With the merger of Salus and Drexel now official, members of the Salus community reflect on what the merger means, what’s changing and what’s still to come.
The first time Drexel raised its flag over Salus University’s Elkins Park campus in August 2024, it marked the culmination of months of hard work, collaboration, and the beginning of a promising future together.
That future is now. After two and a half years of detailed work, and with a greenlight from the U.S. Department of Education, accreditors and additional third parties, Salus and Drexel officially became one on July 3, 2025.
What makes this union work? At its heart, it’s about blending complementary strengths. Salus brings a strong portfolio of graduate programs in high-demand health science and rehabilitation professions to Drexel’s catalogue: Optometry, Audiology, Speech-Language Pathology, Occupational Therapy, Blindness and Low Vision, Biomedicine, and Orthotics and Prosthetics. The Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO), founded in 1919 and recognized as one of the most prestigious optometry schools, is now a college within Drexel. Salus’ other programs have been woven into Drexel’s health sciences schools and its campus renamed Drexel University, Elkins Park Campus.
The union also brings substantial clinical resources to Drexel’s fold, including The Eye Institute, Pennsylvania Ear Institute and the Speech-Language Institute. These are not just impressive facilities, they come with a level of expertise in clinical management and backroom operations that will broaden the impact and future direction of Drexel Health.
To get a sense of what’s changed — and the opportunities to be discovered — we spoke with four members of the Salus community: an administrator, a veteran faculty researcher, an alumna and a current student. Each offered their perspective on the institution’s academic strengths, how they complement Drexel, and what it’s been like to witness the integration up close.
Administrator: Beth Moy
Beth Moy joined Salus University in 2020 as chief of staff to then President Michael H. Mittelman, OD ’80, where she led the university’s strategic planning process and later served on the Salus-Drexel Integration Council executive committee. She is now associate vice provost for operations and strategy at Drexel’s Elkins Park Campus.
In her words: The Salus-Drexel merger was about advancing our shared vision — elevating excellence in health sciences education, research and patient care. Our goals centered on expanding the student experience with new clinical, research and campus life activities, while also creating more room for faculty and staff growth.
As we thought through that process at Salus, it became very evident that to reach that next level we would need to align ourselves with a larger institution or health system.
Throughout the Salus-Drexel integration, we brought together experts from every area of our two institutions. I don’t think that we would have made the progress we did if there was not an abundant “ethic of generosity,” meaning that everyone came to this with a commitment to collaboration and a willingness to go above and beyond to meet our goals.
Everything is built on trust — without it, little obstacles become big ones. There also remains a strong sense of camaraderie and relentless commitment to problem-solving — a willingness to say when something isn’t working, let’s try something different. Our faculty and staff who continue to engage in this integration are owed a debt of gratitude for all they’ve given to bring our institutions together. Accomplishing so much in such a short time is pretty miraculous.
“Everything is built on trust — without it, little obstacles become big ones. There also remains a strong sense of camaraderie and relentless commitment to problem-solving — a willingness to say when something isn’t working, let’s try something different. Our faculty and staff who continue to engage in this integration are owed a debt of gratitude for all they’ve given to bring our institutions together. Accomplishing so much in such a short time is pretty miraculous.”
