Physician-educator will deliver commencement address

COLUMBUS – Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., president emeritus of the Morehouse School of Medicine and former Secretary for Health and Human Services, will be the speaker for autumn quarter commencement exercises on Friday, Dec. 13 at St. John Arena.

Approximately 1,700 degrees will be awarded during the ceremony, which begins at 9:30 a.m. Sullivan will also receive an honorary Doctor of Public Health degree from the university.

He left a promising medical career in 1975 to become the founding dean and director of the Medical Education Program at Morehouse College, an historically Black college in Atlanta, Georgia. During the next few years, Sullivan and dedicated colleagues developed a curriculum, recruited more staff, and enrolled 24 students in 1978. On July 1, 1981, the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) became independent from Morehouse College and was fully accredited as a four-year medical school with Sullivan as its dean and first president.

The Morehouse School of Medicine is known as an historically Black institution established to recruit and train minority and other students as physicians, biomedical scientists and public health professionals committed to the primary health care needs of the underserved.

Sullivan took a brief hiatus from Morehouse from July 1989-1993 to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services for the Bush Administration. His 47-month tenure is the second longest of any HHS Secretary in U.S. history. As head of HHS, Dr. Sullivan championed vulnerable populations and was a strong advocate for increased medical research pertaining to racial and ethnic minorities.

Sullivan returned to MSM in 1993 and continued to serve as president until he retired on July 1, 2002. He continues to serve on the MSM Board of Trustees.

A native of Atlanta, Sullivan graduated magna cum laude from Morehouse College in 1954 and earned his medical degree, cum laude, from Boston University School of Medicine in 1958. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, and is the recipient of 54 honorary degrees.

Sullivan also holds numerous professional affiliations, which include the American Medical Association, the National Medical Association, the Atlanta Medical Association, the Medical Association of Atlanta, the Medical Association of Georgia and the Georgia State Medical Association.

He serves on numerous boards, including the Boy Scouts of America, Little League, The Ida Cason Callaway Foundation, Medical Education for South African Blacks, Africare, the Southern Center for International Studies, and the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools. He also serves on the editorial board of Minority Health Today.