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Contact: Media Relations Officer
AAMC Press Room
Oct. 28-31, 2000, Hyatt Regency Chicago
312-565-4270, Skyway 261

Embargoed for Release
7:00 p.m., EST, Oct. 28, 2000

University of North Carolina's Sheldon Named AAMC Chair

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Washington, D.C., October 28, 2000 -- George F. Sheldon, M.D., the Zack D. Owens Distinguished Professor of Surgery and chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, began his one-year tenure as chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) today at the organization's 111th annual meeting in Chicago. Dr. Sheldon succeeds Ralph. W. Muller, president of the University of Chicago Hospitals.

During Dr. Sheldon's 15 years at UNC, many new programs have been established, and operative volume in the institution has tripled. In 1995, medical students voted Dr. Sheldon's department as offering both the best basic science course and the best clinical course. In 1998, Dr. Sheldon was installed as the 79th president of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). He became a fellow of the ACS in 1973 and has been an active participant in the organization's activities ever since. In addition, he is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the European Surgical Association. He is a member of the James IV Association of Surgeons.

Dr. Sheldon served as chair of the AAMC's Council of Academic Societies (CAS) in 1999. He has also served on numerous Association committees including the Committee on Graduate and Professional Education, the Committee on Teaching in the Ambulatory Settings, and the Task Force on Clinical Research. Dr. Ralph Snyderman, Chancellor for Health Affairs and President and CEO of Duke University Health System, is the AAMC's chair-elect. He will succeed Dr. Sheldon as chair next year.

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The Association of American Medical Colleges represents the 125 accredited U.S. medical schools; the 16 accredited Canadian medical schools; some 400 major teaching hospitals, including 74 Veterans Administration medical centers; 91 academic and professional societies representing nearly 88,000 faculty members; and the nation's 67,000 medical students and 102,000 residents.

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