convocation

DAB Member Cheryl Scott, ALC Member Elizabeth Sommers to Speak at SPH Convocation

Scott, a medical consultant for the state of South Carolina, will provide the 2021 Convocation Address, and Sommers, a senior acupuncturist and researcher at Boston Medical Center, will serve as the alumni speaker.

Cheryl Scott (MED’82), whose tireless work as a medical epidemiologist and public health officer on multiple continents has examined health equity and the connection to social determinants of health, will deliver the 2021 School of Public Health Convocation Address.

Elizabeth Sommers (SPH’89,’10), a senior acupuncturist and researcher in the Integrative Medicine and Health Disparities Program at Boston Medical Center, will be the alumni speaker.

The virtual ceremony will be held on Saturday, May 15 from noon–1:30 p.m. EST as part of the BU Commencement Weekend that will culminate in an in-person All University Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 16, 2021.

For much of the past year, Scott has been helping coordinate COVID-19 response for the Community Health Services Bureau of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. She served on the state’s COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Committee to develop vaccine allocation strategy, developed community education forums, and helped create culturally relevant messages for varied audiences. 

In a previous interview in early 2021, Scott said the vaccine challenges in the US, from initial public reluctance to inequitable distribution in certain areas, “have really uncovered how discrimination is still baked into our processes.”

Scott is also one of 24 members of the SPH Dean’s Advisory Board, which helps Dean Sandro Galea and senior SPH leadership evaluate strategy and best practices, examine financial matters, and bolster philanthropic support of the school. 

Scott graduated from the BU School of Medicine in 1982 and completed residencies in internal and preventive medicine. She earned a Master of Public Health in International Health at Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health (now Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) in 1986. She received her medical degree amidst the HIV/AIDS epidemic and devoted her career to disease control and treatment, developing sustainable solutions to the social and economic barriers that impact health all over the world.

Scott served 20 years as a medical officer in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHS) assigned to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

Scott has been devoted to reducing inequities since the beginning of her clinical and public health career. She joined the CDC and PHS in 1993 and served as an epidemic intelligence service officer in the Maternal and Child Health Division of the California Department of Health Services. She has had multiple assignments and held several senior public health roles in the US, Caribbean, Latin America and several African countries.

Scott returned to the US to work for the next five years with the California Department of Public Health Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis Service. She retired from the PHS at the rank of captain in 2010, and served for five more years on the Pacific and Southwest Regional Health Equity Council, which established a system to leverage resources into equitable public health policies and practice within the region. 

Sommers received her MPH in epidemiology and biostatistics in 1989, and her PhD in Health Policy and Management in 2010 at SPH. Prior to SPH, she graduated from the New England School of Acupuncture (NESA), where she studied under famed acupuncturist James Tin Yau So.

She served as chair of the American Public Health Association’s Section on Integrative, Complementary and Traditional Health Practices from 2008 to 2013, and currently serves on APHA’s Governing Council and Intersectional Council Steering Committee.

A public health advocate, Sommers is committed to ensuring that healthcare including wellness is a right not a privilege. In a previous interview, when asked what public health means to her, she said “public health encompasses the health, wellbeing, and wellness of society.”

From 1990-1994, Sommers served on the research faculty of NESA, and from 2015-2018, she served as adjunct faculty in the former Department of Health Policy and Management at SPH. As an acupuncture researcher, she has published and lectured internationally in the areas of acupuncture detoxification, health economics, and treatment of individuals diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Her book Acupuncture as an Adjuvant in the Treatment of HIV/AIDS was published in 2014.

Sommers is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine and also serves as the public health editor of the journal Meridians: Journal of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. She co-edited the special public health issue of the European Journal of Integrative Medicine (2013) and also co-edited a 2018 special issue of Medicines on acupuncture and cancer care. 

She also contributed a chapter on health disparities and social justice in the context of integrative and traditional approaches in the book Public Health and Health Services Research in Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Health Care: International Perspectives.

To register for the virtual 2021 SPH Convocation from noon-1:30 EST on May 15, click here.