January 16, 2003
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – David Satcher, 16th Surgeon General of the United States, will give a series of lectures at Vanderbilt University on Wednesday, Jan. 22.
Satcher’s talk on racial health disparities begins the series at noon in Langford Auditorium located across from the Vanderbilt Hospital. His subsequent lectures are:
·“Improving Health Care for Persons With Mental Retardation,” at 3 p.m. in Room 241 of the John F. Kennedy Center/MRL building.
·“Colors of Justice: Race and Healthcare in the U.S.” at 6 p.m. in Langford Auditorium.
A reception and concert by children from the Blair School of Music and the W.O. Smith Music School will precede Satcher’s 6 p.m. lecture, which is also the keynote address for the University’s 2003 Martin Luther King Commemorative Series: Colors of Justice.
Satcher was sworn in as surgeon general in February 1998 for a four-year term. He also served as assistant secretary of health from February 1998 to January 2001, making him only the second person in history to have held both the surgeon general and assistant secretary of health posts simultaneously.
Currently, Satcher serves as director of the National Center for Primary Care at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Ga. – a post he accepted at the end of his term as surgeon general in 2002.
Prior to his appointment as surgeon general, Satcher was director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. From 1982-1993 he was president of Meharry Medical College.
As surgeon general and assistant secretary for health, Satcher led the department’s effort to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health, an initiative that was incorporated as one of the two major goals of Healthy People 2010, the nation’s health agenda for the next 10 years.
Satcher is a former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and Macy Faculty Fellow. He is the recipient of several honorary degrees and numerous distinguished honors, including top awards from the National Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American College of Family Physicians and the American Academy for the Advancement of Science.
He has also received the New York Academy of Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award and the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
Satcher received his undergraduate degree from Morehouse College and his medical and doctorate degrees from Case Western Reserve University.
Satcher’s talks at Vanderbilt are sponsored by the Chancellor’s Lecture Series and the University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Series.
Media Contact: Princine Lewis, (615)322-NEWS, princine.l.lewis@vanderbilt.edu