Surgeon General Receives Honorary Doctorate from UMB U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, MD, PhD, received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore and delivered the University commencement address on May 26. Dr. Satcher is only the second person in history to simultaneously hold the positions of Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary for Health. “It was an honor to nominate Dr. Satcher for the Doctor of Science degree. Few in the public-health arena have combined the commitment to leadership and research as effectively as Dr. Satcher,” said Dean Wilson, “and even fewer have managed to translate such commitment into actual public-policy results.” The Surgeon General has established five key public-health priorities: a healthy start for every child, healthier lifestyles among Americans, elimination of racial disparities in health care, new global public-health partnerships, and a stronger national mental health system. During his term, Dr. Satcher has issued reports on tobacco use among minorities and on the stigma that often prevents people from seeking help for mental heath problems. Prior to his present post, Dr. Satcher was Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Before joining the Clinton Administration, he was President of Meharry Medical College in Nashville. Dr. Satcher served as professor and chairman of the Department of Community Medicine and Family Practice at Morehouse School of Medicine. He is a former faculty member of the UCLA School of Medicine and the King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he developed and chaired the King-Drew Department of Family Medicine. A former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and Macy Faculty Fellow, Dr. Satcher is the recipient of 18 honorary degrees and numerous distinguished honors, including top awards from the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, and the American Academy of Family Physicians. In 1995, he received the Breslow Award in Public Health and, in 1997, the New York Academy of Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award. Earlier this year, he received the Bennie Mays Trailblazer Award and the Jimmy and Roslyn Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Dr. Satcher is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta. He received his MD and PhD from Case Western Reserve University in 1970 with election to Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Preventive Medicine, and the American College of Physicians. Third Annual Congressman Elijah Cummings Lecture Monday, June 19, 2000 – 3 pm – MSTF Auditorium Reception to follow. All are welcome.		Alpha Omega Alpha Induction 2000 Six new members were inducted into the University of Maryland Beta Chapter of Alpha Omega Alpha at a ceremony on April 26, 2000, during the 20th Annual Theodore E. Woodward lecture. This year’s new members are: Teresa Kulie, Siamak Moayedi, Suneel Nagda, Elizabeth Shugert, Nicholas Smerlis, and Eric Thorn. This year’s inductees into the only national honor medical society in the world are third year students who were chosen from among the top 8% of the class academically. Research experience, school service and community service are also taken into account. “The students in Alpha Omega Alpha are among our most successful,” remarked Frank M. Calia, MD, MACP, vice dean and professor, Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology, and faculty advisor of Alpha Omega Alpha. “They should be proud to be a part of such an honorable organization that has a goal of recognizing and perpetuating excellence in the medical profession.” Other faculty advisors include Gary D. Plotnick, MD, professor, Department of Medicine and assistant dean for Student Affairs, and Harold C. Standiford, MD, professor, Department of Medicine. “These students are chosen because of the hard work and dedication they are already applying as students. Imagine what they will accomplish when they become physicians,” commented Dr. Plotnick. Alpha Omega Alpha not only elects outstanding medical students, but alumni and faculty members as well. Honorary members inducted this year include: Faculty William L. Henrich, MD, TEW, professor and chair – Department of Medicine Neil C. Porter, MD, assistant professor – Department of Neurology Alumnus Gregory H. Taylor, MD, ’84, assistant professor – Institute of Human Virology House Staff Joseph P. Longhitano, MD, clinical instructor – Department of Medicine Bari E. Rudikoff, MD, ’97, clinical instructor – Department of Medicine In Memoriam Walter W. Shervington, MD, ‘63 On April 15, 2000, the School of Medicine lost a friend and colleague to lung cancer: Walter W. Shervington, ’63. Dr. Shervington was born and raised in Baltimore and attended the School of Medicine after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania. At the time of his death, Dr. Shervington was chief executive officer of the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital, a psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents, and president of the National Medical Association (NMA). Dr. Shervington began his academic career in 1968 at the University of Michigan as assistant professor; in 1970 he received a faculty appointment as assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco. In 1971 he became chief of the Psychiatry Training Branch at the National Institutes of Mental Health. He returned to California in 1976 to develop a private practice in the Oakland area, and stayed there until 1989, when he rejoined academia as associate professor of psychiatry at Louisiana State University. The focus of his clinical work was HIV/AIDS, particularly the impact of AIDS on the African-American community. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Denese Shervington.