Dr. David Satcher
Surgeon General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., was sworn in as both the Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) and the Surgeon General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on February 13, 1998. He was nominated by President Clinton on September 12, 1997 and confirmed by the Senate on February 10, 1998.

The Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) serves as the HHS Secretary's Senior Advisor on public health issues and Director of the Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS). OPHS provides leadership on cross-cutting issues that involve all of the eight operating divisions within the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS). The Assistant Secretary also advises the HHS Secretary on management of these agencies. The Office of the Surgeon General (SG) is a division of the OPHS, and the Surgeon General is one of the most visible positions in government from which to advocate healthy behaviors.

The two positions were last occupied by a single individual when Dr. Julius B. Richmond served as ASH and SG during the Carter Administration. Appointing one person to these two complementary posts is designed to strengthen the roles of both positions and create a more efficient organizational structure to address public health, science, and medical education.

Dr. Satcher is the 16th Surgeon General in a line dating back to the appointment in 1871 of John Maynard Woodworth, who worked to transform what had been the Marine Hospital Service into a broader Public Health Service. Recent Surgeon Generals have managed the personnel system for PHS' 6000- member Commissioned Corps, a uniform service (established by Woodworth) which can be reassigned to medical trouble spots when needed. The Surgeon General holds the rank of four-star admiral. Dr. Satcher also has special responsibilities for PHS' Offices of Population Affairs, Minority Health, Women's Health, and the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, Office of Research Integrity, Office of Emergency Preparedness, Office of HIV/AIDS Policy, Office of International and Refugee Health, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, and Office of Military Liaison and Veterans Affairs.

As the HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Satcher leads the OPHS at a time when this country's major national health issues are reducing teen-age smoking; health care reform -- how to promote the health of the public through health care reform, how to ensure universal access how to ensure quality, how to contain rapidly rising costs and how to pay for it, and increased childhood immunization rates. Dr. Satcher directs the OPHS programs that contribute to virtually all those objectives.

Before this appointment, Dr. Satcher was the Director of HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ASTDR) from 1993 to 1997. As CDC's Director, Dr. Satcher spearheaded initiatives that have increased childhood immunization rates in 1996 to 78 percent, from 55 percent in 1992. Dr. Satcher also upgraded the nation's capability to respond to emerging infectious diseases, and laid the groundwork for a new Early Warning System to detect and prevent food-borne illnesses.

Under Dr. Satcher's direction, the CDC's comprehensive breast and cervical cancer screening program increased from 18 to 50 states and the agency highlighted the importance of physical activity and good health by encouraging Americans to become more physically active in the landmark Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health.

Before joining the Administration, Dr. Satcher had served as President of Meharry Medical College from 1982 until 1993 when Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala appointed him Director of CDC.

Dr. Satcher also served as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Community Medicine and Family Practice at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. Dr. Satcher is a former faculty member of the UCLA School of Medicine and the King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles. He developed and chaired King-Drew's Department of Family Medicine and, from 1977-1979, served as the Interim Dean of the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School. He also directed the King-Drew Sickle Cell Center for six years. As interim Dean, he negotiated the agreement with the UCLA School of Medicine and the Board of Regents which led to a medical education program at King-Drew.

Dr. Satcher has been the recipient of many outstanding awards. They include the 1996 American Medical Association's Dr. Nathan B. Davis Award, the John Stearns Award for Lifetime Achievement in Medicine from the New York Academy of Medicine, Ebony Magazine's American Black Achievement Award in Business and the Professions in 1994, and the Surgeon General's Medallion for significant and noteworthy contributions to the health of the nation, just to name a few.

Born in Anniston, Alabama, on March 2, 1941, Dr. 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. Dr. Satcher and his wife, Nola, have four children and reside in Bethesda, Maryland.