Alma Powell to Keynote Roland B. Scott Lectureship at Morehouse School of Medicine
America's Promise Alliance Board Chair is one of America's Leading Advocates for Children and Youth

Atlanta - For many years, champions of child health and advocacy have addressed audiences at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). On Thursday, Feb. 25, MSM's Department of Pediatrics and the Office of the President will host the 18th Annual Roland B. Scott, M.D. Lectureship, where Alma J. Powell, chair of the board of directors for America's Promise Alliance, will serve as the keynote speaker.

The event will take place at MSM's Louis W. Sullivan National Center for Primary Care Auditorium, 720 Westview Dr. SW in Atlanta. The reception will begin at 3 p.m. followed by the lecture at 3:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

"Aligned with MSM's mission, the Roland B. Scott, M.D. Lectureship honors a pioneer and innovator in the area of minority health care and medical education who had an impact on research in the community. Our guest lecturers have distinguished themselves similarly," says Dr. Frances J. Dunston, chair of the Department of Pediatrics. "This year's lecturer, Alma Powell, is a major voice of advocacy and leadership on behalf of America's children."

Founded in 1997, America's Promise Alliance (the Alliance), is the nation's largest partnership organization dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth. Powell serves as chair of the Alliance's board of directors and also sits on the boards of several other educational, cultural, charitable and civic organizations including chair of the advisory board for the Pew Center for Civic Change. From 1989 to 2000, she served as the chairman of the National Council of the Best Friends Foundation, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of young girls.

Powell is the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Human Letters from Emerson College, an Honorary Doctor of Humanities from Shenandoah University and the Civic Change Award from the Pew Partnership for Civic Change. She has also been honored by Washingtonian magazine as Washingtonian of the Year and is the recipient of the Leadership Award from the Women's Center in Virginia.

She is also the author of two children's books, "My Little Wagon," and "America's Promise," which were published in 2003.

Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, she graduated from Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., and studied speech pathology and audiology at Emerson College in Boston, Mass.

The Roland B. Scott, M.D. Lectureship was named in honor and recognition of a world-renowned medical educator, researcher, and physician. Dr. Scott, a highly regarded pediatrician, was the first chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Howard University College of Medicine. His career is distinguished by his research and advocacy in sickle cell disease. At the time of his death in 2001, the Sickle Cell Association of America stated, "There is not a single individual with sickle cell disease that has not benefited from his dedication and perseverance in focusing the attention of the medical community and the federal government on improving our ability to treat sickle cell anemia."

For more information about the lecture, please contact Carole Sharpe at (404) 756-5737 or casharpe@msm.edu.