Surgeon general presents lecture at medical school

This year’s Dean’s Distinguished Lecture will be presented by a particularly distinguished speaker: David Satcher, MD, PhD, assistant secretary for health and U.S. surgeon general. The lecture will be held on Wednesday, September 16 at 4 pm in Scott Hall’s blue auditorium. The focus of Dr. Satcher’s address is "Toward the Elimination of Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health: Challenges and Opportunities."

Dr. Satcher was sworn in as both the assistant secretary for health and the surgeon general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on February 13, 1998. He is the 16th surgeon general and is the first African-American man to hold the post. The surgeon general holds the rank of four-star admiral, and has one of the most visible positions in government from which to advocate healthy behaviors.

As the HHS assistant secretary for health, Dr. Satcher leads the Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS) at a time when this country’s major national health issues include: reducing teenage smoking, health care reform, how to promote the health of the public through health care reform, how to ensure universal access, how to ensure quality, how to contain rapidly rising costs and how to pay for it, and increased childhood immunization rates. Dr. Satcher directs the OPHS programs that contribute to virtually all those objectives.

Dr. Satcher was the former director of the HHS’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from 1993-1997. During his tenure as the CDC director, Dr. Satcher distinguished himself as a leading health care advocate. He spearheaded initiatives that increased childhood immunization rates, upgraded the nation’s capability to respond to emerging infectious diseases, and laid the groundwork for a new early warning system to detect and prevent food-borne illnesses.