FORMER CDC DIRECTOR FEATURED SPEAKER
AT 13th ANNUAL HIV/STD CONFERENCE

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Dr. David Satcher, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will be the featured speaker at the Illinois Department of Public Health’s 13 th Annual HIV/STD conference to be held this week in Springfield.

About 650 people are expected to attend the three-day conference, Tuesday through Thursday, “Engaging Communities, Eliminating Disparities,” at the Prairie Capital Convention Center, 1 Convention Center Plaza, and the Renaissance Hotel, 701 E. Adams St.

Dr. Satcher, director of the National Center for Primary Care at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, will deliver the keynote address on Tuesday at 9 a.m. in the convention center’s Main Hall on “Health Disparities in the 21 st Century.” He directed the CDC from 1993 to 1998 during the administration of President Bill Clinton.

Dr. Eric E. Whitaker, state public health director, will provide welcoming remarks on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. and Wednesday’s 8:30 a.m. welcoming will be by state Rep. Larry McKeon, D-Chicago, a four-term legislator who has HIV.

There will be a special presentation by Jennifer Holliday, an actress and two-time Grammy Award winner, on Wednesday at 1:45 p.m. in the convention center’s Main Hall on “Staying Engaged in the War on AIDS.”

Plenary session speakers are Christine Lubinski on Tuesday at 1 p.m. in the convention center Main Hall, Dr. H. Hunter Handsfield on Wednesday at 8:45 a.m. in the convention center Main Hall and Todd Ahlberg at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday in the convention center’s Buddinger Room.

Lubinski, executive director of the HIV Medicine Association, will talk on “Financing HIV Care and Services: Emerging Issues.” The presentation by Dr. Handsfield, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington and a visiting scientist at CDC’s Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention, is called “Trends in STDs and Sexual Behavior: Good News and Bad (Mostly Bad).” Ahlberg, a filmmaker, will talk about “Hooked,” a documentary film exploring the online cruising phenomenon within gay culture.

The conference is from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, 8;30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday and 8:30 a.m. to noon on Thursday.