Tareen family gives $5 million to UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences
The UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences today announced a $5 million gift commitment from the Mohiba and Basir Tareen family to establish the Department of Dermatology. The gift will also endow the Tareen Family Chair of Dermatology, strengthening specialty care and medical education for North Dakota and the broader Upper Midwest.
“UND has and will always hold a special place for me and my family,” said Dr. Basir Tareen. “It gave me my education, and my father, Dr. Jamil Tareen, taught students here for many years while serving as a rural surgeon in Cavalier, N.D. This gift honors the legacy of physicians who dedicate their lives to rural communities and helps ensure the next generation of doctors continues that tradition.”
A 2002 UND graduate, Basir Tareen is a urologist with Minnesota Urology in the Twin Cities. He is also the founder of Tareen Development Partners, a national real estate development firm focused on building and preserving affordable housing communities across the United States. Basir’s father, Jamil Tareen, served as a rural surgeon in Cavalier for more than 35 years, caring for generations of patients in northeastern North Dakota and mentoring medical students throughout his career.
‘Honored to help the University’
For Dr. Mohiba Tareen, the gift represents an opportunity to advance both dermatology education and patient care across the state.
“Dermatology is my passion, and to be able to bring dermatology and specialty care to better serve North Dakota is a lifelong dream,” said Mohiba, a board-certified dermatologist who founded Tareen Dermatology in 2011 in Roseville, Minn. “We are honored to help the University and excited for what is to come.”
The Tareen family’s gift aims to help address the growing need for dermatology specialists in rural and underserved communities while strengthening UND’s ability to train future physicians. There are currently fewer than 30 practicing dermatologists in North Dakota, roughly 1 for every 28,000 people in the state, said Dr. Marjorie Jenkins, dean of the School of Medicine & Health Sciences and UND’s vice president for Health Affairs. The gift from Basir and Mohiba Tareen will be vital in addressing this critical need.
