Contact: Sherry Tompkins, College of Human Medicine, (517) 353-1642, tompkins@chm.msu.edu; or Tom Oswald, University Relations, (517) 355-2281, oswald@msu.edu
5/11/2004
Andrew Schechtman, a physician who has found himself on the front lines of many of the world�s major health crises, is the featured speaker at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine�s commencement exercises.
The commencement is at noon Saturday, May 15, at the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts.
Schechtman is a field coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, an international organization that provides emergency medical assistance to people suffering from natural or societal disasters, such as an earthquake or war.
Founded in 1971 by a group of French physicians, Doctors Without Borders was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.
A physician, Schechtman�s first Doctors Without Borders assignment was in 1998 when he managed a hospital in Uganda that treated the victims of African sleeping sickness. He recently returned from Liberia, a country torn by civil war, where he found himself the only physician for nearly 50,000 people living in a refugee camp.
Schechtman has also worked on American Indian reservations in North and South Dakota, and staffed emergency rooms in rural Louisiana.
For information on Doctors Without Borders, visit the organization�s Web site at www.doctorswithoutborders.org
For more information about the College of Human Medicine, visit the Web at www.chm.msu.edu