Friday, July 31, 2015 from 5:30 – 10:00 p.m. at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Louis W. Sullivan, MD, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (1989-1993) and President Emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine will be the Keynote speakers at the Alumni Reunion Dinner given by the Wayne State University School of Medicine Post Baccalaureate Program and the Black Medical Association.
The Post Baccalaureate Program is the most notable program in the office of Diversity and Inclusion which began in 1969 when the Association of American medical Colleges acknowledged the underrepresentation of minorities in medical schools. It is a non-Degree granting program for students seeking admission to the Wayne State University School of Medicine (WSUSOM) who are not qualified for regular admissions but who are considered to have academic potential. It was initially designed to increase the black student enrolled in medical school; however since 1978, the program has sought to increase the enrollment of all students underrepresented in medicine. In 1991, the Charles F. Whitten, MD PB Endowment fund was established which allowed the number of students accepted into the PBP to be increased to 16. The PBP gave WSUSOM the distinction of graduating more African American students than any other medical school in the nation with the exception of Howard University College of Medicine and Meharry Medical College.
The dinner will be honoring three of the original founding committee members of the first Minority Recruitment (Post Baccalaureate) Committee for outstanding service: Dr. Barbara J. Anderson, Associate Professor in the department of Pathology, WSU School of Medicine;
Dr. James Collins, Professor, WSU School of Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Michigan; Dr. Charles Vincent, Associate Professor, WSU School of Medicine 1974, Associate Dean of Admissions, WSU School of Medicine 1977-1991, Assoc. Dean of Student Affairs, WSU School of Medicine, 1978-1980 (Posthumously); and Dr. Natalia Tanner, “A Woman of Many Firsts,” – First African American resident at the University of Chicago, First Black Board-certified Pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, First African American woman
Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), First African American to serve as President of AAP’s Michigan chapter. Dr. Reginald Eadie, a WSU School of Medicine Alumni, CEO of the DMC Harper Hospital and Hutzel Women’s Hospital & CEO of Detroit Receiving Hospital, will receive a Special Recognition Award for his outstanding leadership.
Invited U.S. Surgeon Generals (Current and former), Presidents of Local and National Medical Associations, Dr. Joyce Kirkland-Essien ( one of two students that was a part of the original committee that founded the PBP), other dignitaries from across the United States, will be among the many who will be celebrating the many contributions the honorees and WSU School of Medicine Post Baccalaureate Program & Black Medical Association Alumni have made to our community.
About Post Author
