Released January 28, 2005

HATTIESBURG – David Fine, chief executive officer of St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System in Texas, will be the distinguished lecturer in the Spring Lecture Series sponsored by the College of Health at The University of Southern Mississippi on Feb. 21.

The presentation will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the Shelby F. Thames Polymer Science Building Auditorium.

Fine was recently named by Modern Health Care as one of the “100 Most Powerful People in Health Care.” The results place Fine on a list that includes President George W. Bush, 10 members of Congress (six senators and four representatives), four Cabinet officers and three heads of federal agencies.

“The College of Health Distinguished Lecturer Series is intended to bring to campus eminent scholars who can speak across disciplinary boundaries of the college,” said Dr. Peter Fos, dean of the College of Health. “This series allows students, faculty and others to interact with internationally recognized experts and scholars.”

Fine recently joined St. Luke’s from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System and has more than 20 years of experience as the CEO of medical school teaching hospitals in Alabama, Louisiana, Ohio and West Virginia.

Fine’s academic background extends beyond administration. He has been a tenured professor in health care administration, public health and pharmacy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Tulane University, the University of Cincinnati, and West Virginia University.

Fos said that due to Fine’s “vast experience, reputation, recognized scholarship, and contribution to health care in both the United States and across the world,” the lecture series will be henceforth named the David J. Fine Distinguished Lecturer Series.

“This recognition is well deserved given Mr. Fine’s accomplishments as an administrator, teacher and researcher,” Fos said.

The Modern Health Care recognition is not the first time Fine’s efforts have been recognized nationally. In 2001, he was one of three recipients of the American College of Health Care Executives Health Management Research Award and in 1985 he received the prestigious Robert S. Hudgens Memorial Award recognizing the “Young Hospital Administrator of the Year” by the American College of Hospital Administrators (now known as the American College of Health Care Executives).

Fine is a Flushing, NY, native who holds a bachelor of arts degree from Tufts University in economics and sociology and a master of hospital administration degree from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. He was appointed CEO of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System in 1999, managing publicly and privately owned health care delivery assets that comprised some $2 billion in net patient revenues and 10,000 employees, including the Kirklin Clinic, Callahan Hospital, University of Alabama Hospital, Bessemer Carraway Medical Center, Baptist Health (Montgomery), Mary Lewis Convalescent Center, Viva Health HMO and the professional fee-billing office of an 800-member medical group.

As vice chancellor and director of the university hospital and clinic at Tulane University Medical Center from 1990 to 1995, Fine served as CEO of the university’s inpatient, outpatient and managed health care programs. He concurrently directed the graduate education and training of 150 master’s and doctoral students in health care administration. In 1995, following the establishment of a joint operating agreement between Tulane University Medical Center and Columbia/HCA Health Care Corporation, Fine was promoted to serve as founding president and CEO of a six-hospital operating division, including Tulane University Hospital and Clinic, Lakeland Hospital, Lakeside Hospital, Lakeview Hospital, Elmwood Hospital and DePaul Hospital.

For more information about the Spring Lecture Series in the College of Health, call (601) 266-5882.

-30-