For Release: Sept. 15, 2005
HOSTDr. Wayne Tuckson
A Louisville surgeon, Dr. Tuckson organized the African American Health Initiative, an effort to improve the health status of blacks and the underprivileged in Louisville and Kentucky. His work resulted in an annual conference on cancer in the African American community and the production of the television series Louisville Health , which he hosts. This fall, the series expanded its scope and became Kentucky Health. Dr. Tuckson is a native of Washington D.C. and a graduate of Howard University and the Howard University College of Medicine. Following a research and clinical fellowship at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, he served as a clinical associate there. He has served on the faculty of Howard University and the University of Louisville College of Medicine in the department of surgery and today specializes in colon and rectal surgery.
PANELISTS
Dr. Gilbert H. Friedell
The first director of the Markey Cancer Center at the University of Kentucky, Dr. Friedell has, throughout his career, put particular emphasis on reaching the medically underserved. In 1994 he co-founded Kentucky Homeplace, a state-funded outreach program based at the University of Kentucky Center for Rural Health in Hazard. A graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School, Dr. Friedell is nationally recognized as a leader in the development of community-based cancer control programs. Dr. Friedell has received numerous honors, including the National Humanitarian Award of the American Cancer Society and a Special Recognition Award from the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Elizabeth Powell Holcomb, Ph.D.
A nurse practitioner and professor of nursing at Murray State University, Dr. Holcomb specializes in rural health and international health care systems. She has received numerous honors, including being named 2004 Nurse Practitioner of the Year in Kentucky and membership in the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. Holcomb has worked in labor and delivery, nursery, neonatal intensive care unit, in home health and flight nursery and has taught at Barnes Hospital School of Nursing, Marquette University and St. Joseph's College. She is a member of the Kentucky Rural Health Association and the Kentucky Coalition of Nurse Practitioners and Nurse Midwives.
Dr. Rallie McAllister
The director of employee health management at Marshall Emergency Services Associates (MESA) in Lexington, where she works to promote health and wellness in Kentucky corporations, Dr. McAllister is also the author of three books, including Healthy Lunchbox: The Working Mom's Guide to Keeping You and Your Kids Trim . She reaches millions of readers weekly with her syndicated column, "Your Health," and has been featured as a weight loss and nutrition expert in USA Today , Parents Magazine , Prevention Magazine , Glamour , Better Homes and Gardens , and Redbook . In addition, she serves as a nutrition expert for WebMD, BabyCenter.com, and Parents.com. McAllister is a board-certified family physician with master's degrees in public health and environmental health.
Larry I. Palmer
A member of the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy & Law at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, Larry Palmer is the endowed chair in Urban Health Policy at the University of Louisville as well as a professor of family and geriatric medicine. Professor emeritus of Law at Cornell Law School, his focus has been on issues related to law, medicine and ethics in both the Law School and the biology and society program in the College of Arts and Sciences. With a bachelor's degree in social relations from Harvard University and a law degree from Yale University Law School, Palmer is the author of numerous legal articles and member of dozens of boards and committees relating to issues of law, medicine and medical ethics.