Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Elected to Serve as Newest NHM Trustee

Louis W. Sullivan, MD

The National Health Museum Board of Trustees has announced that the Honorable Louis W. Sullivan, MD, former US Secretary of Health and Human Services and founding President of the Morehouse School of Medicine, has been elected to serve as Trustee.

"Throughout his long and distinguished career in public health and medicine, Louis Sullivan has earned a reputation as a leader of uncommon ability and integrity," said National Health Museum Chairman William A. Haseltine, PhD. "We are honored that he shares our vision for the Museum and is willing to put his considerable talents to work to help us bring it to life."

"I am delighted to accept a formal role with the National Health Museum, an initiative I have long supported and one whose goals are entirely consistent with my own," Dr. Sullivan said. "Never has the Museum’s mission to educate and inspire individuals to take greater responsibility for their own health been more important than it is now. I welcome the opportunity to work with Dr. Haseltine and my fellow trustees in this effort, and am particularly committed to doing what I can to help secure the site at the Mall that will ensure the Museum’s exciting future."

Dr. Sullivan became the founding dean and director of the Medical Education Program at Morehouse College in 1975, the first minority medical school founded in the United States in the twentieth. In 1978, the school began operation as a two-year program in the basic medical sciences, admitting its first class of 24 students. On July 1, 1981, the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) became independent from Morehouse College with Dr. Sullivan as its dean and first president.

As Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the first Bush Administration, Dr. Sullivan served the second longest tenure (47 months) of any HHS Secretary in US history. As head of HHS, he managed the agency responsible for the major health, welfare, food and drug safety, medical research and income security programs serving the American people. Dr. Sullivan returned to MSM in 1993 and continued to serve as president until he retired on July 1, 2002. He continue to serve on the MSM Board of Trustees.

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. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, and is the recipient of 54 honorary degrees.

Dr. Sullivan provides his expertise to a number of organizations in addition to the National Health Museum. He serves on the boards of Boy Scouts of America, Little League, The Ida Cason Callaway Foundation, Medical Education for South African Blacks, Africare, the Southern Center for International Studies, the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools, the Association for Academic Health Centers, and the editorial board of Minority Health Today. He also serves on the boards of several national corporations including CIGNA, Bristol-Myers Squibb, 3M Corporation, Georgia Pacific, and Equifax.