THE HONORABLE LOUIS W. SULLIVAN, M.D.

The Honorable Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., is Board Chairman and a founding member of the Atlanta Educational Telecommunications Collaborative, Inc. (AETC), the entity responsible for the management of Public Broadcasting Atlanta (PBA), which is comprised of three public broadcasting entities: WABE FM- 90.1, WPBA TV- 30 and APS Cable Channel 22. Dr. Sullivan has served as chair of the AETC Board of Directors for the past 13 years.

Dr. Sullivan is also 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 America’s Health Professions. 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) for more than two decades. On July 1, 2002, he retired and was appointed president emeritus. He continues to support the school, including its national fund-raising activities.

Dr. 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 re-named Morehouse School of Medicine, with Dr. 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.

Dr. 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, Dr. 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.

His efforts to improve the health and health behavior of Americans included (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) educated the public about the health dangers from tobacco use; (4) led the successful efforts to prevent the introduction of “Uptown,” a non-filtered, mentholated cigarette; (5) inaugurated a $100 million minority male health and injury prevention initiative; and (6) implemented 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. In January 1993, he returned to MSM and resumed the office of president.

In March 2008, Dr. Sullivan was appointed to the new Grady Hospital Corporation Board of Trustees. In June, 2008, Dr. 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.”

A native of Atlanta, Dr. Sullivan graduated magna cum laude from Morehouse College in 1954, and earned 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.

Dr. Sullivan was instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School from 1963-64, and 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. Dr. Sullivan remained at Boston University until 1975, holding positions as assistant professor of medicine, associate professor of medicine, and professor of medicine.

A member of numerous medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the National Medical Association, Dr. 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.

In 1985, Dr. Sullivan was one of the founders of Medical Education for South African Blacks (MESAB).

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.

Dr. and Mrs. E. Ginger Sullivan are sponsors of The Sullivan 5K Run/Walk Road Race for Health & Fitness on Martha’s Vineyard, Ma. Now in its 21st year, the popular event has raised almost $200,000 to benefit Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Firm believers in daily exercise, the Sullivan’s have walked in more than 50 countries throughout their travels. In recent years, they have added walks in Senegal, Nigeria, Gabon, South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Egypt, Morocco, Hungary, and Algeria.

Dr. Sullivan is the recipient of more than 55 honorary degrees, including an honorary doctor of medicine degree from the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

Dr. Sullivan currently serves on the following corporate boards: 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.

He also is a member of the boards of Africare in Washington, D.C. and Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia. Dr. Sullivan is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity and 100 Black Men of America.

Dr. Sullivan is married to E. Ginger Sullivan, an attorney, and they have three grown children: Paul, a radiologist; Shanta, an actress; and Halsted, a Harvard Law Graduate and television comedy writer and producer. They have two grandchildren, Paul Jr. and Brent Sullivan.