Atlantic City is continuing to grow as a university town.
A $50 million medical campus is expected to be welcoming students by August 2029, following an agreement formalized between Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine and AtlantiCare.
The targeted class size would be 40 students, who would graduate in May 2033.
“We are delighted to partner with AtlantiCare, the premier healthcare provider in southeastern New Jersey, on this important endeavor,” Temple President John Fry said. “Both Temple and the Katz School of Medicine are guided by the belief that education and healthcare open doors and transform communities, and that is exactly what we have accomplished in Pennsylvania. With AtlantiCare, we now have the ideal new partner to help us further our impact.”
A school of medicine has been discussed since at least 2024, when AtlantiCare announced its Vision 2030 plans as a way to address physician pipeline challenges in southeastern New Jersey and within the AtlantiCare health system.
“The launch of a new regional campus with AtlantiCare, our first in South Jersey, represents an exciting milestone for the Lewis Katz School of Medicine,” said Amy J. Goldberg, The Marjorie Joy Katz Dean of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine. “Our partnership with AtlantiCare expands where and how our students learn while strengthening our commitment to training physicians who serve communities across the region.”
The plan would connect the medical school to the hospital, in the block bordered by Ohio and Indiana avenues between Atlantic and Pacific.
“AtlantiCare is proud to partner with Temple University on what we believe is one of the most significant investments in the future of Atlantic City and South Jersey in decades,” AtlantiCare President and CEO Michael Charlton said. “Building a four-year School of Medicine in this region will help strengthen the physician pipeline, create new opportunity for students and support healthier communities for generations to come.”
The partnership also will give the two entities ways to collaborate on new research and educational initiatives.
“For Temple, this new collaboration also directly supports our strategic plan, Forward with Purpose, and all three of its pillars: Student Success, Place-based Impact and Research in Action,” Fry said. “Congratulations to Dean Goldberg and her team for the work they have done in helping bring this to fruition. I look forward to working with both her and AtlantiCare in the coming months as we finalize this exciting new partnership.”
Vision 2030 is a six-year plan to transform healthcare across South Jersey through community investment, workforce development, clinical excellence and systemwide innovation.
“At a time when the nation is facing growing shortages of physicians and other healthcare professionals, this partnership is an important investment in the future workforce South Jersey will need,” Charlton said. “It brings together Temple’s leadership in medical education with AtlantiCare’s longstanding commitment to the health and vitality of this region, and it reflects the kind of bold, long-term work we are advancing through Vision 2030.”
The Katz School of Medicine and WellSpan Health formalized a similar agreement last year to establish a new regional campus in York County.
That school is expected to have its first 40 students in fall 2027.
Temple’s Kornberg School of Dentistry announced in February that it would open a state-of-the-art dental clinic and education center in Schuylkill County this fall.
Today, the Katz School of Medicine enrolls 880 medical students across its existing main Health Sciences Center campus in North Philadelphia and St. Luke’s University Health Network campus in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
To learn more about AtlantiCare, visit www.atlanticare.org. More information on the Katz School of Medicine can be found here. Katz is also the academic partner of Temple Health.
