Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine - Paperback

by Louis W. Sullivan (Author), David Chanoff (With), Andrew Young (Foreword by)

In Breaking Ground, Louis W. Sullivan, M.D. recounts his extraordinary life including his childhood in Jim Crow south Georgia and continuing through his trailblazing endeavors training to become a physician in an almost entirely white environment in the Northeast. He was the founding dean and president of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, and served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in President George H. W. Bush's administration. Throughout his extraordinary life Sullivan has passionately championed improved access to health care for all Americans and greater diversity among the nation's health professionals.

Sullivan's life--from Morehouse to the White House and his ongoing work with medical students in South Africa--is the embodiment of the hopes and progress that the civil rights movement fought to achieve. His story should inspire future generations--of all backgrounds--to aspire to great things.

Front Jacket

In Breaking Ground, Sullivan recounts his extraordinary life, beginning with his childhood in Jim Crow south Georgia and continuing through his trailblazing endeavors training to become a physician in an almost entirely white environment in the Northeast, founding and then leading the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, and serving as secretary of Health and Human Services in President George H. W. Bush s administration. Throughout his career, Sullivan has championed passionately both improved health care and increased access to medical professions for the poor and people of color.

Sullivan details his experiences in Washington dealing with the burgeoning AIDS crisis, PETA activists, and antismoking campaigns, along with his efforts to establish comprehensive health care reform decades before the Affordable Care Act. Along the way, his interactions with a cast of politicos, including Thurgood Marshall, Jack Kemp, Clarence Thomas, Jesse Helms, and the Bushes, capture vividly a particular moment in recent history.

Sullivan s life from Morehouse to the White House and his ongoing work with medical students in South Africa is the embodiment of the hopes and progress that the civil rights movement fought to achieve. His story should inspire future generations of all backgrounds to aspire to great things."

Back Jacket

I have always known that Lou Sullivan was an outstanding head of HHS and a valued member of my White House team. I am convinced we are a healthier nation still today because of some of the issues Lou brought to the table with so much passion and determination; I paid attention. But I don t think I really appreciated the man Louis Sullivan is until I read Breaking Ground. He is a true American hero, and Barbara and I are proud we have played a small part in his life s journey.

President George H. W. Bush

"Lou Sullivan has always believed that addressing the health requirements of the country s neediest its minorities and poor will bring the greatest benefit to society as a whole. That was the theme of his tenure as secretary, and that has been the impact of the medical school he founded. In this book he writes with clarity, passion, and humor about the life he has led and the issues that dominate our current health care debates."

from the foreword by Ambassador Andrew Young

"Lou Sullivan s life story offers a compelling chronicle of how vision and perseverance can overcome daunting obstacles. Sullivan is a genuine American hero, and his life stands as a testament to how devotion to the service of others can breech any barrier and ascend any height."

Jordan J. Cohen, MD, MACP, President Emeritus, Association of American Medical Colleges

"In this dramatic and revealing memoir that takes us from the segregated backwoods of Georgia to the founding of the nation's premier African American medical school and the cabinet of President George H. W. Bush, Lou Sullivan shows how commitment, courage, a sense of humor, and a passion for health promotion and disease prevention can make life better for all Americans."

Joseph A. Califano Jr., top White House assistant for domestic affairs under President Lyndon Johnson and secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the Carter administration

Louis Sullivan proved that when leadership is rooted in compassion and exercised with courage, it can be a powerful source of change. This book provides insight into his personal roots, his professional drive, and his historic decisions.

Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

A Sarah Mills Hodge Fund Publication

The University of Georgia Press

Athens, Georgia 30602

www.ugapress.org

ISBN 978-0-8203-4663-2"

Author Biography

Louis W. Sullivan (Author)
DR. LOUIS SULLIVAN is the founding dean and first president of Morehouse School of Medicine (now president emeritus). He was secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the George H. W. Bush administration. He is chair of the board of the National Health Museum in Atlanta and the Washington, D.C.-based Sullivan Alliance to Transform America's Health Professionals. He is author of The Morehouse Mystique: Becoming a Doctor at the Nation's Newest African American Medical School (with Marybeth Gasman).

David Chanoff (With)
DAVID CHANOFF has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, and the New Republic. His sixteen books include collaborations with former surgeon general Joycelyn Elders, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral William Crowe Jr., and Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.