Louis Wade Sullivan (born November 3, 1933) is an active health policy leader, minority health advocate, author, physician, and educator. He served as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during President George H. W. Bush‘s Administration and was Founding Dean of the Morehouse School of Medicine.
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[hide]Biography[edit]
He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, although his parents moved to rural Blakely, Georgia, shortly after he was born. His father was a mortician and his mother a teacher. His parents sent him, and his brother Walter, to live with friends in Atlanta during the school year where there were better public schools. By age 5, with inspiration from his family physician and encouragement from teachers and parents, Sullivan had decided he would pursue a career in healthcare.[1]
In 1950, Sullivan graduated from Atlanta‘s Booker T. Washington high school as Class Salutatorian. He then enrolled at Morehouse College and graduated magna cum laude in 1954, before earning his medical degree, cum laude, from Boston University School of Medicine in 1958. His postgraduate training included internship and residency in internal medicine at New York Hospital – Cornell Medical Center (1958–60), a clinical fellowship in pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital (1960–61), and a research fellowship in hematology at the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory of Harvard Medical School, Boston City Hospital (1961–63).
He is certified in internal medicine and hematology, holds a mastership from the American College of Physicians and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha academic honor societies.
Sullivan was an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School from 1963–64, and an assistant professor of medicine at Seton Hall College of Medicine from 1964–66. In 1966, he became co-director of hematology at Boston University Medical Center and, a year later, founded the Boston University Hematology Service at Boston City Hospital. Sullivan remained at Boston University until 1975, holding positions as assistant professor of medicine, associate professor of medicine, and professor of medicine. In his teaching, he specialized in "sickle-cell anemia and blood disorders related to vitamin deficiencies".[2]
He married E. Ginger Williamson, an attorney, on September 30, 1955. They have three children.
Sullivan is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.[3]
In 2000, he received an honorary degree in Doctor of Letters from Oglethorpe University.[4]
Morehouse School of Medicine[edit]
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Sullivan became the founding dean and director of the Medical Education Program at Morehouse College in 1975. The program became The School of Medicine at Morehouse College in 1978, admitting its first 24 students to a two-year program in the basic medical sciences. In 1981, the school received provisional accreditation of its four year curriculum leading to the M.D. degree, became independent from Morehouse College and was renamed Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), with Sullivan as dean and president. In 1983, MSM became a member of the Atlanta University Center (AUC). MSM was fully accredited as a four-year medical school in April 1985 and awarded its first 16 M.D. degrees in May of that year.
With the exception of his tenure as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 1989 to 1993, Sullivan was president of Morehouse School of Medicine for more than two decades. On July 1, 2002, he retired and was appointed president emeritus.
Secretary of Health and Human Services[edit]
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Sullivan left MSM in 1989 to accept an appointment by President George H.W. Bush to serve as secretary of HHS. In this cabinet position, Sullivan managed the federal agency responsible for the major health, welfare, food and drug safety, medical research and income security programs serving the American people.
Initiatives[edit]
Among his efforts to improve the health and health behavior of Americans were: (1) the introduction of a new and improved FDA food label; (2) the release of Healthy People 2000, a guide for improved health promotion/disease prevention activities; (3) the public education program focused on the health dangers from tobacco use (including the successful efforts to prevent the introduction of “Uptown,” a non-filtered, mentholated cigarette); (4) the inauguration of a $100 million minority male health and injury prevention initiative; and (5) a greater emphasis on gender and ethnic diversity in senior positions of HHS, including the selection of the:
- First female Director of the National Institutes of Health
- First female (and first Hispanic) Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service
- First African-American Commissioner[5] of the Social Security Administration
- First African-American Administrator (Acting) of the Health Care Financing Administration and
- First female Chief of Staff of the Department of Health and Human Services
In 1991, Sullivan formed the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI). WEDI was designated in the 1996 HIPAA legislation as an advisor to HHS. WEDI is an authority on the use of Health IT to improve healthcare information exchange in order to enhance the quality of care, improve efficiency, and reduce costs of our nation’s healthcare system. In 2013, on the 20th anniversary of the original WEDI Report, WEDI brought together healthcare, corporate and government organizations to create an updated WEDI Report to guide the future of health information exchange. The 2013 WEDI Report was managed by an Executive Steering Committee led by Sullivan.
In January 1993, he returned to Morehouse School of Medicine and resumed the office of president until 2002.
The Sullivan Commission[edit]
Established in 2003, the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce [was] an outgrowth of a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to Duke University School of Medicine. Named for former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., the Commission [was] composed of 16 health, business, higher education and legal experts and other leaders. Former U.S. Senate Majority LeaderRobert Dole and former U.S. Congressman and Congressional Health Subcommittee Chairman Paul Rogers [served] as Honorary Co-Chairs.
The Sullivan Commission [made] policy recommendations to bring about systemic change that [addressed] the scarcity of minorities in the health professions. The work of the Commission [came] at a time when enrollment of racial and ethnic minorities in nursing, medicine, and dentistry has stagnated despite America’s growing diversity. While African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and American Indians, as a group, constitute nearly 25 percent of the U.S. population, these three groups account for less than 9 percent of nurses, 6 percent of physicians, and only 5 percent of dentists.
The Sullivan Commission gathered testimonies from health, education, religion and business leaders; community and civil rights advocates; health care practitioners; and students. Drawing upon the expertise and experience of the Commissioners, and the witnesses who provided valuable testimony, the Commission’s report, Missing Persons: Minorities in the Health Professions, [provided] the nation with a blueprint for achieving diversity in the health professions.
The Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions[edit]
Sullivan organized The Sullivan Alliance[6] in January 2005, to act on the reports and recommendations of the Sullivan Commission (Missing Persons: Minorities in the Health Professions), and the Institute of Medicine Committee on Institutional and Policy-Level Strategies for Increasing the Diversity of the U.S. Healthcare Workforce.[7]
The Sullivan Alliance became a 501c.3. non-profit organization in 2011. The Sullivan Alliance: (1) raises awareness of the importance and value of achieving racial and ethnic diversity in the health professions; (2) disseminates information about “best practices” and resources that enhance the health professions pipeline; and (3) stimulates academic programs and partnerships in the health professions of medicine, dentistry, nursing, psychology and public health to create new—or more effectively implement existing—diversity initiatives.
The Sullivan Alliance actively participates in a project funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to train mid-level dental professionals, thereby addressing the shortage of dentists and increasing the diversity in the dental professions.[8]
The Sullivan Alliance has developed an international consortium that is building a U.S.-Caribbean health disparities research partnership that responds to The Institute of Medicine’s 2009 Report, U.S. Commitment to Global Health: Recommendations for the Public and Private Sector,[9] by conducting research that lessens knowledge gaps about global heath disparities. The project focuses on epidemiological research in order to advance understanding of the relationships among health factors such as: history-ancestry, language, indigenous health practices, life styles, and socioeconomic status. Funded by the Department of Health and Human Services through a cooperative agreement with NIH’s National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIH-NIMHD), the United States of America (U.S.)-Caribbean Alliance for Health Disparities Research (USCAHDR) consortium includes NIMHD, The Sullivan Alliance; and The University of the West Indies.
National Health Museum[edit]
Sullivan is chairman of the Atlanta-based National Health Museum.[10] The National Health Museum (NHM) will educate and inspire Americans to live healthier lives. NHM will help move our society from simply treating disease to promoting and maintaining health. NHM will build and lead a national health and wellness community with two platforms: a global online network and digital information hub called the Cyber Museum, and a visitor center at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park called the Experience Museum.
Other activities[edit]
Board member[edit]
Sullivan serves on the boards of a number of organizations including: Henry Schein, United Therapeutics, Emergent BioSolutions, and BioSante Pharmaceuticals. He is retired from the boards of General Motors, 3M,Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cigna, Household International (now HBSC), and Equifax.
Sullivan is the founding president of the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools (AMHPS). He is a former member of the Joint Committee on Health Policy of the Association of American Universities and the National Association of Land Grant Colleges and Universities.
He also is a member of the boards of Africare in Washington, D.C. and Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia.
Other leadership roles[edit]
In 1985, Sullivan was one of the founders of Medical Education for South African Blacks (MESAB).[11][12] From 1994–2007, he served as chairman of the organization, which raised scholarship funds in the United States and South Africa for more than 10,000 black health professions students, who are now physicians, nurses, dentists and other health professionals in South Africa.
In March 2008, Sullivan was appointed to the new Grady Hospital Corporation Board of Trustees. In June, 2008, Sullivan accepted appointments to (a) the Health Disparities Technical Expert Panel (HDTEP) of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of HHS and (b) an Institute of Medicine Committee, “Improving the Organization of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to Advance the Health of Our Population.”
Publications[edit]
Sullivan has authored and co-authored many academic papers. Recently, he has also contributed to two books: The Morehouse Mystique: Becoming a Doctor at the Nation's Newest African American Medical School(Author: Marybeth Gasman. Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2012); and Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine (Authors: Louis W. Sullivan and David Chanoff. Publisher: University of Georgia Press. 2014)
Annual Sullivan 5K Run/Walk[edit]
In 1989, Sullivan and his wife Ginger founded the Annual Sullivan 5K Run/Walk on Martha’s Vineyard in Nantucket, MA.[13] The race promotes and Mrs. Sullivan’s belief in the health benefits of daily exercise. The event celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2013 and approximately $300,000 to support the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.[14]
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Louis Wade Sullivan was born on November 3, 1933, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Lubirda Priester and Walter Wade Sullivan. Sullivan served as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, in addition to founding Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sullivan graduated from Morehouse College in 1954 with a B.S. in biology. He earned an M.D. from the Boston University School of Medicine in 1958 and completed an internship and residency at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Sullivan focused on hematology. He began a career in education, teaching at Harvard Medical School and the New Jersey College of Medicine, while researching at the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory. In 1966, he began serving his alma mater as the Co-director of Hematology at Boston University Medical Center. The next year, he founded the Boston University Hematology Service at Boston City Hospital. He continued as a faculty member at the Boston University School of Medicine until 1975, when he moved back to Atlanta to work for Morehouse College. There, he taught biology and medicine, founding the Medical Education Program at Morehouse College.
The Morehouse School of Medicine became independent from Morehouse College in 1981, with Sullivan as president and dean. He continued as president through 1989, when he took a leave of absence after being appointed to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services. As head of HHS, Sullivan's responsibility extended to the health and welfare of the country. He battled the tobacco industry and championed victims of AIDS. In 1993, he left his government post and returned to Morehouse School of Medicine as president.
Sullivan hosted the public television show "Frontiers of Medicine."
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Louis Wade Sullivan was born on November 3, 1933, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Lubirda Priester and Walter Wade Sullivan. Dr. Sullivan served the American people as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in addition to founding the prestigious Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sullivan graduated from Morehouse College in 1954 with a B.S. in biology. He earned an M.D. from the Boston University School of Medicine in 1958 and completed an internship and residency at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Sullivan focused on hematology. He began a career in education, teaching at Harvard Medical School and the New Jersey College of Medicine, while researching at the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory. In 1966, he began serving his alma mater as the Co-director of Hematology at Boston University Medical Center. The next year, he founded the Boston University Hematology Service at Boston City Hospital. He continued as a faculty member at the Boston University School of Medicine until 1975, when he moved back to Atlanta to work for Morehouse College. There, he taught biology and medicine, founding the Medical Education Program at Morehouse College.
The Morehouse School of Medicine became independent from Morehouse College in 1981, with Sullivan as president and dean. He continued as president through 1989, when he took a leave of absence after being appointed to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services. As head of HHS, Sullivan's responsibility extended to the health and welfare of the country. He battled the tobacco industry and championed victims of AIDS. In 1993, he left his government post and returned to Morehouse School of Medicine as president.
Sullivan hosted the public television show "Frontiers of Medicine." He is the founding president of the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools and is active in numerous other civic organizations, including the Boy Scouts of America. He has received dozens of honorary degrees and has been honored by diverse organizations, such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Association of Minority Medical Educators. He and his wife, E. Ginger Williamson Sullivan, have three children.
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Louis Sullivan served as the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1989 to 1993. He was the founding president of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.
Academic Medical Career
Born in Atlanta on November 3, 1933, Louis Wade Sullivan was the second of two sons born to Lubirda and Walter Sullivan. Most of Sullivan's childhood was spent in Blakely, where his father moved the family in 1937 to open Early County's first, and only, black funeral parlor. In 1944 Sullivan's mother, a teacher, moved back to Atlanta to complete graduate work in education at Atlanta University (later Clark Atlanta University), and she took her sons with her. There they attended Booker T. Washington High School, and in 1950 Sullivan entered Morehouse College, where he graduated
magna cum laude four years later. He then proceeded to earn his medical degree, cum laude, from the Boston University School of Medicine in 1958. Sullivan completed his internship and residency at New York Hospital–Cornell Medical Center, specializing in hematology. He is board certified in internal medicine and hematology.
magna cum laude four years later. He then proceeded to earn his medical degree, cum laude, from the Boston University School of Medicine in 1958. Sullivan completed his internship and residency at New York Hospital–Cornell Medical Center, specializing in hematology. He is board certified in internal medicine and hematology.
Sullivan began his career teaching at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the New Jersey College of Medicine, and as a researcher at Thorndike Memorial Laboratory in Boston. He later became the codirector of hematology at Boston University Medical Center and founded the Boston University Hematology Service at Boston City Hospital. He remained a faculty member at Boston University School of Medicine until 1975. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, has received many honorary degrees, and has been honored by many organizations, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
In 1975 Sullivan became the founding dean and director of the medical education program at Morehouse College, the first minority medical school founded in the United States in the twentieth century. With Sullivan as its dean and first president, Morehouse School of Medicine became independent from Morehouse College on July 1, 1981.
Public Service
In 1989 Sullivan was appointed by U.S. president George H. W. Bush to lead the nation's policy efforts and champion the health and welfare of the country as secretary of health and human services. He served almost four years in the position, battling the tobacco industry and serving as a champion and advocate of AIDS sufferers and caregivers.
Sullivan
returned to Morehouse School of Medicine in 1993, serving as president until his retirement on July 1, 2002, and remains a member of the school's board of trustees. In 2003 he was elected as a trustee of the National Health Museum, and serves on the boards of Medical Education for South African Blacks, Africare, Southern Center for International Studies, and Association for Academic Health Centers, and on the editorial board of Minority Health Today. He has also served on the boards of several national corporations.
returned to Morehouse School of Medicine in 1993, serving as president until his retirement on July 1, 2002, and remains a member of the school's board of trustees. In 2003 he was elected as a trustee of the National Health Museum, and serves on the boards of Medical Education for South African Blacks, Africare, Southern Center for International Studies, and Association for Academic Health Centers, and on the editorial board of Minority Health Today. He has also served on the boards of several national corporations.
In 1999 Sullivan hosted thirty-nine episodes of the public television show Frontiers of Medicine. He has frequently spoken on public policy regarding health issues and trends in health care management. He has been particularly active in promoting immunization, pain management, smoking cessation, and effective and humane public policy regarding AIDS. He is founding president of the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools and has advised the government in its research on sickle cell anemia.
New Directions
In 2003 Sullivan began collaborating with David Satcher, the former U.S. surgeon general and director of the National Center for Primary Care at Morehouse School of Medicine, to develop a "virtual textbook" called TOP MED (Topics on Pain Medicine). TOP MED's content is based on best practices in pain diagnosis and treatment. It was developed to bridge the gaps in medical students' training in dealing with pain in their patients. To alleviate what Sullivan calls an "epidemic" of untreated pain, the resource is to be made available free of charge to medical students across the country.
Sullivan worked to develop a center at Morehouse School of Medicine to focus on the AIDS epidemic in Africa and to study African American health issues. In May 2003 he was appointed chair of the president's Board of Advisers on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The White House cited his founding of the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools and his advice to the government on sickle cell anemia issues.
In 2014 Sullivan published his autobiography, Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine, with theUniversity of Georgia Press. In the book's foreword, his friend Andrew Young notes that "Sullivan remains one of the medical world's wisest and most inspirational public voices."
Sullivan and his wife, Ginger, have three children and live in Atlanta.
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