder question arrived: how do you make it real for the next generation?
The founders began with their hands: book boxes in classrooms, conversations in schools, showing up in person to tell young people that medicine could belong to them. What they built was real, and it was theirs.
But those early efforts revealed a truth that runs deeper than inspiration. Talent is widely distributed. Access to mentorship, information, and a clear roadmap is not. The work had to mature, from awareness into infrastructure.
The 15 White Coats® was co-founded by a group of visionary leaders in medicine who transformed a single photograph into a national movement. Their vision continues to guide the organization today.
It began with an image the world could not look away from: fifteen students in their white coats, standing on the grounds of the Whitney Plantation, holding both the weight of history and the promise of what comes next. Dr. Russell Ledet, Dr. Sydney Labat, Dr. Rachel Turner, and Brian Washington Jr. turned that image into a mission, and gave it a name: The 15 White Coats®.
My work began where theirs created the opening. Their vision had already drawn early believers, including foundational support from Genentech that made the first programs possible. My charge was to build the institution capable of carrying that momentum forward: the evaluation frameworks that help us measure what works, the funding strategy behind every grant that followed, the systems that hold it all together — and ultimately, the university-partnership model designed to make this pathway permanent inside the institutions where scholars live, learn, and prepare to apply. I hold this vision not as an assignment, but with genuine care and deep conviction for what it represents.
I did not come to build programs. I came to build a pathway.
A program is a moment. A pathway is a system — one that refuses to let a student fall through the gaps between their potential and their destination. It carries a scholar through undergraduate preparation, into medical school, and onward, and every dollar invested travels the full length of that continuum.
The results are already visible. Seven scholars from our founding cohort have matriculated into medical school. Sixty-five scholars have moved through our programs. Our first university partnership is signed and underway with Florida A&M University, launching in Fall 2026, and a growing national network of scholars, physicians, mentors, and partner institutions is forming around a shared belief: that where a person comes from should never determine whether they become a doctor.
None of this happens without partnership. Consider the road ahead of each scholar: undergraduate preparation, the application, four years of medical school, residency, and for many, fellowship beyond — often more than a decade of disciplined training. Your consistent support is what carries them through that journey, and what turns a promising model into a permanent national institution: one that ensures the next generation of physicians arrives prepared, connected, and ready to give back to the communities that made them.
To place inspiring imagery in learning environments, provide financial support to students pursuing careers in medicine, and develop structured academic preparation systems that strengthen the alignment between undergraduate education and the expectations of medical school.
Few organizations touch a student's journey from elementary school all the way to medical school. Each program is a stage in one pathway, and each stage carries its own measurable outcome.
"They will love seeing themselves in stories, which ultimately improves their comprehension."A. Thomas, Administrator
"FTFP exposed me to mentors who reflect my identity — I finally feel a part of this path."
K. McClain · Funding the Future Physicians, Cohort 1
Every iteration of the program was shaped by the scholars who lived it. The continuum is not a diagram. It is a design refined by experience.
Behind every scholar outcome is a mentor who showed up. Physicians and medical students volunteer their time, their expertise, and their belief — listening to where scholars are, helping them navigate the hard moments, and offering the perspective that only comes from someone who has walked the path.
We could not have done this work without them. They give scholars something no curriculum can: proof, in person, that the goal is reachable.
314 scholar feedback submissions · 4.85 average out of 5 · 98.4% rated their experience a 4 or 5
These are scholars from our founding Funding the Future Physicians cohorts. Their stories are shared with their permission.
Among them: a student-chapter president of the Student National Medical Association and a medical school class vice president — first-generation students now leading inside their institutions.
Meet the scholars →Dr. Sydney C. Labat, MD · Co-Vice President & Co-Founder, The 15 White Coats®
Seven tour stops completed, including one multi-institution activation bringing together three universities. Target: 20 universities by early spring 2027.
The HBCU Tethered Tour brings physicians, residents, and medical students directly to students where they are — turning a single campus visit into the first step of structured support. Each stop is a recruitment opportunity, a mentorship moment, and a direct on-ramp into Funding the Future Physicians University Partnership.
On LinkedIn, that professional community follows the work from every major U.S. metro area — and five continents.
Students re-engage semester over semester, year over year, until they are ready to apply.
The Funding the Future Physicians model began with Genentech, the original funder of the work. Their investment made four episodic cohorts possible — and it was what those cohorts proved that allowed the model to scale into the university partnership it is today.
Everything the organization learned across those four cohorts — scholar feedback, mentor experience, founder insight, and advisor guidance — was built into the university-partnership model: university-embedded, longitudinal, and replicable. Florida A&M University is our first partner institution, with a signed Memorandum of Understanding and a launch set for Fall 2026.
Seven additional universities have expressed interest in the partnership model. The next step for each is a Letter of Interest. Each partner campus becomes part of a growing national network of scholars — connected to one another, to the organization's physician and near-peer community, and to the shared goal of building a more representative physician workforce.
Applying to medical school can cost between $5,000 and $10,000. For many of the students The 15 White Coats® serves, that barrier alone can end the journey before it begins. Removing it is central to our mission — and something we have invested in directly, and remain committed to expanding as the organization grows.
Institutional investment carries scholars from preparation to matriculation. This work is theirs as much as ours.
The 15 White Coats® invests donor resources directly into the physician pathway: scholars, mentorship, MCAT preparation, application support, and the campus and classroom programs that build the next generation of physicians.
Internal functional allocation, unaudited; audited financials forthcoming. Our financial documents are publicly available through our Candid profile and the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search.
The 15 White Coats® holds the 2026 Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid, the highest tier awarded, verifying our mission, governance, financials, goals, strategies, and measured program outcomes.
Every measure of giving moved in the same direction — the signature of durable, community-powered funding.
And to every individual donor in the growing 250/50 Impact Circle: sustained monthly giving is the quiet infrastructure beneath every outcome in this report. Thank you.
Every member of our Board of Directors has pledged an annual gift of $1,000 — leadership that commits its own resources to the mission it governs.
Meet the full board and team →
The 250/50 Impact Circle: 250 supporters giving $50 a month — the recurring foundation that funds the next cohort.
Join the 250/50 Impact Circle →
The 15 White Coats® holds the 2026 Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid, the highest tier awarded.
contact@the15whitecoats.org · www.the15whitecoats.org
