UA’s CCHS Event to Look at Diversity in Medicine

Note to editors/producers: Select speakers will be available for interviews after their respective panel discussions. For more information, or to receive bios on the individual speakers, contact Kim Eaton, UA media relations, 205/348-8325 or kkeaton@ur.ua.edu.

foster_50_logo-eh_-2cTUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The public is invited to learn how the face of medicine has changed over the years at a symposium hosted by The University of Alabama’s College of Community Health Sciences.

The event, “Through These Doors: Changing the Face of Medicine,” will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 4, at the University Church of Christ, 1200 Julia Tutwiler Drive. There is no cost to attend the event; however, an RSVP is requested to the following e-mail: events@cchs.ua.edu.

The symposium includes an afternoon segment with lunch, two panel sessions and a keynote address, and an evening segment with a Trailblazers recognition ceremony, dinner and a talk and a mentoring opportunity for students.

The afternoon segment begins with the first panel session, “Reviewing the History of Stand in the Schoolhouse Door,” which includes speakers Dr. Sandral Hullett, CEO and medical director of Cooper Green Mercy Hospital in Birmingham and one of the first African-American residents in the College’s Family Medicine Residency, and Dr. Art Dunning, former vice chancellor for the University of Alabama system.

The second panel session, “Reviewing the History of Diversity in the College of Community Health Sciences,” includes speakers Dr. Herb Stone, a family medicine physician and president and COO of Mobile Emergency Group in Mobile, and one of the first African-American residents in the College’s Family Medicine Residency; Dr. Vernon Scott Sr., an African-American resident during the early years of the College’s residency and a practicing physician in Tuscaloosa; Earnestine Tucker, CRNP, a nurse practitioner and former employee of the College; and Dr. Carol Johnson, one of the first African-American medical students at the College who now practices in Alabaster.

The keynote address, “The Future of Diversity in Medical Education,” will be given by Dr. Jeanette South-Paul, medical director of the Community Health Services Division of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the Andrew W. Mathieson Professor and Chair of Family Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Health Sciences.

The evening segment begins with a recognition ceremony for Trailblazers of the College of Community Health Sciences, followed by a dinner and talk by Stone titled, “So You Want to be a Doctor.” There will also be mentoring activities for high-school students who are part of the College’s Rural Health Leaders Pipeline programs.

This symposium is part of “Through the Doors,” a year-long series of activities and events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of UA in 1963 and honoring the courage and dedication of the two African American students who enrolled in the University on June 11, 1963 as well as the University’s ongoing commitment to change over the past 50 years and its commitment to continued progress in the future.  For more information, visit http://www.throughthedoors.ua.edu/index.html.

Contact

Kim Eaton, UA media relations, 205/348-8325, kkeaton@ur.ua.edu

Source

Dr. Pamela Payne-Foster, 205/348-5148, ppayne-foster@cchs.ua.edu