Dr. Cheryl Levine Leone (NC ’66, M ’69) and Dr. Philip Leone (A&S ’64, M ’68) met and fell in love as medical students at Tulane. In 2015, they established the Drs. Philip and Cheryl Leone Scholarship Endowed Fund for medical students; last year they made a $1 million gift to establish a learning academy at the School of Medicine.

“Tulane shaped our lives,” said Philip Leone. 

Today the Leones are both pathologists who have worked in academic and private practice, and for more than three decades co-headed the Department of Pathology at Caromont Health in Gastonia, North Carolina. 

The Leone Learning Center opened earlier in 2020 and is located in the Murphy Building. It is the first named learning academy in the School of Medicine. In learning academies, groups of students are brought together with a faculty mentor to learn from one another, building strong peer networks around shared areas of interest. That mentorship aspect appealed to the Leones, who treasure their ties to the Tulane men and women who guided them, including emeritus professor Dr. Richard J. Reed, and alumnus Dr. Wallace Clark.

“These guys were the guys who trained us, who demanded quality, and we learned a lot from them,” Philip Leone said. “So we owe Tulane.”