President Angela L.
Walker Franklin, Ph.D.

Commencement Exercises for the Class of 2012 will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 26, 2012.

Hy-Vee Hall
Iowa Events Center
730 Third Street
Des Moines, Iowa 50309
(View map)

Watch the 2012 Commencement Ceremony

Featured keynote speaker David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., FAAFP, FACPM, FACP

Dr. David Satcher

Des Moines University’s 112th commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 26, will feature as keynote speaker David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., FAAFP, FACPM, FACP, the 16th surgeon general of the United States and a longtime champion of improved health care quality and access for all Americans. DMU will award him with an honorary Doctor of Science degree. The ceremony, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 10 a.m. at Hy-Vee Hall, Iowa Events Center, 730 Third St., Des Moines. 

Satcher has led a remarkable career of leadership and service. From 1998 to early 2001, he simultaneously served as the surgeon general of the United States and assistant secretary for health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He is the first surgeon general to be appointed a four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps to reflect these dual offices.

Satcher departed his surgeon general post in 2002 and became a fellow of the Kaiser Family Foundation and director of the National Center for Primary Care at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) in Atlanta. He served as the school’s interim president from 2004 to 2006, after which he established the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at MSM as an extension of his work in improving public health policy for all Americans and his commitment to eliminating health disparities among minorities, the poor and other disadvantaged groups.

A former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Satcher has held administrative and faculty positions at MSM, the UCLA School of Medicine and Public Health, the King-Drew Medical Center and the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School. He also served as president of Meharry Medical College in Nashville from 1982 to 1993.

The recipient of many honorary degrees and numerous awards, Satcher earned his undergraduate degree from Morehouse College and his M.D. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University. Board-certified in preventive medicine, he is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Preventive Medicine and the American College of Physicians.