In 1975 Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., was the founding Dean and first President of Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). With the exception of his tenure as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 1989 to 1993, Dr. Sullivan was President of MSM for more than two decades. On July 1, 2002, he retired from the presidency, but continues to support MSM, assisting in national fund-raising activities on behalf of the school.

A native of Atlanta, Dr. Sullivan graduated magna cum laude from Morehouse College in 1954, and earned his medical degree, cum laude, from Boston University School of Medicine in 1958. He is certified in internal medicine and hematology.

Dr. Sullivan was instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School from 1963-64, and assistant professor of medicine at Seton Hall College of Medicine from 1964-65. In 1966, he became co-director of hematology at Boston University Medical Center and, a year later, founded the Boston University Hematology Service at Boston City Hospital. Dr. Sullivan joined the Boston University School of Medicine in 1966 and remained until 1975, holding positions as assistant professor of medicine, associate professor of medicine, and professor of medicine.

In 1989 Dr. Sullivan accepted an appointment by President George H.W. Bush to head HHS. Dr. Sullivan managed this federal agency responsible for the major health, welfare, food and drug safety, medical research and income security programs serving the American people. In January 1993, he returned to MSM as president.

Dr. Sullivan is Chairman of the board of the National Health Museum in Washington, D.C. and is Chairman of the Sullivan Alliance on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce. He serves as Chair of the President’s Commission on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and was Co-Chair of the President’s Commission on HIV and AIDS from 2001 to 2006.

Robert A. Barish, MD, is the Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs at the University of Maryland School of Medicine as well as a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Medicine at the medical school. Dr. Barish has served as a Lt. Colonel and flight surgeon in the 104th Fighter Squadron of the Maryland Air National Guard. In 1992, he was one of the finalists in a group of prospective astronauts at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

After receiving his medical degree from New York Medical College in 1979, Dr. Barish entered an internship in internal medicine at Saint Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center in New York City. Upon completion of that training, he traveled to the border of Cambodia and to Somalia to provide medical care in refugee camps. He then returned to New York and finished his residency in internal medicine in 1983. He came to the Baltimore/Washington area to enter the emergency medicine residency program sponsored by Georgetown University Medical Center, George Washington University Medical Center, and the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems, which he completed in 1985.

Dr. Barish was recruited by the University of Maryland School of Medicine to establish its emergency medicine program. He served as Director of Emergency Medical Services and Chief of Emergency Medicine from 1985 until 1996. Under his leadership, the emergency medicine residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center became one of the largest and most sought after in the country and grew to national prominence, recruiting renowned clinicians and educators. Dr. Barish was also instrumental in establishing ExpressCare, an innovative critical care transport service, which has become a national model for such services because of its patient care abilities and its cost effectiveness.

In addition to directing the Division of Emergency Medicine and fulfilling clinical responsibilities, Dr. Barish earned a master’s degree in business administration from Loyola College in 1995. From 1996 to 1998, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of UniversityCARE. In July 1998, he was promoted to Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and then to Vice Dean in 2005.

Dr. Barish has earned numerous awards during his career. In 1992, he was voted by the students into Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. In 1995, he was the first emergency physician promoted to full professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. In addition, he was the first emergency physician included among Baltimore’s Best Docs by Baltimore Magazine, an honor bestowed on two occasions.

Dr. Barish lives in Baltimore with his wife, Jenny, and their three daughters, Danielle, Liza, and Sophia.

Dr. Donald E. Wilson served as dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine from September, 1991 until September 2006. He was the nation's first African-American dean of an accredited non minority medical school. In addition to serving as dean, Dr. Wilson was appointed as the University of Maryland's first Vice-President for Medical Affairs in 1999.

Dr. Wilson came to Maryland after 11 years as professor and chairman of the department of medicine, State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn. He was physician-in-chief of the University Hospital of Brooklyn and Kings County Hospital Center, Brooklyn. He completed his undergraduate education at Harvard University and received his medical degree from Tufts University. He is board certified in gastroenterology and internal medicine.

Dr. Wilson has served as chairman of several federal committees including, the National Institute of Health's (NIH) Digestive Diseases Advisory Board, the Food and Drug Administration's Gastroenterology Drugs Advisory Committee, and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (Department of Health and Human Services) Advisory Council. He was also a member of the advisory committee to the director of the NIH. Dr. Wilson was chairman of the Maryland Health Care Commission from 1994-2004, one of two regulatory commissions overseeing health care in Maryland. He was also a member of the Emergency Medical Services Commission of Maryland from 1993-2006.

Dr. Wilson is past chairman of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). In 2000-2001 he was chairman of the Council of Deans of US medical schools. He is the first African-American to hold each of these positions.

He is a member of several medical/research societies, including the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Clinical and Climatological Association. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians, an honor bestowed on less than 1% of members. Dr. Wilson co-founded the Association for Academic Minority Physicians in 1986. He has received numerous awards and honors, including election to membership in Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA), the national medical honors society. He now serves on the AOA board of directors and also as vice-president. Dr. Wilson received the Baltimore Urban League's Whitney M. Young, Jr. Humanitarian Award and the Boy Scouts of America Health Services Good Scout Leadership Award in 1999. In 2000 he was awarded the AAMC’s first Herbert Nickens Award. In 2001 Dr. Wilson was the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America honoree, and he received the Monumental Medical Society’s Medical Pioneer award. Dr. Wilson serves on several hospital boards, the William S. Baer Board of the Baltimore City Schools, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Board and the Provident Bank board. In 2001 he was named the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers, Distinguished Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. In 2003 Wilson received the prestigious Frederick Douglass Award from the University System of Maryland Board of Regents. In 2004 he received the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s (NIH) first Extramural Associates Distinguished Service Award. In 2006 he received the National Medical Association’s Distinguished Service Award. He was the first recipient of the Institutional Leadership Diversity Award from the AAMC Group on Student Affairs-Minority Affairs Section in 2006. Baltimore Magazine named him Baltimorean of the Year in 2007. Wilson also served as president of University Physicians, INC, the medical school’s clinical practice organization from 1996 to 2006.

Dr. Wilson has over 150 publications in the fields of internal medicine, gastroenterology, health care and medical education. He has served or is serving as editor or associate editor of several medical journals.

A Dreyfuss National Merit Scholar at the University of North Carolina, Dr Mitchell completed training and certification in internal medicine and pediatrics at the North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill. He completed rheumatology subspecialty training at Georgetown University. In 1988, he accepted a faculty position to provide rheumatology teaching and service in adult and pediatric rheumatology at Georgetown University Hospital, where he opened the Childhood Arthritis Center. He served as Residency Program Director in Internal Medicine from 1992 to 1999 and initiated an innovative Medicine Pediatric Residency at Georgetown in partnership with Kaiser Permanente in 1996 under the sponsorship of Partnerships for Quality Education and the Pew Charitable Trusts. He has served on the Council and Secretary Treasurer of the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine (APDIM) from 1996 – 2002. He served as Associate Dean for Clinical Curriculum at Georgetown University School of Medicine from 1998 – 2000 and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2000- until May 2002. He currently serves as the Joseph Butenas Professor of and Dean of Medical Education at Georgetown.

He has been honored with multiple “Golden Apples” and has been inducted then into the “Golden Orchard” twice for medical student education. He has received the Kaiser Permanente Award from the faculty for the outstanding Clinical Teacher in the medical center. He has received every residency teaching award in the Department of Medicine, including induction into the “Sol Katz Society”. He was awarded a Laureate Award from the Washington Metropolitan Chapter of the American College of Physicians/American Society of Internal Medicine in 2002. In 2004, he was inducted into Mastership of the College – the highest honor bestowed only on 600 living members of the 150,000 member organization.