U.S. surgeon general to speak at VCU 2000 Commencement

By Lissette Linares

The nation’s leading spokesman for public health, U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., will deliver the keynote address to Virginia Commonwealth University’s graduating class at Commencement 2000, to be held May 13 at the Richmond Coliseum, 600 E. Leigh St. Satcher also will address the graduates of VCU's Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health on May 13.

"Dr. Satcher’s contributions to health care and public health have and will continue to benefit the lives of millions of people across the United States," VCU President Eugene P. Trani, Ph.D., said. "We are honored to have him address our graduates."

Sworn in on Feb. 13, 1998, Satcher, the only African-American man to serve as surgeon general, is also only the second person in history to simultaneously hold the positions of surgeon general and assistant secretary for health. In these positions, he serves as senior advisor to the secretary on public-health matters and directs the Office of Public Health and Science, striving to educate, motivate and mobilize the American public to advance the equality of the nation’s health and health care.

Prior to nominating Satcher to his present post, President Bill Clinton appointed Satcher as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Before joining the Clinton administration, Satcher served as president of Meharry Medical College in Nashville. He has taught at the Morehouse College School of Medicine in Atlanta, the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine and Public Health and at the King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles. Satcher developed and chaired the King-Drew Department of Family Medicine and also directed the King-Drew Sickle Cell Research Center.

Satcher has received numerous honors, including awards from the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians. He also was awarded the New York Academy of Medicine’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Earlier this year, he received the Bennie Mays Trailblazer Award and the Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.