Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 4-11, 1999

Volume 28, Number 7

Donna Shalala

HHS Secretary to talk about
Medicare, privacy issues

Donna Shalala, U.S. secretary of health and human services, will present two talks during a visit to the campus on Thursday, Oct. 7.

Shalala will deliver the Samuel O. Thier M.D. Lecture on Health Policy at 8:30 a.m. in Fitkin Amphitheatre (enter through 330 Cedar St.) Her lecture is titled "Keeping the Promise: Strengthening Medicare for the 21^st Century." Members of the Yale medical community can take seats in Fitkin Amphitheatre. The speech will be videoconferenced in Harkness Auditorium of the Sterling Hall of Medicine, 333 Cedar St., where members of the public are invited to listen. The event is sponsored by the department of internal medicine as part of its grand rounds.

At noon, Shalala will present the Law School's 1999 Harper Fellowship Lecture on the topic "Public Service and Private Records: Making Sure We Have Both." This lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place in the Law School's Levinson Auditorium, 127 Wall St. A reception will follow in the school's Alumni Reading Room.

Shalala is the longest serving secretary of health and human services in U.S. history. She assumed the position in 1993 and has since led the Clinton administration's efforts to reform the nation's welfare system and improve health care while containing health costs.

In Shalala's six years in the Cabinet post, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has guided the approval of the Children's Health Insurance Plan, raised child immunization rates to the highest levels in history, led the fight against youth tobacco use and crusaded for streamlined processes for approving new drugs to treat AIDS and other diseases.

Shalala has also redefined the role of HHS secretary by partnering with businesses and other private sector organizations to extend the department's public health and education mission. In addition to appearing in a "milk mustache" advertisement to help promote osteoporosis prevention, Shalala threw the opening pitch for the Baltimore Oriole's season as part of a campaign to separate baseball from smokeless tobacco, and appeared in an online chat on the Women's National Basketball Association website to discuss breast cancer prevention. An avid athlete and sports fan, Shalala was the first season ticket-holder for the league's Washington Mystics.

Prior to her appointment as secretary, Shalala was chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1988 to 1993, where she administered the nation's largest public research university and spearheaded a $225 million program to renovate and add to the university's research complex. In 1992, Business Week named her one of the top five managers in higher education. A recent column in Government Executive magazine described her in her role as HHS secretary by saying, "[S]he cares about management. She has built a strong team at the top of the department, and has taken care to replenish the ranks below as well ... She has a finely honed sense of the desirable and the practical in large institutions."

Shalala's host of honors includes more than a dozen honorary degrees, the 1992 National Public Service Award and the Glamour Magazine Woman of the Year Award in 1994. She has been elected to the National Academy of Education, the National Academy of Public Administration and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Fowler Harper Memorial Fund, established in 1965 in memory of Professor Harper, supports the Harper Fellowship, awarded to an individual who has made a distinguished contribution to the public life of the nation.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Women with breast cancer genes risk relapse with conservative therapies

Ex-Secretary of State describes greatest foreign policy challenges facing the U.S.

Researchers discover animals will shun others with infectious diseases

Exhibit will offer Yale community a peek at libraries' treasures

HHS Secretary to talk about Medicare, privacy issues

NY governor, UPenn president are year's first Chubb Fellows

Solicitor General Waxman to speak at Law Reunion

Conference to explore 'dilemma' over use of cost-benefit analysis to make policy decisions

Headstone dedication will highlight Divinity Convocation

Goethe's contributions to science, modern culture celebrated

Grant supports STAR program to promote success in sciences

Scientists studying how animals move in perfect tandem

Two-part sculpture coming together for first time at Yale center

Human figure and landscape explored in Asian art exhibit

Exhibit features works of Chinese artist who mixes Western and Eastern styles . . .

Yale hosts day-long conference on Asian studies

Stalin's secret plans to invade Alaska among topics discussed . . .

Yale launching annual United Way fundraising drive

Series focuses on slavery in early U.S. and the Middle Ages

Drug for glaucoma will be tested in clinical trial at the medical school

Medical program will focus on topic of breast cancer

German scholar to speak to local Humboldt chapter members

. . . In the News . . .

Campus Notes