Thursday, November 16, 2000

WILMINGTON, NC -- Dr. David Satcher, surgeon general of the United States, will address approximately 1,100 graduates at the fall commencement exercises at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. The ceremony is scheduled for 9:45 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 16, in Trask Coliseum.



Satcher was sworn in as the nation’s 16th surgeon general in February 1998. He is only the second person is history to simultaneously hold the positions of surgeon general and assistant secretary of health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. From 1993 to 1998, he served as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Prior to that, Satcher was president of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., from 1982 to 1993.



A graduate of Morehouse College, Satcher earned his M.D. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve in 1970. He did residency/fellowship training at Strong Memorial Hospital, the University of Rochester, UCLA and King-Drew Medical Center. An internationally recognized scientist, scholar, physician, researcher, educator and administrator, Satcher has received almost two dozen honorary degrees and numerous distinguished awards including the New York Academy of Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award and the Jimmy and Roslyn Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.



Commencement exercises for the graduating class will be broadcast live by UNCW-TV which airs on The Learning Network of the Lower Cape Fear seen on Time Warner Cable Channel 5. The ceremony is expected to include approximately 770 students earning bachelor’s degrees at the conclusion of the fall semester, approximately 210 students who earned bachelor’s degrees during the summer and approximately 100 master’s degree candidates. The time and location for individual departmental ceremonies and receptions are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.uncwil.edu/uniadv/commencement.



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For more information, contact Mary Crookes, university special events coordinator, at 910/962-7231.

File photo of Dr. Satcher is available via e-mail; contact Phillip Brown, university relations, at 910/962-7223 or e-mail brownp@uncwil.edu.