The Samuel D. Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity, and Justice | GSE | Rutgers

Fireside Chat: A Half Century of Equity in Medicine

Date/Time:  February 21, 2023 at 2PM ET

Event Description: In honor of Black History Month, the Proctor Institute hosted a fireside chat between Louis W. Sullivan and Marybeth Gasman where they discussed his latest book, We’ll Fight It Out Here. Prior to his becoming Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Louis W. Sullivan (along with Walter Bowie and Anthony Rachal) founded the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools (AMHPS). This webinar shared the need that bound together this small group of Black institutions and the hard-won influence AMHPS built in American politics and health care. This webinar also featured a panel discussion about the book and the events it chronicles.


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Watch the event in full here


About Louis W. Sullivan

Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., is chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions. In January 2020, in order to further increase diversity and transform health professions’ education and health delivery systems, the Board of the Sullivan Alliance voted to become a central program of the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC). In 2022, the AAHC merged into the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).  

He served as chair of the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities from 2002-2009 and was co-chair of the President’s Commission on HIV and AIDS from 2001-2006. With the exception of his tenure as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 1989 to 1993, Dr. Sullivan was president of Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) -- the only predominantly Black medical school in the U.S. established in the 20th Century -- for more than two decades.  On July 1, 2002, he retired and was appointed president emeritus.  

About Ronny B. Lancaster

In 2019, after 13 years, Ronny B. Lancaster retired as Senior Vice President for Government Relations at Assurant, Inc., a Fortune 300 provider of specialty insurance. Prior to that, for 13 years, Mr. Lancaster served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. During his career, he has also served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; General Counsel of Hamilton Enterprises, Inc.; Senior Washington Representative for Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association; and, Chief of Fee-For-Service Plans at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

About Wayne Riley

Wayne J. Riley, MD, MPH, MBA, MACP, is the 17th president of the State University of New York, Downstate Health Sciences University. A distinguished physician, academician, clinician-educator, and administrator, Wayne was unanimously elected by the Trustees of the SUNY System on January 24, 2017 and began his tenure on April 3, 2017. He also holds tenured faculty appointments as Professor of Medicine and of Health Policy & Management.  

The institution that Wayne leads is the only academic medical center serving Brooklyn, one of the most diverse communities in the nation. Since his appointment, Wayne has worked to achieve high levels of excellence across Downstate’s multiple enterprises. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from the Morehouse School of Medicine. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology with a concentration in Medical Anthropology from Yale University, a Master of Public Health degree in health systems management from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and a Master’s in Business Administration from Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. 

About Jeanne C. Sinkford

Jeanne Sinkford is a nationally and internationally renowned dental educator, administrator, researcher, and clinician. She finished first in the dental class of 1958 at Howard University before pursuing graduate study at Northwestern University, where she received her MS (1962) and PhD (1963). She completed a pedodontics residency at Children’s Hospital National Medical Center in 1975. Jeanne became the first woman dean of a dental school in the U.S. in 1975. She served in that capacity from 1975 to 1991.

She has served on numerous committees and advisory councils of national significance, including the council of the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences NRC Governing Board, the National Advisory Dental Research Council; Directors’ Advisory Council, National Institutes of Health; the governing board of the American Society for Geriatric Dentistry; advisory board, Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Program; Committee A, Council on Dental Education and chair, Appeal Board Council of Dental Education, American Dental Association; chair, Council of Deans American Association of Dental Schools; Council on Dental Research, American Dental Association; Tuskegee Study Advisory Panel; Special Medical Advisory Group (SMAG), Veterans Administration; National Academy of Sciences; chair, Anatomical Review Board of the District of Columbia and National Board of Directors of the Girl Scouts USA; and The Sullivan Alliance Advisory Board.

 


If you have any questions about the event, please feel free to reach out to our Programs and Marketing Coordinator, Gisselle Criollo at gissellecriollo@gse.rutgers.edu.