The University of the West Indies is honoured at this time to have on Campus Professor Louis W. Sullivan M.D. He has graciously agreed to deliver a lecture to the Academy on Monday 23 April at 6:00 p.m, in the Main Medical Lecture Theatre, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Mona.

Professor Sullivan 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 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 was 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.  Dr. Sullivan left Morehouse in 1989 to accept an appointment by President George H.W. Bush to serve as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1989-1993.  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

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. He 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.

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. He 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. Professor 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.