Shalala, Elders Will Speak At Medical Class Day Events

If Commencement Day speakers are any indication, the University is striving to make sure that Boston-to-Washington D.C. air shuttles stay in business.

Joining controversial Commencement speaker Gen. Colin L. Powell will be Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Medical School officials said yesterday.

Elders will deliver the School of Public Health Class Day Address, titled "Age of Prevention," on the same day as University-wide Commencement exercises on June 10. Shalala's address will be during Medical School Commencement exercises the same afternoon.

Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services since January, previously served as the first woman to head a Big Ten University as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She served from 1977 to 1980 in the Carter administration in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Elders, a pediatric endocrinologist, became Surgeon General after serving as director of the Arkansas Department of Health. In a February interview, Elders told The Crimson that her top three priorities in her new office will be early childhood education, primary preventative health care and eliminating unwanted teen pregnancies.

Elders was chosen for speaker by the school's student body, according to Mary Bissen, commencement coordinator for the School of Public Health.