My Quest for Health Equity: Notes on Learning While Leading

Summary

Dr. David Satcher is one of the most widely known and well-regarded physicians of our time. A former four-star admiral in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, he served as the assistant secretary for health, the surgeon general of the United States, and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before founding the eponymous Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine. At the core of his impact on public health, he is also a lifelong leader for civil rights and health equity.

In My Quest for Health Equity, Dr. Satcher takes an inspiring and instructive look inside his fifty-year career to shed light on the challenge and burden of leadership. Explaining that he has thought of each leadership role—whether in academia, community, or government—as an opportunity to move the needle toward health equity, he shares the hard-won lessons he has learned over a lifetime in the medical field.

Drawing on his early memories, medical school days, and experience in the civil rights movement, Dr. Satcher touches on a number of topics, including the essential qualities of leadership; leading from science to policy to practice; the importance of clear communication and continual learning; the need for workplace discipline; confronting failure; team approaches to leadership; and much more.