What Are You Reading?
My Quest for Health Equity David Satcher, MD, PhD Johns Hopkins University Press, 224 pages
This book is about the Why? of mission-driven work. Its subtitle, Notes on Learning While Leading, offers the reader an encouraging glimpse of Dr. Satcher’ s vision for the herculean task of translating the pursuit of healthcare equity for all into feasible reality.
Through an engrossing 190 pages of text followed by copious notes and bibliographical references, the book is richly layered. It interpolates scenes from Dr. Satcher’ s humble origins in rural Anniston, Alabama with his journey through the institutions of federal service as a senior administrator and confidant to three US presidents while serving as director of the Center for Disease Control, Assistant Secretary of Health, and Surgeon General.
Such a combination of opportunities and experiences mold this book, as he describes the leadership challenges affecting a university president and shaper of the eponymous Satcher Health Leadership Institute, housed at the Morehouse School of Medicine. Along the way we see glimpses of the influence of his father and how his character was accordingly shaped.
Dad was a man of wisdom: a farmer and Sunday School superintendent bereft of formal education, who nevertheless taught him lifelong lessons about core values and true manhood.
At the age of two, David had a lifedefining experience that shapes his worldview to this day. In 1943, suffering from whooping cough, he lay seriously ill and struggling to breathe. The local Black physician was called in to diagnose. David’ s parents were informed by this country doctor that the boy might not live beyond the week.
The physician told the parents how to keep him comfortable to ensure the best chance of survival. The man had no admitting privileges at the local hospital because he was Black. The conventional treatment venue in such cases was home. David says that he survived because his parents had a strong belief in God and the powerful support of his community.
Young David’ s first job on the family’ s 44-acre farm taught him the central importance of assuming responsibility. He grew up with seven siblings, raised by parents who were certain about their own responsibilities and imparted that lesson to each child. Before he was old enough to work in the field, David had to carry water to his siblings who were toiling in the hot Bama sun. Lesson: it is important as a leader to understand one’ s responsibility and to communicate clearly with each member of the team regarding his or her responsibilities.
As good a communicator and fabulist as he is, there are many memorable lessons that Dr. Satcher imparts by describing and dissecting critical moments in his personal life and career. Buried in seemingly obscure corners of the book, he imparts interesting, logical insights reminiscent of mother-wit. On Page 83, in a chapter entitled A Three-Dimensional Perspective on Leadership, he makes the ringing pronouncement that the challenge of leadership in underserved ethnic communities is decision-making in the face of uncertainty.
David emerged as an important student leader during his undergraduate years at Morehouse College at the height of the civil rights era. He had the singular experiences of learning from legendary college president Dr. Benjamin Mays; he was befriended by Marian Wright( Edelman), then an upper class student and leader at Spelman College. Amongst his many formative experiences, he was arrested and jailed during a demonstration as part of a group of activists led by AD King, MLK’ s younger brother. The lessons stuck.
He was incarcerated at least five times during the struggle. After these formative experiences, he left for medical school at Case-Western Reserve University with the attitude that he was expected to be a leader in medicine and a leader in the quest for health equity. He embarked on a mission to improve access and quality care for those left out.
Dr. Satcher’ s CDU experience is an important element of the book. In one of many examples, he cites his involvement in getting the University’ s medical education program off the ground as a major challenge during his time
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 22