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 30th
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.
.- 30 -
