Let's talk about sex.
Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former surgeon general of the United States, will give the keynote address for Cornell's 19th annual Sexual Health Awareness Week, Feb. 8-15, sponsored by University Health Services' Clinical Volunteer Program.
Elders' address, Thursday, Feb. 11, at 8 p.m., in Statler Auditorium, is sponsored by the Cornell University Program Board. It will be followed by a short question-and-answer session and a book signing in the Statler Auditorium lobby. Tickets for the event, which is open to the public, are free and available at the Willard Straight Hall ticket office beginning Feb. 1.
Elders, the first African-American woman surgeon general, was nominated by President Clinton in July 1993. She resigned from her post in December 1994, after sharp criticism from political conservatives on her outspoken views on sexual behavior and sex education.
A pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine, she is the author of Joycelyn Elders, M.D.: From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States. In it, Elders advocates for strong prenatal health care, health care reform, women's health concerns, treatment for HIV-AIDS and health care for the elderly.
Elders emphasizes the need for prevention in the public health system, particularly for the poor. She was the eldest of eight children born to a sharecropping family, and she didn't see a physician until her freshman year at college. An exceptional student, Elders received a scholarship at the age of 15 to attend Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark. She graduated at 18, entered the U.S. Army as a first lieutenant and received training as a physical therapist. She later attended the University of Arkansas Medical School, graduated in 1960, then served an internship at University of Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis. In addition, she held a pediatric residency and an endocrinology fellowship at the University of Arkansas Medical Center in Little Rock, Ark. In 1978, she became a professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas Medical School.
The Elders address is but one highlight of Sexual Health Awareness Week, for which 100 volunteers are planning, assisting, fund raising and preparing displays.
The first major public event for the week will be the fourth annual Health Fair, Tuesday, Feb. 9, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room, sponsored by the Clinical Volunteer Program. More than 20 community service groups and alternative medicine specialists as well as 15 campus organizations will present demonstrations, information, resources, hands-on-activities, games, free samples and prizes. Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to participate and the fair is free and open to the public.
More information on Sexual Health Awareness Week will be listed in next week's Chronicle
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