CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., January 7, 2011 — The University of Virginia Schools of Medicine and Nursing are honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, January 17th, with a range of events designed to reach out to local community members, high school students, undergraduates and others to inform them about the challenges and successes that minorities face in the field of health care.

The day’s highlights include opportunities for high school students and their parents to shadow health professionals in the UVA Medical Center and to tour the Clinical Simulation Learning Center in the new Claude Moore Medical Education Building. At 4:30pm is an appearance by keynote speakers Vivian Pinn, MD, and the Honorable Louis W. Sullivan, MD, to discuss disparities in health care in the United States.

A 1967 School of Medicine graduate, Dr. Pinn was the second African American female to graduate from the School. In 1982 she was became the first African American female to chair an academic pathology department in the U.S., at Howard University College of Medicine.

Dr. Sullivan is former United States Secretary of Health, as well as founding dean and first president of Morehouse School of Medicine. He served as chair of the President’s Commission 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.


Agenda & Details

Date: Monday, January 17, 2011
Location: McLeod Hall auditorium, UVA School of Nursing
Time: 12 - 1:30pm Student panel discussion (Graduate nursing and medical students will discuss the influence of underrepresented professionals in their respective fields)
1:30 - 4pm Healthcare shadowing opportunities and tours of the Clinical Simulation Learning Center in the new Claude Moore Medical Education Building (for local high school students, parents and teachers)

4:30 - 6pm Keynote speakers Vivian Pinn, MD, and the Honorable Louis Sullivan, MD, with follow-up remarks by Steven T. DeKosky, dean of the UVA School of Medicine, and Dory Fontaine, dean of the UVA School of Nursing

6 - 8pm Closing reception


Please call Dr. Ishan Williams at (434) 924-0480 for more information about health care shadowing opportunities for local high school students. For other questions, please go to http://www.virginia.edu/mlk/SON_SOM_events.html or contact Judy Pointer at (434) 924-1867; email: jjp5s@virginia.edu.

Contact:
Sally Jones
(434) 981-0731
sallyhjones@virginia.edu