Former health secretary to discuss strategies for achieving health-care equity

Louis W. Sullivan, MD, former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, will deliver the Brown School’s annual Youngdahl Lecture at Washington University in St. Louis on Thursday, April 5.

Sullivan’s presentation, “Toward Healing and Health — Advancing Equity in Health Care,” will begin at 6 p.m. A reception will take place at 5 p.m. Both events, which are free and open to the public, will be held in Hillman Hall’s Clark-Fox Forum.

Louis Sullivan photo
Sullivan

Register here to reserve a seat.

The events’ sponsors are the Clark-Fox Institute, Envolve, the Center for Health Behavior Change, For the Sake of All and the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement.

The poverty and discrimination that Sullivan witnessed growing up in Georgia inspired him to choose a career path in education and public service. Throughout his long and distinguished career, Sullivan has worked to improve health literacy, to advance healthy behaviors, to reduce the country’s inequities in the medical field and to bridge racial and ethnic divides that lead to negative health outcomes.

“Dr. Sullivan’s lifetime commitment to educating and advancing healthy outcomes aligns with the Brown School’s dedication to equity,” explained Gary Parker, the school’s associate dean for external affairs and director of the Clark-Fox Policy Institute.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College, Sullivan received a scholarship to attend Boston University School of Medicine, where, as the only African-American, he graduated third in his class in 1958.

In 1975, Sullivan returned to Morehouse as founding dean and director of the Medical Education Program. It was later renamed the Morehouse School of Medicine.

With the exception of his HHS appointment by President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1993, Sullivan served as president of Morehouse School of Medicine for more than two decades, retiring in 2002.

Since then, he has established The Sullivan Alliance, which recognizes the importance of achieving racial and ethnic diversity in the health professions. Most recently, he co-founded Toward Re-Uniting, with the goal of sparking a widespread commitment to candid dialogues that build trust and empathy and work toward reuniting the country.

Learn more about the Clark-Fox Policy Institute.

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