Guest speaker: Frank O.Richards, Jr., M.D. Director of Parasitic Disease Control Programs, The Carter Center.

This public health lecture series is named in honor of the historic Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis. At a time in American society when people of color were restricted from most medical training programs, the Homer G. Phillips Hospital became the premier training ground for African American medical professionals — many of whom remained to deliver high quality health care in the St. Louis area and who later assumed prestigious positions throughout the nation. Although it closed its doors on August 17, 1979, we can learn much from the hospital’s history, presented by the very people who strived diligently to provide culturally sensitive care to the patients who so deeply trusted and loved them.

Dr. Frank Richards, Jr. came to The Carter Center from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he spent over 20 years in a career focused on parasitic disease control and eradication in the Americas and Africa. Over the course of his career he has worked on schistosomiasis control in Egypt, Guinea worm eradication in Cameroon, lymphatic filariasis elimination in Haiti and Nigeria, and malaria control in Guatemala, Nigeria and Ethiopia. Dr. Richards’ particular expertise is in onchocerciasis (river blindness). He holds faculty appointments at the Emory Rollins School of Public Health (in the Department of Global Health) and the Emory School of Medicine (in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease) and is on the medical staff at Children’s Health Care of Atlanta.

The son of Dr. and Mrs. Frank O. Richards, Sr., Dr. Richards Jr. grew up in St. Louis. His father completed his clinical training at Homer G. Phillips Hospital and is a contributing author to “A Century of Black Surgeons, the USA Experience”.