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COLUMBIA, Mo. ñ Focusing on topics including balanced community health systems and elimination of racial disparities in health care, U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., will speak to the 1999 graduating class of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine during commencement ceremonies Saturday, May 8.
Satcher, the nationÃs 16th Surgeon General, has held his position since February of last year. He is the first family physician to ever hold the office and only the second person to simultaneously hold the position of Assistant Secretary for Health along with his position as Surgeon General.
Previously, he served as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ñ the center responsible for promoting health and preventing disease, injury and premature death. During his time with the CDC, Satcher led initiatives that increased childhood immunization rates from 55 percent in 1992 to 78 percent in 1996. At a 1997 White House ceremony he was hailed by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala as one of the CDCÃs ìimmunization heroesî for his efforts in bringing the number of vaccine-preventable childhood illnesses to the lowest level in American history.
A native of Alabama, Satcher graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1963. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Case Western University in 1970. He also has served as president of Meharry Medical College, professor and chairman of the Department of Community Medicine and Family Practice at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, faculty member of the UCLA School of Medicine and the King/Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles, and interim dean of the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School.
Commencement marks the completion of the first major step toward approval to practice on their own for the 86 men and women who make up the School of MedicineÃs class of 1999. On July 1, each graduate will begin a three-to-eight-year residency program in a specific field of medicine.
Medical School graduation begins at 9:30 a.m. Doors open at 8:45 a.m.
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