At the APHA Annual Meeting
Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011, 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Washington Convention Center Room 101
The Medical Care Section is planning to honor its long-time member, Jack Geiger, in a special session at the APHA 2011 Annual Meeting on Sunday, Oct. 30, from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Washington Convention Center Room 101.
This session will celebrate the work of Jack Geiger, who has devoted his life to protection and promotion of health through combating poverty and racism, protecting human rights, and preventing war.
Jack initiated the community health center model in the United States, combining community-oriented primary care, public health interventions, and civil rights and community empowerment and development initiatives. He was also a leader in the development of the national health center network of more than 1,200 urban, rural and migrant centers, which currently serve some 20 million low-income patients.
Jack's work in human rights spans six decades. He was a founding member of one of the first chapters of the Congress of Racial Equality in 1943 and led campaigns to end racial discrimination in hospital care and admission to medical schools. In the 1960s he was a founding member and National Program Chairman of the Medical Committee for Human Rights and field coordinator of its Mississippi program to protect and provide medical care for civil rights workers; in the 1970s he was a founding member of the Emergency Committee to Save Chilean Health Workers; and in the 1980s he was a founding member and president of Physicians for Human Rights, leading missions to Iraq, Kurdistan, the West Bank, former Yugoslavia and South Africa.
Jack was a founding member and president of Physicians for Social Responsibility. He was a co-author in 1961 of the series of articles on “The Medical Consequences of Thermonuclear War” in the New England Journal of Medicine, the first major medical publication on the issue.
The session will be co-sponsored by the Medical Care Section; the Public Health Education and Health Promotion Section; the Peace, Socialist and Spirit of 1848 Caucuses; the Society for Public Health Education; and the National Association of Community Health Centers. Other elements of APHA are invited to co-sponsor. So many people have already asked to speak to celebrate Jack’s contributions that each will be limited to 5 minutes. Those on the list so far include Ted Brown, Oli Fein, Bob Gould, Nancy Krieger, Joyce Lashof, Barry Levy, Meredith Minkler, Peter Orris, Ellen Shaffer and Vic Sidel. Others who wish to speak should indicate their wish to Ted Brown, Bob Gould or Vic Sidel.