Dr. David Satcher, Morehouse School of MedicineDr. Satcher is Director of the Center of Excellence on Health Disparities at the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) in Atlanta. He occupies the Poussaint-Satcher-Cosby Chair in Mental Health at MSM. From December 2004 to July 2006 Dr. Satcher served as the Interim President of the Morehouse School of Medicine. He was the 16th Surgeon General of the United States, sworn in on February 13, 1998, and served a 4-year term. Dr. Satcher served simultaneously in the positions of Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary for Health from February 1998 to January 2001. He also held the posts of Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from 1993 to 1998.
Upon leaving the post of Surgeon General, Dr. Satcher became a fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation. In 2002, he assumed the post of Director of the National Center for Primary Care at the Morehouse School of Medicine. In addition, he was President of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1982 to 1993.
Dr. Satcher served as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Community Medicine and Family Practice at Morehouse School of Medicine from 1979 to 1982. He is a former faculty member of the UCLA School of Medicine and Public Health and the King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he developed and chaired the King-Drew Department of Family Medicine. From 1977 to 1979, he served as the Interim Dean of the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School, where he negotiated the agreement with the UCLA School of Medicine and Board of Regents that led to the establishment of a medical education program at King-Drew. He also directed the King-Drew Sickle Cell Research Center for six years.
Dr. Satcher is a former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and Macy Faculty Fellow. He is the recipient of many honorary degrees and numerous distinguished honors, including top awards from the American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, American Academy of Family Physicians and Ebony magazine. In 1995, he received the Breslow Award in Public Health and in 1997, the New York Academy of Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award. He also received the Bennie Mays Trailblazer Award and the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Satcher graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1963 and was later elected to the college’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1970, with election to Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He pursued residency/fellowship training at Strong Memorial Hospital, the University of Rochester, UCLA, and King-Drew. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Preventive Medicine, and American College of Physicians.