Welcome to the inaugural podcast of Danforth Dialogues.  Each month we will bring you leadership insights from a wide range of guests.  We are going to start our series with insights gleaned as we and others faced the most challenging global health crisis in a century, the COVID-19 pandemic. Over time, we will transition to other leadership insights that we hope will help you no matter your profession.

We will also occasionally feature longer podcasts of conversations of significance with key leaders from a broad array of backgrounds including business, government, healthcare, and education.

Morehouse School of Medicine is an independent, free-standing medical school founded in 1975 to educate physicians and other medical professionals to work in underserved urban and rural communities that have historically lacked access to quality healthcare. The medical school was started as a two-year institution at Morehouse College. As you may know, Morehouse College is the alma mater of a number of African American men who have or continue to be models of leadership in our country including Dr. Martin Luther King, former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, former political icon Julian Bond, noted actor Samuel L. Jackson and, of course, the founding Dean of the Morehouse School of Medicine and former U. S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Louis W. Sullivan. 

With that kind of legacy of leadership, it seemed appropriate for us to return to our roots for our series and we are bringing you this podcast for the iconic and historic Danforth Chapel on the Morehouse College campus. Danforth, a small, picturesque chapel tucked away on the campus, is the perfect place to host the podcast because of its own unique history. William Danforth, former president of the Ralston-Purina Company, provided funds to build 15 Danforth Chapels on college campuses from the late 1930s to the mid-1950s. But the Morehouse chapel, built in 1955, is the only one at a Historically Black College and University; it’s one of a kind, and that inspired us to name our podcast, Danforth Dialogues. We are pleased to have Rev. Terry Walker, Director of Chapel Relations at Morehouse College, join us today to provide some more background on the Danforth Chapel at Morehouse College.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES RELATED TO THIS EPISODE
Visit https://www.msm.edu/about_us/office-president-ceo

CREDITS
Theme Music 🎵 OLD FIRE MUSIC from Pond5.com
Produced by ChatWithLeadersMedia.com

Welcome to the inaugural podcast of Danforth Dialogues.&nbsp; Each month we will bring you leadership insights from a wide range of guests.&nbsp; We are going to start our series with insights gleaned as we and others faced the most challenging global health crisis in a century, the COVID-19 pandemic. Over time, we will transition to other leadership insights that we hope will help you no matter your profession.
We will also occasionally feature longer podcasts of conversations of significance with key leaders from a broad array of backgrounds including business, government, healthcare, and education.
Morehouse School of Medicine is an independent, free-standing medical school founded in 1975 to educate physicians and other medical professionals to work in underserved urban and rural communities that have historically lacked access to quality healthcare. The medical school was started as a two-year institution at Morehouse College. As you may know, Morehouse College is the alma mater of a number of African American men who have or continue to be models of leadership in our country including Dr. Martin Luther King, former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, former political icon Julian Bond, noted actor Samuel L. Jackson and, of course, the founding Dean of the Morehouse School of Medicine and former U. S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Louis W. Sullivan.&nbsp;
With that kind of legacy of leadership, it seemed appropriate for us to return to our roots for our series and we are bringing you this podcast for the iconic and historic Danforth Chapel on the Morehouse College campus. Danforth, a small, picturesque chapel tucked away on the campus, is the perfect place to host the podcast because of its own unique history. William Danforth, former president of the Ralston-Purina Company, provided funds to build 15 Danforth Chapels on college campuses from the late 1930s to the mid-1950s. But the Morehouse chapel, built in 1955, is the only one at a Historically Black College and University; it&rsquo;s one of a kind, and that inspired us to name our podcast, Danforth Dialogues. We are pleased to have Rev. Terry Walker, Director of Chapel Relations at Morehouse College, join us today to provide some more background on the Danforth Chapel at Morehouse College.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES RELATED TO THIS EPISODE
<ul>
<li>Visit <a href="https://www.msm.edu/about_us/office-president-ceo/">https://www.msm.edu/about_us/office-president-ceo</a></li>
</ul>
CREDITS
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Theme Music 🎵 <a href="https://www.pond5.com/artist/oldfiremusic">OLD FIRE MUSIC</a> from Pond5.com</li>
<li aria-level="1">Produced by <a href="https://chatwithleaders.com">ChatWithLeadersMedia.com</a></li>
</ul>

COVID-19 turned life upside down for all of humanity literally leaving no one untouched or unimpacted. At the onset of the pandemic, Morehouse School of Medicine President and CEO, Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, and her leadership team recognized that the health crisis would be the ultimate teaching opportunity for MSM’s students and staff. The school returned to on-campus instruction early in the pandemic because as future healthcare professionals, they felt the students should model behavior that will prepare them to be on the frontlines of any future public health crisis. Morehouse School of Medicine implemented rigorous testing and contract tracing programs which, over the course of the pandemic, kept the school’s positivity rate under 1 percent until the emergence of the omicron variant. The school also launched a community vaccination program and hosted a “Civil Rights Leaders” vaccination event to inspire Black Americans to get the shots.

Given its unique role as a public health resource focused on underserved and minority communities, Morehouse School of Medicine has garnered some valuable leadership insights over the past two years in the battle to stem the impact of COVID-19. Coupled with her own extensive experience as a medical professional, public health expert, and academic executive, Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice wants to share these lessons learned with both the school’s students and the wider educational and business community in hopes they might offer help to others.

COVID-19 turned life upside down for all of humanity literally leaving no one untouched or unimpacted. At the onset of the pandemic, Morehouse School of Medicine President and CEO, Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, and her leadership team recognized that the health crisis would be the ultimate teaching opportunity for MSM&rsquo;s students and staff. The school returned to on-campus instruction early in the pandemic because as future healthcare professionals, they felt the students should model behavior that will prepare them to be on the frontlines of any future public health crisis. Morehouse School of Medicine implemented rigorous testing and contract tracing programs which, over the course of the pandemic, kept the school&rsquo;s positivity rate under 1 percent until the emergence of the omicron variant. The school also launched a community vaccination program and hosted a &ldquo;Civil Rights Leaders&rdquo; vaccination event to inspire Black Americans to get the shots.
Given its unique role as a public health resource focused on underserved and minority communities, Morehouse School of Medicine has garnered some valuable leadership insights over the past two years in the battle to stem the impact of COVID-19. Coupled with her own extensive experience as a medical professional, public health expert, and academic executive, Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice wants to share these lessons learned with both the school&rsquo;s students and the wider educational and business community in hopes they might offer help to others.

Leadership Lessons From The Frontlines Of The Pandemic

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