Former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher will speak at Feinberg School of Medicine’s graduation on Friday, the second time in three years Satcher has been the commencement speaker for a Northwestern school.
In 2000, Satcher spoke at the Dental School’s commencement – the second-to-last commencement before the school closed in 2001.
In contrast to that engagement, Satcher’s speech to Feinberg’s 169 graduates this year comes at a time of prosperity for the medical school. The school broke ground on its new Lurie Cancer Center in April and received a $75 million donation – and a new name – from the Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation in February.
At present, Satcher is a fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation. In the fall of 2002, he will become the director of the National Center for Primary Care at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.
As an outspoken proponent of preventive health care, Satcher has lectured widely on issues related to infant mortality, immunization, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, particularly among minority populations.
When he spoke at the Dental School he lauded the school’s efforts to extend coverage to some of Chicago’s poorer residents.
“Our society is filled with ‘uns’: the uninsured, the underinsured, the unrepresented, the uninformed, the unconvinced,” he said in his speech.
Satcher is only the second person to simultaneously hold the positions of Surgeon General and assistant secretary for health. Prior to being appointed surgeon general in 1998, Satcher was director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry.
Former U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.) spoke at the Law School’s graduation May 5.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is set to speak at commencement exercises on June 21 at Ryan Field.
On Monday, Medill Dean Loren Ghiglione told the audience at the Crain Lecture Series that the school’s commencement speaker would be Medill alumnae and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lois Wille, a former editorial page editor for the Chicago Daily News, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. The provost’s office has not yet released the names of the convocation speakers for the five undergraduate schools, said Alan Cubbage, vice president for university relations.
