UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH CELEBRATES 2001 COMMENCEMENT

PITTSBURGH, April 11 -- More than 10,000 faculty, graduates, invited guests, family, and friends are expected to attend the University of Pittsburgh's 2001 Commencement beginning at 2 p.m., Sunday, April 29, in Mellon Arena.

The ceremonies will open with a procession of the faculty and graduates in full academic regalia, followed by welcoming remarks from Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg.

Dr. David Satcher, the Surgeon General of the United States, will be the main speaker and receive an honorary degree. David Woodruff Turner, a graduate from the College of Arts and Sciences, will deliver remarks on behalf of the graduates, and Samuel Zacharias, president of the Pitt Alumni Association, will welcome the new graduates into the ranks of the alumni.

In all, Pitt is conferring more than 6,500 undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees this year to students at the main campus in Oakland and an additional 1,000 degrees to students at the four regional campuses in Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown, and Titusville. The four regional campuses will hold their own commencement ceremonies.

Students at Commencement represent the following academic units on the Oakland campus: the Faculty and College of Arts and Sciences, the Honors College, the College of General Studies, and the Schools of Law, Engineering, Public and International Affairs, Business, Education, Social Work, Information Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, and Dental Medicine.

Satcher, sworn in as the 16th Surgeon General of the United States on

February 13, 1998, served simultaneously in that position and as Assistant Secretary for Health from February 1998 through January 2001. He also held the posts of director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from 1993 to 1998.

Before joining the Administration, he was president of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1982 to 1993. Satcher served as professor and chairman of the Department of Community Medicine and Family Practice at Morehouse School of Medicine from 1979 to 1982. He is a former faculty member of the UCLA School of Medicine and Public Health and the King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Satcher graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1963 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1970 with election to Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He is a former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and Macy Faculty Fellow. He is the recipient of 18 honorary degrees and numerous distinguished honors. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Preventive Medicine, and the American College of Physicians.

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