Jamestown-area students earn Doctor of Medicine degrees from UND

Jamestown-area students joined nearly 70 new doctors from the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences, a class that could shape who treats patients across Stutsman County in the years ahead. The 51st Doctor of Medicine commencement ceremony took place at the Chester Fritz Performing Arts Center in Grand Forks, where UND said 66 students were expected to graduate and later reported that it conferred M.D. degrees on nearly 70 medical students.

For Jamestown, the ceremony was more than a university rite. It marked another local entry in North Dakota’s physician pipeline at a time when access to doctors, especially in rural communities, remains a central concern for families, clinics and hospitals from Jamestown to the surrounding counties.

Lt. Gov. Michelle Strinden delivered the keynote address. Her presence gave the ceremony a strong North Dakota connection, and her family’s ties to UND medicine ran through the program in a personal way. Strinden is a UND graduate, and her late husband, Tom Strinden, M.D., had served as a clinical faculty member at the medical school, where he helped introduce students to ophthalmology, the diagnosis and treatment of eye disease.

Tom Strinden’s own career underscored how UND training can ripple outward through the state’s medical workforce. He earned his M.D. from UND in 1988, completed an ophthalmology residency at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, later practiced in Fargo, co-founded Bagan Strinden Vision and taught as an associate clinical professor at UND SMHS. He died July 13, 2025, at age 63 after a 17-month battle with brain cancer.

UND identifies the School of Medicine & Health Sciences as North Dakota’s only interprofessional medical and health sciences college, a distinction that makes each commencement part of the state’s larger health-care infrastructure. The university also framed commencement as “a beginning,” a fitting description for graduates now headed toward residency training and, eventually, independent practice.

For Jamestown-area students, that next step matters far beyond the stage at Grand Forks. Every new physician who comes through UND represents a potential future clinic in a small town, a new specialty appointment closer to home, or another doctor willing to stay in North Dakota long enough to help ease the strain on local health care.