Latest Release: Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine
Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine now in Paperback
For Immediate Release
June, 2016 Contact: Gayle Converse This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 404.989.0534
Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine now in Paperback
Former HHS Secretary Autobiography Recipient of National Awards
Atlanta, GA – The award-winning autobiography of one of the nation’s most admired public health leaders has been published in a paperback edition.
Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine (with David Chanoff, forward by Andrew Young, University of Georgia Press, 2014) chronicles Louis W. Sullivan’s rise from a childhood in the Jim Crow South to become a physician, founding dean of Morehouse School of Medicine -- the first predominantly black medical school established in the 20th Century -- and to serve as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Cabinet of President George H.W. Bush from 1989-1993.
The book is the winner of an NAACP Image Award, a finalist for the Phillis Wheatley Award and was named as “A Book All Georgians Should Read” by the Georgia Center for the Book.
About The Honorable Louis W. Sullivan, M.D.
Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., is chairman of the board of the National Health Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, whose goal is to improve the health of Americans by enhancing health literacy and advancing healthy behaviors. He also is chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions, a national non-profit organization with a community-focused agenda to diversify and transform health professions’ education and health delivery systems.
As Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Sullivan worked to improve the health and health behavior of Americans including (1) leading the effort to increase the NIH budget from $8.0 billion in 1989 to $13.1 billion in 1993. (2) the introduction of a new, improved FDA food label; (3) the release of Healthy People 2000, a guide for improved health promotion/disease prevention activities; (4) educating the public about the health dangers from tobacco use; (5) leading the successful effort to prevent the introduction of “Uptown,” a non-filtered, mentholated cigarette; (6) inaugurating a $100 million minority male health and injury prevention initiative; and (7) implementing greater gender and ethnic diversity in senior positions of HHS, including the appointment of the first female director of the National Institutes of Health, the first female (and first Hispanic) Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service, the first African American Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, and the first African-American Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services).
Dr. Sullivan is the recipient of more than 60 honorary degrees, including an honorary doctor of medicine degree from the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
He is also the author of The Morehouse Mystique: Becoming a Doctor at the Nation’s Newest African American Medical School (with Marybeth Gasman, 2012, Johns Hopkins University Press).
About David Chanoff
David Chanoff received his B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Brandeis. He has written on current affairs, foreign policy, education, refugee issues, literary history, and other subjects for The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Washington Quarterly, The American Journal of Education, The New York Review of Books, The Washington Post, and The American Scholar. He is a featured writer in the Washington Post’s anthology The Writing Life and his work appears in the current Norton Reader Anthology of Non-Fiction. His sixteen books include collaborations with former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, healthcare disparities expert Dr. Augustus White, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. William Crowe.
About UGA Press
Founded in 1938, the UGA Press is the oldest and largest book publisher in the state of Georgia. It has been a member of the Association of American University Presses since 1940. With a full-time staff of 26 publishing professionals, the press currently publishes 60-70 new books a year and has more than 1,800 titles in print. It has well-established lists in Atlantic World and American history, American literature, African-American studies, southern studies and environmental studies, as well as a growing presence in the fields of food studies, geography, urban studies, international affairs and security studies. For more information on UGA Press, see www.ugapress.org/
Jack Shea - Aug 24, 2016
At age 82, Dr. Louis W. Sullivan presents a worldview defined by compassion, and Island health is better for it. One doesn’t have to look further than the 28th annual Martha’s Vineyard Hospital Sullivan 5K Run/Walk Dr. Sullivan will lead on Saturday in Oak Bluffs.
Considering the precipitous road he encountered along the way to national and international medical caregiving success, his choice of life perspective is unusual in a world where success is often marked by self-satisfaction and outsize ego. READ MORE
Heather Hancock - Wednesday, August 24, 2016 - 10:02pm - To prepare for a long walk do some stretches and limber up with a little pre-walk walk. Get a walking buddy for conversation and then choose some music in case you need some quiet time. Jazz is a good option, as are John Philip Sousa’s marches. That is how Dr. Louis W. Sullivan prepares for a long walk. And the man knows a thing or two about walking. He’s been taking long walks for 46 years and is the inspiration and perspiration behind the Sullivan Run/Walk on Martha’s Vineyard, now in its 28th year. READ MORE
For Immediate Release
April 15, 2016 Contact: Gayle Converse This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 404.989.0534
Louis W. Sullivan Memoir at USA Science and Engineering Festival
Washington, DC – The award-winning autobiography of Louis W. Sullivan, M.D.
will be a highlight of the “Project Stem” exhibit at the 2016 USA Science and Engineering Festival April 15-16 in the Nation’s Capital.
The Festival at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, is expected to draw more than 350,000 students, families, teachers, and other members of the public.
Dr. Sullivan will deliver remarks Friday, April 15 at the Project STEM 2016 Awards Reception. The event will be hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Metro DC HBCU Alumni Alliance and “The Color of Stem” television Series. The Awards program will be emceed by Washington, DC Fox news anchor Allison Seymour.
Dr. Sullivan will also sign copies of his autobiography “Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine” (University of Georgia Press, with David Chanoff) April 15 and April 16 at the Festival.
“Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine” is the winner of an NAACP Image Award, was a finalist for the Phillis Wheatley Book Award and was named to the Georgia Center for the Book 2015 list, “Books all Georgians Should Read.”
The memoir is now available in paperback.
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For Immediate Release
April 15, 2016
“Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine” to be Featured on Book TV April 16
Atlanta – Recent remarks by former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and author of the award-winning “Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine” (University of Georgia Press, with David Chanoff) Louis W. Sullivan, M.D. will be featured this weekend on Book TV/C-SPAN 2.
The discussion was recorded by Book TV in late March, 2016, as the New York City Library hosted Dr. Sullivan for a presentation and book signing of his autobiography.
Book TV will air the event at 6:30 p.m. EDT on C-SPAN2, Saturday, April 16, 2016.
“Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine” is the winner of an NAACP Image Award, was a finalist for the Phillis Wheatley Book Award and was named to the Georgia Center for the Book 2015 list, “Books all Georgians Should Read.”
The memoir is now available in paperback.
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February 17, 2015
Press contact: Guy Lamolinara (202) 707-9217; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Public contact: Center for the Book (202) 707-5221; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Former Health and Human Services Secretary to Discuss and Sign His New Book
Dr. Louis W. Sullivan Tells of His Experiences in “Breaking Ground”
The remarkable life of Louis W. Sullivan (born 1933), who spent his childhood in Jim Crow southern Georgia, became a physician, went on to found Morehouse School of Medicine and was appointed secretary of Health and Human Services, is recounted in Dr. Sullivan’s new book, “Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine” (University of Georgia Press, 2014).
Sullivan will discuss and sign his book on Wednesday, Feb. 24, at noon in the Montpelier Room, sixth floor of the Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E. This Books & Beyond event is sponsored by the Library’s Center for the Book. It is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.
At the age of 5, Sullivan told his mother that he wanted to be a doctor. Schools in Blakely, Georgia, were segregated at the time, so his parents sent him to Savannah and later Atlanta for his education. After graduating from Morehouse College, he attended medical school at Boston University, where he was the sole African American in his class. Several years later, the president at Morehouse asked him to found a medical school there. During this time, Sullivan developed a long relationship with George H.W. and Barbara Bush, who appointed him HHS secretary.
Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs, publications and exhibitions. The Library’s Center for the Book, established by Congress in 1977 to "stimulate public interest in books and reading," is a national force for reading and literacy promotion. A public-private partnership, it sponsors educational programs that reach readers of all ages through its affiliated state centers, collaborations with nonprofit reading promotion partners and through the Young Readers Center and the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. For more information, visit read.gov.
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PR 16-TK
2/17/15
ISSN 0731-3527
Louis W. Sullivan to appear at 22nd Annual Virginia Festival of the Book
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Gayle Converse
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 404.989.0534
ATLANTA, GA – The history and contributions of Former Secretary, United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and President Emeritus, Morehouse School of Medicine, Louis W. Sullivan, M.D. will be among the featured retrospectives at the Atlanta History Center’s new exhibition Atlanta in 50 Objects.
A native Georgian and longtime Atlanta resident, Sullivan grew up in the Jim Crow South during the Great Depression to become founding dean of Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) -- the first predominantly black medical school established in the 20th Century – HHS secretary and award-winning author. Sullivan currently chairs the Washington, D.C.-based Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions -- a national non-profit organization with a community-focused agenda to diversify and transform health professions’ education and health delivery systems, and is the author of The Morehouse Mystique: Becoming a Doctor at the Nation’s Newest African American Medical School (with Marybeth Gasman, 2012, Johns Hopkins University Press) and his autobiography Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine* (with David Chanoff, 2014, University of Georgia Press).
"Struggles and Strides" February 6, 2016
On Feb. 6, 2016, Sullivan will headline the Atlanta History Center’s "Struggles and Strides" – an annual event that explores the African American experience from the Great Migration to the Civil Rights Movement. He will deliver remarks regarding his life and career beginning at 1:30 p.m. and immediately following, will sign copies of his autobiography.
This program is free to member and Bank of America/Merrill Lynch customers as part of Bank of America’s national Museums on Us program; included in the cost of general admission for nonmembers. For more information or to purchase admission tickets, please visit AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/Family.
Funding for this program is provided by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners under the guidance of Fulton County Arts Council.
Event: Dr. Louis W. Sullivan "Struggles and Strides" & book signing
Date: Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016
Time: 1:30 p.m. event start
Location: Auditorium, Atlanta History Center
Atlanta in 50 Objects Exhibition January 16 - July 10, 2016
Photos from Sullivan’s life and career will be displayed along with interpretive text that backgrounds his importance to the city during the Atlanta in 50 Objects exhibition from January 16 through July 10, 2016. His MSM regalia will become part of the Atlanta History Center’s expansive permanent exhibition. The permanent exhibition, which will interpret the history of Atlanta and convey the stories of individuals and communities who collectively helped create the city we know today, is scheduled to open April 2, 2016.
The current Atlanta in 50 Objects exhibition is filled with additional prized Atlanta-rooted treasures – including Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech manuscript, a 1915 Coca-Cola bottle mold and a touchable plaster cast of Willie B’s handprints.
The objects range from items as small as a scraper tool from the Native American archeological site Standing Peachtree, broadcaster Skip Caray’s Atlanta Braves World Series ring and a Southern Christian Leadership Conference donation envelope with Martin Luther King Jr.’s likeness to objects as large as the Ramblin’ Wreck, an 11-foot-long Chick-fil-A billboard cow and an elaborate model of architect-developer John Portman’s downtown skyscrapers.
Both exhibitions will be located off the History Center’s soaring, glass-fronted 5,300-square-foot Louise Richardson Allen Atrium, which opened in November.
Atlanta in 50 Objects may be viewed as part of the Atlanta History Center’s general admission ticket. For more information or to purchase tickets online, visit AtlantaHistoryCenter.com.
ABOUT THE ATLANTA HISTORY CENTER:
Founded in 1926, the Atlanta History Center is an all-inclusive, thirty-three-acre destination featuring the Atlanta History Museum, one of the nation’s largest history museums; historic houses including the 1928 Swan House and the 1860 Smith Family Farm; the Centennial Olympic Games Museum; the Kenan Research Center; the Grand Overlook event space; and the Goizuetta Gardens, featuring 22 acres of gardens, walkways, paths and trails. In addition, the History Center operates the Margaret Mitchell House located in Midtown Atlanta. For information on Atlanta History Center offerings, hours of operation and admission call 404.814.4000 or visit AtlantaHistoryCenter.com.
ABOUT LOUIS W. SULLIVAN, M.D.
Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., former secretary of Health and Human Services (1989-1993), founding dean of Morehouse School of Medicine and now President Emeritus of the School, is currently chairman of the board of the National Health Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, and is chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Sullivan Alliance to Transform America’s Health Professions.
A native of Atlanta, Dr. Sullivan graduated magna cum laude from Morehouse College and earned his medical degree, cum laude, from Boston University School of Medicine. His postgraduate training included internship and residency in internal medicine at New York Hospital – Cornell Medical Center a clinical fellowship in pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a research fellowship in hematology at the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory of Harvard Medical School, Boston City Hospital. He has served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Boston University School of Medicine.
Dr. Sullivan is the author of The Morehouse Mystique: Becoming a Doctor at the Nation’s Newest African American Medical School (with Marybeth Gasman, 2012, Johns Hopkins University Press) and his autobiography Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine (with David Chanoff, 2014, University of Georgia Press). For additional information, please visit
http://www.pemsm.com.
On September 9, 2015, the Academy welcomed Louis W. Sullivan, MD, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and founding dean of the Morehouse School of Medicine, for a special Author’s Night. Academy President Jo Ivey Boufford, MD, engaged Dr. Sullivan in a thoughtful Q&A about his acclaimed memoir Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine and his extraordinary life and career.
Dr. Sullivan spoke about his early inspiration to become a doctor after meeting the only black doctor in southern Georgia at age five, and emphasized the role of his parents’ and teachers’ support and encouragement in his success. He shared his positive experiences as the only black student in his class at the Boston University School of Medicine, the first black intern at Cornell-New York Hospital.
See more at: http://www.nyam.org/news/nyam-news/2015-09-11.html
For Immediate Release
August 11, 2015
Contact: Gayle Converse This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 404.989.0534
Louis W. Sullivan to discuss the State of Black Health on Michigan Public Broadcasting
Detroit – Former U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Louis W. Sullivan, MD, will discuss the state of black health on Michigan Public Broadcasting’s “Primary Care with Dr. Lonnie Joe” http://www.primarycare-tv.com.
The interview, slated for broadcast in 2016, was conducted by Speaker of the House for the National Medical Association (NMA) Lonnie Joe, Jr., MD. The discussion was recorded July 31, 2015 at the Charles Wright African-American Museum in Detroit during the NMA’s National Convention and Scientific Assembly.
The program airs Sundays at 1:00 p.m. and Tuesdays at 5:30 a.m. on Detroit Public Television station WTVS. “Primary Care with Dr. Lonnie Joe” is also seen on the following Michigan stations: WDQC-TV in Flint, WKAR-TV in East Lansing, WGVU-TV in Grand Rapids, WNMU-TV in Marquette, and WCMU-TV in Mt Pleasant.
Executive Director, Georgia Center for the Book
Decatur Library, 3rd Floor
215 Sycamore St.
Decatur, GA, 30030
404.370.3070, Ext. 2285
404.370.3091 (FAX)
404.734.3639 (Cellular)
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Georgia Center for the Book Reveals Annual
“Books All Georgians Should Read” and
“Books All Young Georgians Should Read”
Public awards ceremony planned for Thursday, August 13 at the Decatur Library.
July 14, 2015 (Decatur) — The Georgia Center for the Book has selected the works of 24 prize-winning authors and illustrators with Georgia connections for the 2015 lists of the “Books All Georgians Should Read” and the “Books All Young Georgians Should Read.” The authors and illustrators will be honored on Thursday, August 13, 2015 at a private event at The Square Pub in downtown Decatur. A free, public event is scheduled for later that evening at 7:30 p.m. in the Decatur Library Auditorium, 215 Sycamore Street in downtown Decatur, to allow readers to meet the recipients.
The lists are compiled annually from nominations received throughout the year by the writers, educators, librarians, and media representatives who comprise the Georgia Center for the Book Advisory Council. In 2013 the Advisory Council voted to make the compilation of these lists an annual event. The ceremony this year will mark the sixth edition of the “Books All Georgians Should Read” and the third of the “Books All Young Georgians Should Read.”
“For the Georgia Center for the Book, the ‘Books All Georgians Should Read’ and the ‘Books All Young Georgians Should Read’ lists are a wonderful way to honor the extraordinary talent we have right here in Georgia. They give us the opportunity to inform readers across our state about the diverse body of work being produced that celebrates Georgia’s literary heritage so well,” said Davich.
“We are extremely proud of the 2015 lists,” he continued. “They are valuable assets for parents, teachers, librarians, and readers of all ages across the state. We believe these lists can help guide readers to some of the finest writing available.”
The new list of “Books All Georgians Should Read” includes four works of fiction, four of non-fiction, and two collections of poetry. The list of “Books All Young Georgians Should Read” includes three picture books, 2 books for middle school readers; four books for young adults, and one graphic novel. Both 2015 lists are the result of months of discussions by the Advisory Council, which considered over 100 books by Georgians or about Georgia.
2015 Books All Georgians Should Read
· A Clear View of the Southern Sky: Stories by Mary Hood
· A Prayer Journal by Flannery O’Connor, edited by W.A. Sessions
· Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson
· Suffer & Grow Strong: The Life of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1834-1907 by Carolyn Newton Curry
· Blood Ties & Brown Liquor by Sean Hill
· The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts by Tiya Miles
· Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine by Dr. Louis W. Sullivan
· The Southern Poetry Anthology Volume V: Georgia, edited by William Wright
· Untamed: The Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island by Will Harlan
· Those Bones Are Not My Child by Toni Cade Bambara
2015 Books All Young Georgians Should Read
· I Got the Rhythm by Connie Schofield-Morrison, illustrated by Frank Morrison
· Philip Reid Saves the Statue of Freedom, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
· Circle, Square, Moose by Kelly Bingham
· Missy’s Super Duper Royal Deluxe: Class Pets by Susan Nees
· Revolution: The Sixties Trilogy by Deborah Wiles
· Bigger Than a Bread Box by Laurel Snyder
· A Bird on Water Street by Elizabeth Dulemba
· Being Friends With Boys by Terra Elan McVoy
· All Those Broken Angels by Peter Adam Salomon
· Marc: Book Two by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell
For Immediate Release
June 25, 2015 Contact: Gayle Converse 404.989.0534
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Sullivan Autobiography Nominated for Wheatley Award
Atlanta. GA ─ “Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine” – the autobiography of former United States Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, MD – is a 2015 nominee for the prestigious Phillis Wheatley Book Awards.
The 14th Annual QBR Phillis Wheatley Awards will be announced during a ceremony at Columbia University in New York, New York Friday, July 17, 2015. The QBR Wheatley Book Awards Show and the QBR/The Black Book Review are features of the 2015 Harlem Book Fair. Now in its 17th year, the Harlem Book Fair is the nation's largest African American book festival. Televised annually by C-Span's BookTV, the Harlem Book Fair features acclaimed authors, music, panel discussions, outdoor readings, food, writing workshops, and more.
“Breaking Ground” (University of Georgia Press, 2014; with David Chanoff; foreword by Andrew Young) was the recipient of the 2015 NAACP Image Award for outstanding literature – biography/autobiography.
About the Honorable Louis W. Sullivan, MD
Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., is chairman of the board of the National Health Museum National Health Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, whose goal is to improve the health of Americans by enhancing health literacy and advancing healthy behaviors. He also is chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Sullivan Alliance Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions -- a national non-profit organization with a community-focused agenda to diversify and transform health professions’ education and health delivery systems. 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. With the exception of his tenure as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 1989 to 1993, Dr. Sullivan was president of Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) Morehouse School of Medicine-- the first predominantly black medical school established in the 20th Century -- for more than two decades. On July 1, 2002, he retired and was appointed president emeritus.
About the QBR Phillis Wheatley Awards
The presentation of the QBR Wheatley Book Awards will open the 17th annual Harlem Book Fair http://www.harlembookfair.com. Named for the first published African-American female writer, the honor is bestowed for literary work and literary advocacy that transcends culture, boundary, and perception.
About QBR/The Black Book Review and the Harlem Book Fair
QBR/The Black Book Review (www.qbr.com) has been called "the African American book review of record" by New York Times culture critic, Martin Arnold. It features and reviews new books in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Children's books.
From the beginning, Dr. Louis W. Sullivan was intimate with the human cycle of life and death. Growing up in Jim Crow Georgia as the son of a mortician, he said, “even death was segregated.” His father was the only African-American undertaker in the small town of Blakely, Ga., owning the funeral home and providing a respectful burial to residents who would otherwise be subjected to back entrances and a mule-driven hearse from a white mortician.
Dr. Sullivan described the realities of the shameful era: “Every way you could find to push back against that segregation, that indignity, was of value. I would help a colleague of my father’s named Dr. Joseph Griffin, the only local black doctor serving black patients. Even at 5 years old, this doctor made a huge impression on me. When you opened the door to his clinic, there was a pungent smell of ether, and his mysterious green scrubs are imprinted upon my memory. This man had the power to cure people, to do things other people couldn’t do. I knew from that time I would become a doctor.”
Louis W. Sullivan Autobiography to be Featured on “News One Now”
For Immediate Release
April 16, 2015 Contact: Gayle Converse 404.989.0534 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dr. Louis W. Sullivan Autobiography to be Featured on “News One Now”
Washington, DC –Former Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and President Emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine Louis W. Sullivan, MD, will be a featured guest on “News One Now.”
The live, nationally-televised program is hosted by TV One anchor Roland Martin. Sullivan’s award-winning autobiography, “Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine” will be the focus of discussion. The televised segment will air April 24, 2015 at 9:30 a.m. EDT.
At 10 a.m. EDT, immediately following the television segment, the discussion on “Breaking Ground” will continue in-depth as part of Roland Martin’s national radio program.
The book won the 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - biography/autobiography
Authored by Louis W. Sullivan, M.D. (with David Chanoff), and published by the University of Georgia Press, “Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine” chronicles Sullivan’s rise from a childhood in the Jim Crow South to become a physician, founding dean of Morehouse School of Medicine -- the first predominantly black medical school established in the 20th Century -- and to serve as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Cabinet of President George H.W. Bush from 1989-1993.
Dr. Sullivan serves as chairman of the board of the National Health Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, whose goal is to improve the health of Americans by enhancing health literacy and advancing healthy behaviors. He also is chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions -- a national non-profit organization with a community-focused agenda to diversify and transform health professions’ education and health delivery systems. 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.
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For Immediate Release
February 5, 2015 For inquiries about Breaking Ground, contact: Gayle Converse This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 404.989.0534
For inquiries about The Sullivan Alliance, contact: Samantha Edwards This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 571-338-4723
Louis W. Sullivan Autobiography Wins NAACP Image Award
Pasadena, CA – The autobiography of one of the nation’s most admired public health leaders has won an NAACP Image Award.
Authored by Louis W. Sullivan, M.D. (with David Chanoff), and published by the University of Georgia Press, “Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine” chronicles Sullivan’s rise from a childhood in the Jim Crow South to become a physician, founding dean of Morehouse School of Medicine -- the first predominantly black medical school established in the 20th Century -- and to serve as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Cabinet of President George H.W. Bush from 1989-1993.
The annual NAACP Image Awards celebrates the accomplishments of people of color in literature, film, television, and music and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors.
Winners in the 46th NAACP Image Awards literary categories were announced at a gala dinner in Pasadena, California Thursday, February 5, 2015.
About The Honorable Louis W. Sullivan, M.D.
Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., is chairman of the board of the National Health Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, whose goal is to improve the health of Americans by enhancing health literacy and advancing healthy behaviors. He also is chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions -- a national non-profit organization with a community-focused agenda to diversify and transform health professions’ education and health delivery systems.
As Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Sullivan worked to improve the health and health behavior of Americans including (1) leading the effort to increase the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget from $8.0 billion in 1989 to $13.1 billion in 1993; (2) establishing at NIH, the Office of Research on Minority Health, which has become the Institute for Research on Minority Health and Health Disparities; (3) inaugurating the Women’s Health Research Program at NIH; (4) the introduction of a new, improved Food and Drug Administration food label; (5) the release of Healthy People 2000, a guide for improved health promotion/disease prevention activities; (6) educating the public regarding the health dangers from tobacco use; (7) leading the successful effort to prevent the introduction of “Uptown,” a non-filtered, mentholated cigarette; (8) inaugurating a $100 million minority male health and injury prevention initiative; and (9) implementing greater gender and ethnic diversity in senior positions of HHS, including the appointment of the first female director of NIH, the first female (and first Hispanic) Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service, the first African American Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, and the first African-American Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services).
Dr. and Mrs. E. Ginger Sullivan are sponsors of The Sullivan 5K Run/Walk for Health & Fitness on Martha’s Vineyard. Now in its 26th year, the popular event has raised more than $400,000 to benefit Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.
Dr. Sullivan is the recipient of more than 60 honorary degrees, including an honorary doctor of medicine degree from the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
He is also the author of The Morehouse Mystique: Becoming a Doctor at the Nation’s Newest African American Medical School (with Marybeth Gasman, 2012, Johns Hopkins University Press).
About David Chanoff
David Chanoff received his B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Brandeis. He has written on current affairs, foreign policy, education, refugee issues, literary history, and other subjects for The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Washington Quarterly, The American Journal of Education, The New York Review of Books, The Washington Post, and The American Scholar. He is a featured writer in the Washington Post’s anthology The Writing Life and his work appears in the current Norton Reader Anthology of Non-Fiction. His sixteen books include collaborations with former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, healthcare disparities expert Dr. Augustus White, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. William Crowe.
About UGA Press
Founded in 1938, the UGA Press is the oldest and largest book publisher in the state of Georgia. It has been a member of the Association of American University Presses since 1940. With a full-time staff of 26 publishing professionals, the press currently publishes 60-70 new books a year and has more than 1,800 titles in print. It has well-established lists in Atlantic World and American history, American literature, African-American studies, southern studies and environmental studies, as well as a growing presence in the fields of food studies, geography, urban studies, international affairs and security studies. For more information on UGA Press, see www.ugapress.org/
About The Sullivan Alliance Under the leadership of Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, the Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions, Inc. was organized in January 2005, to act on the reports and recommendations of the Sullivan Commission (Missing Persons: Minorities in the Health Professions, September, 2004), and the Institute of Medicine Committee on Institutional and Policy-Level Strategies for Increasing the Diversity of the U.S. Healthcare Workforce (In the Nation’s Compelling Interest: Ensuring Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce). The Alliance is engaged, domestically and internationally, in health workforce and health disparities projects, particularly innovative health workforce diversity efforts, interprofessional training and health care delivery. For more information, see www.thesullivanalliance.org, Twitter (@SullivanAllianc) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/SullivanAlliance).
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For Immediate Release
January 8, 2015
For inquiries about Breaking Ground, contact: Gayle Converse This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 404.989.0534
For inquiries about The Sullivan Alliance, contact: Samantha Edwards This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 571-338-4723
Louis W. Sullivan Autobiography Nominated for NAACP Image Award
Atlanta, GA – The autobiography of one of the nation’s most admired public health leaders has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award.
Authored by Louis W. Sullivan, M.D. (with David Chanoff), and published by the University of Georgia Press, “Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine” chronicles Sullivan’s rise from a childhood in the Jim Crow South to become a physician, founding dean of Morehouse School of Medicine -- the first predominantly black medical school established in the 20th Century -- and to serve as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Cabinet of President George H.W. Bush from 1989-1993.
The annual NAACP Image Awards celebrates the accomplishments of people of color in literature, film, television, and music and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors.
Winners in the 46th NAACP Image Awards literary categories will be announced at a gala dinner in Pasadena, California Thursday, February 5, 2015.
About The Honorable Louis W. Sullivan, M.D.
Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., is chairman of the board of the National Health Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, whose goal is to improve the health of Americans by enhancing health literacy and advancing healthy behaviors. He also is chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions -- a national non-profit organization with a community-focused agenda to diversify and transform health professions’ education and health delivery systems.
As Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Sullivan worked to improve the health and health behavior of Americans including (1) leading the effort to increase the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget from $8.0 billion in 1989 to $13.1 billion in 1993; (2) establishing at NIH, the Office of Research on Minority Health, which has become the Institute for Research on Minority Health and Health Disparities; (3) inaugurating the Women’s Health Research Program at NIH; (4) the introduction of a new, improved Food and Drug Administration food label; (5) the release of Healthy People 2000, a guide for improved health promotion/disease prevention activities; (6) educating the public regarding the health dangers from tobacco use; (7) leading the successful effort to prevent the introduction of “Uptown,” a non-filtered, mentholated cigarette; (8) inaugurating a $100 million minority male health and injury prevention initiative; and (9) implementing greater gender and ethnic diversity in senior positions of HHS, including the appointment of the first female director of NIH, the first female (and first Hispanic) Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service, the first African American Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, and the first African-American Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services).
Dr. and Mrs. E. Ginger Sullivan are sponsors of The Sullivan 5K Run/Walk for Health & Fitness on Martha’s Vineyard. Now in its 26th year, the popular event has raised more than $400,000 to benefit Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.
Dr. Sullivan is the recipient of more than 60 honorary degrees, including an honorary doctor of medicine degree from the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
He is also the author of The Morehouse Mystique: Becoming a Doctor at the Nation’s Newest African American Medical School (with Marybeth Gasman, 2012, Johns Hopkins University Press).
About David Chanoff
David Chanoff received his B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Brandeis. He has written on current affairs, foreign policy, education, refugee issues, literary history, and other subjects for The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Washington Quarterly, The American Journal of Education, The New York Review of Books, The Washington Post, and The American Scholar. He is a featured writer in the Washington Post’s anthology The Writing Life and his work appears in the current Norton Reader Anthology of Non-Fiction. His sixteen books include collaborations with former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, healthcare disparities expert Dr. Augustus White, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. William Crowe.
About UGA Press
Founded in 1938, the UGA Press is the oldest and largest book publisher in the state of Georgia. It has been a member of the Association of American University Presses since 1940. With a full-time staff of 26 publishing professionals, the press currently publishes 60-70 new books a year and has more than 1,800 titles in print. It has well-established lists in Atlantic World and American history, American literature, African-American studies, southern studies and environmental studies, as well as a growing presence in the fields of food studies, geography, urban studies, international affairs and security studies. For more information on UGA Press, see www.ugapress.org/
About The Sullivan Alliance Under the leadership of Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, the Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions, Inc. was organized in January 2005, to act on the reports and recommendations of the Sullivan Commission (Missing Persons: Minorities in the Health Professions, September, 2004), and the Institute of Medicine Committee on Institutional and Policy-Level Strategies for Increasing the Diversity of the U.S. Healthcare Workforce (In the Nation’s Compelling Interest: Ensuring Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce). The Alliance is engaged, domestically and internationally, in health workforce and health disparities projects, particularly innovative health workforce diversity efforts, interprofessional training and health care delivery. For more information, see www.thesullivanalliance.org, Twitter (@SullivanAllianc) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/SullivanAlliance).
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Breaking Ground Nominated! NAACP Image Awards 2014: Full list of nominees - LA Times
The 46th NAACP Image Awards, which celebrate the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film, announced its nominees, including Louis W. Sullivan, MD autobiography "Breaking Ground" . READ MORE
Statement on Aaron Shirley, M.D.
From Louis W. Sullivan, M.D. Chairman & CEO, The Sullivan Alliance
With the passing of Aaron Shirley, M.D., all of us, especially the people in Mississippi, have lost a great servant leader.
Dr. Shirley distinguished himself by providing care to underserved people in rural and urban communities in Mississippi – serving for many years as the only African-American pediatrician in the state. He also helped care for the civil rights demonstrators in Mississippi during the 1960s and 1970s. In addition to the compassion he showed to patients, his strategic and nimble mind created health workforce development projects that benefited the whole nation.
He led the development of the Jackson Hinds Comprehensive Health Center for many years and he helped to establish the Jackson Medical Mall.
Over the past two years, I had discussions with Dr. Shirley to secure his help in establishing a Mississippi state-wide chapter of the Sullivan Alliance. The purpose of the Alliance is to recruit and prepare more minority young people for careers in the health professions, to address the healthcare needs of Mississippians, who are presently not well served by our health system.
We will miss Aaron Shirley, but his good work lives on with us.
We thank God for giving us such a talented and dedicated servant of the people. And we extend our sincere condolences to his family.
Louis W. Sullivan, MD
Chairman
The Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions
Dr. Louis W. Sullivan to be among Featured Authors at National Press Club Event
Contact: Gayle Converse This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Louis W. Sullivan's new memoir, "Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine"
Washington, DC -- Join former Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Dr. Louis W. SullivanTuesday, November 18, 2014 at the National Press Club as he signs copies of his autobiography, Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine at the U.S. Capitol region’s premiere holiday book event.
The National Press Club Journalism Institute is once again partnering with landmark local book seller Politics & Prose for a night of pols, pundits and prose for its 37th Annual Book Fair and Author’s Night.
Dr. Sullivan and other VIP authors will be on hand to talk to their fans and sign books at this most exciting literary event. Patrons can browse for books at the Club’s headquarters at 529 14th Street NW, W3ashington, DC, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.Tickets can be pre-ordered via the National Press Club Book Fair Website at http://www.press.org/bookfairTickets will also be available at the door.
The Book Fair is a fundraiser for The National Press Club Journalism Institute, a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization, which advances journalistic practice by equipping professionals with the skills and competence to innovate, leveraging emerging trends, recognizing leaders and innovators, and mentoring the next generation of journalism and communications professionals.
The Book Fair is partnering with The SEED Foundation, which helps under-served students prepare for college. The young scholars attend one of two public boarding schools in the District and Maryland. The students select books they believe would enrich their education and patrons can buy them at the fair to help develop the Baltimore SEED School library. A group of students from the SEED school attend the event each year, giving them a chance to meet with authors and attendees.
Please join us for a Reception and Book signing by Dr. Louis Sullivan, promoting his latest book "Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine."
Louis W. Sullivan, M.D. is a medical researcher, educator, and policy advisor. Dr. Sullivan is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions, as well as Chairman of the Board of the National Health Museum (NHM) in Atlanta, Georgia. He was founding Dean and the first President of the Morehouse School of Medicine, where he served for more than twenty years and is now President Emeritus. In 1989, Dr. Sullivan took leave from MSM to accept a presidential cabinet appointment as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services which he held until 1993. Earlier in his career, Dr. Sullivan founded the Boston University Hematology Service at Boston City Hospital and was also project director of the Boston Sickle Cell Center.
Dr. Sullivan has received numerous honors and awards and has been recognized with a mastership in the American College of Physicians. He has served as a member of the Institute of Medicine since 1975 and serves on numerous private boards. With his continued work to improve the health and health behavior of Americans and to reduce health disparities in the U.S. and across the globe, Dr. Sullivan remains a much sought after speaker and advisor to prominent public and private organizations and government entities.
Please RSVP by Monday, September 29th.
Dr. Louis Sullivan Appears at Decatur Book Festival
In "Authors highlight AJC Decatur Book Festival" (Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014) writer Bo Emerson of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) described former Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and founder of Morehouse School of Medicine, Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., as "a major force in the struggle to bring health care to a demographic that needs it most."
Dr. Sullivan discussed his autobiography, Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine August 30, 2014 at the AJC Decatur (Georgia) Book Festival. The annual Festival, which featured 600 authors from around the nation and draws book-lovers to Historic Decatur Square each year, is touted as "The largest independent book festival in the country and one of the five largest overall."
Dr. Sullivan addressed an audience of 200 at the First Baptist Decatur Sanctuary Stage. A book signing followed.
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Bunch of Grapes Author Event
Dr. Louis W. Sullivan appeared to discuss Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine at the famous Bunch of Grapes Bookstore on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts Wednesday, August 20, 2014.
During the evening author event, held in Vineyard Haven, Dr. Sullivan "recounted his extraordinary life beginning with his childhood in Jim Crow south Georgia and continuing through his trailblazing endeavors training to become a physician in an almost entirely white environment in the Northeast, founding and then leading the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, and serving as secretary of Health and Human Services in President George H. W. Bush's administration. Throughout this life Sullivan has passionately championed both improved health care and increased access to medical professions for the poor and people of color."
While Louis W. Sullivan was a student at Morehouse College, Morehouse president Benjamin Mays said something to the student body that stuck with him for the rest of his life. “The tragedy of life is not failing to reach our goals,” Mays said. “It is not having goals to reach.”
In Breaking Ground, Sullivan recounts his extraordinary life beginning with his childhood in Jim Crow south Georgia and continuing through his trailblazing endeavors training to become a physician in an almost entirely white environment in the Northeast, founding and then leading the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, and serving as secretary of Health and Human Services in President George H. W. Bush’s administration. Throughout this extraordinary life Sullivan has passionately championed both improved health care and increased access to medical professions for the poor and people of color. Read more...
At five years old, Louis Sullivan declared to his mother that he wanted to be a doctor. Given the harsh segregation in Blakely, Georgia, and its lack of adequate schools for African Americans at the time, his parents sent Louis and his brother, Walter, to Savannah and later Atlanta, where greater educational opportunities existed for blacks.
After attending Booker T. Washington High School and Morehouse College, Sullivan went to medical school at Boston University—he was the sole African American student in his class. He eventually became the chief of hematology there until Hugh Gloster, the president of Morehouse College, presented him with an opportunity he couldn’t refuse: Would Sullivan be the founding dean of Morehouse’s new medical school? He agreed and went on to create a state-of-the-art institution dedicated to helping poor and minority students become doctors. During this period he established long-lasting relationships with George H. W. and Barbara Bush that would eventually result in his becoming the secretary of Health and Human Services in 1989.
Sullivan details his experiences in Washington dealing with the burgeoning AIDS crisis, PETA activists, and antismoking efforts, along with his efforts to push through comprehensive health care reform decades before the Affordable Care Act. Along the way his interactions with a cast of politicos, including Thurgood Marshall, Jack Kemp, Clarence Thomas, Jesse Helms, and the Bushes, capture vividly a particular moment in recent history.
Sullivan’s life—from Morehouse to the White House and his ongoing work with medical students in South Africa—is the embodiment of the hopes and progress that the civil rights movement fought to achieve. His story should inspire future generations—of all backgrounds—to aspire to great things.
A Sarah Mills Hodge Fund Publication
Breaking Ground Excerpt Featured in February 2 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine (with David Chanoff, University of Georgia Press, 2014), was featured in the February 2, 2014 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. An excerpt from the new book and photos depicting Dr. Sullivan's life and career were highlighted in a multi-page layout in the Sunday Living and Arts section of the issue.
http://www.myajc.com/s/living/sunday-living-arts/
http://www.myajc.com/gallery/lifestyles/photos-breaking-ground/gCHMZ/#4483328
Fox 5 Atlanta Sullivan Interview
A television interview with Dr. Louis W. Sullivan was broadcast
Thursday, February 6 on WAGA-TV Fox 5 Atlanta. Dr. Sullivan's comments were played as part of the station's tribute to Atlanta's 90-year old Booker T. Washington High School. Dr. Sullivan, former secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and founding dean and former president of Morehouse School of Medicine is a graduate of Booker T. Washington. The story aired during the WAGA-TV 6 p.m. newscast.
SOURCE
Breaking Ground featured on CSPAN Book TV
Louis W SUllivan Memoir at USA Science and Engineering Festival
Coming Soon
