U.S. cabinet member to speak on campus

Donna Shalala, secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, will speak about health care next Thursday in the Annenberg Center's Zellerbach Theatre. Shalala will give the opening address for the spring conference of the Trustees Council of Penn Women at 3:30 p.m. This year's conference will focus on health issues. The Trustees Council brings successful women to speak at its meetings on campus every year, according to University President Judith Rodin. Before the speech, the University will host a champagne reception open to the general public in the lobby of the Annenberg Center. Elsie Howard, president of the General Alumni Society -- which oversees the Trustees Council -- said Shalala will speak for about 20 minutes before taking questions from the audience. While this will be Shalala's first appearance at Penn, she is no stranger to the community or to higher education. Rodin said yesterday that she had dinner with Shalala Monday night in Washington, D.C., where Rodin was attending a national conference on higher education. And when Shalala taught political science and education at Columbia University's Teacher's College, she was Education Professor Susan Fuhrman's dissertation advisor. Fuhrman said her work with the future cabinet official prepared her well for a life in academia. "She pushed us very hard not just to do good research, but to see its relevance," she said yesterday. When Fuhrman studied under Shalala, she was pregnant with her son Jeff, who is currently a College sophomore. She said she plans to bring him to see Shalala at the reception. The HHS secretary was chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison from 1988 to 1993, when she was appointed by President Clinton to head the department. She was the first woman head of a Big 10 university. She also served as president of Hunter College at the City University of New York. Members of the University community can get one of the 900 tickets available for the speech through Connaissance or the Office of Alumni Relations. On Friday April 26, the Trustees Council of Penn Women will host a day of seminars on current health issues in the Faculty Club. Former Interim University President Claire Fagin, who was also dean of the School of Nursing, will speak about the "Abandonment of the Patient" at a breakfast meeting. Afterward, several physicians who work at the University Medical Center will speak about women's healthcare issues and controversies and breakthroughs in cancer research.