On Saturday, Aug. 13, Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O., former dean of the college, will deliver the keynote address at the college’s annual Convocation Ceremony. The ceremony — which takes place at 11 a.m. in Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium on the university’s Athens campus — welcomes OU-COM’s incoming class of medical students. OU-COM Dean Jack Brose, D.O., will serve as master of ceremonies at the 30^th Convocation.

Welcoming the Class of 2009 to the University will be President Roderick McDavis, Ph.D. McDavis is the second alumnus to head the University and its first African-American president.

The Class of 2009 is comprised of 108 students, of which there are 64 females and 44 males.

Almost one-third (32 of 108) of the class are minority students, the highest number and percentage of minority students of any entering OU-COM class. Also, eight of the class are from Southeastern Ohio. The class is 87 percent Ohio residents and 59 percent female.

The Class of 2009, says the Office of Admissions, also has the highest grade point averages and the second highest percentage of females of any entering class in the college’s history.

The students of this class, says John Schriner, director of admissions, “are very well rounded and diverse and can look forward to tremendous futures as osteopathic physicians.”

Thomas Anderson, D.O. (’83), president of the OU-COM Society of Alumni & Friends, and David Bitonte, D.O., president of the Ohio Osteopathic Association (OOA), will bring greetings from the osteopathic profession to the class.

As in previous years, the Aug. 13 Convocation includes the school’s White Coat Ceremony, during which the members of the Class of 2009 receive their white coats. The White Coat Ceremony had in past years been held at the beginning of the third year of school for medical students and marked the transition to the clinical phase of medical education. Since 2001, students receive white coats in their first year of medical school.

Peter Dane, D.O., associate dean for predoctoral education, will preside over the White Coat Ceremony. The white coats donned during the ceremony are provided by the Ohio Osteopathic Foundation.

“The Convocation,” says Brose, “also affords our college the opportunity to award the Phillips Medal of Public Service, the college’s highest honor, to individuals who have made great contributions to health care, medical education and public service in the country and across the globe.”

The Phillips Medal is named for Jody Galbreath Phillips and her late husband, J. Wallace, both longtime friends of Ohio University. It has been awarded to outstanding men and women since OU-COM’s inception in 1976.

Keynote speaker Ross-Lee is one of three recipients of the Phillips Medal. In addition to Ross-Lee, this year’s recipients of the Phillips Medal are Mary Healey-Sedutto, Ph.D., executive director of Hope for a Healthier Humanity Foundation and C.E.O. of the Pan American Catholic Health Care Network, and Kathleen Rice, R.Ph., M.B.A., president and chief operating officer of Cuyahoga Falls General Hospital, one of the 13 teaching hospitals in the Centers for Osteopathic Research and Education (CORE) system.

Among the past Phillips Medal recipients are former Ohio Gov. James Rhodes; former U.S. Sen. John Glenn; former Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis, J.D.; Ohio First Lady Hope Taft; and William Anderson, D.O., surgeon, civil rights leader and past president of the American Osteopathic Association.

Ross-Lee, was the third dean of OU-COM (1993-2000) and the first African-American woman to head a medical school. After leaving OU-COM, she went on to become vice president of health sciences and medical affairs at the New York Institute of Technology and dean of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, where she now serves. A pioneering presence in medical education, Ross-Lee was a driving force behind the creation of the CORE — the nation’s first Osteopathic Postdoctoral Training Institute — and established OU-COM’s innovative curricular tracks, the Patient Centered Continuum and the Clinical Presentation Continuum. She is a diplomate of the American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians and a fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians.

Healy-Sedutto is founder and executive director of Hope for a Healthier Humanity Foundation and founder and C.E.O. of the Pan American Catholic Health Care Network. She served as president and C.E.O. of the Catholic Health Care System and the director and secretariat of health for the Archdiocese of New York. As chief health-care advisor to Cardinal John O’Conner, she led medical and relief missions to regions suffering from natural disasters. She also served as president and C.E.O. of Benefice Health Partnership.

Rice, president and chief operating officer of Cuyahoga Falls General Hospital, is a member of the board of trustees of the OOA and the CORE board. As a member of the CORE board, she has provided invaluable leadership in furtherance of osteopathic medical education. She has been a leader in national osteopathic organizations, including the Foundation for Osteopathic Health Services and the American Osteopathic Association Council of Teaching Hospitals. She also serves on the Akron Roundtable, Cuyahoga Falls Rotary, Area Agency on Aging and helps direct the Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland. In 2004 she received the OOA Meritorious Service Award.

Also participating in the ceremony and presenting Phillips Medals will be George Dunigan, director of governmental relations; Keith Watson, D.O., associate dean for postgraduate education; and McDavis.

Students will give tours of the college from 9 to 10:30 a.m. The tours leave from the lobby of Grosvenor Hall on the West Green. A luncheon at Howard Park follows the ceremony.

For more information on the Convocation, contact Carol Blue, director of special projects, at (740) 593-2178.