February 2, 2000
Contact: Todd Cohen, University Relations, (785) 864-8858.
LAWRENCE--Joycelyn Elders, the first African-American U.S. surgeon general, will speak Thursday evening on the University of Kansas campus.
"A Night With Dr. Joycelyn Elders" begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, in the Kansas Union ballroom. Her speech is part of Black History Month at KU. A public reception will follow the speech in the union's Centennial Room.
Elders, who served as surgeon general from September 1993 to December 1994, has vowed to change America's thinking about health by emphasizing illness prevention. She initiated programs to combat youth smoking and teen pregnancy and to increase childhood immunizations. She advocates public health over private profits in health care reform, openness over censorship in sex education and rehabilitation over incarceration in the war against drugs.
Her book, "Joycelyn Elders, M.D.: From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States," discusses health care reform, current treatment for HIV/AIDS, women's health and a variety of other health-related issues.
Her resignation was prompted by her comments regarding masturbation education at a United Nations conference on AIDS. She also has advocated abortion, drug legalization and condom distribution in schools.
Elders was born the eldest of eight children to sharecropping parents. She grew up in Arkansas in a three-room cabin with no electricity and no indoor toilet. After serving a tour of duty with the U.S. Army, she used the GI Bill to attend the University of Arkansas Medical School, graduating in 1960. She earned a master's degree in biochemistry in 1967 and tenure as professor at the University of Arkansas Medical School in 1976.
Her accomplishments caught the eye of then-Gov. Bill Clinton, who appointed her in 1987 as Arkansas' chief public health director. Upon Clinton's election as president, Elders became surgeon general.
Now a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine, she has received the American Medical Association's Dr. Nathan Davis Award, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women's Candace Award for Health Science and the National Governor's Association Distinguished Service Award.