FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Dr. M. Jocelyn Elders, a pediatric endocrinologist and the first African-American woman to hold the position of U.S. Surgeon General, will lecture on "Education and Personal Responsibility" at the University of Arkansas School of Law, Friday, June 8 at 3 p.m. in the Leflar Law Center Courtroom.

Dr. Elders' lecture is sponsored by the Hartman Hotz Lecture Series in Law and Liberal Arts. She also will be addressing participants at the annual Southwest/Southeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference as the keynote speaker. The UA School of Law will host the conference June 7-9 at the Fayetteville Hilton.

Dr. Elders began her college career at the age of 15 when she was awarded a scholarship to Philander Smith College in Little Rock. The eldest of eight children, Elders never saw a physician prior to her first year in college. She graduated at age 18 and enlisted in the U.S. Army as a first lieutenant, where she received training as a physical therapist.

Following her tour of duty with the Army, Elders attended the University of Arkansas Medical School on the GI Bill. She interned at the University of Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis, completed her pediatric residency and an endocrinology fellowship at UAMS and received board certification in 1976. Dr. Elders also has a Master of Science degree in biochemistry.

She joined the faculty at UAMS as a professor of pediatrics and received board certification as a pediatric endocrinologist in 1978. In 1987, she was appointed director of the Arkansas Department of Health. In September of 1993, she was confirmed as Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service under President Bill Clinton. She resigned from the post in 1994 to resume her professional career at UAMS.

Dr. Elders has been a tireless advocate of the young, the poor and the powerless, continuing to lobby and lecture on their behalf. She advocates public health over profits in health care reform, openness over censorship in sex education, and rehabilitation over incarceration in the war against drugs. She believes that violence, sexually transmitted diseases, poverty and substance abuse are the biggest threats to the health and wellness of our children.

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